bookshelf

ALL BACKS WERE TURNED

Name: ALL BACKS WERE TURNED
Author: Marek Hlasko
ISBN: 0-943433-07-X

by Marek Hlasko ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 5, 1991

bookshelf

A somber but accomplished novel of pervasive brutality and violence, in a place as hopeless and hellish as Devil's Island, from the late Polish Beat-writer and dissident Hlasko (Killing the Second Dog, 1990). On parole, with a string of assault charges behind him, Sabra Dov Ben Dov and friend Israel take the only job they can find- -driving tourists around Elath in the Sinai desert, where the heat and dryness are so harsh that people begin to lose their hair and teeth within two years of being there. Convicts are routinely sent here to serve out the rest of their sentences, and the few tourists who come to see the historic sights don't stay long. Elath is also the home of Dov's younger brother, also called Dov, his wife Esther, and their father—an angry and malicious old man. Dov Ben Dov, a hot-tempered former war hero, brooding over his wife, who has left him for another man (whose child she is bearing), is tormented by dreams. His friend Israel cannot forgive his mother for making him leave college in Europe, and young brother Dov, a fisherman, is losing his business to a group of convicts who have better boats than he does. Older Dov, fearing that his own parole will be revoked, refuses to help his brother beat them up. An explosive situation—already exacerbated by heat, sexual desire, and a sense of futility—is finally ignited by the arrival of tourist Ursula, who falls in love with Israel. Deciding that he's trying to be like Dov, which is impossible, she takes certain steps that lead inevitably to what the local police describe as ``accidental mayhem'' and murder. A story as bleak and unrelenting as its setting, in which no one escapes the past or themselves. Nihilistic but compelling.

Pub Date: Aug. 5, 1991

ISBN: 0-943433-07-X

Page Count: 118

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1991

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
KILLING THE SECOND DOG
by Marek Hlasko ; translated by Tomasz Mirkowicz

bookshelf

MAGIC HOUR

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

bookshelf

Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.

Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

Pub Date: March 1, 2006

ISBN: 0-345-46752-3

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WOMEN
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT ALONE
by Kristin Hannah

bookshelf

THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

bookshelf

A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.

"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.