The series debut of the Palace Theater is edgy enough to push a timeworn formula from the basement up to the balcony. Dumas...
An LA film buff fleeing her cheating spouse discovers a ragtag bunch of misfits—some alive, some dead, and some in between.
San Francisco promises a refuge for Southern California native Nora Paige, whose movie-star husband, Ted Bishop, has run off with his gorgeous young co-star. Her best friend, showrunner Roberta Prowse, offers Nora a cottage in Presidio Heights along with a slightly threadbare movie house to manage. The Palace is a niche theater that specializes in the classic films Nora loved as a child. And her encyclopedic knowledge of film history allows her to craft showings like a Stanley Donen triple bill that delight her loyal but aging patrons. Naturally, a niche theater is staffed by what might be considered niche personnel, including 80-something ticket taker Albert Lockhart, grumpy projectionist Marty Abrams, and cheerful cashier Callie Gee, who berates Nora for letting her “man-slut of a husband go off on location with the most beautiful actress on the planet” but offers comfort in the form of a referral to Monica Chen, proprietor of The Potent Flower, the neighborhood weed shop. The nichiest of the Palace’s crew is undoubtedly usherette Trixie George, who died in 1937 but who’s eerily present to current-day Nora, one of the few living people who can see her. Trixie provides Nora with a unique if dated orientation to the Palace. She’s also the one best placed to help Nora figure out how former drug lord Raul Acosta ended up dead in the Palace’s auxiliary ice machine. Tracking Raul’s killer while riding herd on her eccentric staff provides Nora little rest but ample distraction from Ted’s antics back home.
The series debut of the Palace Theater is edgy enough to push a timeworn formula from the basement up to the balcony. Dumas adds just enough zany to her mix to have readers lining up for more.Pub Date: Feb. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-63511-466-9
Page Count: 266
Publisher: Henery Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 25, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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