A first-time author and student of Japanese culture takes on the plight of Asian women in a novel that tries to turn riding the Tokyo rail system into a metaphysical quest with a feminist angle. Mai Asahikawa, the narrator, is a self-declared rider of trains—an expert on the various Tokyo subway and above-ground systems: The best train is the green one that somehow is cheerful even in the worse weather; the red subway has ``vintage without mould, class without snobbishness.'' The riders in Tokyo differ according to the time of the day—elegant ``shoppingbagwomen'' in the afternoon, drunken ``salarymen'' late at night. Mai observes them all, particularly the women, and since her riding is constant, she soon comes to recognize certain individuals. Interwoven with her discussions of the trains and their passengers are other observations: She notes, for instance, that many of her friends do not wish to marry because men treat women so shabbily in Japanese society. Mai also begins to divulge details of her own life. She is the daughter of an American nisei who came to Japan to find his roots, married her mother but went back when Mai was a child and remarried; as the daughter of a foreigner, Mai is ineligible for a passport; she's lost her job; her marriage has ended; and her best friend has committed suicide with her two children, because the man she was married to abused his family after he discovered his wife's adultery (with Mai's ex-husband). Then an earthquake and a fortuitous piece of information make Mai a heroine as she leads crowds trapped underground to safety. And a letter from a repentant Dad offering Mai a trip to the US suddenly puts her back on track (as it were). Neither Mai nor her life, either on the rails or off, is vital enough to grip and engage fully. Still, Wolbers is a promising newcomer.
Pub Date: Nov. 19, 1996
ISBN: 0-312-14718-X
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1996
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
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
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
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.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
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