A lighthearted sexual satire that gives a whole new meaning to the words “cat lover” and “dog lover.”
A picaresque fantasy focuses on a California cat who becomes human.
Forty-year-old Sherman Oaks resident Jennie Livingston’s troubles begin at the outset of Barrera’s fiction debut when she decides to visit trendy shaman-to-the-stars Carlos and hire him to guide her through a vision quest (he’s done this often, including a couple of times for Charlie Sheen). Like many pet owners who live alone, Jennie first discusses the whole matter with her cat, a purebred Chartreux named Antoinette, who, as usual with her species, is both haughty and indifferent to the scheme. But then Carlos’ supernatural efforts result in Antoinette becoming a pretty young human named Kitty, who has a French accent, a fan-crush on Scarlett O’Hara, and a penchant for getting involved with what “humans spend all their time thinking about” (readers are informed that it isn’t food). Kitty is subtle and manipulative—perfectly, if inadvertently, described when one character understatedly says cats are “pretty good at figuring out how to get what they want.” What Kitty wants is to squash Jennie’s new romance with Hollywood screenwriter Casey Chandler and match her instead with Carlos himself, but these plans get complicated when yet more of the shaman’s magic turns Casey’s Old English Sheepdog Shep into a sexy young Englishman who immediately fascinates Kitty. Then Jennie’s ex-boyfriend Mickey Souris kidnaps Kitty with the plan of changing her back into a cat and using her as the basis of a lucrative breeding operation, forcing the tale’s heroes to band together in an attempt to save her. Barrera invests all of this silliness with both a winningly light touch and an undercurrent of sexual sizzle that never feels forced (the novel’s full-color photos representing its various cast members add a playful touch). His funny and racy plot is target-rich with the zanier aspects of Hollywood subculture (Jennie tells Carlos that her “vision animal turned out to be an old tortoise named Amy. I felt like Alice in Wonderland talking to her”). But his satire is never sharp enough to break the spell of his humor. Although his characters may talk about the works of Shakespeare and Jane Austen, they remain comfortably one-dimensional.
A lighthearted sexual satire that gives a whole new meaning to the words “cat lover” and “dog lover.”Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4575-3251-1
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Dog Ear Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
