Italian author Brelich, whose previous book focused on the biblical Noah's post-deluge alcoholism (Navigator of the Flood, not reviewed), now tackles the conjugal union of Abraham and Sarah in a verbosely written ``novelized essay.'' Actually, Brelich (191082) sees the relationship as a sort of mÇnage Ö trois among Abraham, Sarah, and God: Abraham takes the role of submissive subordinate (sometimes to God, other times to Sarah); Sarah plays the first stereotypical frigid Jewish princess; and God appears as a somewhat muddled and histrionic divinity. The story focuses on the events leading up to the birth of Isaac. It begins charmingly with God appearing to Abraham after an absence of 14 years and Abraham noting that divine revelations are ominous when everything is going well. God then informs Abraham that he and Sarah are to have an heir, at which Abraham laughs—they are both nearly 100 years old—angering his creator. When Sarah hears the news, she also laughs, but according to Brelich, it is God who has the last laugh—on humanity. Culling the story from the Bible, commentaries, and his own invention, the author manages to tell his readers what they probably already knew from their own reading of the text—that Abraham was a wimp, Sarah a witch, and God a sometimes capricious manipulator (although it's not usually presented that way in Sunday school). Brelich's dry wit amuses at first, but the essay succeeds in subordinating the novel here, and 229 pages is rather long for an essay. Brelich does make some interesting points about God's relationship with humanity, why the three angels handled Abraham and Sodom in the same mission, and why the Abimelech incident is more than just a rehash of the earlier Pharaoh episode. But no matter how apt, his lengthy discourses completely destroy the narrative's scant flow. Ironic humor and occasional insights cannot support the weight of this odd fiction/exegesis hybrid.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1994
ISBN: 1-56897-002-1
Page Count: 229
Publisher: Northwestern Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1994
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
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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