This Afrikaans debut novel, which became a bestseller and garnered South Africa's biggest literary prize, tells a modern-day fairy tale with an irreverent, feminist twist. Van de Vyver offers an enlightened albeit somewhat lost protagonist named Griet. After her husband of seven years tells Griet he can't live with her anymore, she squats at a friend's apartment in Capetown and takes account of her life. Griet grew up on fairy tales, ``stories handed down from the people for the people'' with a ``crystal-clear division between good and evil.'' Although such stories bear little relation to the world around her, which is filled with racial strife and appears to have no Prince Charming, Griet has faith in the lessons they hold for modern society. So, armed with her therapist's suggestion to use her relatively unexplored passion for writing, Griet personalizes classic folktales to create a coherent and meaningful narrative of her own history. In wittily titled chapters like ``Snow White Takes a Bite of the Apple'' and ``Rapunzel Rescues Herself,'' Griet wryly relates her story, including a hilariously rendered failed suicide attempt in which, having stuck her head in the oven, she's startled by the sight of a dead cockroach and, horrified, pulls back and bangs her head. Griet writes her way out of her guilt over her failed marriage to a self-centered and callous husband (Could she have saved the marriage by ``not locking the keys in the car''?) and out of the sadness of three failed pregnancies, and recognizes the blessing of coming from a long line of relatives who believed in angels and ghosts. It's a little frustrating when, after Griet finally comes to terms with being alone and being a writer, van der Vyver has her discover the man of her dreams—then again, this book could only stray so far and still be called a fairy tale. Mixing honest prose and literary allusion with dreams and politics, van der Vyver has written a funny, intelligent, and inventive novel.
Pub Date: Jan. 9, 1995
ISBN: 0-525-93918-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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