Vance Bourjaily and Harvey Swados used to write replete, ambitious novels like Crooked River Burning. A wonderful read that...
Dos Passos’s classic trilogy U.S.A. now has a rival, in this richly plotted, consistently engrossing big novel, which examines “the enormous dreams of a great northern city” as lived by its two principals and other members of the political and personal “worlds” through which they move.
The city is Cleveland during the years 1948–69, when it will rise to, and fall from, national prominence. Anne O’Connor is the willful youngest child of a wealthy Irish Catholic (and, yes, Kennedyesque) family whose patriarch is a powerful political boss—David Zielinsky, estranged son of a shady labor-union enforcer and a runaway film star who may have been murdered by her lover. In a hearty, hectoring omniscient narrative voice that addresses the reader (and occasionally the characters) directly, Winegardner traces this pair’s meetings and partings over the years, as Anne’s ambition to become a war correspondent is funneled into a moderately successful journalistic career, and David’s aspiration to his city’s mayoralty takes him as far as a city council seat. Running beneath the currents of their lives are the fortunes of Cleveland’s beloved professional sports franchises (Winegardner’s The Veracruz Blues, 1996, is one of our best-ever baseball novels). And a host of vividly drawn historical figures also appear: crimebuster Eliot Ness, Indians’ slugger Vic Wertz, accused murderer Dr. Sam Sheppard, and Browns’ place-kicker Lou (“The Toe”) Groza, and in chapters titled “Local Heroes” (which clearly echo Dos Passos’s “Camera Eye” sequences), such notables as radio-TV newswoman Dorothy Fuldheim and Cleveland’s first black mayor, Carl Stokes, make memorable extended appearances. In a striking climax, oil slicks cause the Cuyahoga River to “burn,” as it had years earlier—and Anne’s and David’s separate and common stories are thrown into powerfully ironic high relief.
Vance Bourjaily and Harvey Swados used to write replete, ambitious novels like Crooked River Burning. A wonderful read that brings the (recently much neglected) urban tradition in American fiction vibrantly back to life.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-15-100294-0
Page Count: 576
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
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
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