In the age-old tradition of romancers who refuse to let facts stand in the way of a great story, first-novelist Winegardner (Prophet of the Sandlots, 1990) hits the outside corner with an evocative reprise of Mexican baseball's single season in the sun. It's 1946, and sportswriter Frank Hollinger is reporting on the five Pasquel brothers' attempt to create a major-league rival south of the border. And, with access to apparently unlimited amounts of dinero, los hermanos (under the direction of free- spending Jorge, the consort of Maria Felix) give El Norte a run for its money. The brothers, in this pre-Jackie Robinson era, use generous bonuses and megabuck contracts to lure stateside professionals (Danny Gardella, Max Lanier, Sal Maglie, Mickey Owen), who have few difficulties teaming up with stars from the Negro leagues and Latin America. The problems are with the gun- toting Pasquels, who load the roster of the club representing Veracruz (their hometown) with the best talent and otherwise put paid to any notion that Mexican baseball is to be organized. Despite the best efforts of sinister jefes to fix the season's outcome, the imported players give loyal fans in several hinterland cities an unexpectedly close pennant race and a consistently high caliber of competition, while the visiting mercenaries also get to witness such mythic moments as the home run hit by Babe Ruth in his last turn at bat. Off the field, the hired hands pine for absent sweethearts, engage in torrid love affairs with local lasses, and party with the hard-living likes of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. The idyll ends abruptly as a change in the capital's political climate leaves the Pasquels out in the cold. Years later, those who were involved have mostly fond memories of their sojourns, which they share in interviews with Hollinger, the older, wiser (somewhat), and forthrightly nostalgic narrator. An absorbing, episodic account of a brief fiesta that still lights up the summer game's storied past.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-670-86636-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A super-exorcism that leaves the taste of somebody else's blood in your mouth and what a bad taste it is. King presents us with the riddle of a small Maine town that has been deserted overnight. Where did all the down-Easters go? Matter of fact, they're still there but they only get up at sundown. . . for a warm drink. . . .Ben Mears, a novelist, returns to Salem's Lot (pop. 1319), the hometown he hasn't seen since he was four years old, where he falls for a young painter who admires his books (what happens to her shouldn't happen to a Martian). Odd things are manifested. Someone rents the ghastly old Marsten mansion, closed since a horrible double murder-suicide in 1939; a dog is found impaled on a spiked fence; a healthy boy dies of anemia in one week and his brother vanishes. Ben displays tremendous calm considering that you're left to face a corpse that sits up after an autopsy and sinks its fangs into the coroner's neck. . . . Vampirism, necrophilia, et dreadful alia rather overplayed by the author of Carrie (1974).
Pub Date: Oct. 17, 1975
ISBN: 0385007515
Page Count: 458
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1975
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
There are unforgettable beauties in this very sexy story.
Passion, friendship, heartbreak, and forgiveness ring true in Lovering's debut, the tale of a young woman's obsession with a man who's "good at being charming."
Long Island native Lucy Albright, starts her freshman year at Baird College in Southern California, intending to study English and journalism and become a travel writer. Stephen DeMarco, an upperclassman, is a political science major who plans to become a lawyer. Soon after they meet, Lucy tells Stephen an intensely personal story about the Unforgivable Thing, a betrayal that turned Lucy against her mother. Stephen pretends to listen to Lucy's painful disclosure, but all his thoughts are about her exposed black bra strap and her nipples pressing against her thin cotton T-shirt. It doesn't take Lucy long to realize Stephen's a "manipulative jerk" and she is "beyond pathetic" in her desire for him, but their lives are now intertwined. Their story takes seven years to unfold, but it's a fast-paced ride through hookups, breakups, and infidelities fueled by alcohol and cocaine and with oodles of sizzling sexual tension. "Lucy was an itch, a song stuck in your head or a movie you need to rewatch or a food you suddenly crave," Stephen says in one of his point-of-view chapters, which alternate with Lucy's. The ending is perfect, as Lucy figures out the dark secret Stephen has kept hidden and learns the difference between lustful addiction and mature love.
There are unforgettable beauties in this very sexy story.Pub Date: June 12, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-6964-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 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.
