A vivid and mature novel about old friends and second chances.
A tale of romance in which opposites attract, decades intervene, and emotions rekindle.
In 1957 at Fern High School in Provo, Utah, Elaine Bybee is a cheerleader for the school’s lackluster football team. Even as a teen, she’s independent-minded when it comes to romance: “Elaine would never go with just one person. Once you settle down, that’s it.” Even decades later in the story she says, “It’s silly believing there is only one person for you.” Readers soon meet Elaine’s fellow cheerleader Mona Lynn Moss and her too-perfect boyfriend, Phil Smith, as well as Andy Bond, a good-natured rancher’s son from the southern part of the state who plays trombone in the school’s band. “He had good teeth,” Elaine notices, when she first meets Andy. “They looked naturally straight, not the type lined up with braces.” Andy later describes himself as coming from a family of “congenital optimists,” and soon he and Elaine are spending time together and growing closer. But despite their growing intimacy, time and circumstance pull them apart; Andy later settles down on his ranch with a cowgirl wife, and Elaine moves to New York City, where she tries hard to shed her small-town ways (“Boy, had she ever changed,” notes the third-person narration at one point). Decades pass, and unlike many novelists, Redd handles the passage of large stretches of time with smooth confidence. Andy gets divorced, Elaine’s longtime relationship with a man named Michael Shaughnessy dwindles to nothing, and in a series of events that feel only slightly contrived, Redd brings her two soul mates back together again. Over the course of the novel, Redd’s narrative voice is often disarmingly evocative: “Didn’t wobble at all,” she describes a football in flight, “a fine thing to see, that pointed ball flowing through the night, shaped to fit in hands, or to be hugged to a chest.” She also effectively shows how her female characters make compromises over time, which is perhaps the novel’s strongest element.
A vivid and mature novel about old friends and second chances.Pub Date: July 21, 2020
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 420
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
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
A tender reminder that gratitude is a path we choose, one conversation at a time.
In Green’s inspirational novel, a journalist boarding the wrong train discovers the right moment to speak the words that matter.
Daniel arrives at the Beacon station carrying a leather notebook filled with an unfinished eulogy for his still-living grandfather, only to be swept onto the mysterious 5:07 Gratitude Express, a steam locomotive that appears “for those who want to express gratitude.” His uncanny journey sends him through vividly rendered moments from his own life, where he witnesses the ripple effects of kindnesses he has offered and reunites—sometimes for the first time—with people who were permanently shaped by those actions. Each stop brings a new encounter: A childhood classmate says, “That morning, you altered the course of my life”; an elderly woman confesses, “Your simple act of kindness saved me that day”; a mentor tells him, “You need to figure out what you’re good at and what you like to do. Because when you do that, your potential is limitless.” By the time Daniel reaches Cedarville, intent on seeing his grandfather—the person who most profoundly shaped him—his reflections echo the conductor’s warning that “Time is unpredictable, and unsaid words bring pain and regret.” What follows is a moving affirmation of connection that honors the story’s central message: Appreciation should be expressed to the living. Green structures the narrative as a fable, with emotional clarity and cinematic pacing. The train’s dissolving walls, the recurring whistle rising “high into the dark sky,” and the symbolic briefcase filled with long-kept letters lend the tale a gentle magical-realist texture. While the storyline remains linear and accessible for all ages, the themes—regret, legacy, and intergenerational love—invite adult reflection. The prose is simple, intentionally so, grounding the fantastical elements in an earnest emotional register. This is not a plot-twist-driven story; it’s a quiet parable urging readers to act before time steals their chances. Readers who appreciate heartfelt, uplifting narrative journeys will find resonance in Green’s message.
A tender reminder that gratitude is a path we choose, one conversation at a time.Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2026
ISBN: 9798891385252
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Jan. 13, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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