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IN SUNSHINE OR IN SHADOW

Name: IN SUNSHINE OR IN SHADOW
Author: Mary Maher
ISBN: 0-385-32399-9

edited by Mary Maher & Kate Cruise O'Brien ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1998

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Nineteen grim new stories by female Irish writers, inspired by the recent referendum that amended the Irish constitution to legalize divorce. When Phyllis, one of many downtrodden characters here, laments that ``Life didn't quite turn out as we thought it would,'' she speaks for nearly everyone else who shows up in these pages. The story in which she appears, ``Taximen Are Invisible,'' by Maeve Binchy, features a Dublin cabdriver with a front-row seat to a tawdry drama involving a family that's broken when the husband takes up with a younger woman—who then has his child and loses her spark, prompting him to reconcile with his long-suffering spouse. The husband with his young thing on the side proves to be a popular theme, figuring in at least seven other stories, although the perspective changes from that of the ``other'' woman to that of a daughter or next-door neighbor, allowing the wife to have her fling when the tables are turned. But not all is about stepping out: Mary Dorcey's haunting ``The Orphan'' recounts a mother's childhood with the man she called her father, who took her from an orphanage and pimped for her for years outside his pub, until she ran away to London for an abortion. Another moving tale is Mary Leland's ``Commencements,'' the reverie of a single mother attending her daughter's graduation; her chance meeting with two people from her distant past stirs painful memories. Unfortunately, though, a certain sameness guides most of what's here. A somber tone is all but constant, as in ``Clods,'' by Mary Morrissy, about a lonely woman who spends one night with her ex, now remarried and living in America, when he returns for his mother's funeral. Some nice individual efforts mixed in with the monotony. (Book-of-the-Month Club alternate selection)

Pub Date: March 1, 1998

ISBN: 0-385-32399-9

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Delacorte

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1998

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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.