An amusing though featherweight romp through the English countryside, this time pitting the love for husband against love for manor house, with predictable results. Young and lovely Sonia, the Lady Duntan, is an enviable superwoman—she has four energetic children, a houseful of dogs, a career as an artist, the lovable Minnie, who tends to the children and meals, and, finally, the breathtaking ancestral home of her husband. And, in truth, much of the guilty delight in this debut novel comes from the vicarious thrill delivered by Sheepshanks's description of such an idyllic life. There's a serpent in this Eden, however, in the form of husband Archie. Though not a bad chap, Archie refuses to support Sonia's dreams of restoring the old house, which is literally crumbling down around the family and is too costly to maintain. Archie's stubbornness, coupled with his not-so-clandestine affair with torrid neighbor Rosie, has Sonia ready to wage war. Thrown into the battle is Archie's gold-digging, globe-trotting mother, who has decided to claim the house as a refuge for her newest interest, the cult-like Brotherhood of Love. Sonia's last hope is the Heritage at Risk Foundation, an organization that may be willing to pay for repairs if the house is opened to the public. Woven through Sheepshanks's leisurely descriptions of country life from village vicar to arrangements for the shooting season, is the record of Sonia's burgeoning romance with the Foundation's director. The story ends with a hammer-and- nails description of the Duntan house restoration, along with the happy voices of children in the background. An enjoyably insubstantial look at the British upper crust and its desperate attempts to keep its houses together, both literally and figuratively.
Pub Date: June 3, 1996
ISBN: 0-312-14394-X
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1996
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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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