by Mary Woronov ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2001
Caught in a riptide between noir and farce, emerging as too little of either.
It’s a long drop from Warhol Factory actress Woronov’s stunning debut, Snake (2000), to these watery depths of tangled sexual congress and parental neglect—but some of her former and insouciant handling of reality survives.
Drunken Molly’s weaving through a California supermarket parking lot looking for her car as the story opens, but in order to see the car she first has to remember who she is. So her childhood within earshot of Niagara Falls comes flooding back to her in images of her intense Chinese mother running a card table at an Indian-owned casino, of her unemployed steelworker father shrinking into himself and his booze beneath his wife’s scorn, of her newfound half-brother Kenny, who shared with her his obsession of going over the Falls in a barrel. Having survived to high school, Molly (real name Mei Li) and Kenny find more to share than the barrel: she makes him her lover, while her “boyfriend” Bobby, school beefcake and quarterback, hangs around in hopes of a kiss. When Kenny presumably dies going over in his barrel at graduation, however, Bobby has his opening, marrying Molly and taking her to California, where he becomes a successful car salesman—a life change that turns her into a drunk. Coming home to Buffalo for her father’s funeral a few years later, she catches a glimpse of Kenny (who her mother believes is the angel of death), and her marriage with Bobby hits the skids. Summoned to Florida, where Mom now lives, Molly finds her in the throes of Alzheimer’s and discovers Kenny nearby—in drag. He’s always been gay, apparently, and kept busy in high school servicing the football team, Bobby included. Reeling from this revelation, Molly returns to hubby in a conciliatory mood, but even with Bobby willing their hopes are all wet.
Caught in a riptide between noir and farce, emerging as too little of either.Pub Date: June 1, 2001
ISBN: 1-85242-801-5
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Serpent’s Tail
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2002
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by Khaled Hosseini ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 2, 2003
Rather than settle for a coming-of-age or travails-of-immigrants story, Hosseini has folded them both into this searing...
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Here’s a real find: a striking debut from an Afghan now living in the US. His passionate story of betrayal and redemption is framed by Afghanistan’s tragic recent past.
Moving back and forth between Afghanistan and California, and spanning almost 40 years, the story begins in Afghanistan in the tranquil 1960s. Our protagonist Amir is a child in Kabul. The most important people in his life are Baba and Hassan. Father Baba is a wealthy Pashtun merchant, a larger-than-life figure, fretting over his bookish weakling of a son (the mother died giving birth); Hassan is his sweet-natured playmate, son of their servant Ali and a Hazara. Pashtuns have always dominated and ridiculed Hazaras, so Amir can’t help teasing Hassan, even though the Hazara staunchly defends him against neighborhood bullies like the “sociopath” Assef. The day, in 1975, when 12-year-old Amir wins the annual kite-fighting tournament is the best and worst of his young life. He bonds with Baba at last but deserts Hassan when the latter is raped by Assef. And it gets worse. With the still-loyal Hassan a constant reminder of his guilt, Amir makes life impossible for him and Ali, ultimately forcing them to leave town. Fast forward to the Russian occupation, flight to America, life in the Afghan exile community in the Bay Area. Amir becomes a writer and marries a beautiful Afghan; Baba dies of cancer. Then, in 2001, the past comes roaring back. Rahim, Baba’s old business partner who knows all about Amir’s transgressions, calls from Pakistan. Hassan has been executed by the Taliban; his son, Sohrab, must be rescued. Will Amir wipe the slate clean? So he returns to the hell of Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and reclaims Sohrab from a Taliban leader (none other than Assef) after a terrifying showdown. Amir brings the traumatized child back to California and a bittersweet ending.
Rather than settle for a coming-of-age or travails-of-immigrants story, Hosseini has folded them both into this searing spectacle of hard-won personal salvation. All this, and a rich slice of Afghan culture too: irresistible.Pub Date: June 2, 2003
ISBN: 1-57322-245-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2003
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by Khaled Hosseini ; illustrated by Dan Williams
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SEEN & HEARD
by Roy Jacobsen ; translated by Don Bartlett & Don Shaw ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 7, 2020
A deeply satisfying novel, both sensuously vivid and remarkably poignant.
Norwegian novelist Jacobsen folds a quietly powerful coming-of-age story into a rendition of daily life on one of Norway’s rural islands a hundred years ago in a novel that was shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize.
Ingrid Barrøy, her father, Hans, mother, Maria, grandfather Martin, and slightly addled aunt Barbro are the owners and sole inhabitants of Barrøy Island, one of numerous small family-owned islands in an area of Norway barely touched by the outside world. The novel follows Ingrid from age 3 through a carefree early childhood of endless small chores, simple pleasures, and unquestioned familial love into her more ambivalent adolescence attending school off the island and becoming aware of the outside world, then finally into young womanhood when she must make difficult choices. Readers will share Ingrid’s adoration of her father, whose sense of responsibility conflicts with his romantic nature. He adores Maria, despite what he calls her “la-di-da” ways, and is devoted to Ingrid. Twice he finds work on the mainland for his sister, Barbro, but, afraid she’ll be unhappy, he brings her home both times. Rooted to the land where he farms and tied to the sea where he fishes, Hans struggles to maintain his family’s hardscrabble existence on an island where every repair is a struggle against the elements. But his efforts are Sisyphean. Life as a Barrøy on Barrøy remains precarious. Changes do occur in men’s and women’s roles, reflected in part by who gets a literal chair to sit on at meals, while world crises—a war, Sweden’s financial troubles—have unexpected impact. Yet the drama here occurs in small increments, season by season, following nature’s rhythm through deaths and births, moments of joy and deep sorrow. The translator’s decision to use roughly translated phrases in conversation—i.e., “Tha’s goen’ nohvar” for "You’re going nowhere")—slows the reading down at first but ends up drawing readers more deeply into the world of Barrøy and its prickly, intensely alive inhabitants.
A deeply satisfying novel, both sensuously vivid and remarkably poignant.Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-77196-319-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Biblioasis
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
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by Roy Jacobsen ; translated by Don Bartlett & Don Shaw
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by Roy Jacobsen & translated by Don Bartlett & Don Shaw
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