bookshelf

DIVINING BLOOD

Name: DIVINING BLOOD
Author: Maureen McCoy
ISBN: 0-671-75065-8

by Maureen McCoy ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1992

bookshelf

All McCoy's strengths—a feisty heroine, a strong regional presence, and much colorful writing—are here, but again the premise and resolution, in this her third novel (Summertime, Walking After Midnight), seem imposed rather than naturally evolving. At 24, along with month-old baby and lover Johnny, runaway Delana Mae Walsh is returning to the family home on the Mississippi River, a place she left seven years ago in a moment of shame and anguish. During the seven years, she has worked as a cook and then as a pilot on the boats that tow the barges up and down the Mississippi. But despite her love for Johnny, an engineer on the boat, and the affection of the crew, Delana Mae has been haunted by the unresolved mysteries in her family: the drowning of a four- year-old sister Sally; her own conception right after the accident; and her doctor father's longtime relationship with his office nurse, whom he married when her own mother, Dovie died. The family home becomes a setting for an updated Showboat as members of the crew, delayed by a mechanical fault, interact in a series of set- pieces, with the Walsh family, including the deeply religious Marcia, dissatisfied with her marriage and yearning to speak in tongues. All ends well as Marcia finds spiritual and sexual joy; Delana Mae learns the truth about her parents; the past is absolved as the baby is baptized at the spot where sister Sally had drowned; and Delana Mae realizes that Johnny is tied to the river, but will come back to visit, until ``the day the river will run dry on him, [and] wash him up to her'' for good. At times McCoy seems to be trying too hard to be the serious novelist, concerned with big issues like incest, religious faith, and the differences between the sexes, and writing as if acclaim were merely a matter of accruing metaphors and similes. But still much to enjoy.

Pub Date: May 1, 1992

ISBN: 0-671-75065-8

Page Count: 240

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1992

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

bookshelf

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

bookshelf

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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE LAND OF SWEET FOREVER
by Harper Lee ; edited by Casey Cep

- BOOK REVIEW
GO SET A WATCHMAN
by Harper Lee

- SEEN & HEARD
The Snowy Day Is NYC Library’s Most Popular Book

- SEEN & HEARD
ALA Releases List of 2020’s Most Challenged Books

- SEEN & HEARD
NYT Readers Voting on Best Book of Past 125 Years

bookshelf

BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

bookshelf

Sisters in and out of love.

Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.