The further misadventures of Bluefeather Fellini offer good silly fun from noted western author Evans (The Rounders, not reviewed, etc.). Bluefeather, half Sicilian and half Taos Pueblo Indian, has just returned from WW II. His substantial earnings from his rich gold mine are gone, having been squandered in an enterprise to develop the medicinal potential of sage oil. He's flat busted. His car is gone. The phone and the electricity are turned off, and he's just gotten a notice of foreclosure on his house from the bank. He's also still haunted by the death of his wife, Miss Mary, whom he had accidentally killed in a mining mishap. At this definite low point in his life, his guiding spirit, Dancing Bear, a Cheshire catlike ghost of a scruffy Indian, reappears to help out. Bluefeather, who could have used his aid much earlier, wonders where he's been, but the apparition gleefully explains that the Authority has had him on a dozen other cases. Still, after the spirit's return, matters do seem to take a turn for the better. A message arrives from Ricardo Korbell, a mysterious and powerful millionaire with whose adopted daughter, Marsha, Bluefeather had a brief assignation earlier. Ricardo wants to see him, and Marsha is sent to fetch him. The millionaire needs Bluefeather's help in finding 60 cases of Mouton Rothschild 1880, and he is willing to pay handsomely. Soon, Bluefeather and Marsha are off on a merry chase for the rare wine, encountering colorful characters and getting up close and personal with each other. Dancing Bear and mystical mischief are never far away. An erotic and entertaining romp through the various cultures that make up the American Southwest. Despite a few minor missteps, this pseudo-noir send-up will hold the reader's attention until the raucous conclusion.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-87081-345-5
Page Count: 377
Publisher: Univ. Press of Colorado
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Sneering tone and choppy style mar this first novel, set in Sydney, from Australian author Moriarty.
Meet the Kettle sisters: 33-year-old triplets.
Gemma, Cat, and Lynne had the childhood from hell, thanks to their battling parents, and they still haven’t decided what they want to be when they grow up—if they grow up. They haven’t forgiven Mum and Dad and they can’t forget, for example, their sixth birthday party, when their father lit a firecracker and blew his finger off (it was preserved in Formaldehyde as a gruesome memento of the occasion). How ironic: it was his ring finger—an apt symbol of an explosive marriage. Some years later, after their parents’ divorce, the sisters leave home to confront hard truths about life and love. Family secrets and garden-variety troubles are trotted out in no particular order: Mum’s miscarriage. Frail but feisty granny. Unfaithful husbands and useless boyfriends. Happy ending? Oh, why not.
Sneering tone and choppy style mar this first novel, set in Sydney, from Australian author Moriarty.Pub Date: June 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-06-058612-5
Page Count: 352
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2004
Though extension is possible, make no mistake about it; this is a ward and not a microcosm.
This is a book which courts the dangers of two extremes.
It can be taken not seriously enough or, more likely, critical climate considered, too seriously. Kesey's first novel is narrated by a half-Indian schizophrenic who has withdrawn completely by feigning deaf-muteness. It is set in a mental ward ruled by Big Nurse—a monumental matriarch who keeps her men in line by some highly original disciplinary measures: Nursey doesn't spank, but oh that electric shock treatment! Into the ward swaggers McMurphy, a lusty gambling man with white whales on his shorts and the psychology of unmarried nurses down to a science. He leads the men on to a series of major victories, including the substitution of recent issues of Nugget and Playboy for some dated McCall's. The fatuity of hospital utilitarianism, that alcohol-swathed brand of idiocy responsible for the custom of waking patients from a deep sleep in order to administer barbiturates, is countered by McMurphy's simple, articulate, logic. This is a thoroughly enthralling, brilliantly tempered novel, peopled by at least two unforgettable characters. (Big Nurse is custom tailored for a busty Eileen Heckert.)
Though extension is possible, make no mistake about it; this is a ward and not a microcosm.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1962
ISBN: 0451163966
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1961
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
APPRECIATIONS
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