paper 0-06-446207-2 Kerr (“Hello,” I Lied, 1997, etc.) wraps observations about writing in general, and her own work in particular, around five short stories, plus long extracts from four novels and her autobiography. Ten conventional tips for new writers open the book (“10. Cut! Cut! Cut! Your reader has a life”); it closes with an abbreviated section of cute quotes from children’s letters. In between, Kerr shows how stories can come out of meetings, personal or witnessed incidents, and sometimes seemingly from nowhere; points out recurrent themes in her work; and discusses the differences between creating novels and short stories. The excerpts, from Gentlehands (1978), Little Little (1981), Me Me Me Me Me (1983), I Stay Near You (1985) and Fell (1987), average about 30 pages each, long enough to capture the author’s distinctive sense of irony and to whet readers’ appetites for more; the shorter fiction, all of which has appeared in collections within the last ten years, includes studies in character, family relations, and love. Without any comment on Kerr’s forays into gay issues and other previously taboo topics, this book is not a true cross-section of her work: Still, it’s valuable as an introduction for those just becoming acquainted with her, and equally worthwhile as the author’s personal take on her art. (Memoir/anthology. 11-15)
Pub Date: May 31, 1998
ISBN: 0-06-027996-6
Page Count: 263
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1998
Drawing on her experience with a relief organization on the Thai border, Ho tells the story of a Cambodian family, fleeing the rival factions of the 80's while hoping to gather resources to return to farming in their homeland. Narrator Dara, 12, and the remnants of her family have arrived at a refugee camp soon after her father's summary execution. At first, the camp is a haven: food is plentiful, seed rice is available, and they form a bond with another family- -brother Sarun falls in love with Nea, and Dara makes friends with Nea's cousin, Jantu, who contrives marvelous toys from mud and bits of scrap; made wise by adversity, Jantu understands that the process of creation outweighs the value of things, and that dead loved ones may live on in memory. The respite is brief: Vietnamese bombing disrupts the camp, and the family is temporarily but terrifyingly separated. Later, Jantu is wounded by friendly fire and doesn't survive; but her tragic death empowers Dara to confront Sarun, who's caught up in mindless militarism instigated by a charismatic leader, and persuade him to travel home with the others—to plant rice and build a family instead of waging war. Again, Ho (Rice Without Rain, 1990) skillfully shapes her story to dramatize political and humanitarian issues. The easily swayed Sarun lacks dimension, but the girls are more subtly drawn—Dara's growing courage and assertiveness are especially convincing and admirable. Touching, authentic, carefully wrought- -and with an unusually appealing jacket. (Fiction. 11-15)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-374-31340-7
Page Count: 163
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1991
After witnessing the rising tide of anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany, Daniel is suddenly transported, at age 14, from his comfortable life in Frankfurt to a Polish ghetto, then to Auschwitz and Buchenwald—losing most of his family along the way, seeing Nazi brutality of both the casual and the calculated kind, and recording atrocities with a smuggled camera (``What has happened to me?...Who am I? Where am I going?''). Matas, explicating an exhibit of photos and other materials at the new United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, creates a convincing composite youth and experience—fictional but carefully based on survivors' accounts. It's a savage story with no attempt to soften the culpability of the German people; Daniel's profound anger is easier to understand than is his father's compassion or his sister's plea to ``chose love. Always choose love.'' Daniel survives to be reunited, after the war, with his wife-to-be, but his dying friend's last word echoes beyond the happy ending: ``Remember...'' An unusual undertaking, effectively carried out. Chronology; glossary. (Fiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-590-46920-7
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1993
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