Linger—the restaurant in Berryville, Pennsylvania, traditional spot for community celebrations—is ruled by owner Ned Dunlinger with calculated generosity and shrewd manipulation of his affectionate employees. Among these are 16-year-old Gary's whole family—until brother Bobby, dismayed by the tragic results of a rumor that he started about a local Mexican restaurant in hopes of currying Dunlinger's favor, joins the army. With Bobby in the Persian Gulf, Dunlinger touts him as a hero, hanging flags and yellow ribbons in a jingoistic frenzy. Bobby writes to Dunlinger's daughter Lynn, but she's in love with Gary's teacher, Jules Raleigh, who deplores muddy thinking, intellectual dishonesty, and the war. When Dunlinger discovers their liaison, he forces Raleigh out of his job; but the full depths of his bigotry and cynicism are revealed in the revulsion with which he greets Bobby's disfigured Army buddy, Sanchez, wounded—like Bobby—by ``friendly fire.'' Yet in the end, forgetting how odiously hypocritical Dunlinger proved to be, people flock back to Linger in response to his sanctimonious latest cause: the homeless. The fast-moving story is rich with varied characters and points of view (Gary's narrative is interspersed with Bobby's journal entries and letters). It's an angry look at the US in microcosm, not on the cosmic scale of Howard's End but with plenty of thought-provoking parallels. And while Kerr's partisan stance may subvert the message for some, others will find it compelling. (Fiction. 12-16)
Pub Date: July 30, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-022879-2
Page Count: 214
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1993
Certain to provoke controversy and difficult to see as a book for children, who could easily miss the painful point.
After Hitler appoints Bruno’s father commandant of Auschwitz, Bruno (nine) is unhappy with his new surroundings compared to the luxury of his home in Berlin.
The literal-minded Bruno, with amazingly little political and social awareness, never gains comprehension of the prisoners (all in “striped pajamas”) or the malignant nature of the death camp. He overcomes loneliness and isolation only when he discovers another boy, Shmuel, on the other side of the camp’s fence. For months, the two meet, becoming secret best friends even though they can never play together. Although Bruno’s family corrects him, he childishly calls the camp “Out-With” and the Fuhrer “Fury.” As a literary device, it could be said to be credibly rooted in Bruno’s consistent, guileless characterization, though it’s difficult to believe in reality. The tragic story’s point of view is unique: the corrosive effect of brutality on Nazi family life as seen through the eyes of a naïf. Some will believe that the fable form, in which the illogical may serve the objective of moral instruction, succeeds in Boyne’s narrative; others will believe it was the wrong choice.
Certain to provoke controversy and difficult to see as a book for children, who could easily miss the painful point. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2006
ISBN: 0-385-75106-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: David Fickling/Random
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The wish-fulfilling title and sun-washed, catalog-beautiful teens on the cover will be enticing for girls looking for a...
Han’s leisurely paced, somewhat somber narrative revisits several beach-house summers in flashback through the eyes of now 15-year-old Isabel, known to all as Belly.
Belly measures her growing self by these summers and by her lifelong relationship with the older boys, her brother and her mother’s best friend’s two sons. Belly’s dawning awareness of her sexuality and that of the boys is a strong theme, as is the sense of summer as a separate and reflective time and place: Readers get glimpses of kisses on the beach, her best friend’s flirtations during one summer’s visit, a first date. In the background the two mothers renew their friendship each year, and Lauren, Belly’s mother, provides support for her friend—if not, unfortunately, for the children—in Susannah’s losing battle with breast cancer. Besides the mostly off-stage issue of a parent’s severe illness there’s not much here to challenge most readers—driving, beer-drinking, divorce, a moment of surprise at the mothers smoking medicinal pot together.
The wish-fulfilling title and sun-washed, catalog-beautiful teens on the cover will be enticing for girls looking for a diversion. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: May 5, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4169-6823-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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