Reminiscent of a painting by Chagall, this portrait of a pioneer village in Israel is strong on atmosphere, color, myth, and symbols but weak on narrative drive. Baruch, a grandson of the pioneers, is the memorialist of a village built in a mountain valley after the settlers had cleared the original mosquito-infested swamps. In his 30s and the rich owner of a cemetery—resting place to the pioneers as well as to Americans wishing to be buried in Israel—Baruch has recently become the owner of a fine seaside villa, a move that prompts recollections of his own. He recalls how his grandfather and two friends left Russia in the early 1900's and came to establish a socialist community. When the trio met the beautiful and brave Feyga Levin, they founded the famous Feyga Levin Workingman's Circle, whose constitution became a village legend. Though Baruch's grandfather married Feyga, the village never forgave him for his obsession with a woman he'd left behind in Russia. The village is peopled with characters like Pinnes, an inveterate rationalist and teacher; Rilov, the watchman and terrorist who spends his days in the sewer; Uncle Efrayim, who disappears carrying his beloved Charolais bull on his shoulders; and Baruch's grandfather, who becomes as legendary a horticulturist as his beloved Luther Burbank. The animals are equally remarkable: Zeitser the mule, ``who had unshakeable principles and a Platform that bent reality like clover stem''; pelicans that brought mail from Russia; and Bulgov the house-cat, turned into a killer by corrupt human society. Evocative, even lyrical, with the underlying magic realism adding to the mythic stature of the villagers and their accomplishments, but there it ends. A portrait, with footnotes, interesting and well-written—nothing more.
Pub Date: July 3, 1991
ISBN: 0-06-016691-6
Page Count: 384
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1991
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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