Kazakov is a likable guide for this package tour of the hell of Middle East politics, though it could profitably be...
Bukiet tries his hand at a thriller, while continuing to explore the Jewish world as he has previously (Signs and Wonders, 1999, etc.).
Nathan Kazakov, the narrator-hero, seems already at a severe disadvantage compared to the other characters here: as a result of his two-year captivity while a POW held by the Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, he is blind and horribly disfigured. But the Russian-born ex-poet still has a quick mind, a fertile, almost febrile, brain and a scathing wit, not to mention a delightfully loyal German shepherd seeing-eye dog named Goldie. And at the outset of the story, he’s the prized speechwriter of right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Simon Ben Levi, deeply infatuated with Simon’s famous archaeologist (and leftist) son Gabriel. When a Jewish religious fanatic takes a shot at Nathan and Gabriel at a public gathering, Nathan is left with one less ear and a fervent desire to find out what happened. His investigations lead him into the proverbial hall of mirrors of Israeli-Palestinian politics, from a mud-processing plant run by Jewish settlers on the banks of the Dead Sea to the tunnel underneath the Dome of the Rock in the holiest of places in Jerusalem. Meanwhile, Bukiet’s excursion into the ostensibly more commercial precincts of the political thriller has not left him bereft of his trademark sarcasm and linguistic fireworks; indeed, with Nathan as narrator, there is probably more wordplay per square inch here than in a dozen genre exercises. Bukiet is not as deft a plotter as the genre requires, and there are still some fine points of plot that one is left pondering by the final—literally explosive—climax, but it’s good nasty fun.
Kazakov is a likable guide for this package tour of the hell of Middle East politics, though it could profitably be shortened by 40 or 50 pages.Pub Date: May 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-393-04938-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
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.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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