Deft entertainment, with a raffish cast enacting an old-fashioned scenario.
A second comic novel from the author of Crosswinds (not reviewed), this one a bravura romp set on the Nevada sheep ranch of a put-upon Basque papa.
Old Sabine Eckleberry (who resembles a comic Big Daddy and as much as a King Lear) is devoted to red meat, cheap stogies, and Sangre de Toro wine. Meanwhile, he’s beset by three bossy daughters and a sensuous spouse; in addition to the Sabine women, there’s good-natured, feckless son VJ. Supporting players include VJ’s tubby pal Ev, a couple of feminists, a priapic old colonel, and a nubile neighbor sporting a parrot, along with a number of other personable animals. In his quest to find something—perhaps himself—VJ, a natural-born shepherd who’s already launched and fumbled several foolish enterprises (not fully elucidated), proposes raising ostriches on the family ranch. A small point of edification for those of us who didn’t know: the big feral fowl stink real bad, and they poop a lot, too. (Thomas paints a potent picture of the mighty avian dung heaps.) VJ brings a smelly incubating ostrich egg back to the ranch just in time for Daddy’s 72nd birthday festivities. Daddy, incidentally, has recently acquired several sweet government-surplus donkeys. Dogs, sheep, and grandchildren are underfoot. Misunderstanding! Contretemps! Happily, love blooms: Sabine’s truly wonderful favorite daughter finds romance with Ev. VJ and the full-bosomed neighbor form an attachment. Daddy and Mamma renew their smoldering passion. The old colonel and the newly hatched ostrich chick fall in mutual love. All the loose ends are knotted quite neatly, as we knew they would be. Even the livestock are destined to live happily ever after in this comic western. It’s neatly plotted, with carefully drawn characters and considerable insight into human and animal motivation.
Deft entertainment, with a raffish cast enacting an old-fashioned scenario.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-87417-351-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2000
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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