The author of The Horses of the Night (1993), among seven others, continues his rise with a modern vampire romance that harks back to the metaphysical poets' device not only of trading eyes but bodies as well. Cadnum's story at first seems simplistic, satirical, and thoroughly unserious. But midway the prose jells to a philosophical lyricism rarely found in this genre. San Francisco lawyer Richard Stirling, who's sure his cool, infertile wife Connie plays around, has himself taken a lover, the blind classical pianist Rebecca Pennant. When Rebecca is murdered in her bathroom and her house burned down, Connie's all sympathy. Then, to Richard's surprise, a strange mirror is delivered to his door: an antique with white wood frame and a carved unicorn. When Richard nicks his finger on the back edge of the mirror, it won't stop bleeding, even when treated by the family physician, Dr. Opal. Later, quite faint, Richard falls through a restaurant's glass door—and wakes up nine months later buried and in a sealed coffin, an exquisitely rendered Poe- esque turn. Once he claws his way from the grave and staggers to Dr. Opal's house, the surprised doctor rids his amazing patient of embalming fluid and replaces it with blood. Soon enough, Richard finds he must have human blood and sets about bloodsucking. His real mission: to find and destroy Rebecca's murderer. Eventually, he digs Rebecca up and feeds her his own blood, restoring her corpse to life, after which the love story takes over: The two hide in a stolen yacht at sea (wonderful storms) and in a redwood forest, feeding on deer (Rebecca detests murder, though hunger for human blood overcomes her). When the lovers are burned to bone, the story lifts heavenward into their post-life together: ``People are all that holds the sky in place . . . This is what the stars can never equal, this glittering minutia, the subtle accidents of lives.'' Chopin's Fantasie-impromptu for vampires.
Pub Date: March 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-7867-0239-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1995
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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