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THE BOROUGH

Name: THE BOROUGH
Author: Michael Cannon
ISBN: 1-85242-383-8

by Michael Cannon ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 1997

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A pleasant, articulate debut in which Glaswegian Cannon records the day-to-day life in one of his city's deep-rooted working-class districts, doing so in the affectionate manner of one who knows the place and its people well. A handful of inner-city dwellers embody most of the passions and tragedy known to humankind. Simon, a reserved but eminently fair man, has the Borough's Post Office in his shop, which he runs with his domineering, close-minded, haughty wife Elsbeth, who has contempt for him and everyone else in the area. One of Simon's customers is pretty Irene, a young mother of two whom he's observed, with something more than compassion, suffering under the cruelty and indifference of her brutish husband McCullen. Sharply looking over them all is the nameless narrator, a newcomer to the Borough with desires of his own, namely for the middle daughter of a middle-class suburban family, a girl who has carried her interest in him far enough to move in with him while she does a resident's stint at the local hospital. Matters come to a head when Simon stops the hulking McCullen from beating his child in the street and receives a broken nose for the trouble. While Simon recuperates and his friends plot vengeance for the deed, McCullen rapes Irene, has his throat cut the same night, and Elsbeth turns away from her man to take the last steps on a course laid out long before—all of which leaves the Borough temporarily in shock. It's nothing a blowout of a New Year's party can't cure, however, and in the end all is as it's meant to be. A bit reductive in its neatness of plot, but, still, a tale told with vitality and feeling, heralding a significant new presence among Scottish novelists.

Pub Date: June 1, 1997

ISBN: 1-85242-383-8

Page Count: 186

Publisher: Serpent’s Tail

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1997

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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DISTANT SHORES

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2002

Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...

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Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.

After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?

Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).