Stirring, romantic and evocative of the sea’s magic.
A disgraced lawyer finds friends and purpose on the island of Ocracoke in North Carolina when he gets the chance to help refurbish and race a mysterious schooner.
Aidan Sharpe was a shining star and partner in his Raleigh law firm until, trying to cover for a fellow attorney, he makes a serious error in judgment that loses him his law license. Aidan’s mentor advises him to visit an old Navy buddy, Father Marcus, on Ocracoke. The pitch is: “He enjoys the company of washed up, self-loathing bastards like yourself. He could also use someone’s help around the rectory.” Marcus cares deeply for his parishioners, but he isn’t perfect himself, leading the island’s AA meetings while enjoying nightly visits to bottles of leftover Communion wine he’s buried around the beach. Aidan soon acquires more friends, including Molly McGregor, a towboat operator, and an enemy, Rowdy Ponteau, a rich-kid deadbeat who attacked Molly in a local bar. At sea, the group finds a strange schooner more than a century old. A plan develops to repair the Prodigal and race her against Ponteau’s crew. Hurley (Once Upon a Gypsy Moon, 2013, etc.) writes an intriguing, well-plotted and multilayered novel whose heroes are interestingly flawed. In various ways, they struggle with faith, whether in God or other human beings. The supernatural elements—a religious relic, a gypsy woman out of legend—are thoughtfully handled. Hurley writes beautifully, especially in depicting nautical and island life: “The shake-shingle cottages in the village were gnarled and weathered, and each year their frames bent lower to the mossy earth, like old washerwomen….The island itself seemed slump-shouldered and in need of a haircut and a hot bath.” In a few instances, Hurley overdoes the sweetness (real alcoholism is a serious disease, not a lovable weakness), but in most cases, he balances affection with tough-mindedness. The work satisfyingly explores several themes: mystery, genuine teamwork, adventure and love.
Stirring, romantic and evocative of the sea’s magic.Pub Date: May 28, 2013
ISBN: 978-1482694277
Page Count: 358
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.
Atwood goes back to Gilead.
The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), consistently regarded as a masterpiece of 20th-century literature, has gained new attention in recent years with the success of the Hulu series as well as fresh appreciation from readers who feel like this story has new relevance in America’s current political climate. Atwood herself has spoken about how news headlines have made her dystopian fiction seem eerily plausible, and it’s not difficult to imagine her wanting to revisit Gilead as the TV show has sped past where her narrative ended. Like the novel that preceded it, this sequel is presented as found documents—first-person accounts of life inside a misogynistic theocracy from three informants. There is Agnes Jemima, a girl who rejects the marriage her family arranges for her but still has faith in God and Gilead. There’s Daisy, who learns on her 16th birthday that her whole life has been a lie. And there's Aunt Lydia, the woman responsible for turning women into Handmaids. This approach gives readers insight into different aspects of life inside and outside Gilead, but it also leads to a book that sometimes feels overstuffed. The Handmaid’s Tale combined exquisite lyricism with a powerful sense of urgency, as if a thoughtful, perceptive woman was racing against time to give witness to her experience. That narrator hinted at more than she said; Atwood seemed to trust readers to fill in the gaps. This dynamic created an atmosphere of intimacy. However curious we might be about Gilead and the resistance operating outside that country, what we learn here is that what Atwood left unsaid in the first novel generated more horror and outrage than explicit detail can. And the more we get to know Agnes, Daisy, and Aunt Lydia, the less convincing they become. It’s hard, of course, to compete with a beloved classic, so maybe the best way to read this new book is to forget about The Handmaid’s Tale and enjoy it as an artful feminist thriller.
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-385-54378-1
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
This book sings with the terrible silence of dead civilizations in which once there was valor.
Written with quiet dignity that builds to a climax of tragic force, this book about the dissolution of an African tribe, its traditions, and values, represents a welcome departure from the familiar "Me, white brother" genre.
Written by a Nigerian African trained in missionary schools, this novel tells quietly the story of a brave man, Okonkwo, whose life has absolute validity in terms of his culture, and who exercises his prerogative as a warrior, father, and husband with unflinching single mindedness. But into the complex Nigerian village filters the teachings of strangers, teachings so alien to the tribe, that resistance is impossible. One must distinguish a force to be able to oppose it, and to most, the talk of Christian salvation is no more than the babbling of incoherent children. Still, with his guns and persistence, the white man, amoeba-like, gradually absorbs the native culture and in despair, Okonkwo, unable to withstand the corrosion of what he, alone, understands to be the life force of his people, hangs himself. In the formlessness of the dying culture, it is the missionary who takes note of the event, reminding himself to give Okonkwo's gesture a line or two in his work, The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.
This book sings with the terrible silence of dead civilizations in which once there was valor.Pub Date: Jan. 23, 1958
ISBN: 0385474547
Page Count: 207
Publisher: McDowell, Obolensky
Review Posted Online: April 23, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1958
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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