Laser lulls you into dislike of his protagonist and then mounts a steamroller of a novel. This book is a well-written,...
The moral of this fine novel is that there's hope for everyone, unless of course you screw it up.
Angus Truax is a thoroughly odious character—55 years old, adrift, overweight, insensible, unforgiving, and a cynical smartass. As the novel begins, Angus is setting a date 30 days out for ending his life, and, honestly, we do not care. Then things begin to turn as Laser works writing magic, and a run-of-the-mill story with a boring protagonist becomes something quite engaging. Angus quits his job writing columns about hard-luck cases for a northern New Jersey newspaper, but no matter, since his end date is arriving. Though he felt nothing but scorn for his subjects, his column did surprisingly raise money for them, so he accomplished much good in spite of himself. His brother, a Buddhist monk (Brother Bob as he calls him), arrives unannounced, and Angus is irritated by family as well as life in general. The caregiver to his elderly landlady upstairs is a Georgian immigrant, and he's derisive in his thoughts of her—until he engages and finds out she's dying from mercury poisoning she acquired from eating fish in her homeland. Eka is a good, caring woman, needy in her dying state, worried about her son, Davit. Angus begins to help her, and the novel becomes a seesaw of tender moments, total screw-ups, and a suspense that becomes unbearable for Angus and the reader. As Angus reflects, “I am a dead man with a crush on a dead woman.” Every advance as a human being by Angus is met with an incomprehensible step backward until everyone truly gets what he or she deserves.
Laser lulls you into dislike of his protagonist and then mounts a steamroller of a novel. This book is a well-written, welcome surprise.Pub Date: July 16, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-57962-400-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Permanent Press
Review Posted Online: June 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
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
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
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