There are those who would be embarrassed to express a sentiment as bold and exuberant as, “I hunger for life.” But...
O’Siadhail has nine collections to his credit, two of which (Hail! Madam Jazz and A Fragile City) are included here in their entirety, along with selections from his other books. While he has given readings and broadcasts of his work throughout Europe and North America, O’Siadhail’s voice remains unfamiliar to most in the US. One imagines, since his first three books were originally written in Irish, a rich and seductive baritone gradually drawing listeners to him in ever tighter circles, putting the glamour on them according to the best traditions of the seanachaidh (the reciter of ancient lore, the troubadour poet, the chronicler of his time). Every generation looks upon itself as the one which lived during a period of unprecedented change, gazing into the abyss and wondering whether they will be noted for soaring or plunging, but none has garnered more attention than the notorious “Baby Boomers,” of whom O’Siadhail (born in 1947) is one. But his poetic perspective is not so narrowly defined. True, he writes of the lure of “Bohemia, that counterworld . . . unlatching its oyster of adventure,” but the significant events in his life are not the public, epochal events, but those more intimate, private, and (perhaps counterintuitively) more universal. The scenes he describes in his verse deal with the vicissitudes of love and friendship, the maelstrom of desire, the sadness of leaving, the “making headway by detour.” He expresses these in a great variety of traditional poetic forms, but his thoughts are continually fresh.
There are those who would be embarrassed to express a sentiment as bold and exuberant as, “I hunger for life.” But fortunately for us, O’Siadhail is not one of them, for he has “flown Icarusly near the sun.”Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 1-85224-495-X
Page Count: 238
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2000
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
