A heart-rending, satisfying story about a resolute wife.
A young woman overcomes a painful past in order to find purpose and passion in this coming-of-age tale set in the 1970s and ’80s.
Life hasn’t been fair to Rosemarie. Abused and abandoned as a toddler, the New Jersey native spends her teenage years dodging a lecherous adoptive father in this work of fiction by first-time novelist Leonard. To avoid conflict, Rosemarie spends as much time as possible away from home. When she becomes pregnant at age 17, despite feeling some trepidation, she jumps at the chance to move in with her boyfriend, Tommy, musing: “Finally a real family.” Yet Rosemarie is soon dealt more disappointments. In order to provide for her and baby Margie, Tommy works long hours for his employer, the mysterious Vinnie. On some nights, Tommy doesn’t come home. On others, he returns covered in cuts and bruises, often reeking of whiskey and the perfume of another woman. Determined to forge her own path, Rosemarie begins taking art classes at a community college. There, she finds success as a painter and explores the possibility of a relationship with a sweet and sensitive instructor. But just as Rosemarie starts to envision a brighter future for herself, Tommy’s actions put the whole family in peril. The subjects tackled by Leonard, ranging from child abuse to domestic violence, are chilling in nature. But the power of her narrative lies in the transformation of her main character. Over the course of the novel, readers have the satisfaction of seeing Rosemarie’s views of herself—and her world—change for the better. Some plot twists are a bit too convenient, but Leonard has an eye for detail and emotional authenticity. In one bittersweet passage, the author describes the Polaroid pictures that Rosemarie hangs on her mirror. Depicting happier times, the images take on another meaning as her marriage starts to crumble, a cruel reminder “of what she wanted and what was missing in her life.”
Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5147-5838-0
Page Count: 270
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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