by Mike C. Erickson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 30, 2014
A fast-paced, raucous tour through the last half-century alongside a modern-day Candide.
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A lighthearted, satirical novel about an honest man who runs for office in corruption-plagued America.
Richard “Dick” Milhous Nixon Youngblood, the smart-aleck narrator of Erickson’s uproarious debut, is the son of commune-dwelling hippie radical Yuri Yablonsky Youngblood and the grandson of powerful Republican Sen. Stapleton Lambright. In this picaresque tale, Dick’s life unfolds in lockstep with the major historical events of the last 40 years or so. He attends Stanford University and UCLA, heads to Saudi Arabia as part of Operation Desert Shield and wins some medals, including a Purple Heart. He comes home and publishes a book about his experience, gets a job teaching high school history (during which his students name him Teacher of the Year), rides the dot-com bubble in Palo Alto, and sells his stocks to become a millionaire. Later, he returns to teaching and eventually contemplates running for office on a Democratic Party ticket. Along the way, his enigmatic father, who’s on the run from federal authorities, keeps showing up at opportune moments; as Dick (and Erickson) understates it, “his timing is almost supernatural.” Dick himself has telling encounters with a series of women named Amanda. There’s Amanda Patricia Nixon (no relation), a slightly unhinged college fling; Amanda Kristina, an ambitious lawyer and port-a-potty heiress (“her smile had a better chance of making the world safe for democracy than the rhetoric of Woodrow Wilson”); and the great love of Dick’s life, intrepid reporter Amanda Patina. Although Dick is a passionate, dedicated teacher—and the classroom sections of the book are the most heartfelt and gripping by a wide margin—he kicks off a campaign for office and insists on publishing the garish, often hilarious autobiography that forms the bulk of this novel. Along the way, the author combines highly effective Joseph Heller–style political and social satire with some surprisingly touching personal moments. Overall, Erickson welds all of these elements together into a hugely enjoyable comic novel.
A fast-paced, raucous tour through the last half-century alongside a modern-day Candide.Pub Date: Dec. 30, 2014
ISBN: 978-0578151861
Page Count: 282
Publisher: Tri - Rhyme Publications
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Nora Roberts ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 13, 1995
Thoroughbreds and Virginia blue-bloods cavort, commit murder, and fall in love in Roberts's (Hidden Riches, 1994, etc.) latest romantic thriller — this one set in the world of championship horse racing. Rich, sheltered Kelsey Byden is recovering from a recent divorce when she receives a letter from her mother, Naomi, a woman she has believed dead for over 20 years. When Kelsey confronts her genteel English professor father, though, he sheepishly confesses that, no, her mother isn't dead; throughout Kelsey's childhood, she was doing time for the murder of her lover. Kelsey meets with Naomi and not only finds her quite charming, but the owner of Three Willows, one of the most splendid horse farms in Virginia. Kelsey is further intrigued when she meets Gabe Slater, a blue-eyed gambling man who owns a neighboring horse farm; when one of Gabe's horses is mated with Naomi's, nostrils flare, flanks quiver, and the romance is on. Since both Naomi and Gabe have horses entered in the Kentucky Derby, Kelsey is soon swept into the whirlwind of the Triple Crown, in spite of her family's objections to her reconciliation with the notorious Naomi. The rivalry between the two horse farms remains friendly, but other competitors — one of them is Gabe's father, a vicious alcoholic who resents his son's success — prove less scrupulous. Bodies, horse and human, start piling up, just as Kelsey decides to investigate the murky details of her mother's crime. Is it possible she was framed? The ground is thick with no-goods, including haughty patricians, disgruntled grooms, and jockeys with tragic pasts, but despite all the distractions, the identity of the true culprit behind the mayhem — past and present — remains fairly obvious. The plot lopes rather than races to the finish. Gambling metaphors abound, and sexual doings have a distinctly equine tone. But Roberts's style has a fresh, contemporary snap that gets the story past its own worst excesses.
Pub Date: June 13, 1995
ISBN: 0-399-14059-X
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1995
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2008
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of...
Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State.
Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle’s answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate’s buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, only to blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully’s latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she’s given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it’s too late?
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36408-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007
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