While some portions prove of limited interest, this tale encompasses a number of surprising landscapes.
A debut satirical novel explores the commercialized modern world.
With degrees in business and engineering, Emily England finds a well-paying job as an operations officer at a manufacturing company. Though she must answer to the frequently blunt CEO, one “very stubborn senior citizen” called Mr. Sir, her occupation brings her face to face with “everything that made the modern-world tick.” Unfortunately for Emily, it is just such a world that has made her increasingly unsatisfied. Whether it is the many odd chemicals in her mass-produced food or the sheer size of many corporations (“faceless, monolithic entities,” she calls them), she encounters much to gripe about. Fortunately for Emily, she meets a guy named Mike Harrison, a man in whom she finds a kindred soul. With their relationship blossoming, the two dream of one day escaping their daily grinds and living off the grid the way that two of Mike’s friends do. Meanwhile, Emily’s sister Elizabeth gives lectures on the evolution of modern English and the present-day state of the language. A popular professor, she dislikes Shakespeare and manages to amuse her rapt audience (“Elizabeth waited to let everyone calm down and stop laughing”). What is the reader to make of all this modernity? As bizarre a convergence as it seems, this story contains an odd mix of scenes. Elizabeth’s lectures will certainly interest readers keen on the development of language, though Emily’s time spent at work and in corporate meetings becomes drab indeed. After Mr. Sir offers to stop by the engineering department, the reader is told that “Mr. Sir was sympathetic with production unlike a lot of other chief executives.” Lacking any of the comedy or zaniness of a punchier narrative, the book may leave readers feeling as though they too are attending a meeting of questionable benefit. Brief, at well under 200 pages, and meandering enough to include a mock Wikipedia entry, punks with names like Tough-puff, and telepathy, the novel certainly moves in strange directions.
While some portions prove of limited interest, this tale encompasses a number of surprising landscapes.Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4958-0678-0
Page Count: 142
Publisher: Infinity Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
