Outrageously funny for the first few chapters, but wears very thin and becomes quite tedious in short order: Kononov’s humor...
Over-the-top first novel from Russia that butchers an entire stockyard full of sacred communist cows in its account of the military and erotic exploits of a 15-year-old girl during the Siege of Leningrad.
Fifteen years ago a publication like this would have been printed on bootleg mimeographs and probably have earned its author a nice long stay in some Siberian gulag. Today, however, it seems more like an exercise in cheap laughs. There isn’t much of a story—at least not much of a coherent one. Our heroine is the dauntless Maria “Midge” Mukhina, a teenaged Young Pioneer (the Soviet equivalent of the Hitler Youth) who longs so desperately to serve in the Great Patriotic War (WWII) that she forges the necessary papers and enlists as a machine-gunner in the Red Army. Midge is the embodiment of all the socialist virtues extolled in the propaganda pieces of the time: daring, selfless, obedient, and absolutely confident in the leadership of Comrade Stalin. So zealous is she for the defense and triumph of the People’s Revolution that she’s honored by the great Marshall Zhukov, the Defender of Moscow, with a secret mission that will make her a Hero of the Soviet Union—posthumously, of course. How has Midge earned such a commission? On her back, mostly, attending to the needs of all the men in her regiment (officers getting priority, naturally) night after night for the last several years. But now Midge’s nighttime duties take on a new form, since she has found a way to leave her body and fly, stark-naked, through the skies over Leningrad each night. Naturally, this strikes fear into the hearts of the Germans, whose panzers are no match for the airborne nude nymph of the Red Army.
Outrageously funny for the first few chapters, but wears very thin and becomes quite tedious in short order: Kononov’s humor depends on familiarity with the pomposities of Soviet mythology that will be lost on most Americans.Pub Date: June 1, 2004
ISBN: 1-85242-835-X
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Serpent’s Tail
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2004
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
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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