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LAST LOVE IN CONSTANTINOPLE

Name: LAST LOVE IN CONSTANTINOPLE
Author: Milorad Pavic
ISBN: 0-8023-1323-X

by Milorad Pavic ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 5, 1998

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An often entertaining but somewhat opaque and arbitrarily fantastical tale of love, war, and death set in Eastern Europe during the Napoleonic Wars, from the accomplished Serbian author whose highly praised game-oriented fiction includes Dictionary of the Khazars (1988) and Landscape Painted with Tea (1990). Subtitled “A Tarot Novel of Divination,” the book in fact is accompanied by a pack of Tarot cards, which the reader may, if desired, use to read in rearranged order the book’s 21 chapters (whose contents correspond to the three groups of seven cards that comprise the Tarot’s “Major Arcana”). This gamesmanship resembles that of Julio Cortaz†r’s amusingly postmodernist Hopscotch (another obvious precursor is The Castle of Crossed Destinies by Italo Calvino, a writer Pavi— in many ways resembles). The story is a painstakingly colorful romance concerning the varied education of Sofronije Opujic, a young cavalryman of mixed Serbian and other European blood, the scion of a prosperous merchant family, and a beguiling mix of real and magical-real qualities: He’s dashingly handsome, polylingual, an expert horseman, incontestably masculine—though possessed of pronounced feminine sensitivities—and a sexual prodigy who lives in a perpetual state of arousal. His service in Napoleon’s army is complicated by a mysterious prophecy detailing his soldier father’s forthcoming “three deaths”; by Sofronije’s love for the daughter of his father’s enemy (and victim); and by a subsequent Romeo and Juliet—like rivalry between their respective families. These and many related matters are presented in a haphazard confection that’s short on narrative clarity and clogged with discursive foreshadowings (numerology is prominent) and with such (and merely) whimsical inventions as a misbegotten “devil,” a virgin who learns she can fly, and a talented fellatrix who “plays” Haydn on her lover’s sexual organ. Portentous allusions to and echoes of the Iliad and a graceful translation aside, this is an ostentatious magic-carpet ride that doesn’t really go anywhere. Pavi—’s earlier books are much superior.

Pub Date: June 5, 1998

ISBN: 0-8023-1323-X

Page Count: 188

Publisher: Dufour

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1998

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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.