A misstep in Cullin’s unpredictable, adventurous and, alas, frustratingly uneven oeuvre.
Yet another change of pace for the versatile Texas-born author, now living in Japan.
Cullin’s fiction has ranged widely, and results have been mixed, but he seemed to have found his footing in A Slight Trick of the Mind (2005), a dazzling fictional portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in old age. Here, Cullin examines a long, happy marriage imperiled by illness and by the resurgent shadows of suppressed memories. When Korean War veteran Hollis Adams learns that his wife Debra has ovarian cancer, he initially hesitates to fulfill her request that he confirm their closeness by writing his life story. It’s partly because the Arizona retiree is troubled by dreams filled with visions of wounded, wasted creatures and blighted landscapes, harsh reminders of his distinctly unheroic combat experiences almost half a century ago. The emerging memories cluster around the brash, macho figure of Bill McCreedy, the Randall P. McMurphy figure of the battalion in which he and Hollis served, and a then-unsuspected link to Hollis’s future. The author works hard to juxtapose Hollis’s reluctant memories of an “intensely surreal two weeks at war,” which ended when he was wounded but later led to his stateside visit to abrasive, valiant McCreedy’s hometown and then a chance meeting that shaped the years that followed. This surprisingly tepid novel has two partly redeeming elements: several affecting scenes in which Hollis and Debra labor to believe that they really do deserve to live happily, despite the mocking presence of survivor’s guilt; and Cullin’s subtle examination of the complex emotional condition identified by his fine title, which refers to both Hollis’s literally troubled sleep and to returning servicemen’s hopeful visions of lasting security and prosperity. Yet the story never really moves beyond its beginnings, prompting a suspicion that the author couldn’t decide what to make of its narrative and thematic possibilities.
A misstep in Cullin’s unpredictable, adventurous and, alas, frustratingly uneven oeuvre.Pub Date: March 18, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-385-51329-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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