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DUE NORTH

Smith likes to test his heroes against harsh environments—a lady cop patrolling mean streets (Daydreams, 1981); a college professor cast into prison (Stone City, 1988). Now, in a haunting drama of redemption, he plumbs the courage of an Alaskan homesteader as she drifts from a cruel wilderness to an equally pitiless metropolis. Sarah Maher's courage is very much in doubt. Some months back, we learn in a brutal flashback, her husband, Alan, was eaten by a grizzly bear while she cowered in hiding. Now, plagued by self- doubt, Sarah, ``plain'' and nearing 40, is returning ``Outside''— to Seattle to visit her younger sister and ailing mom. Dog-sledding through an implacably cold landscape, she stops at an Indian town- -an oasis of heat, color, and rich smells—where she sells her trapped furs, says goodbye to her friends and beloved dogs, and arranges for a young male Indian to sled her to the nearest airport, several days' away. During the trek, she and the Indian have sex—Sarah's first since Alan's death, and another burst of warmth in her frozen life. Two plane flights later, Sarah's in Seattle, rooming with her divorced sister, awkwardly trying to readjust to city life—soft beds, stuffy rooms, noise, pollution. But Sarah's crucial confrontation with civilization—and herself- -comes by way of her cancer-stricken mother, racked with pain but kept alive by modern medicine. By summoning the courage to deal with her mother in the same unsentimental way that she'd handle a wounded animal, Sarah finds a way to return north—and to live with herself, with the baby growing in her womb, and even with the bear that killed Alan. Smith's dramatic scaffolding sticks out—Sarah's return north is as inevitable as her contrived reencounter with the bear—but the hard beauty of Alaska shines through it, and marvelous Sarah walks it with an honesty and grit that make her unforgettable.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1992

ISBN: 0-671-73877-1

Page Count: 368

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1992

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

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

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MAGIC HOUR

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

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