In Silverstone’s debut novel, two girls, known in their Ukrainian village for their singing and dancing act, escape to London at the turn of the 20th century.
Aleca Rabinovich and Sarah Brodsky are 16-year-old best friends who, in 1902, depend on the meager coins they collect from their street performance act. When the threat of pogroms begins looming over Ukraine, the two girls are sent by their families—who can only afford one ship ticket each—to London, where the girls must depend on hard work and talent to get by. Their physical beauty helps as well. Aleca and Sarah quickly find housing and work at a tea shop; in numerous erotic scenes, they also find romance, which in turn leads to rivalry and deceit, as the girls decide to venture into different professional spheres. Sarah enters the world of politics, and Aleca becomes “Alison Hayward,” a star of the London stage. From the novel’s first scene, in which a young boy races through London during a 1940 air raid, the novel’s ambition is clear. The quick shift to Ukraine in 1902 confirms that this is to be a grand-scale epic, with major world events serving as the backdrop to generations of private lives across geographical and linguistic borders. The novel’s expansive scope means plenty of energetic interludes, as in the moving episode of Aleca’s return to Ukraine to search for her family. However, the wide scope also means sprawl. The plot veers toward chains of exposition marked by abrupt transitions and unanticipated time shifts. It is also rife with melodrama, some of which is entertaining, some cumbersome. The same can be said of the erotic scenes, which have an impressive, and often comical, array of euphemisms. But when the drama is good, it’s also good fun, particularly in scenes at the theater, and the engaging protagonists are easy to root for.
Unwieldy but enjoyable despite the distracting structure.
Pub Date: July 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-1493654512
Page Count: 388
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Above-average formula fiction, making full display of the author’s strong suits: sense of place, compassion for characters...
Female rivalry is again the main preoccupation of Hannah’s latest Pacific Northwest sob saga (Firefly Lane, 2008, etc.).
At Water’s Edge, the family seat overlooking Hood Canal, Vivi Ann, youngest and prettiest of the Grey sisters and a champion horsewoman, has persuaded embittered patriarch Henry to turn the tumbledown ranch into a Western-style equestrian arena. Eldest sister Winona, a respected lawyer in the nearby village of Oyster Shores, hires taciturn ranch hand Dallas Raintree, a half-Native American. Middle sister Aurora, stay-at-home mother of twins, languishes in a dull marriage. Winona, overweight since adolescence, envies Vivi, whose looks get her everything she wants, especially men. Indeed, Winona’s childhood crush Luke recently proposed to Vivi. Despite Aurora’s urging (her principal role is as sisterly referee), Winona won’t tell Vivi she loves Luke. Yearning for Dallas, Vivi stands up Luke to fall into bed with the enigmatic, tattooed cowboy. Winona snitches to Luke: engagement off. Vivi marries Dallas over Henry’s objections. The love-match triumphs, and Dallas, though scarred by child abuse, is an exemplary father to son Noah. One Christmas Eve, the town floozy is raped and murdered. An eyewitness and forensic evidence incriminate Dallas. Winona refuses to represent him, consigning him to the inept services of a public defender. After a guilty verdict, he’s sentenced to life without parole. A decade later, Winona has reached an uneasy truce with Vivi, who’s still pining for Dallas. Noah is a sullen teen, Aurora a brittle but resigned divorcée. Noah learns about the Seattle Innocence Project. Could modern DNA testing methods exonerate Dallas? Will Aunt Winona redeem herself by reopening the case? The outcome, while predictable, is achieved with more suspense and less sentimental histrionics than usual for Hannah.
Above-average formula fiction, making full display of the author’s strong suits: sense of place, compassion for characters and understanding of family dynamics.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-312-36410-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2008
Catch-22 is also concerned with some of war's horrors and atrocities, and it is at times painfully grim.
Catch-22 is an unusual, wildly inventive comic novel about World War II, and its publishers are planning considerable publicity for it.
Set on the tiny island of Pianosa in the Mediterranean Sea, the novel is devoted to a long series of impossible, illogical adventures engaged in by the members of the 256th bombing squadron, an unlikely combat group whose fanatical commander, Colonel Cathcart, keeps increasing the men's quota of missions until they reach the ridiculous figure of 80. The book's central character is Captain Yossarian, the squadron's lead bombardier, who is surrounded at all times by the ironic and incomprehensible and who directs all his energies towards evading his odd role in the war. His companions are an even more peculiar lot: Lieutenant Scheisskopf, who loved to win parades; Major Major Major, the victim of a life-long series of practical jokes, beginning with his name; the mess officer, Milo Minderbinder, who built a food syndicate into an international cartel; and Major de Coverley whose mission in life was to rent apartments for the officers and enlisted men during their rest leaves. Eventually, after Cathcart has exterminated nearly all of Yossarian's buddies through the suicidal missions, Yossarian decides to desert — and he succeeds.
Catch-22 is also concerned with some of war's horrors and atrocities, and it is at times painfully grim.Pub Date: Oct. 10, 1961
ISBN: 0684833395
Page Count: 468
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1961
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