Killing time before starting his civilian life, an Aussie sailor signs on with the crew of an American yacht and promptly falls in love with the owner's gorgeous, young fiancÇe—in a clever romance by a master entertainer. The Second World War has been over for seven years, but big, handsome Bryan Cavanaugh, late of His Majesty's Australian Navy, is still trying to figure out what to do with his life. He's gotten his law degree, but hanging out his shingle in Melbourne holds no appeal. Does he want Europe? The US? To support himself and his dithering, Bryan, a skilled shiphandler, has been bumming around the Med, doing whatever people will hire him to do. American millionaire Declan Molloy hires him to crew his grand new yacht, the Salamandra d'Oro. Molloy's a brooding, two-fisted rich guy who's decided to settle down long enough to marry into one of Europe's most distinguished families, the Farnesi of Italy and the Vatican. His fiancÇe, selected with the help of the Pope's closest advisors, is the astonishingly beautiful, thoroughly spoiled, and shockingly young Giulia Farnesi. The middle-class Cavanaugh finds himself in uncharted waters. Molloy's crew also includes a resourceful Cunard stewardess to relieve his sexual needs (since Giulia must remain a virgin), a couple of male American dancers, a philosophizing cook, and Molloy's lifelong Greco-American chum, who is rather more than chum. In addition to his relationship with the See of Rome, Molloy does business with the CIA—business that lands his dear friend in the hospital and puts young Bryan, badly smitten with Giulia, into the number one spot on the crew. When Molloy flies off to Naples to be with his battered pal, Giulia, Bryan, and Molloy's aristocratic guests have time to get into all sorts of interesting trouble. Very charming. It's an old song, but West (The Masterclass, 1991, etc. etc.) sure knows the words and has a great voice. (First printing of 125,000)
Pub Date: Sept. 30, 1993
ISBN: 1-55611-370-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Donald Fine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1993
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
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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