Livingston returns to her concern for life among the lowly in turn-of-the-century Britain (The Far Side of the Hill, 1988; The Land of Our Dreams, 1989), again to plump for the primacy of simple virtues. Suffolk and London are the settings for this tale of hard times, cruelty, and injustice—with its sunny conclusion. Against all good advice, lusty housemaid Sybilla marries lazy lout Enoch Porrit, and then learns that there's no escape. This knowledge of lifelong servitude to a miserable union changes Sybilla from a pretty, lively girl, to a witch. Sybilla manipulates her way to a strange sort of independence, cheating and exploiting the helpless, and worse, brutalizing her brother's gentle, dependent orphans: two boys, Chas and Albert, who will at a tender age go to India with the army; and Polly, who will be hired out as a kitchen maid, then marry shy, courteous middle-aged Henry. There will also be a lover...and a baby. Eventually, Chas, escaping marriage, bolts for America; and Albert, kind and good, finds a true mate in Esther, a blossom in London's grime. Finally, though, the lost brothers will return; there'll be a sad death and welcome births; the good will be rewarded, and the wicked will rage in all those blind alleys. In spite of an extravagance in coincidence and heavy underlining of Good and Evil, Livingston offers a convincing energetic appreciation of the times and the poisoning wells of poverty—which fuels reader affection for all suffering innocents.
Pub Date: June 27, 1991
ISBN: 0-312-05902-7
Page Count: 464
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1991
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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