Entertaining verse for the Harlequin romance crowd.
Romance, adventure and schmaltz combine in this “epic” tale of lovers caught between worlds.
In the sixth century B.C., the Greek poet Anacreon succinctly summed up the vagaries of affection. “The dice of love,” he wrote, “are madness and turmoil.” In her first book-length work, Vanderbilt transforms this pithy sentiment into a protracted verse saga set in 1910 San Francisco, Maine and aboard various cargo ships. Though comprised of a number of poems ranging in form from sonnets to free verse, the narrative centers on the tortured life of a man who begins to prefer the girl of his dreams to his real-life lover. Grayson, a dashing and wealthy shipping magnate tossed in the midst of a bloody battle with a corporate rival, finds himself increasingly drawn from the pressured world of business to the comfort of his dreams, where the alluring red-haired Lara awaits: “One night, out of sorts and damaged by strain, / He dreamed up a lover and suffered the game.” As Grayson retreats further from his real-time woman and urgent business responsibilities, his connection to reality grows noticeably tenuous: “A shattered glass, it tinkled in his brain, / His eyes flashed and he saw his room again; / Its muted tapestry and soft rouge ground / Where his wine had spilt and caused the broken sound.” Throughout much of the collection, pat rhyme and overblown imagery serve to heighten the melodrama of Grayson and Lara’s otherworldly love, much as drastic life events (shootings, explosions, drownings) propel the tale’s plot to its turbulent conclusion. Occasionally, however, Vanderbilt hits the thematic nail on the head in capturing the sometimes paradoxical nature of intimacy: “Never before had his heart been so laid open / Nor had his life felt so unfree.”
Entertaining verse for the Harlequin romance crowd.Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2007
ISBN: 0-9788056-2-3
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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