If Oliver Twist had wandered out of his orphanage and been picked up by Gus Van Sant instead of Fagin, the results might have been something like this debut novel. Even Van Sant, however—to say nothing of Dickens—would have managed to tell the story in better taste. “You probably wonder,” Johnny says, “why I’m writing a biography at age 20.— Well, no, it’s not that surprising, considering that Johnny has spent the last few years sleeping with—and making porn films for—his homosexual step-father and most of their close friends. Naturally, it’s a long story. Johnny, in actual fact, never knew his real father: his mother was a prostitute and drug addict, and when she overdosed in London’s Victoria Station, Martin Usher happened to be on the scene. Usher, known as Shamash, was a dancer and ballet director from Australia whose only son Vaslav had died in a car accident. So Shamash gives seven-year-old Johnny Vaslav’s passport and takes him to Sydney to be raised. Shamash is attentive, dutiful, and loving to the boy, but life becomes a trifle complex during Johnny’s adolescence when he decides that he wants to be gay just like Dad, and even starts to fantasize about having sex with him. Shamash is equally attracted to Johnny, so he sends him away to boarding school to put him out of temptation’s path. Guess what? They can’t hold out, and after carrying on secretly for as long as they can, they sink ever deeper into Sydney’s gay underworld. Although the plot’s unique—to say the least—the story is written in such a tortured, melodramatic tone, so completely out of keeping with the elements of the narrative (“Golden boys from yesteryear wearily dispense condoms and lube . . . should the current selection prove too grim and a few more drinks be required before carnal agendas can be met”) that all but hard-core followers of the gay scene will be quickly turned off. Strictly for a narrower audience, unless Drinnan gets lucky and finds himself denounced by Trent Lott.
Pub Date: Oct. 13, 1998
ISBN: 0-312-19271-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
