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BUTCHER'S BROOM

This latest posthumously published novel (Morning Tide, 1993, etc.) by the Scots author is again set in a remote Scottish village where poor but stalwart people live close to the land and its rugged seasons. Here, it's the early 19th century—a time of the tragic ``clearances,'' when tenant farmers were driven from their land to make room for sheep pasturage, leaving the remote glens to ``remain into time dark and desolate and dead.'' Introducing the settlement of Riasgan is the old ``healer,'' Dark Mairi, a stolid constant in the chaos to come. In her ``humpbacked'' cottage lives her grandson and the ``soft, kind'' girl Elie, who is loved by strong young Colin. Rumors of clearances come to Riasgan, but the rumors are ignored; the crofters, after all, trust in the chief, their landlord, ``the father of all,'' to see that things go right. But his lordship, their ``chief,'' in a distant city, plans for a clean-up of the glen to ``put it on a business footing, make it progressive and profitable.'' In the meantime, the young men of the glen are drained away to war. Atrocities and miseries are inevitable, but before the savage close, there will be both joy and sorrow, an ordeal for Elie, and redemption. Gunn's prose was apt to tilt heavily to turgidity, with a heavy undertow of philosophical or hortatory commentary, but scenes and scenery linger in the memory, and he could produce minor masterpieces of pathos, as in the departure of doomed young men for war: ``Their bodies rose against the skyline....Down all the ways in that northern land are similar little bands passing, leaving behind sudden blankness and shadow.'' A firm if somewhat heavy- footed tribute to a vanished people.

Pub Date: March 14, 1994

ISBN: 0-8027-1291-6

Page Count: 432

Publisher: Walker

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1994

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WE WERE THE LUCKY ONES

Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.

Hunter’s debut novel tracks the experiences of her family members during the Holocaust.

Sol and Nechuma Kurc, wealthy, cultured Jews in Radom, Poland, are successful shop owners; they and their grown children live a comfortable lifestyle. But that lifestyle is no protection against the onslaught of the Holocaust, which eventually scatters the members of the Kurc family among several continents. Genek, the oldest son, is exiled with his wife to a Siberian gulag. Halina, youngest of all the children, works to protect her family alongside her resistance-fighter husband. Addy, middle child, a composer and engineer before the war breaks out, leaves Europe on one of the last passenger ships, ending up thousands of miles away. Then, too, there are Mila and Felicia, Jakob and Bella, each with their own share of struggles—pain endured, horrors witnessed. Hunter conducted extensive research after learning that her grandfather (Addy in the book) survived the Holocaust. The research shows: her novel is thorough and precise in its details. It’s less precise in its language, however, which frequently relies on cliché. “You’ll get only one shot at this,” Halina thinks, enacting a plan to save her husband. “Don’t botch it.” Later, Genek, confronting a routine bit of paperwork, must decide whether or not to hide his Jewishness. “That form is a deal breaker,” he tells himself. “It’s life and death.” And: “They are low, it seems, on good fortune. And something tells him they’ll need it.” Worse than these stale phrases, though, are the moments when Hunter’s writing is entirely inadequate for the subject matter at hand. Genek, describing the gulag, calls the nearest town “a total shitscape.” This is a low point for Hunter’s writing; elsewhere in the novel, it’s stronger. Still, the characters remain flat and unknowable, while the novel itself is predictable. At this point, more than half a century’s worth of fiction and film has been inspired by the Holocaust—a weighty and imposing tradition. Hunter, it seems, hasn’t been able to break free from her dependence on it.

Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.

Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-399-56308-9

Page Count: 416

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016

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MAGIC HOUR

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

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