An entertaining but clumsily executed revenge tale.
A ruthless nemesis stalks two lovers in this novel set in 19th-century Germany.
Frau Sandenberg is a strict and unforgiving mistress. The wife of a wealthy landowner who oversees the village of Gluckmutter in Holstein, she firmly believes in the separation of the working and noble classes, and accordingly treats her servants as if they’re less than human. One of those servants, a young washerwoman named Gretchen Haager, internally rebels against this treatment. Gretchen dearly misses her large, boisterous family, and only went into service to save it the cost of feeding yet another mouth. But when she receives a letter with the news that her mother is dying, and Frau Sandenberg (whom she thinks of as “the Villafrau”) refuses to let her visit her family, Gretchen finally decides to defy her mistress and abandon her post. In the same village, a young man named Georg Schillingberg has just returned home after deserting his position in the Prussian army. Georg simply doesn’t believe in Prussia’s dreams of European military domination, and war strays even further from his mind when he happens on Gretchen in a moment of anguish and falls in love with her at first sight. But the watchful eyes of Frau Sandenberg witness the lovers’ meeting—a stroke of bad luck that seals their fate. For no matter where they go or how they disguise themselves, Gretchen and Georg inevitably (and often improbably) become targets of the Villafrau’s wrath. In this series opener, Florence (Out of the Shadow, 2018, etc.) effectively maintains the story’s drama, constantly placing new obstacles in the protagonists’ paths and setting the entire saga against an intriguing backdrop of vast national changes. But the actual telling of the tale significantly hinders its promising structure. The omniscient narrator can’t seem to make up its mind what tone or time period to portray, marrying formal language like “Gretchen attended to her morning ablutions” with such colloquial, anachronistic phrases as “I was doing my thing” and “I’m glad we sorted that out.” And because the dialogue features characters bluntly stating the book’s themes, the complexity of their thoughts and motivations is lost.
An entertaining but clumsily executed revenge tale.Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5043-1002-4
Page Count: 259
Publisher: BalboaPress
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK TO SCREEN
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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