Chica-lit to be savored in small bites.
Never calling themselves Latinas or Hispanics or hyphenated anythings, the Mexican-Americans in a southern California town enjoy the hell out of pretty much everything in a slangy, self-assured debut.
Best girlfriends Natalie Stevens and Consuelo “Sway” Gonzales Contreras, a couple of cuties in their 20s are at the heart of things in this confection, but they share the stage with a fairly large cast of ghosts, whores, evangelical mariachi musicians, day laborers, transvestites, and a volcano as an eventful summer elapses in Lava Landing, a community miles from the news but not far from the Mexican border. Nat and Sway work, not too awfully hard, in a cheese factory, spending their off-hours shopping, getting their hair done, cruising in Nat’s Caddy convertible, flirting, and problem solving. One problem that’s stumped them so far is Consuelo’s fear of public transportation, a phobia linked to the tragic death of her father Don Pancho, who met his end one boozy evening back in Mexico when his truck stalled on the railroad tracks. Don Pancho’s ghost pops up time and again, seeking help getting out of Purgatory and visiting the many ladies in his earthly life. While the girls put their agile minds to Don Pancho’s problem, their friend and grade-school classmate Javier, a virginal, born-again musician, tries to reconcile his lust for the loose and lovely Lucha with his religious code, and Lulabelle, Javier’s mum, tries to decide whether to break her decades-long pact with the devil and give up all the household maintenance and yard break she’s been getting from studly day laborers in trade for her sexual favors. True-Dee, everybody’s favorite beautician, has all she can handle seeking advice from agony aunts about a sex change, organizing her annual Tupperware party, and, finally, getting involved with a gang of crypto-vulcanologists. Everybody dances when there’s a little bit of time, and there’s always something interesting to eat. It’s all totally inconsequential and a great deal of fun.
Chica-lit to be savored in small bites.Pub Date: April 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-375-41375-8
Page Count: 366
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2004
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
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BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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