This fast and furious novel by the author of Return From Darkness (1986) chronicles the adventures of Truong Anh, a fast- talking Vietnamese refugee who sets up a phony law firm in Little Saigon, the Vietnamese enclave of Los Angeles. Anh supports herself, her aged mother, her younger sister with four children, and her truant brother on the money she makes advising gamblers in a high-stakes Vietnamese card game. When her latest big spender lands in the hospital after a cocaine overdose, she finds herself out of luck and out of cash. After tracking down his law office, Anh convinces the man's impoverished secretary, Jana Glavan (who has her own family to support), to borrow his Bar number—necessary to transact legal business in LA—and start the fake firm. Interwoven with the action are Anh's memories of her childhood in Vietnam: her favorite brother's death in a bombing; life as a prostitute in her uncle's brothel; the birth of her Amerasian child; the frantic attempt to get out of Vietnam, which culminated in her father's ghastly betrayal of her trust. When Anh and Jana refuse to become involved in gang activity (though technically illegal, the firm's business is legitimate), they pay a heavy price for their integrity and independence. Jana has her own nightmarish past—her husband was murdered, and she was kidnapped by the killer—but Vida never fully delves into it; Jana's character pales next to the larger-than-life Anh. Likewise, Anh's romantic interest, lawyer Sam Knowlton (a Vietnam vet who may have known her in the brothel), is an oblique presence, and his passion for Anh (who certainly deserves a chance at love) is unconvincing. Powerhouse fiction, fueled by an obnoxious yet sympathetic protagonist whose grittiness and determination hold together the frenetic plot. (Author tour)
Pub Date: Sept. 27, 1994
ISBN: 0-517-59908-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1994
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
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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