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MERIDIAN

A NOVEL OF KIT CARSON'S WEST

Captain John C. FrÇmont's 1845 topographical expedition to California and the US war with Mexico serve as the backdrops for an engaging tale of a young America's westering imperatives. Soon after joining the force gathering along the Arkansas River for FrÇmont's third trek west of the 100th meridian, Bradford Stone, a young Harvard grad with mapmaking skills and artistic gifts, is befriended by Kit Carson, his boyhood idol. Before their journey starts, the legendary trapper takes him home to Taos, where he meets and falls in love with Ana Barrag†n, the spirited daughter of a local grandee. Though promised to Luis Aragon, a new amigo of Brad's, she reciprocates his ardor, and he unwittingly leaves lovely Ana great with child. On the trail with Carson and FrÇmont, the greenhorn proves his mettle in deadly clashes with marauding Indians. After much adventure and hardship, the half-starved explorers reach California, which is awash in rumors that the US and Mexico are at war. Under the command of FrÇmont, Brad participates in the Bear Flag Rebellion and other comic-opera campaigns. Sent back east with dispatches after more than a year in the wilderness, he learns his beloved Ana (who was hastily married off to Luis) has died in mysterious circumstances along with her infant son. Although heartbroken, he accepts a post as aide to the military governor of New Mexico. Brad also renews acquaintance with Luis and, at the risk of his life, rides hell for leather out of Santa Fe to warn Taos of an upcoming revolt. He plays a role in suppressing this bloody insurrection and has a final confrontation with Don Bernardo Barrag†n, one its leaders. Zollinger (Chapultepec, 1995, etc.) brings his characters- -especially the estimable Carson and charismatic FrÇmont—to vivid life in a historical setting suffused in violence and romance. A fine tale of Americans along their way toward manifest destiny.

Pub Date: June 27, 1997

ISBN: 0-312-86131-1

Page Count: 416

Publisher: Forge

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1997

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THE THINGS WE DO FOR LOVE

Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.

Life lessons.

Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.

Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.

Pub Date: July 1, 2004

ISBN: 0-345-46750-7

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004

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THE VEGETARIAN

An unusual and mesmerizing novel, gracefully written and deeply disturbing.

In her first novel to be published in English, South Korean writer Han divides a story about strange obsessions and metamorphosis into three parts, each with a distinct voice.

Yeong-hye and her husband drift through calm, unexceptional lives devoid of passion or anything that might disrupt their domestic routine until the day that Yeong-hye takes every piece of meat from the refrigerator, throws it away, and announces that she's become a vegetarian. Her decision is sudden and rigid, inexplicable to her family and a society where unconventional choices elicit distaste and concern that borders on fear. Yeong-hye tries to explain that she had a dream, a horrifying nightmare of bloody, intimate violence, and that's why she won't eat meat, but her husband and family remain perplexed and disturbed. As Yeong-hye sinks further into both nightmares and the conviction that she must transform herself into a different kind of being, her condition alters the lives of three members of her family—her husband, brother-in-law, and sister—forcing them to confront unsettling desires and the alarming possibility that even with the closest familiarity, people remain strangers. Each of these relatives claims a section of the novel, and each section is strikingly written, equally absorbing whether lush or emotionally bleak. The book insists on a reader’s attention, with an almost hypnotically serene atmosphere interrupted by surreal images and frighteningly recognizable moments of ordinary despair. Han writes convincingly of the disruptive power of longing and the choice to either embrace or deny it, using details that are nearly fantastical in their strangeness to cut to the heart of the very human experience of discovering that one is no longer content with life as it is.

An unusual and mesmerizing novel, gracefully written and deeply disturbing.

Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-553-44818-4

Page Count: 192

Publisher: Hogarth

Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2015

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