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
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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