A rich family drama that clearly captures the complicated relationship between two siblings.
A family of Russian Jewish immigrants navigates life in Scotland’s Jewish community in King’s debut historical novel, set in the years surrounding World War II.
The Kaminskys fled Russia before the pogroms. Trying to make their way to America, they ran out of money and made their home in Edinburgh, hoping that it was far enough away from the rising anti-Semitism sweeping Russia and Europe. In Scotland, they opened a shop to sell fine ribbons, buttons, and gloves. Now, in 1932, Bess Kaminsky is doing her best to raise her daughters, the younger Addy and the elder Rose, since her husband, Joseph, died. The family takes in a boarder—an American medical student at the local university—to help make ends meet. As Bess frets over troubling radio reports coming out of Europe, her two daughters are distracted by the quiet student living under the same roof as them. The novel is told from the daughters’ third-person perspectives and details their tribulations as they search for husbands and happiness as a world war approaches. It’s divided into two parts, with Addy largely disappearing from the second half, shifting readers’ attention to Rose; this choice will likely disappoint those who’ve grown to like the spunky younger sister. The novel as a whole showcases King’s impeccable research, which is particularly evident in the string of contemporary novels that Rose voraciously reads and the captivating details about daily life in mid-20th-century Edinburgh. The story, which takes place from 1932 to 1947, includes a poignant, if heartbreaking, subplot about a soldier who returns from combat with extreme PTSD. King also persuasively captures Addy’s and Rose’s inner lives when they’re teenagers; it’s a heady time for the characters, and the author shows notable skill in bringing it to life.
A rich family drama that clearly captures the complicated relationship between two siblings.Pub Date: Sept. 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64388-099-0
Page Count: 234
Publisher: Luminare Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 25, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
