A debut novel offers a vibrant slice of Jamaican life shaped by old legends and timeless passions. Paralleling the tales of the men and women who live in Kristoff village is a folkloric account of life in an eternal version of the same village. There, She-Devil and Devil quarrel, make up, are visited by their family, and with help from God and the Angels prepare a wedding for their son. Altogether, their lives are not very different from those in Kristoff village: Husbands exasperate, wives are jealous, and children don't visit as much as they should. Down in real-time Kristoff, meanwhile, the spirits are as close at hand as the lush vegetation and bright sunshine and, through medicine women like Miss Cotton, often warn of trouble to come. And trouble is certainly on the way as Monica, who'd run away from the village when she was 14 because her parents were too strict, has decided to retire from prostitution and come back home. Still beautiful and sexy, though, she's not ready to settle down, and her flirtations with other women's husbands, not to mention her affair with the married Desmond, have horrific repercussions. Three angry wives devise a brutal punishment for her, for which they in turn are painfully punished. Villagers like Miss Cotton and Beryl welcome Rupert's African-American bride Angela, who, adopted by whites, also has a story to tell; they help Arnelle give birth and reconcile with Valrie, whose husband Godfree is the father of her child; and they mourn the dead. While the Devil family celebrates, Kristoff's women, led by Miss Cotton in a traditional ceremony, immerse themselves in the river and find peace as they confess their fears, hopes, and secrets. The men, who've spent the day together in the country, also renew boyhood friendships. ``All things,'' Miss Cotton observes, are now ``made right.'' A sometimes obtrusively schematic plot, but more than compensated for by rich textures and an exuberant vitality.
Pub Date: May 20, 1997
ISBN: 0-435-98946-4
Page Count: 239
Publisher: Heinemann
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1997
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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