A simple plot and sharply focused characters makes this a very satisfying tale.
In Aubert’s debut novella, the first installment in a series, a young man leaves home to escape familial expectations >and find adventure.
When the story starts, Shand has already departed from his village, lured by the promise of treasures along a shore, which are said to be near a destroyed boat. He leaves his own prized vessel behind and finds a woman barely alive on dry land. He winds up having to kill her, and shortly thereafter, he finds himself being chased by a wily, violent little man that Shand calls a “native.” This situation becomes an amusing battle of will and wit, played out with no dialogue, save for some pained shouts and screams. The scene showcases a unique, engaging feature of Aubert’s prose throughout this tale: he’s able to tell a full story with very little conversation, but without relying on excessive exposition. Indeed, part of the appeal of this book is that it’s difficult to place it in a particular time or location. However, there are hint in the worldbuildings; for example, Shand’s village depends on fishing, and they don’t seem to know much about any villages that are more than a couple of day’s travel in any direction; it’s also revealed that Shand built one of the first plank boats in his primitive village, using bronze and nails. The author also provides vivid descriptions of the rivers and forests that Shand traverses, and his protagonist meets a diverse variety of people in his adventure. Indeed, his home village is populated with many colorful characters, including his cranky but perhaps more practical uncle, Royce, and a lot of people who think that Shand is a little snooty for trying to build a plank boat so large. In places, Aubert’s book almost seems like a Lake Wobegon tale set in some ancient, undefinable time and place. As a result, readers will look forward to future stories by the author.
A simple plot and sharply focused characters makes this a very satisfying tale.Pub Date: March 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5302-0070-2
Page Count: 130
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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