In time for Switzerland's 700th anniversary, Swiss novelist Walter's first appearance in English journeys into a family and a country's past to uncover a devastating truth in each. When historian Thom Winter, on his way south in 1982 with German girlfriend Lis, stops in at the old Winter home in Jammers to visit now-alcoholic sister Gret, he finds he can't leave—at least not yet. Lis goes on alone while Thom tries to find out the truth of a diary entry that claims that his mother was murdered in 1961. As he searches for explanations, Thom recalls his fear-ridden childhood, his family's history, its rise to prominence, and its current decline. Thom remembers, too, how his father, like many other Swiss businessmen, had sympathized with Nazi ideals, as well as carried on lucrative business with Germany during the war. This behavior not only alienated Thom's mother, a woman of piety and high principles, but provides a convenient link to the other purpose of the novel—a revisionist look at Swiss policy during WW II, for Thom has also been busy investigating documents that suggest Swiss leaders violated the country's long-held policy of neutrality. Memories and conversations with family and servants finally lead Thom to the unpalatable truth both about his mother's death and his country's history. An intriguing double-plot, with satisfying substance and vivid characters—though Thom himself is a bit sappy, and the leisurely pace, plus the abundance of material and ideas, tends to undercut the underlying dramatic premises. An interesting if flawed debut.
Pub Date: Nov. 25, 1991
ISBN: 0-88064-129-0
Page Count: 580
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1991
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
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