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SITTIN’ IN THE FRONT PEW

An honest, biting portrayal of disgrace under pressure, though lacking the finesse needed for a truly polished work.

A second novel from Brown (The Shirt Off His Back, 2001) depicts the perpetually bickering Naylor clan as they prepare to bury their patriarch.

Heartbroken at the news of her father's early death, Glynda makes her way from her budding Los Angeles law practice to her hometown of Baltimore. Waiting for her are oldest sister Renee, sweet baby sister Dawn, nasty sister Colette, Uncle Thomas, and their father's fiancé, Estelle. The narrative, spanning less than a week, is comprised of the sisters' endless quarreling, Uncle Thomas’s colloquial misery (“Where is I gonna find da strength ta be dat brave agin, Sissy”) and the gnawing mystery of Nina Blackford's identity. Named as equal heir with the four sisters, neither family nor friends have heard of Nina, and despite Edwards outstanding reputation, the sisters fear the worst. (To further question what they really know about dear Daddy, Glynda finds a bottle of Viagra in his bathroom.) This is hardly a celebration of family unity—together in grief, the usually agreeable sisters vent their sadness through deep anger aimed at each other: penny-pinching Colette wants to skimp on the funeral, Renee shuns poor Estelle, and Dawn tries to keep Glynda from throttling Colette. Though the endless squabbling becomes tedious, the obscured subtext of coming to terms with the real Eddie Naylor, as opposed to the fantasy father, is a thoughtful one. As the funeral nears, tempers ignite (culminating in a chapel brawl) and the identity of Nina Blackford is revealed. A cast of lively characters—from irritating Roberta, who just has to ride in the limo with the family, to Estelle's transvestite son Jimmy/Jamaica—provides comic relief, but the writing is too broad to elicit any real emotion, even while the tears abound.

An honest, biting portrayal of disgrace under pressure, though lacking the finesse needed for a truly polished work.

Pub Date: April 16, 2002

ISBN: 0-375-75705-8

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Villard

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2002

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THE TESTAMENTS

Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.

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Atwood goes back to Gilead.

The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), consistently regarded as a masterpiece of 20th-century literature, has gained new attention in recent years with the success of the Hulu series as well as fresh appreciation from readers who feel like this story has new relevance in America’s current political climate. Atwood herself has spoken about how news headlines have made her dystopian fiction seem eerily plausible, and it’s not difficult to imagine her wanting to revisit Gilead as the TV show has sped past where her narrative ended. Like the novel that preceded it, this sequel is presented as found documents—first-person accounts of life inside a misogynistic theocracy from three informants. There is Agnes Jemima, a girl who rejects the marriage her family arranges for her but still has faith in God and Gilead. There’s Daisy, who learns on her 16th birthday that her whole life has been a lie. And there's Aunt Lydia, the woman responsible for turning women into Handmaids. This approach gives readers insight into different aspects of life inside and outside Gilead, but it also leads to a book that sometimes feels overstuffed. The Handmaid’s Tale combined exquisite lyricism with a powerful sense of urgency, as if a thoughtful, perceptive woman was racing against time to give witness to her experience. That narrator hinted at more than she said; Atwood seemed to trust readers to fill in the gaps. This dynamic created an atmosphere of intimacy. However curious we might be about Gilead and the resistance operating outside that country, what we learn here is that what Atwood left unsaid in the first novel generated more horror and outrage than explicit detail can. And the more we get to know Agnes, Daisy, and Aunt Lydia, the less convincing they become. It’s hard, of course, to compete with a beloved classic, so maybe the best way to read this new book is to forget about The Handmaid’s Tale and enjoy it as an artful feminist thriller.

Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.

Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019

ISBN: 978-0-385-54378-1

Page Count: 432

Publisher: Nan A. Talese

Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019

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THINGS FALL APART

This book sings with the terrible silence of dead civilizations in which once there was valor.

Written with quiet dignity that builds to a climax of tragic force, this book about the dissolution of an African tribe, its traditions, and values, represents a welcome departure from the familiar "Me, white brother" genre.

Written by a Nigerian African trained in missionary schools, this novel tells quietly the story of a brave man, Okonkwo, whose life has absolute validity in terms of his culture, and who exercises his prerogative as a warrior, father, and husband with unflinching single mindedness. But into the complex Nigerian village filters the teachings of strangers, teachings so alien to the tribe, that resistance is impossible. One must distinguish a force to be able to oppose it, and to most, the talk of Christian salvation is no more than the babbling of incoherent children. Still, with his guns and persistence, the white man, amoeba-like, gradually absorbs the native culture and in despair, Okonkwo, unable to withstand the corrosion of what he, alone, understands to be the life force of his people, hangs himself. In the formlessness of the dying culture, it is the missionary who takes note of the event, reminding himself to give Okonkwo's gesture a line or two in his work, The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.

This book sings with the terrible silence of dead civilizations in which once there was valor.

Pub Date: Jan. 23, 1958

ISBN: 0385474547

Page Count: 207

Publisher: McDowell, Obolensky

Review Posted Online: April 23, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1958

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