Gushy chronicler of the demimonde Booth, whose Miami (1992) was a steamer about the modeling biz in that steamiest of cities, stays in Florida for a near-pornographic peep at psychiatry and New Age religion. Pretty med student Tari Jones—only adopted child of faceless bureaucrats, after a cute-meet and a dreamy flight down to Miami with Hollywood hunk Rickey Cage—is astonished to find out that she's not only capable of performing miracles but may even be the daughter of God the Father Almighty. No kidding. In a frightening encounter with a catatonic schizophrenic who suddenly explodes into scissor-wielding action, Tari subdues the lunatic with a couple of simple commands and also predicts the total recovery of the doctor on duty whose eye has been pierced and cerebrum processed by the aforementioned shears. Tari's miracle is accompanied by pleasant tinglings and authoritative voices. Is she mad? Divine? Whichever, she still has the biggest crush on Rickey, whose kiss in reduces her to jelly and leads her, post-miraculum, to a tumble in his studio that sets new standards in the Copious Flow subgenre. Badly confused, Tari gets some much-needed spiritual guidance from handsome priest, psychiatrist, best-selling author, and frequent national talk-show guest Marcus Douglas. But Father Dr. Douglas will need a little guidance of his own as he finds himself doing battle with unpriestly feelings about his patient. Torn by their mutual attractions and jealousies, Tari, Rickey, and Father Dr. Douglas must unite to battle the evil forces of secular psychiatry and write a bestseller. Automatic writing and several billion dollars heighten the tension. Absolutely appalling. The blithe mix of theology, barhopping, and orgasms may be too much even for Booth's fans, a fairly tough lot.
Pub Date: Sept. 8, 1993
ISBN: 0-517-58416-6
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1993
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
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