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BRIAN IN THREE SEASONS

Name: BRIAN IN THREE SEASONS
Author: Patricia Grossman
ISBN: 1-57962-122-8

by Patricia Grossman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2005

Deftly done.

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The neatly ordered days of a gay man in New York are disrupted by his irascible father’s illness.

Grossman (Unexpected Child, 2000) follows art historian and bartender Brian Moss through the last unpleasant weeks of the life of his father Avery, a real-estate developer not mellowed by age. The senior Moss suffers a series of small strokes that alarm Brian’s twin sister Beryl, who, as a successful real-estate developer, is the son Avery wishes he had had. The philandering Avery reared the twins with the help of an African-American housekeeper after their mother was killed in an automobile accident when the children were five. Throughout his adult life, Brian has had nothing to do with his father, who has been openly contemptuous of his son’s interest in art and men. Living in almost monastic quarters in Manhattan, drawing beers for the gay clientele of The Barracks to support himself, Brian has found an outlet for his interests in art at a New Jersey community college, and sexual release in anonymous encounters at the Shackle, a bar much rougher than his own. Then, just as his father’s illness begins to disrupt the dull balance Brian has reached, he makes an unexpected emotional connection with one of those anonymous sexual contacts. The possibilities offered by that encounter, as well as revelations about his mother’s last days, help send Brian to Paris in the company of his charming young niece. And there, in the quarter glamorized by Brian’s favorite painter Toulouse-Lautrec, his life is pleasantly jostled yet again.

Deftly done.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2005

ISBN: 1-57962-122-8

Page Count: 238

Publisher: Permanent Press

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2005

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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LOOKING FOR HEROES
by Patricia Grossman

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UNEXPECTED CHILD
by Patricia Grossman

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.

Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.

Pub Date: March 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-609-60737-5

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WOMEN
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT ALONE
by Kristin Hannah

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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.