A long, bumpy ride, though Wilmot’s rage and passion are palpable.
The chaotic coups, counter-coups and underground revolutions of an oil-rich West African nation, related in roiling prose.
Wilmot’s debut, set in the mythical nation of Niagra, is a broad satire on both arrogant African dictators and American interlopers who’ve come to exploit the political instability and poverty of its people. General Daudu, the nation’s leader and chief tormenter, was trained at Fort Bragg, where he was so seduced by country music that he’s banned political Afropop singers like Fela Kuti and forced all stations to play the likes of Toby Keith and Lee Ann Womack. (He erected a statue of Elvis in the heart of the country as well.) But the American invasion isn’t just cultural: The likes of the Burton Holly Corporation and Green and Branch are eager to cut deals to drill—and control Niagra’s political fate—both before and after Daudu is removed from power in a bloodless “khaki revolution” led by a renegade army officer. Though there are plenty of comic swipes at U.S.-led globalization, Wilmot’s clearly written this story with his teeth clenched in anger: The book is partly dedicated to executed Nigerian writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, and Wilmot’s best-drawn characters are similarly concerned with human rights—and similarly victims of circumstance. Rabiu Nafiu, the son of a viciously punitive judge, is defiantly outspoken in a host of underground newspapers; Bob Marley, a stunningly talented young artist, is also tragically buffeted by the constantly shifting political sands. Their stories might be more affecting, though, if Wilmot had better organized his tale. The story is maddeningly digressive and overstuffed, built on cascades of run-on sentences, poorly signaled shifts in time and overly detailed histories of minor characters. The messiness doesn’t wreck the book entirely—the decentralized feel is actually fitting given the subject matter—but both the humor and the tragedy could cut more cleanly.
A long, bumpy ride, though Wilmot’s rage and passion are palpable.Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2006
ISBN: 0-312-34263-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2006
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
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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