The ten stories in this debut collection vary in quality from writing-school clever to pared-down mature. Griner is most at home in his spare, blue-collar narratives, with their darker view of human nature. The mostly male protagonists in these often bloodless fictions are men who've made mistakes. Some seek redemption for their errors; others couldn't care less. The recovering coke addict in ``Boxes,'' who's burnt all his bridges, is getting along in his new job until his old dealer comes looking to collect a debt, a situation that forces some quick ethical choices. An old man who knows all about clouds (``Clouds'') feels guilty for having been an indifferent father. His brother, narrator of ``Grass,'' confirms this view, proving himself as earthbound as his brother was airy. Women can make mistakes, too: The tough-as-nails schoolteacher in ``If There Hadn't Been a Monkey in the Car She Would Have Sung,'' who feels empathy for no one, seeks to avenge her sister against a cheating boyfriend; when she picks the wrong target, though, she realizes that her entire life has been built on a misconception. The darkest stories are a trio of linked narratives about an arrogant drifter who first loses his construction job in Cleveland (``Why Should I Wait?''), then lands in upstate New York and pumps gas while planning to rip off his employer (``Back Home Again''). After the theft, the station owner, no angel himself, runs a scam on the local highway to drum up business (``Worboys' Transaction''). The sum effect is mean, menacing, and bleak, but not as creepy as ``Follow Me,'' in which a private eye, hired by a performance artist to follow and photograph her, disappears—though his photos continue to arrive. This first collection may have been a bit hastily assembled- -with one definite throw-away piece (``Thief'')—but Griner is a formidable talent, sure to be heard from again.
Pub Date: June 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-679-44845-4
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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