Temptations both secular and religious throw their sticky nets over a Catholic writer in this predictable but entertaining first novel by veteran journalist Wilkes (In Mysterious Ways, 1990; Merton by Those Who Knew Him Best, 1984; etc.). Joseph dwells in a spiritual vacuum; literary cocktail parties and casual sex no longer satisfy his needs. Casting about for new writing projects, he becomes intrigued by the Cistercian monastery of Our Lady of New Citeaux (the Order to which Thomas Merton belonged). Joseph's agent, who talks in an incessant borscht-belt shtick (Wilkes's most successful comic invention), has Big Plans for Joseph's project (``Who's going to play you? Nolte, he can do serious....We're going for a feature on this one''). But once at the monastery, Joseph's life turns topsy-turvy. The beauty of the cloisters amazes him. An ex-Catholic siren draws him into her bed. Above all, he encounters Father Columban, the monastery's saintly leader, who won't let Joseph settle for less than everything (``Nothing is more worthwhile,'' insists the monk, ``than the pursuit of God''). Joseph's inner life blossoms, only to be followed by deeper angst. Meanwhile, a mystery unfolds as anonymous notes lead the writer to three men, all once would-be monks, who cast their shadows on the monastery: one is now a bitter pro-choice lawyer, another insane, the third a suicide—or was it murder? And who is sending those damning notes? Joseph's confusion reaches biblical proportions before things come to full flame, literally and figuratively, as arson strikes the monastery and Fr. Columban sets fire to Joseph's soul. To no one's surprise, least of all the reader's, at tale's end Joseph prepares to enter New Citeaux for good. Mildly tempting literary fare: a seriocomic, middle-aged-man-comes-of-age tale, with amusing but overdrawn characters, in which little happens before the overbaked conclusion. But good fun anyway, and effective recruitment for the monastic life.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-394-57585-7
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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