An unusual, although not particularly exciting, blend of female self-discovery and modern-day pulp romance. This first novel centers around Estelle Wolfe, a rich widow in her early 60s who loved her husband, Harry, so much that she tape- recorded his snoring so she could listen to it when he was away. He took mistresses, and she took to drink; when he died, she took to the role of rich widow, caring for stray dogs, volunteering at a hospital, and pampering everyone from her caretakers to godchildren. Estelle has two daughters. Lisanne, determined never to care for anyone the way her mother cared for her father, is a wanderer who lives out of a suitcase, takes casual lovers, and visits Mom once a year. Ellen, by contrast, follows in Estelle's footsteps, fawning over the teardrop that slides ``glistening'' from the ``left nostril'' of her pompous, homophobic, chauvinistic husband and believing that it's her job to take care of everyone. Ellen and her spouse are concerned about Dr. Count Francesco von Cockleburg, who arrives from Paris claiming to be an old friend of Harry's and begins spending all his time with the enamored Estelle; they're sure he's a fake interested only in pilfering money. Lisanne thinks he's too unconvincing to be a con man and wants her mother to be happy. During a summer in the country, the daughters try to support and protect Estelle, and in the meantime all the women learn a few things about themselves. Ellen sees that she's married to a schmuck. Lisanne falls into a relationship with the handsome, sensitive caretaker. And Estelle, though she may be too old to really change, does eventually discover the truth about Cockleburg, which alters her life. Little good, surprising, or new. Thoroughly resistible.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-671-88335-6
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1994
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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