America's oppressed minorities join forces in this watered- down rehash of Black Panther/American Indian Movement activities- -updated to include an image of the sensitive male—from University of California writing prof Everett (see above). Black hydrologist Robert Hawks, fly-fishing his way through an early midlife crisis far from a wacky girlfriend back home in Denver, comes from a line of committed dissenters: His grandfather and father, both physicians, eschewed Christianity while embracing civil rights and humanity, to the point of grandfather having his license revoked for treating a gunshot wound on the sly. So, when a pint-sized Indian hitchhiker in sneakers gets Robert to drop her in rugged terrain with a winter storm coming on, and two FBI agents are found slain in the area shortly thereafter, his impulse is to protect her. This lands him in hot water himself, a situation he only compounds by going to find the woman, Louise Yellow Calf, to ask what she was up to. Robert learns that the US government dumped old biological warfare agents into the area, which are leaking into the Indian reservation watershed, and that the dead agents, one Indian and one black, were trying to warn those in harm's way when they were killed. Louise disappears, and, thinking she's in Denver, Robert returns home determined to understand the nature of commitment as his father and grandfather lived it. After meeting with Louise and other activists, he decides to gather evidence about the dump, and having done that commits himself still further when FBI hostages are taken by Louise's besieged group and Robert is asked to lead a supply run to them—over the terrain he knows better than anyone. Some nice touches of humor and essential humanity, but the ground covered here has few breathtaking vistas—and the main character's low-key transformation fails to stir otherwise oddly tranquil waters.
Pub Date: May 1, 1996
ISBN: 1-55597-237-3
Page Count: 202
Publisher: Graywolf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1996
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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