In this last of Woolley's Arthurian trilogy, Queen Guinevere witnesses the crumbling of the kingdom and knightly brotherhood at Camelot, loses husband and lover, and, though committed to the Mother Goddess and the Old Ways, lives out her days in a Christian convent. Again, as in Child of the Northern Spring 1987) and Queen of the Summer Stars (1990), the old legends are bleached free of that ancient tingly magic, and the dialogue is entertainingly anachronistic (Guinevere on the Holy Grail quest: ``Frankly, I think it's a dreadful idea''). Still, the author has corralled most of the Arthurain heroes—from the Green Knight to the string of G's (Gawain, Gareth, Gahert, Geraint, and Galahad). Narrated by Guinevere (who reports events with the efficient dispatch of a Mary Kay section manager), the story begins in her prison cell; she's scheduled for execution in the morning. By 400 pages later, just why she's in the pokey is revealed and the past few years reviewed: her marriage to Arthur (a union of affection and mutual respect); her platonic affair with Lancelot, the Queen's Champion and the greatest knight, ending in a bittersweet consummation; the ``spiritual'' quest for the Grail, embraced most fervently by Galahad, Lancelot's son by Elaine-not-so-pure; the disastrous relationship between Arthur and Modred, his son by his half-sister; the plots of Morgan, another sister and priestess Lady of the Lake; the clash of Christian and pagan religions. There is much travel and travail, tournaments and tilts of will, deaths and panting messengers. Arthurian tales in a chatty modern idiom, with old buddies like ``Lance'' and ``Tris'' and ``Guin'' doing their still- marvelous stuff.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-671-70831-7
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1991
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
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
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