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SHELBY

Name: SHELBY
Author: Pete McCormack
ISBN: 1-877946-47-8

by Pete McCormack ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 1994

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A genuine, sometimes harrowing coming-of-age saga by a young Canadian writer. McCormack's storyline traces the awakening of protagonist Shelby as he drops out of college, tries his hand in a rock band called Smegma Bomb!, and—most significantly—becomes involved with Lucy, a droll mystic who works as a stripper and suffers from migraines. She ultimately sets Shelby on the road to self- discovery, along which he spends one day working at a sausage factory. In his portrait of Lucy and the development of her relationship with Shelby, the author is at his best, moving beyond the mundane to some real wisdom and humor. Lucy takes Shelby away from his solitary masturbatory world and initiates him into an intense sexual communion. That eventually turns celibate and becomes a Zen path, forcing Shelby to look deeply into the nature of his own yearnings, but his continuing devotion to Lucy leads him to risk his life by standing up to her violent estranged husband, Frank. Issues such as child abuse are explored quite sensitively, but portions of this first novel have a cut-and-pasted quality, particularly when Shelby returns home for his grandmother's funeral and when he tries to reveal to his parents, Ed and Peg, his true status as a college drop-out. Some characters never come fully to life, including the grandmother, who is meant to be an important touchstone for Shelby, and Eric, manager of Smegma Bomb!, Shelby's best friend and ``partner-in-crime.'' However, Suzanne, the sculptor who creates a work called Fish-tail Pie, is a delight. In spite of occasionally flat prose, the narrative moves toward a convincing, albeit existential, ending and is ultimately quite entertaining. McCormack's philosophical stance is refreshing; one hopes he will continue honing his craft.

Pub Date: June 1, 1994

ISBN: 1-877946-47-8

Page Count: 196

Publisher: Permanent Press

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1994

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.

Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.

Pub Date: March 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-609-60737-5

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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.