A tedious look at a Boston men's club. The 125-year-old Charles Club, one of the most ruffianly gentlemen's refuges in Beantown—alcohol is regularly and excessively imbued; members know by heart ditties that begin ``Demure despite her nudity,/She gazes quite sans crudity''—is under attack from Demetria Constantine, Chairperson of the Massachusetts Licensing Board. The club, resting on public land, must either begin admitting women or lose its liquor license. A furious debate ensues, with laments on the order of ``So, here it is, the new age, the age of compliance...we must admit one and all: women, queers, paroled criminals, used car salesman.'' It's not just the bad boys who sound like parodies; debut novelist Wensberg (Land's Polaroid, 1987) also fails to flesh out more progressive characters, such as protagonist Owen Lawrence, a recently divorced electrical engineer and new member who believes women will revitalize a stale environment. Owen gets involved with Demetria, unaware of her position during their first drink, and there's some suggestion that his boss, a fellow Charles member, set them up to influence her decision—a development that could have added some spice, except that Wensberg never follows through with either the relationship (after an implausible scene in which Demetria begs Owen to dominate her, she refuses most of his calls) or with the political machinations behind it. Owen remains unconvincingly perplexed and unconcerned about it all. Other characters are equally shallow, from real estate mogul Leslie Sample, the completely apolitical first female club member, to Owen's sleazy, misogynist boss, who seems to have his fingers in every pie but whose aims are never clear. Trying too hard to be wry, Wensberg leaves readers confused about the point of a book that does little to illuminate a virtually extinct way of life.
Pub Date: March 1, 1995
ISBN: 1-877946-58-3
Page Count: 229
Publisher: Permanent Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1995
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
SEEN & HEARD
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