The Quiet Man steps into The Shoes of the Fisherman and goes for a long walk in the O'Learys' cow pasture—all in de Rosa's (Vicars of Christ, 1989, etc.) would-be apocalyptic parody of religious and political life. If you thought the 20th century was bad, just hang on a bit. By 2009, the year that John Paul II finally gives up the ghost, the war between the Western nations and the recently convened Federation of Islamic Republics (FIR) has made even the Vatican nostalgic about the days of the Communist bloc. Ayatollah Hourani, the president of FIR, is an Islamic fundamentalist who has vowed death upon the infidels of Europe and America. And now that Saudi Arabia (and its oil) has fallen to the fundamentalists, Hourani is in a position to make good on his threat. The elderly Cardinals who have convened in Rome to elect John Paul's successor have this unhappy spectacle before them, along with more worries of their own: The faithful are no longer coming to Mass or confession, and Latin America (the most Catholic region of the world) is sinking into starvation. The circumstances that bring about the election of the obscure Irishman Brian Cardinal O'Flynn are as complex as the trials facing him in his new job. Quiet, unassuming, and none too bright, O'Flynn nevetheless puts his shoulder to the wheel. First, he abolishes celibacy as a condition of ordination, and he even presides over a mass wedding of thousands of priests in St. Peter's. Then he balances the Vatican's books by auctioning off the artwork. His first United Nations address condemns moneylending and orders the dissolution of banks. Who is this guy? It's hard to say, exactly, especially since de Rosa is so eager to write his story with one-liners that the larger tale comes across as little more than an excuse for cheap laughs. Not terribly funny, nor wonderfully sharp, and occasionally downright irksome in its reliance on stereotype: a cartoon for grownups.
Pub Date: March 3, 1997
ISBN: 0-385-48548-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1997
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
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
