In a finely wrought third novel from Gadol (The Mystery Roast, 1992, etc.), a young man whose longtime lover has recently died of AIDS tries to rebuild his life in a remote southern California canyon. After his lover dies, Brad Gray drifts from Manhattan to California, house-sitting his way across the country until, outside of Los Angeles, he finds a long-term gig at the top of Encantado Canyon. Aimless even before his lover's death, his one vague reason for heading West had been to drown himself in the Pacific, but once in California, he becomes fascinated by a young married couple he spies across the canyon. By themselves, Helen and Ethan Zayne are rebuilding the house they lost in a Ventura fire the year before. Inevitably, Brad is drawn to the two, who not only lost their home but, shortly before that, their three-year-old son. Having once aspired to be an architect himself, Brad winds up pitching in to help the Zaynes build a house that could save their marriage: ``It was the only way for them to get their life back, to reconstruct it themselves, with their own hands.'' And by working with the Zaynes, the still-grieving Brad gives himself a chance to rise from the ashes. In the telling, Gadol weaves together images of reconstruction and regeneration—of the land, buildings, and peoplein prose that's at its most evocative and powerful in describing the scarred landscapes and the subtle interplay that takes place among the damaged characters. All three have self- destructive tendencies, and, even as they're house-building, they're only a splinter away from torching their salvation. In a summer of record heat, Helen and Brad further jeopardize their lives by breaking into other houses simply to be in air conditioning. And when the fire season flares up again, all three are literally forced to choose between life and death. A multi-storied, strongly written novel of loss and renewal.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-312-14084-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Picador
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 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
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