A Republican congressman from New York makes an unfortunate excursion into the politics of Ireland in this debut describing Ulster’s Troubles of the early 1980s. A novel written by a politician ought to be regarded much as Dr. Johnson looked upon the dancing bear: One is impressed not so much that it is done well, but that it is done at all. That said, it must still be pointed out that Congressman King has given us a piece of IRA agitprop that Brendan Behan himself wouldn—t be able to read with a straight face. Set mostly in Belfast, the story concerns Bernadette Hanlon, a heroic Catholic housewife and mother whose husband Dermot (an IRA member) is imprisoned under special antiterrorism laws on the testimony of an informer. While he’s locked away in Castlereagh Gaol, Bernadette contents herself at first with visiting him as often as she can and keeping his spirits up with news of home and children—but circumstances soon force her into a more complex role. She’s asked, as an aggrieved IRA wife, to help organize and canvass for the local Sinn Fein candidate, and she succeeds so well that she comes to the attention of Gerry Adams himself, who takes a personal interest in her husband’s case. The judicial bane of Irish terrorists in the 1980s was the ’supergrass” (or ’snake in the grass—) system—by which uncorroborated evidence from paid informers was admitted into criminal proceedings—and Bernadette now becomes a prominent spokesman against it. She travels to the US to speak to pro-IRA groups, and at home she assassinates a prominent Catholic politician who was a secret informer. Eventually, her efforts—along with some pressure from US politicians—get her husband’s case reopened. Straight-faced propaganda, without a hint of irony, a shade of complexity, or a suggestion of depth: If King is looking for a photo-op with Gerry Adams, he’s earned it.
Pub Date: May 1, 1999
ISBN: 1-57098-262-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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