Complete with instructions on how to handle books in the event of plague, this is just the thing for fans of eccentric,...
Put a madwoman in an attic, and all kinds of literary possibilities—some already well explored—ensue: a second novel by the author of (Kindergarten, 1980).
Alice Pinkerton isn’t exactly insane, and she doesn’t exactly live under the eaves. Indeed, writes Rushforth, “It annoyed her that they thought she was mad, but it annoyed her even more that they were wrong about the attic.” “They” are Alice’s bourgeois family friends and assorted bugaboos, one in particular with the stately name of Mrs. Albert Comstock (“one of those Lazarus-pale, white-fleshed, grotesquely shaped creatures drawn up from deep below the surface of cold dark water where light never penetrated”), a woman who makes a fine, increasingly complex foil for the ever-aggrieved protagonist. Ms. Pinkerton may live upstairs in a turn-of-the-last-century New York townhouse, but she really inhabits a world of books; throughout, she is constantly turning to or quoting from the likes of Charlotte Bronte, Herman Melville, or Charles Dickens, whose last novel, the incomplete Mystery of Edwin Drood, is on her mind for good reason. Contemporary novelists—excepting the wonderful Helen DeWitt (The Last Samurai) and Frederick Busch (The Night Inspector)—don’t often turn to the universe of crumbling pages and old-fashioned ideas. But Rushforth seems perfectly at home there, and readers of a literary bent will enjoy the stream of learned allusions and references flowing from Alice as she ponders the state of the unwashed, philistine society beyond her polished doors. Not much happens, though, in these 700-plus pages, and readers not sufficiently taken by Alice’s interior struggles and exterior tics may find its Victorian-parlor setting just a bit stuffy. Still, Rushforth is a careful writer who creates a fictional world very nicely indeed, and his Alice is a believable, sympathetic character who lives on her own terms even while counting the ghosts in the mirrors.
Complete with instructions on how to handle books in the event of plague, this is just the thing for fans of eccentric, backward-looking fiction.Pub Date: March 8, 2005
ISBN: 1-931561-99-0
Page Count: 730
Publisher: MacAdam/Cage
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2004
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
To her usual mix of love, mystery, and passion, Roberts (Sanctuary, 1997, etc.)—author of 115 romancers in some 17 years—adds Renaissance art and a decidedly Medici-like family: the Joneses of Maine. Dr. Miranda Jones, nearly six feet with flaming red hair and a glacial reserve, is an archeometrist who specializes in the analyzing and dating of Renaissance bronze sculpture. Miranda hopes to secure a world-class reputation for herself by authenticating a 15th-century statue of the Dark Lady, one of the mistresses of Lorenzo the Magnificent, as the undiscovered work of a young Michelangelo. Miranda's mother, Dr. Elizabeth Standford-Jones, the emotionally remote director of the Standjo art lab in Florence, has summoned her daughter from the family's Victorian cliffside home in Jones Point, Maine, to test the statue. Meanwhile, Miranda's father, equally remote, is an archaeologist who spends more time at his digs than at home. In fact, no one in the Jones family has made a successful run at marriage, a failure that Miranda and her alcoholic brother Andrew call the Jones curse. As for the statue, when it's discovered to be a fake, Miranda sets out to prove that someone stole the original. In this she's helped by gorgeous art thief Ryan Boldari (half-Italian, half-Irish), who's come to Jones Point to steal yet another bronze, which also turns out to be a forgery. Ryan's plan had been to use Miranda as a pawn, but now, naturally, he finds himself falling hard for her. While the two search for bronzes, a standard-issue romance-novel psychotic is stalking them. Most readers will twig to the killer's identity: Here, as always, Roberts's sexual tension is more compelling than her suspense. Perhaps it's time to take a sabbatical from the pink sweatshop and turn her considerable wit and narrative skills to a more original piece of work.
Pub Date: March 23, 1998
ISBN: 0-399-14387-4
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1998
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