A captivating depiction of a 15th-century conflict and a dramatically thrilling interpretation of Joan of Arc’s life.
This final installment of a trilogy reimagines the story of Joan of Arc.
In 1428, the situation for France is dire. The war against the English is “going from bad to worse,” and the possibility that Orléans will be conquered poses a grave threat: “Everyone knew that if Orléans fell, the heartland of France would be open to the invaders.” Then a sliver of hope is delivered by a young girl, Jeanne Darc, the daughter of landowning peasants in remote Domremy. She’s only 16 years old but claims to have received divine communications from St. Michael, the archangel, who assures her that her mission in life is to ensure the revival of France’s sovereignty: “I must go to the dauphin and lead his army to victory against the English. My banner will show Jesus Christ Our Saviour blessing an image of the fleur-de-lis held by a warrior angel.” Astonishingly, Jeanne is able to convince a series of important men she is neither delusional nor a malevolent agent of Satan, impressing each with “an aura, a kind of light about her which forces you to listen.” In this volume of Tallon’s (The Templar Legacy, 2019, etc.) Richard Calveley Trilogy, an earnestly credulous account of Jeanne’s contribution to the war effort is chronicled alongside a portrayal of Richard, an English captain forced in his dotage to consider his future beyond military life. The author vividly re-creates the historical period in all its riveting drama. In addition to a rigorously realistic account of the war, he skillfully articulates the views of the competing sides. Jeanne’s part of that history has been told many times, and Tallon’s version doesn’t add anything that is particularly fresh. The novel also assumes the least plausible rendering of a tale that reads like mythology—Jeanne is presented as genuinely inspired by divine epiphany. Of course, this is a matter of great debate, and she could perhaps more plausibly be portrayed as a mentally ill teenager cynically exploited by statesmen. Whatever position readers take on Jeanne, the author grippingly brings to life her extraordinary existence and grim end. Richard’s story is less enthralling and so quotidian by comparison that it seems tepid. As a result, the book drags a bit—a shorter version may have more effectively sustained the tale’s electricity.
A captivating depiction of a 15th-century conflict and a dramatically thrilling interpretation of Joan of Arc’s life.Pub Date: March 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64348-994-0
Page Count: 368
Publisher: BookVenture Publishing LLC
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
Britisher Swift's sixth novel (Ever After, 1992 etc.) and fourth to appear here is a slow-to-start but then captivating tale of English working-class families in the four decades following WW II. When Jack Dodds dies suddenly of cancer after years of running a butcher shop in London, he leaves a strange request—namely, that his ashes be scattered off Margate pier into the sea. And who could better be suited to fulfill this wish than his three oldest drinking buddies—insurance man Ray, vegetable seller Lenny, and undertaker Vic, all of whom, like Jack himself, fought also as soldiers or sailors in the long-ago world war. Swift's narrative start, with its potential for the melodramatic, is developed instead with an economy, heart, and eye that release (through the characters' own voices, one after another) the story's humanity and depth instead of its schmaltz. The jokes may be weak and self- conscious when the three old friends meet at their local pub in the company of the urn holding Jack's ashes; but once the group gets on the road, in an expensive car driven by Jack's adoptive son, Vince, the story starts gradually to move forward, cohere, and deepen. The reader learns in time why it is that no wife comes along, why three marriages out of three broke apart, and why Vince always hated his stepfather Jack and still does—or so he thinks. There will be stories of innocent youth, suffering wives, early loves, lost daughters, secret affairs, and old antagonisms—including a fistfight over the dead on an English hilltop, and a strewing of Jack's ashes into roiling seawaves that will draw up feelings perhaps unexpectedly strong. Without affectation, Swift listens closely to the lives that are his subject and creates a songbook of voices part lyric, part epic, part working-class social realism—with, in all, the ring to it of the honest, human, and true.
Pub Date: April 5, 1996
ISBN: 0-679-41224-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1996
© 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
