Britisher Vansittart (A Choice of Murder, 1993) enhances his impressive achievement of 20-odd novels and children's books with this erudite and mannered—if dispassionate—tale of a famous children's revolt in late-15th-century Germany. In the long shadow of the Graf's castle on Broken Mountain, careworn villagers eke out their brutish, short lives. Among them is the much-maligned young Hans, a slow-witted shepherd animated only when playing his pipe, telling one of his mystical stories, or basking in the presence of the dazzling, mysterious Albrecht. Effortlessly influencing all the children, not Hans alone, this lad carries himself like one of the highborn yet has no apparent family. When the Graf—himself a man of mystery believed to have starved his noncompliant wife to death—raises taxes to cover his crushing debt, Albrecht seizes the moment to foment rebellion, first inciting the children to burn an ancient community barn, then setting up a fortified camp on the grounds, to which the disgruntled and dispossessed flock from afar with families and weapons. Shepherd Hans, recently elected king of the annual spring rites, becomes the titular head, the real power still residing with Albrecht. As summer waxes and wanes, the Graf's troops are rebuffed and humiliated, until the Graf sends an offer for a parley at the castle with rebel leaders. Hans accepts, going alone, and is quickly hanged by the Graf despite his promise of safe conduct. With the piper's death and Albrecht's defection (as it happens, he's the Graf's bastard and sole heir), the rebellion collapses and the rebels flee, but the Graf finds himself ridiculed at court for breaking his word. Not a heart-pounding vision of class struggle in the Middle Ages, but in its own subtle way this evokes the historical moment and more, with a timeless portrait of cruel manipulation and power corrupted.
Pub Date: Jan. 17, 1996
ISBN: 0-7206-0953-4
Page Count: 184
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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