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CONJURING MAUD

Name: CONJURING MAUD
Author: Philip Danze
ISBN: 0-9671851-3-0

by Philip Danze ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 15, 2001

Details of love and loss, and especially the images of Africa, are poignant enough here, but Maud—and all she...

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After a career in magazine copyediting, 72-year-old Danze spins a quietly moving tale of destiny and romance in colonial West Africa, as a young naval cadet encounters the unconventional woman who will be the love of his life.

Son of a physician turned gold speculator, David Unger at 17 has one idea about what the future will hold: service in the Royal Navy, followed by a quiet life in South Africa, where his father went bust and his mother abandoned them. But meeting Maud King, a serene ethnologist with a deep thirst for knowledge about the unspoiled African interior, quickly turns his head. Smitten, he starts bringing her mail to her, then helps her gather the samples and material she needs. He saves her from a deadly scorpion sting and they grow increasingly close, but when he has to go home and is immediately drafted to fight the Zulu (who capture him and from whom he makes a daring escape), they lose touch. Bereft, David goes to study in London, and there reads in the British press of Maud’s explorations as she works her way through West Africa. A full-blown hero when she finally returns to England, she tracks David down, and their former intimacy resumes—but only briefly. Maud is keen to return to Africa; David has no choice but to let her go. Again they lose touch, and only after more heartbreaking years have passed and he has nearly finished work for his medical degree does he find a trace of her. He leaves to be with her at once, but when he arrives, he finds only tragedy.

Details of love and loss, and especially the images of Africa, are poignant enough here, but Maud—and all she represents—falls short of finding a separate place in the story, seen as she is only through her lover’s heated gaze.

Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2001

ISBN: 0-9671851-3-0

Page Count: 200

Publisher: GreyCore

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2001

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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.