Gould (Kitty Collins, 1986) returns with three brief related episodes taking place from 1956 to the 70's in Europe, India, and the Seychelles—during which time two young, open-faced Americans observe the labyrinthine ways of European intrigue and later confront enemies, both in the hierarchical maze of the foreign service and at large. In ``A European Episode,'' young Caroline, free-lancing as a reporter in 1956 Munich, is spellbound by the tales and very aristocratic person of Stefan, whose life has encompassed golden days of footmen-and-furs, a Russian prison camp, expediting escapes of refugees as an officer of the Polish government-in-exile, and working for Radio Free Europe. Stefan reveals much—but not all. Observing the rapt Caroline is Charles McKay, Information Officer at the American consulate (he will narrate the later episodes). Stefan disappears forever during the Hungarian uprising as Charlie and Caroline follow and are turned back. In ``The New People,'' Charlie, now married to Caroline and father of two, is stationed in Calcutta and greets Tony Greer, a relentlessly charming new staff member, and his family. The Greers are deadly, and it is McKay who follows their slimy trail. In the title story, Maharajah (who heads an interesting little group of homosexuals) urges McKay to vacation on a dreamy isle of the Seychelles (Caroline is career-bound in D.C.). Here, in ``the last earthly paradise'' 900 miles off the coast of Kenya, there's a death beneath the surface of the sea (the ``Eighth Continent''), and McKay blinks in the dazzle of light and ocean at an unlikely apparition. A chewy, tripartite novel with old-timey foreign-service atmospheric appeal, marvelous reportage on some far places, and intimate details of consulate workings.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-945575-72-6
Page Count: 252
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1991
Looks like Neal Carey, the peripatetic agent of that free- lance justice troop Friends of the Family, will never get back to New York to write his dissertation on Tobias Smollett. This time he's sprung from three years in a Chinese monastery (The Trail to Buddha's Mirror, 1992) only to be sent undercover as a ranch-hand in the Nevada plains to scout out the Sons of Seth, a white- supremacist flock that's his best hope for locating two-year-old Cody McCall, snatched from his Hollywood mother during a paternal weekend. Neal settles in deep, of course, and his ritual ordeals- -having to sell out the rancher who took him in, breaking off his romance with tough schoolmarm Karen Hawley, going up against rotten-apple Cal Strekker, getting ordered to kill his Friendly mentor Joe Graham—are as predictable as the trademark dose of mysticism as the bodies pile up, and as the certainty that when the dust settles, Neal won't be back at school. Winslow's Aryan crazies don't have the threatening solidity of Stephen Greenleaf's (Southern Cross, p. 1102 ), but Neal's latest adventure is full of entertaining derring-do.
Pub Date: Nov. 16, 1993
ISBN: 0-312-09934-7
Page Count: 288
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1993
O'Brien proves to be the Oliver Stone of literature, reiterating the same Vietnam stories endlessly without adding any insight. Politician John Wade has just lost an election, and he and his wife, Kathy, have retired to a lakeside cabin to plan their future when she suddenly disappears. O'Brien manages to stretch out this simple premise by sticking in chapters consisting of quotes from various sources (both actual and fictional) that relate to John and Kathy. An unnamed author — an irritating device that recalls the better-handled but still imperfect "Tim O'Brien" narrator of The Things They Carried (1990) — also includes lengthy footnotes about his own experiences in Vietnam. While the sections covering John in the third person are dry, these first-person footnotes are unbearable. O'Brien uses a coy tone (it's as though he's constantly whispering "Ooooh, spooky!"), but there is no suspense: The reader is acquainted with Kathy for only a few pages before her disappearance, so it's impossible to work up any interest in her fate. The same could be said of John, even though he is the focus of the book. Flashbacks and quotes reveal that John was present at the infamous Thuan Yen massacre (for those too thick-headed to understand the connection to My Lai, O'Brien includes numerous real-life references). The symbolism here is beyond cloying. As a child John liked to perform magic tricks, and he was subsequently nicknamed "Sorcerer" by his fellow soldiers — he could make things disappear, get it? John has been troubled for some time. He used to spy on Kathy when they were in college, and his father's habit of calling the chubby boy "Jiggling John" apparently wounded him. All of this is awkwardly uncovered through a pretentious structure that cannot disguise the fact that there is no story here. Sinks like a stone.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 061870986X
Page Count: 320
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1994
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