A violent family saga set in redneck Mississippi—with steamy Tennessee Williams-like southerners who are convincing only when the author (Perfect Timing, p. 435; etc.) remembers to keep his tongue firmly in his cheek—and that's not often enough. At 24, Snake Ripley, from Rockton, is trapped in a land of pines and red moons because his brother, Leslie, is retarded (though Leslie's also a kind of religious idiot savant) and because his father, Harry, is ailing with a bad heart. Meanwhile, Snake runs the family garage and trysts with Truly Crawford, the 22-year- old daughter of Junior, the town's wealthiest man. Truly's spoiled to death, and her mother, Ada—who provides some comic relief when the soap-opera fur begins to fly—fancies herself an artist in the manner of van Gogh. In serviceable prose, Williams evokes a place where nearly everyone is repressing a great deal of violence—until at last it breaks loose: Snake and Truly decide to rob the mansion of an old woman, who confronts them with a gun and wounds Snake, whereupon he blows her away; Harry satisfies his own blood-lust by going to the house of a Dr. Owens and killing the doctor, his brother, and his wife; then Harry goes after Snake. (Yes, it's one of those books.) By now, the town's in an uproar, with Sheriff Reuben going to all ends to solve the murders. They solve themselves, however, when Snake and Harry try to eliminate each other, and everyone goes running into the swamps. Snake kills Harry—or maybe Harry has a fatal heart attack moments before the bullets hit him—and the cops blow Snake away while Truly pretends she's been kidnapped and walks off in Junior's arms, so to speak. This time out, Williams is not able to find the language that might turn such a tale into art. Too often, it's unintentionally laughable.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-679-40888-6
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1991
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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