Redolent of atmosphere and narrated in an old-fashioned leisurely voice rarely heard nowadays: a story of the first...
An eerie, atmospheric account of a drifter who wanders into a remote French village, disappears, and comes to haunt the lives of the local inhabitants, in a sequel to The Murdered House (2000, not reviewed) from celebrated Provençal novelist Magnan.
The hilltown of Lurs is the kind of place where strangers are noticed—especially strangers as odd as Séraphin Monge, who stumbled into the village café one cold night in 1921. Silent, shy, and mysterious, Séraphin says little about himself but admits he’s an orphan who’s left home and has no clear destination ahead. Eager to make a little money, Séraphin agrees to fell some trees for a local farmer, but after only a few days he’s buried in a mudslide and given up for dead. His story might have ended there but for the fact that three townswomen had already fallen in love with him: Auphanie Brunel (who runs the café), Marie Dormeur (the baker’s daughter), and Rose Sepulcre (who owns a small factory nearby) are all determined that Séraphin’s body be recovered and given a Christian burial. They prevail upon Antoine (the factory foreman) to undertake the dangerous task of dredging the quagmire. Once Séraphin has been decently entombed, however, he finds little rest—for an odd series of miracles begin to take place at his grave. Marie’s blind son recovers his sight, the butcher’s disfigured boy is cured, and the village atheist converts and enters a monastery. The parish priest is dubious, and his bishop (fearing hysteria or fraud) is frankly hostile to the cult that has sprung up—so they secretly take action to nip the devotion in the bud. But there are also stories circulating of people who’ve seen Séraphin walking about long after he was supposed to have been buried in the mud. Is he a ghost? Or is he, in fact, still alive? Maybe this is one of those weird incidents that eventually turns into a legend—or maybe it’s something else altogether.
Redolent of atmosphere and narrated in an old-fashioned leisurely voice rarely heard nowadays: a story of the first rank—intriguing, exotic, and extremely strange.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2002
ISBN: 1-86046-739-3
Page Count: 394
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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