British author Billington (Loving Attitudes, 1988, etc.) sets out for a romp in this quicksilver collection of interconnecting novellas about a pair of lovers whose stars cross in five different time frames, but always in the same place. The Theo and Mathilda of the present are only sketchily rendered, like bookends, at the opening and finish here. They are a young married couple who purchase one of several dozen units constructed on the site of an ancient monastery in the West Country of England, and settle down, with Theo vowing that if they're ever parted, it will be ``only a temporary separation.'' His claim rings true, since the first Theo and Mathilda meet back in 770he a poetical young oaf, taken in by a ragtag collection of monks, she the daughter of King Cynewulf of Wessex, prideful, independent, but utterly drawn to Theo. Together, they build a church and connecting monastery and convent, with Theo as the unlikely abbot and Mathilda as the abbess. For years they struggle against their love, until Viking raiders finish them both off before any fleshly sin gets committed. Their next reincarnation comes during Henry IV's pillaging of England's monasteries, when Mathilda abducts the displaced monk Theo and has her way with him. Three hundred years later, Theo is an eccentric herpetologist and Mathilda his long-suffering wife; and when l980 rolls around, the two of them finally arrive at the fate they seem to have been aiming at all along: They're both mad, incarcerated in a mental hospital but embarking on a love affair nonetheless. Down through the ages, the Theo and Mathilda tales support Shakespeare's observation about the close connection between lunatics and lovers. Along the way, Billington reuses themes and details in entertaining ways, and studies a love relationship from a variety of anglesall of which makes for loony little valentine of a book, sappy but always intelligent.
Pub Date: May 22, 1991
ISBN: 0-06-016483-2
Page Count: 368
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1991
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
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
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