The story of a marriage told with little variation.
In this debut novel, a disillusioned wife seeks to make her voice heard.
After a year in England, newlyweds Jacob and Susan Wells return to their native Caribbean island to have their first child. They move in with Jacob’s mother, Adassa, to save money while he opens a drugstore. He plans to give the store to Adassa so that she has a way of providing for herself and Jacob’s younger siblings. The pregnant Susan hopes that Jacob’s family will make good company. But it turns out Adassa is wildly jealous of Susan’s position in Jacob’s life: He “planned it all out to provide financially for his mother and her children so he could leave them. But financial support doesn’t seem enough for Adassa. She wants the man. She wants Jacob to be her surrogate spouse and forever support her home and raise her children.” Jacob and Susan finally have enough money to move into their own apartment, but soon after having a second child, she learns that he has been keeping a mistress. Susan confronts him and tries to make the marriage work. After they have a third child, Jacob—poorly adjusted due to Adassa’s strange mothering—becomes increasingly abusive. The frustrated Susan turns to writing letters to the newspaper on the subjects of marriage and parenthood, and she quickly gains a following. If she can’t control what’s happening in her own family, can she perhaps fix the institution of marriage at the national level? Mildower’s depiction of Susan and Jacob’s frayed marriage feels true to life—the author even admits that it’s based on a real story. But his prose style is highly expositional, and the novel contains long passages of summary (rendered, for some reason, in the present tense) with very little dialogue: “Jacob is very insensitive to any need in the home other than physical need, and her emotions are being constantly challenged. Meanwhile, she is intent on meeting the emotional needs of her children (born and unborn).” This distance will make it difficult for readers to engage emotionally with the intriguing characters.
The story of a marriage told with little variation.Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5462-4959-7
Page Count: 170
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: March 11, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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