The final work, unpublished and in fact undiscovered until after his death, of a superb Welsh writer (190378) known for his novels (The Withered Root, 1927), colorful autobiography (Print of a Hare's Foot, 1969), and stories (The Chosen One, 1967). The tale here is a relentless character study, set in the village of Bedd Einion and focused on the gradual changes that overtake Rhonwen, a middle-aged woman who, having discovered her jaunty husband's persistent infidelity, impulsively pushes him off a cliff and pretends ignorance of his death. Davies then analyzes what becomes of Rhonwen as she arranges for her Adda's funeral and claims his insurance money, takes up drinking and smoking, and indulges in a spendthrift life so alluring that it leads her into ever stranger actions and their consequences. These latter are dominated by the ghostly figure of a menacing red-horned ram (``Sometimes he did not appear as a visual presence at all, only as an invisible assertion lurking deep in the caverns of her mind, or as an odour pervading whatever meaningless dream she had''). It's a brilliant symbol, embodying Rhonwen's guilt, her fear of judgment, and the moral impasse to which her crime brings her (her attempts to confess are met only with compassionate disbelief). Davies's portrayal of rural Wales is pleasingly spare and stark, and he casts Rhonwen's confusion into high relief by contrasting her inwardness and taciturnity with the comparatively voluble personalities of other people whom she deceives and manipulates: Dan ``Insurance'' Evans, the agent whom she briefly thinks of marrying; the stern and devoutly Christian Mrs. Pyle-Williams, who had hoped to buy Rhonwen's house; and especially her husband's mistress Eirene, a distracted child-woman who's eternally weeping because of her malformed tear ducts (another expertly used symbol). Despite a surprisingly abrupt ending, and inconclusive internal evidence suggesting Davies may have left the novel unfinished, this is a vivid and unusual story—and a fine introduction, as it happens, to the work of a very substantial writer.
Pub Date: Jan. 23, 1997
ISBN: 1-85411-165-5
Page Count: 180
Publisher: Dufour
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1996
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
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
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