bookshelf

THE BIG LIE

Name: THE BIG LIE
Author: Richard Johnston
ISBN: 978-1-4259-7368-1

by Richard Johnston ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 22, 2007

Many beautiful descriptions and engaging dialogues, but the cast of characters would benefit from a school vacation.

bookshelf

A trilogy of unique love stories set in a French school amid political and ideological conflicts.

The scene is 1953 Paris, during the tense and complex post-war years when the French perceive American citizens as either liberators or unwelcome occupiers. The book opens with a lovely description of a Paris morning, but the mood becomes ominous as protagonist Bill Helmer awakens full of anxiety and apprehension. It’s his first day back as principal of the American High School in Paris, which is supported and run by the U.S. military. Capt. Murphy is the school officer, a rule-and-order aficionado who is compelled to protect the children from what he perceives as brewing political radicalism. But Helmer, who values a more liberal education, frequently butts heads with Murphy and others who favor discipline. Helmer becomes distracted when he falls for Colette, the lovely, fiery new French teacher who he pursues despite his status as her superior. Johnston interweaves this love story with those of Hal Evans, the assistant principal who desperately searches Paris for his lost love–a Yugoslavian refugee named Zizi–and students Tony Mosca and Kay Selner, who struggle to resolve the issue of Kay’s unexpected pregnancy. These two plotlines are touching and compelling. Far too brief are the scenes between Colette and Jean, a Communist and her former lover. Their relationship, and their conversations concerning the corrupt bourgeois ideals Jean feels the Americans are importing, are richly complex. Using a setting other than the high school might lend much-needed drama to the story–Johnston pays far too much attention to the minutia of school administration and the discussions among the PTA members.

Many beautiful descriptions and engaging dialogues, but the cast of characters would benefit from a school vacation.

Pub Date: March 22, 2007

ISBN: 978-1-4259-7368-1

Page Count: -

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

bookshelf

BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

bookshelf

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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WOMEN
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT ALONE
by Kristin Hannah

bookshelf

THE ALCHEMIST

by Paulo Coelho & translated by Margaret Jull Costa ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1993

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.

bookshelf

Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.

The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.