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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.

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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

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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.