A thought-provoking and ultimately moving story that looks at love, human nature, and conservative religion.
In the latest novel from Morris (Canoedling in Cleveland, 2014, etc.), a pair of star-crossed lovers—one Muslim, one Christian—face familial and societal pressures in rural Maryland.
Pre-med student Atif Bhati, the young son of Pakistani Muslim parents, and high school senior Amy Breckenridge, the daughter of a prosperous American dairy farmer, experience personal chemistry almost from the first moment they meet. Early on, Amy expresses curiosity about Islam, and Atif is pleased by her open-mindedness and happy to teach her what he knows. As their relationship deepens, the entrenched beliefs of their parents become more and more problematic, as each family harbors issues about the other’s community and faith. Atif's father, the chief surgeon at a local hospital, is spearheading a movement to build a new mosque for the local Muslim community, and he tells Atif about the town’s mulish opposition and frustrating red tape. The conflicts among the families and townspeople are eventually felt in Atif and Amy’s relationship, as well. Morris braids the various tensions so smoothly into the narrative that even the most hard-line, ideological secondary characters feel believable. But the novel’s main strength is its handling of its simplest plotline: the slow build of Atif and Amy’s romance. Morris fleshes it out with a good deal of humor and sensitivity, which allows him to work in several detailed explorations of theological topics as his characters examine the tenets of Christianity and Islam from various angles. The ending is predictable, but the author keeps the pacing taut as the story plays out against the backdrop of a complicated, modern world.
A thought-provoking and ultimately moving story that looks at love, human nature, and conservative religion.Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5372-3327-7
Page Count: 272
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 27, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
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
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
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