Perfect for Civil War buffs, but the action is focused enough to appeal to general readers as well.
A sympathetic portrait of General Robert E. Lee at war.
Set in late June and early July in 1863, this five-act play showcases Lee as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia at the battle of Gettysburg. The general’s role in this historic conflict that yielded some 43,000 casualties and a major Confederate defeat has been much debated; many historians hold Lee, whose army prior to Gettysburg had not known defeat, accountable for the loss. Here, Lee says, “It’s all my fault. [...] My shoulders ask the full share here of blame, / And they will stand beneath it,” but Ranier’s dramatic recasting of history places responsibility squarely on Lee’s inept or quietly insubordinate generals. James Longstreet’s passive-aggressive inaction, in particular, spells trouble for the noble Lee, who doesn’t know how to handle such defiance. In a telling aside, an aide remarks on Lee’s polite response to the obstinate Longstreet: “That all were as kind, and patient! [...] How this one swells, all pleased like a pheasant at feast, / To think he’s changing time by count’ring betters. / Obedience is time’s demand, not argument.” In addition to other soldiers’ descriptions of him in action, Lee’s stateliness comes across both through the import of his speech as well as its cadence, and his accounts of the battle’s progression are exciting and engaging. Apart from Lee’s maneuverings, there are smaller, contrasting scenes involving the rank and file of both North and South, but these, especially those concerning divided brothers who accidentally shoot each other, prove less compelling and more contrived than the vivid battle sequences.
Perfect for Civil War buffs, but the action is focused enough to appeal to general readers as well.Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2006
ISBN: 1-59330-363-7
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
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
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