Debut novel by screenwriter Vetere exploring Catholic dogma, the nature of miracles, and the process by which a saint is canonized. Vetere tells an absorbing tale of a priest who secretly acknowledges that he has lost his faith but who is nonetheless called to investigate whether a woman long resident in a convent in New York was in fact a saint. The story turns on God's grace and its mysterious workings, with little hint of melodrama. Father Frank Moore made a splash when he published The God Within, a study of faith. Then Frank's mentor, Father Falcone, became involved in what seemed to be miraculous events and was himself examined for canonization following his death. Frank, sent to investigate, discovered that Father Falcone had lost his faith and drowned himself. Devastated, his own faith shattered, Frank goes into hiding until the materialistic Cardinal Cahill finds and appoints him to consider the possible canonization of Helen Stephenson. Actually, the Cardinal wants Frank to destroy Stephenson, since she also spoke out for the ordination of female priests. But miracles surround her. For ten years, the statue of the Virgin outside the church of St. Stanislaus in Queens has cried tears of blood every October, the month of Stephenson's death. A cult arises, and, as at Lourdes, the sick arrive to be healed by the tears; some are saved at the brink of death. Frank's job, meanwhile, is to probe every aspect of Stephenson's life and look for flaws that would deny sainthood. One such flaw seems to be that Stephenson, a nurse, abandoned her daughter Roxana in order to enter the convent at St. Stanislaus, and Roxanna has never forgiven her. Frank becomes embroiled erotically with Roxanna, but eventually he must face a Vatican team of cardinals and lay out the case for Stephenson. Fascinating portrait of the church's internal workings—but the characters (and drama) take second place to larger questions of faith and doubt.
Pub Date: June 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-7867-0413-6
Page Count: 256
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1997
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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