A gripping account that will appeal to fiction-lovers and war historians alike.
A 17-year-old protagonist captures the Vietnam War experience with eloquence and wit.
Richard Murphy drops out of high school during his senior year to volunteer for the Vietnam War. He likens the opportunity to the rush a football player feels when he’s headed to the playoffs, making it clear that Richard is not your typical 1970-era army enlistee. Neither is this slim novel the typical, ham-handed war epoch. Vidaurri, who also served in Vietnam from 1970 to 1972, paints a complex image of the war, using excerpts of fictionalized letters and subtle psychological analysis. Wide-eyed and observant, Richard arrives in Chu Lai, Vietnam, and immediately realizes the worthlessness of his army training. He has never seen a land mine, isn’t aware that he should avoid bathing alone in the rivers and is nearly flattened by the oppressive heat. But after adapting, he becomes a tank gunner who witnesses the quiet beauty of Vietnam as well as the brutality of war. The author describes the thrill of pristine beaches and the South China Sea as well as the hazards of fire ants, snakes and tree mines. We meet Mata, a stoic soldier on his fifth tour of Vietnam who walks off into the jungle rather than leave the country with the rest of the army. Richard and his best friend Edward celebrate their 19th birthdays together; later Richard retrieves the faceless body of his friend after he is killed by a landmine. During his time off, Richard reads Capote, Hemingway, Maugham and a host of other literary icons. The author surrounds the teen with expressive imagery and scenes filled with breathless action, writing with enough detail to pull readers into this tension-filled world. After almost two years in the war, Richard becomes disconnected from his life in Los Angeles–he’s entranced by the constant adrenaline surge and wants to stay in Vietnam. Vidaurri weaves a bittersweet tale that leaves readers similarly enthralled.
A gripping account that will appeal to fiction-lovers and war historians alike.Pub Date: Jan. 29, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-4196-4858-6
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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