Wiley (Soldiers in Hiding, 1985, etc.) continues to range far afield for his material; here, his subject is the reeducation of an American in Nigeria. Forthright, hard-working and incorruptible, 57-year-old Jerry Neal is the very model of a modern school principal, and his International School is an enclave of calm in the turbulence of Lagos. But Jerry has tunnel vision: the Nigeria beyond his campus is a blur, and his prized collection of Nigerian artwork is mere decor. Wiley uses the mechanism of a political conspiracy to have Jerry really see his habitat. It's late 1983; various military factions are plotting the overthrow of the corrupt civilian government, while a civilian group hopes the military will give their guy—Beany Abubakar, a charismatic populist—a break. Beany's group needs a Western pawn to demonstrate government corruption; they choose Jerry. They set fire to a ministry; Jerry is charged with arson. An American embassy plan to smuggle him out of the country goes awry; Jerry is surrounded by the conspirators, who come clean, appealing to him to stay and stand trial. Especially persuasive is Beany's gorgeous ex-wife Pamela, who almost ends Jerry's five years of celibacy (dating from the death of his beloved wife Charlotte). Jerry lets her drive him out of Lagos to Beany's ancestral village, and we switch from a suspense to a road novel as Jerry looks, listens, and learns: that pidgin English is not inferior to standard English; that juju (voodoo) is a vital component of Nigerian art and culture. He returns to Lagos with a bundle of talismanic artwork, and though Beany is killed in the confusion of the military coup and Jerry resumes his career, inwardly he has been changed for life. Wiley's affection for Nigeria and Nigerians gives his work a buoyancy that compensates for but cannot hide its weaknesses: Jerry's blandness, the contrivance of his immersion in Nigerian culture, and an ending that elevates his cleansed vision above the national tragedy of Beany's death.
Pub Date: Sept. 8, 1992
ISBN: 0-525-93547-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1992
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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