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THE DRIFTLESS ZONE

Name: THE DRIFTLESS ZONE
Author: Rick Harsch
ISBN: 1-883642-32-9

OR A NOVEL CONCERNING THE OUTMIGRATION FROM SMALL CITIES

by Rick Harsch ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 23, 1997

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Out of La Crosse, Wisconsin (home of Nicholas Ray), comes a quirky black comedy paying considerable homage to film noir: a solid debut about a hired psychokiller who steps off a bus into a city aware of (and dreading) his arrival, sending ripples of fear and desperation through the demimonde. Before killer Richie Buck brought matters to a head by decapitating a live pigeon with his teeth, the denizens of La Crosse lived their squalid lives with no interest in betterment. Protagonist Spleen sponged off his twin brother, living the low life to the fullest, until he met The Sneering Brunette in a pawn shop just as its owner was detailing his son's failed suicide leap into the river. Spleen and the Brunette exchange a few words and then cut to the chase, climbing into bed and into each other's tawdry lives. A chance hotdog on a cold night brings them to misery, however, when they interrupt a stakeout of the bus station as the hit man arrives; the Brunette's ex, the man who hired Buck, sees the couple and decides that letting them live would be a liability. A pair of rogue undercover cops enter the mix through the stakeout, along with a pigeon fancier who, after Buck swallows his pet's head, warns Spleen of what to expect. Taking action for the first time in his life, Spleen goes on the offensive, buying a pistol and setting a trap for Buck, after first setting up both the cops and Buck's employer. But his inability to commit totally to the Brunette sends her out the door, and his well-laid plan for the showdown is obscured by, believe it or not, an especially heavy hatch of mayflies. Melodramatic and tough-guy-terse to excess, in true noir tradition, with a fringe of grim humor: a first novel that's too heavy on the hardboil at times, but appealing in its idiosyncracies all the same—and an almost sure harbinger of better things to come.

Pub Date: June 23, 1997

ISBN: 1-883642-32-9

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Steerforth

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1997

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE SLEEP OF THE ABORIGINES
by Rick Harsch

- BOOK REVIEW
BILLY VERITê
by Rick Harsch

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WOMEN
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT ALONE
by Kristin Hannah

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THE ALCHEMIST

by Paulo Coelho & translated by Margaret Jull Costa ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1993

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.

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Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.

The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.