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DOLLEY

This pallid historical novel explores Dolley Madison's tenure as first lady, focusing in particular on the year 1814 and conflict with the British. Brown (Venus Envy, 1993, etc.) brings little of her characteristic humor to the tale, making Madison a virtuous bore. Third-person accounts of dinner parties and cabinet meetings are interspersed with selections from Madison's fictional diary, but it all seems geared more to relating historical facts than to entertaining. While a list of characters and short descriptions of their roles precedes the text, Brown finds it necessary to explicate further whenever anyone is introduced, and there are endless passages about Madison's insight into politics and her amazing social skills. Her love for her husband is true and steady, adding little spice to the story; even when certain newspapers accuse the first lady of sleeping around, her husband never doubts her. Madison's involvement in the lives of her slaves is interesting but handled too primly. Sukey, Madison's personal servant, is promiscuous and rebellious (claiming that she will never marry, she says, ``I'm not being the slave of a slave''), but the other people toiling under her command are faithful and adoring. One even insists that were he to be freed, he would remain with her. Some of Madison's recollections about her Quaker upbringing and her growing obsession with shooting craps are intriguing, but they are rarely integral to the proceedings. For those interested in the gossipy side of history there are tidbits like the rumor that John Randolph may have had shrunken genitals or that Louis Serurier, minister from France, and his wife, Lisel, had ``a European marriage at its best,'' meaning that they were free to have affairs. Ultimately, however, nothing much happens in Madison's life. A war rages, but there is little forward motion in her retelling of daily events. Unusually prudish work sabotaged by the author's admiration for her subject. (Literary Guild alternate selection)

Pub Date: May 20, 1994

ISBN: 0-553-08890-4

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Bantam

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1994

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

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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MAGIC HOUR

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

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