bookshelf

CARMICHAEL'S DOG

Name: CARMICHAEL'S DOG
Author: R.M. Koster
ISBN: 0-393-03391-0

by R.M. Koster ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1992

bookshelf

Rich but chaotic novel from the author of ``The Tinieblas Trilogy'': The Prince, The Dissertation, and Mandragon. Koster offers one of those stories about a novelist writing a novel. Here, it's the science-fiction writer Carmichael, author of the internationally famous Vama, which has been travestied in movie form and is one of the sources of Carmichael's discontent. Carmichael is also famous as a curmudgeon who loses himself in the wild fantasies of his stories and, if interrupted, is likely to bite even his loyal wife Nicole. Meanwhile, he's openly unfaithful with a wide variety of women—one of the many demons that possesses him, certainly the one most in evidence, is lust—but will become tender and downright sweet when in pursuit of a new love; no woman can resist him. Then, however, Carmichael tosses one and all aside and returns to his sprawling, all but impenetrable novel, another science-fiction tale where the characters, demons also, take over the narration at times and comment on hapless Carmichael. They have names like Orcis, Hifni, Agla, or Odvart. Then there's the puppy Nicole acquires; Carmichael hates all dogs, but this one is unique, confounding the curmudgeon with its love. Koster is funny, and when he settles down can create characters in a few lines. But he offers almost no story: just wordplay and lust and observations on how hard it is to write a novel. This one in particular, perhaps. A sort of cross between J. P. Donleavy and William Burroughs: good in small doses, but likely to leave most readers in the dust.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1992

ISBN: 0-393-03391-0

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1992

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

bookshelf

CARRIE

by Stephen King ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 8, 1974

King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these...

bookshelf

Figuratively and literally shattering moments of hoRRRRRipilication in Chamberlain, Maine where stones fly from the sky rather than from the hands of the villagers (as they did in "The Lottery," although the latter are equal to other forms of persecution).

All beginning when Carrie White discovers a gift with telekinetic powers (later established as a genetic fact), after she menstruates in full ignorance of the process and thinks she is bleeding to death while the other monsters in the high school locker room bait and bully her mercilessly. Carrie is the only child of a fundamentalist freak mother who has brought her up with a concept of sin which no blood of the Lamb can wash clean. In addition to a sympathetic principal and gym teacher, there's one girl who wishes to atone and turns her date for the spring ball over to Carrie who for the first time is happy, beautiful and acknowledged as such. But there will be hell to pay for this success—not only her mother but two youngsters who douse her in buckets of fresh-killed pig blood so that Carrie once again uses her "wild talent," flexes her mind and a complete catastrophe (explosion and an uncontrolled fire) virtually destroys the town.

King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these youngsters who once ate peanut butter now scrawl "Carrie White eats shit." But as they still say around here, "Sit a spell and collect yourself."

Pub Date: April 8, 1974

ISBN: 0385086954

Page Count: 216

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1974

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
OTHER WORLDS THAN THESE
by Stephen King & Peter Straub

- BOOK REVIEW
NEVER FLINCH
by Stephen King

- BOOK REVIEW
YOU LIKE IT DARKER
by Stephen King

- PERSPECTIVES
Appreciations: Carrie Turns 40

- SEEN & HEARD
Stephen King Used ‘Carrie’ Advance To Support Mom

- BOOK TO SCREEN
New ‘Carrie’ Series in the Works at Amazon

bookshelf

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

bookshelf

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.