GLASS MOUNTAIN

Name: GLASS MOUNTAIN
Author: R.M. Koster
ISBN: 0-393-02007-X

by R.M. Koster ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2001

Glass Mountain is an arduous climb. Still, it’s always good to know what Koster is up to, even if he’s never come close to...

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A high-concept premise unfortunately obscures both characterization and theme in the latest from Koster, an American writer based in Panama who’s best known for his Latin American–based, science-fictional Tinieblas Trilogy (The Prince, The Dissertation, and Mandragon).

The narrator and protagonist is Carlos Fuertes, an adventurer-mercenary (and son of the assassinated former president of a fictional banana republic) who has survived “three tours of operating in North Vietnam” as a rescuer of downed pilots held prisoner behind enemy lines. As the story begins, Carlos (a.k.a. “Carl Marenga”) is well established in his present career: “stealing children” for estranged or divorced parents who’ve lost both custody of their offspring and patience with legal recourse. Koster grabs the reader’s attention early on (despite throwing out names of numerous secondary characters without immediately identifying them), characterizing Carlos as a thoughtful amoralist who’s nevertheless bedeviled by both erotic and menacing dreams, as well as hallucinations that evoke his action-filled past and seem to forecast his catastrophic future. Detailed accounts of his exploits as rescuer and assassin, and of his training as part of the “elite unit” (code-named “Golden Retriever”) specializing in rescue missions, are often quite interesting in themselves, but don’t really seem to lead anywhere. Focus is attained when, on a mission to kidnap an American embezzler who has found sanctuary in the fictional country of Atacalpa, Carlos reencounters a woman whose children he had abducted (acting for her ex-husband), realizes he loves her, and undertakes his own “mission” (dubbed “Glass Mountain,” after a fairy tale he’s loved since childhood) in an effort to reverse his criminal course and realize the best of those aforementioned dreams. A most curious novel, whose impressive density of detail clogs its workings and leaves its protagonist too hazily sketched to solicit much reader empathy.

Glass Mountain is an arduous climb. Still, it’s always good to know what Koster is up to, even if he’s never come close to matching the achievement of his Tinieblas novels.

Pub Date: May 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-393-02007-X

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2001

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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.