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American Landscape

Name: American Landscape
Author: Robert M. Tucker
ISBN: 978-0615760902

by Robert M. Tucker ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2013

An ambitious but unevenly executed historical novel.

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Tucker, in his debut, offers a detailed novel of 1930s America.

In 1939, FBI agent Howard Gimble is assigned to investigate his childhood sweetheart, union organizer Yelena Ivanov. When he follows her across the country by train, Tucker’s descriptions put readers right there at his shoulder; every detail is in place—the Pullman car he travels in, the brass fixtures, the bed and fold-down writing desk. During flashbacks, the author details the smells of the bakery where Gimble once worked and the shop where Ivanov’s father made violins and other musical instruments—a series of sights, sounds and smells that deepen the narrative. The novel often cites facts and historical details that provide helpful context, even when these sections tend to stray too far from the characters and main action. It’s understandable, as Tucker tries to encompass an entire age in this epic story—covering everything from union organizing, to the reign of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, to Native American issues. The story provides plenty for readers to grab on to once the action reaches the microcosm of Mesa, N.M., where, during a strike, Gimble, Ivanov, federal marshal Everett Carmody and reporter Randolph Logan stand on the side of the workers and the Navajo on the local reservation; on the other side, Hoover and corrupt FBI agents Halen Braun and Clyde Tolson try to suppress supposed enemies of the state. Although the author’s attention to detail is solid throughout, the novel tends to tell rather than show, divulging characters’ first-person thoughts when more subtle gestures might have provided a tighter, more compelling read. Early on, for example, the story spells out Gimble’s and Ivanov’s romantic feelings, which partly deflates the impact of the flashbacks in which they first meet. That said, the same flashbacks contain effective moments, as when the young Gimble watches Ivanov and her sister, two musical prodigies, practice their instruments.

An ambitious but unevenly executed historical novel.

Pub Date: May 1, 2013

ISBN: 978-0615760902

Page Count: 440

Publisher: Heartland Books

Review Posted Online: June 7, 2013

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- SEEN & HEARD
Salinger Focus of NYPL Exhibit

- SEEN & HEARD
NYC Mayoral Candidates Name Favorite Gotham Books

- APPRECIATIONS
Holden Caulfield: Forever Young

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JURASSIC PARK

by Michael Crichton ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 7, 1990

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Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.