A well-researched time-travel adventure lost amid its puerile distractions.
In this debut sci-fi novel, two 20-something time travelers find romance and experiment with sex and drugs in the Roaring ’20s.
When Tom Evans sees a 1922 picture of Beth Howard in his local newspaper’s nostalgic “Backwards Glances” section, he falls in love at first sight and, using the power of his mind, travels back in time to meet her. Since alcohol is hard to come by just two years into Prohibition, Tom and Beth get to know each other in other ways—by drinking cocaine-spiked Coca-Cola at the local soda fountain, smoking mail-order marijuana cigarettes and experimenting with sex. Soon Beth confides that she’s a time traveler as well; for the first time, each has a companion with whom to share their experiences. Tom is finally ready to settle down and live a calmer life, but then conflict arises: Beth’s mother’s illness threatens to take her life, and bankruptcy threatens to take Beth’s family’s home. Armed with 21st-century medical technology and knowledge of the upcoming stock market crash, Tom thinks he can save Beth’s parents—but will he be able to do so without exposing his identity as a time traveler? Readers interested in the ins and outs of Prohibition-era life will appreciate the book’s meticulous research. However, Tom comes off as a cocky, insufferable character whose first-person narration gives the story a juvenile flavor. At one point, Tom’s response to some police officers’ homophobia turns into a pornographic prank. His frequent references to the size of his penis also distract from the story, while the novel’s sex scenes are told with the sort of graphic detail generally reserved for bodice-ripper romances.
A well-researched time-travel adventure lost amid its puerile distractions.Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1478718574
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Outskirts Press Inc.
Review Posted Online: June 6, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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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