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THE WATER DOOR

Name: THE WATER DOOR
Author: Rosetta Loy
ISBN: 1-59051-062-3

by Rosetta Loy & translated by Gregory Conti ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 21, 2006

Loy’s approach is intriguing, but she never fully commits to a narrative voice.

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Facist Italy through the eyes of a bourgeois Roman child largely oblivious to the horrors mounting around her.

To the young narrator, Rome in the 1930s is ruled not by Mussolini, but by her household’s cadre of domestic workers. The cook, Letizia, the maid, Italia, and the chauffer, Francesco, all figure prominently in the little girl’s daily routine, as do the nuns who run her kindergarten. But most important to the child is her luminous German governess, Anne Marie. Despite the fact that Anne Marie is often impatient or even inattentive, the child loves her passionately and unconditionally. As the little girl begins to navigate life independently, two incidents shock her and she becomes increasingly aware of the world’s harshness. First, she encounters and grows fascinated with a mysterious Jewish playmate living across the street. Though she never actually speaks to the Jewish girl, her disappearance from the neighborhood playground affects the narrator profoundly. And then, tragically, her beloved Anne Marie abandons her, leaving the household forever. In an effort to explore the child’s growing understanding of her surroundings, Loy (Hot Chocolate at Hanselmann’s, 2003, etc.) effectively uses stream-of-consciousness as a means of honing in on the oscillations and obsessions of a child’s mind. But these moments are interrupted by very lucid and too-mature thoughts, phrasing and language. The imbalance becomes a major obstacle to enjoying the book.

Loy’s approach is intriguing, but she never fully commits to a narrative voice.

Pub Date: Feb. 21, 2006

ISBN: 1-59051-062-3

Page Count: 120

Publisher: Other Press

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2005

Categories:

HISTORICAL FICTION | GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
HOT CHOCOLATE AT HANSELMANN’S
by Rosetta Loy & translated by Gregory Conti

- BOOK REVIEW
FIRST WORD
by Rosetta Loy & translated by Gregory Conti

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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...

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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

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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.