Magical realism spurs on this solid debut.
In Deib’s debut novel, a personal tragedy leads a woman to obsess over the fates of fictional characters.
It’s been over a week since Angela Crown entered Vancouver General Hospital, deep in shock after Mark, her fiance, and John, her father, were killed during a bank robbery. Her sister, Maggie, takes her home, where they both hope that the warm familiarity will help heal Angela’s shattered mind. She begins seeing a psychiatrist, Dr. Price, and returns to her love of reading. She soon realizes, however, that she has no tolerance for the physical and mental pain that the fictional characters experience. At a book signing, she attacks author Bruce Darling, calling him a criminal for the way he’s tortured his creations. Angela then decides that she’s a “Professional Reader” who must “intervene and rehabilitate depraved plots.” Writer Martin Magier is her next target after his new novel, Sara’s Tragedy, has a successful launch. Soon, she starts believing that her own life is a novel, and although she couldn’t save fellow characters John and Mark, she’s determined to save others. To that end, she refuses to abandon Sara to the cruel end that Magier has written for her—and not even the boundaries of reality can stop her. Deib’s intriguing concept will have readers wondering about the suffering that Angela’s character goes through as the narrative unfolds. The author creates a neat, unique fantasy setup: Angela can interact with characters in fictional worlds—but only as a ghost. She also finds that Magier’s fictional creations worship him as a god, which layers the tale with effective religious commentary. The text frequently shines with simple metaphors that book lovers will understand quite well: “Angela devoured each word and each page like parched soil receiving heavy rains.” Sometimes, though, the prose is a bit overcooked: “Like small fish glued together forming a gigantic shark, they swept across the land as if they were a powerful tsunami.” The sentimental finale leaves plenty of questions open for a potential sequel.
Magical realism spurs on this solid debut.Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2014
ISBN: 978-1500694593
Page Count: 342
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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