Following in the footsteps of Iris Murdoch, Vickers is concerned with the spiritual dimensions of love and love’s effect on...
A psychiatrist with his own bedeviling ghosts finds himself irrevocably changed by his interactions with a patient in this philosophical romance from British novelist Vickers (Mr. Golightly’s Holiday, 2004, etc.).
David, who has never resolved his guilt over the accidental death of his older brother as a small child, specializes in treating suicidal patients. His latest, Elizabeth, is slow to open up until she and David discuss the art of Caravaggio. Elizabeth tells him her story in one hours-long session. She was deeply in love with an art scholar, Thomas, who introduced her to Caravaggio years earlier. Elizabeth and Thomas spent one perfect night together, then lost track of each other for years (shades of An Affair to Remember). Elizabeth made an unhappy marriage and bore two children before she and Thomas found each other again and rekindled their love as soulmates. Although Thomas was ever patient and devoted, Elizabeth was unable to move beyond indecision and distrust of her and Thomas’s feelings. While visiting Thomas in Italy, Elizabeth acceded to a summons home from her tyrannical mother-in-law. Thomas had a heart attack and died before she could return to him. She has never forgiven herself. Immediately after hearing Elizabeth’s story, David learns that his own wife, Olivia, whom he does not really like, is having an affair with his best friend, who happens to be married to the woman David loved but dumped for Olivia. Elizabeth checks out of the hospital, but she has opened David’s eyes to the truths in his own life. While in Italy to give a lecture against the indiscriminate use of lobotomies, David sees Elizabeth one last time. His lecture becomes a moving description of Caravaggio’s painting The Supper at Emmaus.
Following in the footsteps of Iris Murdoch, Vickers is concerned with the spiritual dimensions of love and love’s effect on the soul.Pub Date: March 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-374-22190-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
