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UPSTATE

Bingham's blistering, high-voltage portrait of a woman tantruming through a life-crisis-within-sexual-obsession lacks the icy control of the shrewd Small Victories (1992), but, still, her latest has a wayward fascination. The story begins at the clean-out auction of all the furnishings in Ann's upstate New York home, where she lived until five months ago with husband David and their three children. Now, divorce is in the works, and Ann is plotting for psychic space, planning this auction in order to rid herself of everything—even the children's possessions, except for one chosen item, must go- -that suggests dependency. There is a sickness in dependency and connection, and Ann (who narrates) declares, ``My roots have filled all the available space.'' Husband David, polite, decent and kind, is also slippery as an eel; he had offered accommodating sex but withheld his money. Meanwhile, Ann, change-hungry, savors an obsession. For some time she has been having an affair with neighbor Edwin—``the only man in the world who exists independently of my love and attention''—who earlier announced, ``No marriage. No divorce,'' as they'd settled down to their first earthshaker in a meadow. Edwin is married to Flora, an imposing, powerful housewife and mother and a friend to Ann. Yet Ann is desperate to be more than just a sex interlude. (Flora has told Ann that Edwin has affairs when he's ``bored.'') In the present, as the auction winds down, Ann gets the inevitable message from Edwin—and makes a (literally) flaming retort. Bingham's canny, acidulous portraiture gives point and clarity to what could have been (and comes dangerously close to being) a highly risible view of an odd lady—part Boadicea, part loon- -booming after her randy Heathcliff. Disappointing, in the light of Bingham's other work, but diverting.

Pub Date: June 1, 1993

ISBN: 1-877946-33-8

Page Count: 176

Publisher: Permanent Press

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1993

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

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

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MAGIC HOUR

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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