A sprawling, adrenaline-drenched story that will appeal even to readers who know next to nothing about auto racing.
In this fact-based historical novel, a journalist seeks to uncover the secrets of the men who dominated Grand Prix racing in Europe prior to the second world war.
It’s 1968 when American writer Joe Deutsch arrives in Venice to interview journalist Johnny Finestrini for a book he’s writing on the giants of Grand Prix motor racing in Germany and Italy during the 1930s. The characters the two men discuss are so vibrant and colorful that one can hardly believe they were all real, let alone that so many died in fiery tragedy. There was Bernd Rosemeyer, the young German who represented everything Hitler wanted his Reich to be; Tazio Nuvolari, the “Flying Mantuan,” whose familial tragedies eliminated any fear of death on the track; and Achille Varzi, a stylish man seemingly born to be a champion. Finestrini, who wrote about them all for Italy’s Gazzetta, tells Deutsch about the pressure from Mussolini himself to turn Nuvolari and Varzi’s rivalry into something more harmonious in print. Varzi’s love for Ilse—a morphine addict and the wife of one of his competitors—led to his eventual downfall, but Deutsch believes that there’s more to the story than a beautiful siren leading a great man into an addiction even more dangerous than his desire to win. But does the tricky, manipulative Finestrini know, and will he tell? Experienced journalist and debut novelist Martini spent a decade researching the real men whose stories form the basis of this work of fiction, and it shows in the both epic and intimate details that make this story spring to life. In Martini’s prose, one can almost hear the tires screeching around the track, from the dry deserts of Libya to the damp mountains of Italy, from the sparkling streets of Monaco all the way to the shores of the United States. Amid the pungent fumes of gasoline, readers will also feel the sense of dread as the world inched closer to war.
A sprawling, adrenaline-drenched story that will appeal even to readers who know next to nothing about auto racing.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2014
ISBN: 978-1906582432
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Aurora Metro Press
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
© 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.
