A promising concept from a talented writer, though the novel fails to deliver.
A high school trip to Washington, D.C., borders on bacchanal in Benincasa’s (Great, 2014, etc.) new novel.
Alicia Deats, a rookie teacher at Flemington High School, has no idea what she's getting herself into when she volunteers to chaperone the sophomore class trip. Though only 23 years old, she’s a hippie holdover, decked out in flowing skirts, political T-shirts, and Birkenstock sandals. Her motivations for signing up to chaperone, however, have little to do with the well-being of her students and more to do with the fact that Brian Kenner, the dreamy yet aloof math teacher, will be along for the ride. Much of the drama that occurs on the trip—including drug use, vicious fighting, and breaking curfew—occurs at the hands of two groups of rival teen girls. The action follows Rachel, Gertie, and Sivan—a tightknit though oddly matched group—as they sneak out after dark to try to make contact with Gertie’s crush from summer camp, who just happens to be in D.C. Along the way, they face off repeatedly with Brooklynn, Peighton, and Kaylee, the members of an enemy clique. The other students are mostly filler, though there are some touching scenes between the nerdy Carter Bump and the handsome and popular Brock Chuddford. The story of what occurs on the trip is framed within two emails sent by Alicia eight years later, an unnecessary structural choice that distances the reader. While Benincasa is well-known as a comedian, much of the humor feels contrived. The wordplay falls flat as many characters end up sounding the same: crass and sarcastic. Despite the dependence on a wide array of swear words, the teenage storyline feels juvenile, while the teachers’ comes across as uneven.
A promising concept from a talented writer, though the novel fails to deliver.Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9960666-3-1
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Adaptive Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2015
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
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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