Artful and affecting if a bit long-winded.
In this debut memoir about family and acceptance, a daughter’s lifelong search for normalcy is overshadowed by the antics of her mentally ill mother.
At 16, homecoming queen Sharon Hicks watched her mania-driven mother disrobe in the middle of a department store. In an anecdote that inspired the story’s provocative title and cover design, her mother paraded nude down the escalator, shouting obscenities to perplexed security guards. Hicks goes on to recount a youth and adulthood stocked with similar episodes, beginning in the 1940s and extending to the late ’90s, when she and her family shared the burden of caring for her mother—bailing her out of jail, dealing with doctors, and cleaning up messes, both figurative and literal. Through every event in her life—two abusive marriages, childrearing, numerous sexual liaisons—Hicks keeps one thing in the back of her mind: She mustn’t become her mother. But she takes this pursuit too far, not realizing for many decades that her mother’s freethinking spirit is actually an admirable attribute. Hicks writes honestly, sparing none of the gruesome details related to her mother’s behavior or her own poor decisions, and readers will root for her to prevail. She analyzes situations with beautiful language (“The air around Mother warped and then expanded, like a balloon being stretched beyond its capacity”) and conveys emotions with well-crafted personification: “Resignation introduced itself and shook my hand.” Only occasionally does wordplay go overboard, as in a couple of cringe-worthy sex scenes, and the second half of the story drags at times, with Hicks perpetually dissatisfied by her life and her mother’s repetitive episodes. But the most compelling part of the story is the conflict of opposing forces: normalcy versus lunacy, mother versus father, etc. Ultimately, Hicks yearns for maternal love and attention even after her wealthy father buys her the fancy house and traditional life she thought she wanted. Interestingly, the book also serves as a record of mental health treatments and the development of patient rights as the century progressed.
Artful and affecting if a bit long-winded.Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2012
ISBN: 978-1458206183
Page Count: 276
Publisher: AbbottPress
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An intriguing but flawed update of a classic fairy tale.
Warburton (Sappers Six, 2010) tells a Cinderella story about a British teen working at a superstore.
Oliver Goodfellow sits in a wet parking lot bemoaning his job collecting shopping carts, as he’d rather be studying architecture. His three “grotty” (unattractive) co-workers, meanwhile, always put him down. Bob, Charlie and Jack—a group Oliver calls “the grot”—are portrayed as looking just like Oliver, but with unpleasant expressions and gorillalike limbs. A daydreaming Oliver recalls reading “Cinderella” to his young cousin: “Since I’m a boy he thought that story would never happen to me.” The grot interrupts Oliver’s reverie as they leave for a party at the Disco Club; Oliver, unfortunately, has to stay and work. In the parking lot, he meets Teresa, a “ ‘drop-dead’ pretty” rollerblading girl. Not only does she have tickets to the bash, but she also convinces her father, the store manager, to let Oliver leave—as long as he collects all the trolleys by 10 p.m. Oliver’s delighted but worries about his work clothes. Teresa—serving as fairy godmother and princess—borrows stylish clothes and athletic shoes from the store’s sample bin. Oliver pushes her to the party in a Christmas-decorated trolley, and they create a stir on the dance floor. The grot is amazed: “ ‘Cor!’ was all that they could say.” Oliver slips away just before 10. The next morning, Oliver gets a better job inside the store, and Charlie pulls trolley duty. Teresa, confused by the switch, can’t tell which boy was her dance partner. Oliver, although puzzled, decides to have some fun, suggesting that each boy try on the returned trainers to see if they fit. Soon, Teresa and Oliver are reunited, and everyone laughs about the turnabout Cinderella tale. While the idea of recasting this age-old story in the workaday world has some potential, readers may find this version’s text to be overly wordy and stilted and its illustrations rather stiff. Younger picture-book readers may have difficulty relating to the older characters. The story is also so filled with obscure British expressions that it may not appeal to some American audiences.
An intriguing but flawed update of a classic fairy tale.Pub Date: July 11, 2013
ISBN: 978-1481769822
Page Count: 32
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An expertly crafted thriller that depicts personal drama amid an international scope, with intense action and relentless...
Frank O’Brien seems to have it all—a beautiful wife, a new baby and a rewarding job doing counter-terrorism work for the U.S. government—but when a plane carrying his wife crashes in South America, he’s forced into a dark underworld where the drug trade lords over all.
A follow-up to Wulff’s debut novel, Tropic of Darkness (2012), which also follows the exploits of Frank O’Brien, this sequel peppers in synopsis where needed and lures in new readers with immediate action. The opening chapter reveals a devastating plane crash and the supposed death of Esmeralda O’Brien. However, the plot shifts to the perspective of a survivor whom readers will be able to guess is Esmeralda, even if memory loss has made her unable to recognize herself. Beyond this narrative maneuver, the book is filled with massive plot twists; even the cleverest readers won’t be able to keep up with the ceaseless action. The rapid pacing helps intensify the sense of urgency the characters feel as they’re plunged into a world where the drug trade is more important than family, love or even life itself. Explosions, double-crosses and lethal alliances burst off the page with relentless intensity. But the narrative sometimes falters when it filters information through multiple perspectives, resulting in unnecessary repetition. Instead of allowing readers to process the information, or relating it through action, too much time is spent with characters merely talking about the titular Umber Cube, what it does and how bad it is. Events in the story already show the horrific consequences of the drug trade and how the Umber Cube substance has the potential to destroy thousands of lives, so when characters take significant amounts of time to reiterate what we already know, it seems superfluous. Still, it’s a relatively minor issue, and the rest of the story relates an intriguing depiction of a vast, multinational drug conspiracy with deeply personal fallout.
An expertly crafted thriller that depicts personal drama amid an international scope, with intense action and relentless pacing.Pub Date: March 26, 2012
ISBN: 978-1475104028
Page Count: 382
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 6, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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