A balanced and evocative saga of everyday American life after the war.
A thoroughly enjoyable sequel to Worthy’s Town (2000): an anecdotal story featuring the rascals and waifs of Depression-era small-town Illinois.
When last we saw Worthy and Cappy Giberson, the father and son (though he and the late Willa raised the boy; Cappy is really Worthy’s grandson) were about to part ways as young Cappy prepared to put his storytelling skills to use as a journalism major in college. Now, WWII is over and Cappy is out of school, returning to Old Kane to look for work at an area paper. Also reappearing is Drayton Hunt, just released from prison, and, so he claims, a changed man. Drayton, Cappy’s biological father (Cappy’s unmarried teenage mother died in childbirth), is hoping to finally reconcile with his son, but more than a jailhouse conversion and a promise to be good are required for the bitter young man, who blames Hunt for the death of his mother and best friend. Meanwhile, long-lost brother Tick (gorgeous to look at but a bit soft in the head) is done assisting the flamboyant traveling evangelist Reverend Art (while also serving as the Reverend’s bed-warmer) is making his way home, having given up on God and looking forward to farming with Worthy. With all characters converging on Old Kane, the dust begins to stir: Drayton seeks Bible lessons from the local preacher, who has a far-too-appreciative eye for Drayton’s slim physique; Cappy begins a hesitant flirtation with the headstrong Oleeta; an African-American woman may be somewhere in the town passing for white; and a young girl is raped, with all gossiping fingers wrongly pointed at Drayton Hunt. All the while Cappy is scraping by as a freelancer, sending these stories to a St. Louis paper, hoping for his big break as a writer. Rolens is a subtle narrator, exposing the prejudices and provinciality of Old Kane (the whole town just loves the amateur minstrel show they put on) along with a seamier side of life that even quaint rural living has no immunity from.
A balanced and evocative saga of everyday American life after the war.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2003
ISBN: 1-882593-75-8
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Bridge Works
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2003
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
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