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DUNEDIN

Name: DUNEDIN
Author: Shena Mackay
ISBN: 1-55921-093-1

by Shena Mackay ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1993

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The long consequences of lust and child abuse in distant New Zealand, limned in scenes of dark humor, horror, and unexpected redemptive love by the much gifted British writer Mackay (A Bowl of Cherries, 1992, etc.). With the exception of the first and last chapters, set in Dunedin, New Zealand, in 1909 and 1910, respectively, the story takes place in an end-of-history sort of England: specifically, South London—a shabby, menacing place with a ``drainy smell,'' where stores are boarded up, panhandlers are everywhere, and ruined houses, in whose overgrown gardens foxes now live, are occupied by ill-assorted outcasts. When Jack Mackenzie, a reluctant Presbyterian minister, accepts the offer of a position in New Zealand, he is more interested in natural science than in theology. Though married with three children, he is also as much beguiled by the family's half-caste laundress, Myrtile, as the with the exotic flora he finds in his new country. Fast-forward then to the present, as middle-aged Olive and William Mackenzie, children of Jack's son Sandy, a lovable but compulsive con man indelibly warped by his father's cruelty, reluctantly share William's house. Olive, divorced, is recovering from an affair with novelist Terry Turner; William, who gave up his beloved teaching when a student under his supervision was murdered, is equally unhappy. Over a year's time, Olive impulsively steals a baby (William returns it somehow); picks fights with friends; and, alone on holiday, finally acknowledges ``the pain she has caused'' others, and her inadvertent role in her mother's death. William also finds love and peace, but the darkest consequence of distant Dunedin is orphan Jay Pascal, a product of Jack Mackenzie's lust, whose desperate experiences in England, though horrifying in their telling, never quite tie in with the rest. A rich feast to be enjoyed page by page as Mackay, in often dazzling prose, describes the hilarious antics of bibulous writers or, with moving lyricism, those ``surprised by joy.''

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1993

ISBN: 1-55921-093-1

Page Count: 296

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1993

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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by Shena Mackay

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THE ARTIST'S WIDOW
by Shena Mackay

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AN ADVENT CALENDAR
by Shena Mackay

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE LAND OF SWEET FOREVER
by Harper Lee ; edited by Casey Cep

- BOOK REVIEW
GO SET A WATCHMAN
by Harper Lee

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DISTANT SHORES

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2002

Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...

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Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.

After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?

Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).