A wild vacation full of humor and adventure.
In Siafu’s humorous debut, Preston Percival Goldfarb, proctologist, and his high-maintenance wife, Ruth Winkleman Goldfarb, take an unexpected vacation.
Percy (Preston) and his wife (known as Winkie or Winkie Tinks) have been married for 35 years, with seemingly nothing in common. While Preston is a hardworking man with a toupee and a slight gut, Winkie is a society woman with a broad frame and a big personality. Winkie tends to run the marriage and their household in every aspect, from raising their children to their yearly vacations. She’s gotten used to an annual beach vacation, complete with drinks and relaxing spa visits, but this year Preston has something else in mind: an adventurous eco tour in an island setting, close to Mother Nature. Unwilling to take a trip without the luxuries she’s used to, Winkie refuses, but Percy makes the reservation before she can stop him, not realizing that in his impatience he booked something a little different. For four days, Percy and Winkie find themselves on an island on a clothing-optional retreat for gay men, living off the land and learning about survival. Plus, Winkie’s trunk has been left at home, leaving her with nothing to wear but the clothes she has on. While Percy spends the first day wringing his hands over his mistake, Winkie swings into action, rounding up the other guests to find clothes, drinks and food to re-create the kind of vacation she wanted. Through her machinations, Percy and Winkie get to know a few of the other guests, as well as visitors to the island who have rather different pursuits in mind. What follows is a madcap series of events culminating in revenge, accidental dismemberment and more than a hint of dark comedy. Percy and Winkie can be grating, especially in the beginning of the book, but readers who stick with the story are in for an amusing and exciting romp into the unknown as the story wanders into unexpected, and perhaps a bit disturbing, territory. Winkie’s willingness to make the best of her situation is especially amusing, and the absurdity of the story may take readers by surprise.
A wild vacation full of humor and adventure.Pub Date: April 24, 2014
ISBN: 978-1480909236
Page Count: 174
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing Co.
Review Posted Online: Oct. 16, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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