In Silverman’s (Divorce Lawyer: A Satyr’s Tale, 2013, etc.) latest novel, a lawyer makes an audacious attempt to take the Mormon church to court.
The story follows Ralph Stearns from his early years as a Utah Mormon, through his move to New York and embrace of secularism, and into his career as a lawyer. After a stressful, dehumanizing experience at a major law firm, Stearns and several of his colleagues establish their own firm representing stockholders in corporate litigation. They start small, but over the decades they grow into a lucrative enterprise. Stearns juggles mounting professional obligations and persistent family drama, but the novel reaches its stride late in Stearns’ career as he prepares to take on the biggest case of his career—a lawsuit taking on the Mormon church. The case accuses the church of fraud, based on its insistence on tithing despite its ample coffers. The story’s final half follows that case from beginning to end, as Stearns’ personal and professional lives reach their climaxes. The novel manages to combine courtroom drama with theological discussion, and the overall setup is interesting, particularly given the unique issues of the Mormon church. However, the story falls apart in its execution. Its long legal explorations may leave lay readers baffled, and may even leave legal professionals cold. Outside the courtroom, Ralph proves neither interesting nor sympathetic, as he lives a life filled with stock pathologies, including infidelity. The workmanlike prose aims for a knowing, world-weary tone (“The sex was as good as advertised”), but far too often, it feels unnecessary. Silverman, a former lawyer, makes an admirable effort to marry his expertise with the demands of a novel, but too often procedure trumps drama, and archetypes win out over realistic characters.
A novel with an intriguing premise, hampered by too much legalese.
Pub Date: May 5, 2014
ISBN: 978-1497328211
Page Count: 272
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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