In a first US publication for Anglo-Israeli author Louvish, the Intifada, the Mossad, American wacko fundamentalism, the NYPD, ultra-orthodox West Bank settlers, the CIA, rabid supporters of all or some of the above, as well as the mayor of Jerusalem, fill the much too exciting days of an Israeli journalist who would rather hide among the TV listings. Television writer Joe Dekel is at the center of the bizarre chain of events that begins with the introduction in New York of someone who says he is Dekel's ``silencer''—Didi Schaeffer. According to Didi, a silencer's job is to see that dangerously pro-Palestinian writings such as Dekel has been known to dabble in never see the light of day on this side of the Atlantic. Dekel is in town against his will, covering yet another hopeless peace forum when he would rather be playing video and other domestic games back in Jerusalem, where he and his wife are thinking maybe they'll have a baby. But before he leaves Manhattan, Dekel stumbles into a murder scene where the expiring corpse either curses him or slips him some sensational information. Sorting this out will require further adventures and involvement with a 100-year-old American Jewish supporter of rational solutions to irrational Israeli governance, murderous encounters with the real Didi Schaeffer, who's not a bit like the fake Didi on the West Bank, a crippling run-in with a stun grenade, and an endless stream of threatening heavies, all of whom have interests in the occupied territories. There's a thriller plot here, but Louvish's heart is in the wry wrappings, hours of observations on Israeli political and moral life with always a finger to the ribs. Action fanciers will drift off early, humor fanciers a little later, policy wonks will make it to the end.
Pub Date: May 15, 1993
ISBN: 1-56656-116-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Interlink
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1993
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
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
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.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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