An elegant little piece of dark comedy.
This is the first of the prolific Italian author’s novels to be published in English—a cause for celebration.
This inventive satire stars 15-year-old Margherita, as charismatic, though far wiser, than British author Sue Townsend’s popular creation Adrian Mole. She lives with her odd family on the outskirts of the city, not quite in the country, rather a place of both meadows and smog. She, with her beloved mongrel Sleepy, wiles away the days writing just the first line to assuredly brilliant novels and visiting Grandpa Socrates in the attic (he is having an affair with a ghost—Margherita can hear them dancing at night). Margherita stands in awe of her young, genius brother Erminio and the older Giacinto, a pimply football hooligan. Mother Emma is addicted to TV soaps and imaginary smoking, while father Fausto is a professional retiree who collects (and sometimes fixes) junk. A contented bunch all until Margherita’s happily imperfect idyll is altered when a black-glass cube house is built and the new neighbors move in. The Del Bene family, including a ferocious dog (even Sleepy has a rival) undergoing Pavlovian attack -training, is marked by frivolity and foolishness. In a matter of days, Margherita’s family is strikingly transformed by the Del Benes—they become a shinier, greedier, slightly drugged version (this would be Mama suffering the ill effects of cellulite cream) of their former selves, and worse yet, Papa is now partners with Frido Del Bene in the always-suspicious business of import-export. Margherita is not fooled by the perfection of their plastic grass and purified air. Though a little fat and with a bad heart, she knows it’s up to her to save her family, and all those others the Del Benes are attempting to eliminate—gypsies, immigrants, potential communists, the mentally ill and anyone else wary of the black-boot march of an insipid conformity.
An elegant little piece of dark comedy.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2006
ISBN: 1-933372-20-6
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2006
A bold but flawed debut novel.
There’s a mystery, a coming-of-age, abundant melodrama and even more abundant medical lore in this idiosyncratic first novel from a doctor best known for the memoir My Own Country (1994).
The nun is struggling to give birth in the hospital. The surgeon (is he also the father?) dithers. The late-arriving OB-GYN takes charge, losing the mother but saving her babies, identical twins. We are in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1954. The Indian nun, Sister Mary Joseph Praise, was a trained nurse who had met the British surgeon Thomas Stone on a sea voyage ministering to passengers dying of typhus. She then served as his assistant for seven years. The emotionally repressed Stone never declared his love for her; had they really done the deed? After the delivery, Stone rejects the babies and leaves Ethiopia. This is good news for Hema (Dr. Hemalatha, the Indian gynecologist), who becomes their surrogate mother and names them Shiva and Marion. When Shiva stops breathing, Dr. Ghosh (another Indian) diagnoses his apnea; again, a medical emergency throws two characters together. Ghosh and Hema marry and make a happy family of four. Marion eventually emerges as narrator. “Where but in medicine,” he asks, “might our conjoined, matricidal, patrifugal, twisted fate be explained?” The question is key, revealing Verghese’s intent: a family saga in the context of medicine. The ambition is laudable, but too often accounts of operations—a bowel obstruction here, a vasectomy there—overwhelm the narrative. Characterization suffers. The boys’ Ethiopian identity goes unexplored. Shiva is an enigma, though it’s no surprise he’ll have a medical career, like his brother, though far less orthodox. They become estranged over a girl, and eventually Marion leaves for America and an internship in the Bronx (the final, most suspenseful section). Once again a medical emergency defines the characters, though they are not large enough to fill the positively operatic roles Verghese has ordained for them.
A bold but flawed debut novel.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-375-41449-7
Page Count: 560
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2008
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
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