Another take on the beloved boxing-drama genre, strong in its gritty detail but weak in its form.
In this debut story told in the form of a screenplay, two brothers consider returning to the kickboxing ring in the hope of one last payday.
As teenagers, Paul and John train and compete as kickboxers together. Paul is a serious talent and favored by the boys’ tough-love father, but John makes up for what he lacks in artistry with a whole lot of firepower—he’ll defend himself with his fists at all costs, both in the ring and on the streets. After the glory days of their youth pass them by, Paul struggles alongside their parents to earn enough money to pay off their greedy landlord despite their hard, honest work on the family farm. Meanwhile, John succumbs to the easy temptations of booze and women—not to mention a bar fight or two. Paul eventually signs up for one last fight in the hope of earning enough money to save the farm, while John finds himself being drawn back into the sport through less respectable channels: street fights for cash. Will either brother be able to defeat the reigning kickboxing champion, the ruthless Tango, and find redemption? Debut author de Klerk creates two believable blue-collar brothers fighting to survive in a tough, often cruel world. In its best moments, the story packs a powerful emotional punch. However, the strange decision to tell the story in the form of a screenplay, as opposed to a novel, misfires due to clunky scene directions and awkward narration, as in a voice-over by John: “Michael never got to be champion and dropped out of the sport. Tim lost all interest in life and just lives from day to day. Paul never won a championship; will he ever get his Mercedes?” Although the story itself is appealing, the way it’s told becomes as tiring as 12 rounds in the ring.
Another take on the beloved boxing-drama genre, strong in its gritty detail but weak in its form.Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4809-0903-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing Co.
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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