Latest in Birmingham's infatuations with other peoples' lives (Shades of Fortune, 1989, etc.)—here in another of his popular tales of Manhattan mensch on the move, with shaky pasts and glittery presents, their women and their well-kept secrets. This time, the death of a famous retail magnate turns out to have been murder, and it's his daughter who'll save both the endangered business and her own self-esteem as her father's past steams open. Silas Tarkington (nÇ Solomon Tarcher), founder and owner of Tarkington's—a Fifth Avenue emporium for the super-rich/super- chic—is found floating in his Long Island mansion's swimming pool. But Silas, it seems, was in perfect health—and why did second wife Consuela, who found the body, call a doctor friend a half-hour away instead of 911? Meanwhile, Silas's daughter Miranda, always discouraged by her father from a career in the store, accepts with pleasure the invitation of Silas's right-hand man, handsome Tommy Bonham, to be a partner in administering Tarkington's. Silas' son by his first wife, however, is not mentioned in the will, and neither is Moses Minskoff, a gross chewer of dead cigars, telephone glued-to-ear—a combo of Bugsy Siegel and Fibber Fox, given to toss off wonders like ``entre vous'' and ``tempo fugit, as the fella says.'' This Birmingham cartoon, broad as a meat axe, has had a lot to do with the rise of Silas Tarkington. Now, out of the mists of the past, arise: ancient mother Rose and sister Simma, as well as a mysterious lady in a West End Avenue brownstone, her hand out for a monthly payment personally delivered by Silas. While Miranda suffers and wonders about Dad's women in and out of wedlock, a nice journalist begins to help Miranda snoop—successfully. An agreeable enough mystery enlivened by Birmingham's sense of intimacy with the scene. The author's following—carriage-to-subway trade—is a given.
Pub Date: Aug. 16, 1993
ISBN: 0-553-08135-7
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1993
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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