An idiosyncratic poetic lark with a clear religious message.
Animals role-play events from humanity’s history, highlighting its foibles and providing a few laughs.
Feinland (Homesick for Heaven, Part 3, 2014, etc.) tells a fable of Western civilization during four eras: from Jesus’ birth to his betrayal and crucifixion; from the early days of Christianity to the Middle Ages; from the French Revolution to World War II; and from the disputed U.S. presidential election of 2000 to an imagined future uprising of the underclass and a time of blissful peace. He does it all in the form of a long, epic poem, using a menagerie of animals to stand in for humans. In the beginning, a chaste lion falls in love with a moon deity he calls “Diana.” A virgin lioness named Marlene follows Diana and gives birth to a cub named Leo who, as prophesied in the poem, goes on to “splash ’round in our tub / And rule us with a hand of iron. / He will preach unto them / Who love Hashem [God] / With mighty power.” Leo goes on to lead a band of apostles, including animals named Simple Simon, Andy, and Rocky. Three days after a band of wolves kills Leo, Diana’s rays revive him. The story blazes on through the centuries as the cast of animals changes. Feinland revels in wordplay, from the simple to the obscure. Rocky the Lion, for example, stands in for Peter the first pope (“Peter” comes from the Latin “petrus,” or “rock”), and a wolf named Dolf cries out to his followers, “Ve volves must look after our own / Or be left mitout efen ein bone!” Later, an Australian media-mogul kangaroo “hopped over to America / Publishing and filming garbage.” As a result, despite its cast of animal characters, this retelling is more suited to adult readers. Feinland’s poetry is rangy and varied, moving from blank verse to rhymed couplets to simple four-line rhymes and back again. Sometimes the lines seem smooth and natural, and at others, they’re squeezed uncomfortably into their forms. The most appreciative readers will be those who know the underlying biblical and historical tales, as they’ll chuckle at the reframing.
An idiosyncratic poetic lark with a clear religious message.Pub Date: June 7, 2012
ISBN: 978-1470171070
Page Count: 96
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 27, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
