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
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
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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