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GOD

Name: GOD
Author: Stephen Hayward
ISBN: 1-85242-259-9

AN ANTHOLOGY OF FICTION

edited by Stephen Hayward & Sarah Lefanu ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1993

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Each of 19 different writers gives us a take on the divine- -with more points of view and tones of voice than in the whole of the Old Testament. Feeling that ``in the last ten years, religion has re-entered the public consciousness,'' the editors set out to see what the current literary scene could make of it. They might well have been surprised by what they found. Many stories here are typical expressions of the anger and disillusionment that have pervaded most modern treatments of the subject, but there are quite a few wild cards in the deck—and these from unlikely sources. In Aamer Hussein's ``Your Children,'' a secular Indonesian intellectual watches her children grow up to embrace the Islamic precepts she'd left behind, then throw themselves into the political turmoil that surrounded the Gulf War of 1991. There is also plenty of feminist angst: both Tony Grist (``The White Lady'') and John Wakeman (``Sherry at the Rectory'') write of the frustration of women who want to serve a Church that won't ordain them, and Maureen Duffy's ``Last Priestess'' crucifies herself—literally—in a show of contempt for Christianity. Joyce Carol Oates's ``Work in Progress'' manages to incarnate the awkward soullessness of the suburban classes in Michael O'Meara, a twentysomething Candide who drifts from seminary to medical school to home without picking up much of anything along the way. Christopher Hope (``My Stigmata'') and James Morrow (``The Soap Opera'') both approach the subject for its comic potential—the book of Job as a sitcom, the stigmata as an embarrassment to agnosticism—with little wit and less grace. Only David Plante's recollections of a lover's suicide (``The Space About God'') manage to evoke a real mystery that is all the more palpable in that the narrator himself cannot understand what has happened and cannot rest in his ignorance. No one else seems to convey the proper obsession. A very mixed bag, with a few gems amid the dreck.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1993

ISBN: 1-85242-259-9

Page Count: 248

Publisher: Serpent’s Tail

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1993

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
OBSESSION
edited by Sarah Lefanu & Stephen Hayward

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WOMEN
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT ALONE
by Kristin Hannah

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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.