An engaging travelogue for all persuasions of the cruising set.
Ishmael meets Maurice in this seafaring memoir of self-discovery.
While many a wandering youth join the navy to see the world, first-time author Rivellino picks a more genteel vessel for exploration: Norwegian America Line's stately Sagafjord. The memoir centers on Rivellino’s experiences as a 19-year-old shore-excursion assistant on the ship's 98-day Great World Cruise. Though purportedly just slightly fictionalized (in the interest of privacy), the tale contains all the elements of a classic bildungsroman—restless youth, self-awakening, high adventure. In 1973, our protagonist quits college and his suburban Westchester (N.Y.) roots to pursue a romantic dream of life at sea. The voyage does not disappoint—besides detailed accounts of the exotic reaches of both hemispheres, we encounter inclement weather, untimely deaths, class struggles between the ship's staff and crew, a glimpse of Vietnam from the water, and as many sexual epiphanies as traversed time zones. The recurrent theme of seeking a sense of belonging creates an interesting tension for the protagonist and the rest of a shore-excursion staff comprised mostly of gay men. Not to mention a crew that he wishes to befriend but is not allowed to be seen with, and a ship full of wealthy seniors. Witnessing the frail elderly—" 'between eighty and dead' "—as they welcome or are cowed by trips at various ports of call or across the dance floor, inspires the repressed teen to seize the day and act on his budding homosexuality. On the far side of this struggle comes a marked emotional and intellectual maturity that, while earned, is a hair compressed for but a few months at sea. Also, the epilogue, spiked with updates on the ship's many characters, as if all had been created equal, appears contrived, too ready for Hollywood—but ready for Hollywood nonetheless.
An engaging travelogue for all persuasions of the cruising set.Pub Date: May 1, 2004
ISBN: 1-4010-9540-2
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
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
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
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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