A fast-paced, straightforward character study that blends humor and pathos.
A novel of human foibles and near redemption.
Tim Hoskings has been slogging through the same miserable routine for years: Wake up, grind through traffic, work a soulless job, come home to a decent if not passionate relationship, maybe go out and drink too much with his friend Todd. In the course of one week, however, Tim’s life turns upside down. Kicked out of his house for cheating and fired from his job for punching a colleague, Tim decides to clean up his act and figure out what’s really important. First up is apologizing to Derek, the man Tim slugged in the office. But, far from a straightforward meeting, Tim’s attempt lands him in a world of unfamiliar sexual practices, near tragedies, love where he least expects it and even a tattoo. Along this journey with Derek and his friend Cassandra, Tim finds himself embroiled in a plot to avenge Cassandra’s just-deceased foster mother, whose birth son, Peter, has been stealing money from her for years. Amusingly, this plan involves Tim and Derek’s participation in a porn shoot at Peter’s studio, as well as a panicked getaway. When he returns, there’s even more chaos on the home front. Tim soon begins to discover that the path to balance and happiness may, occasionally, mean getting a little crazy. Debut authorAllen has crafted a convincingly flawed protagonist whose mistakes and attempts at recompense fuel an entertaining plot. While some of the supporting characters are two-dimensional, readers will appreciate the well-tuned dialogue and unexpected settings (an S&M club, an old woman’s painting studio, the aforementioned porn shoot). While this is no in-depth investigation of the human soul, the reader will come away with a new appreciation for the lines between safe and staid, between out of control and experimental.
A fast-paced, straightforward character study that blends humor and pathos.Pub Date: May 21, 2014
ISBN: 978-1483411866
Page Count: 226
Publisher: Lulu
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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