The eponymous mist seems to cloud the writing, and the meandering tale ends quickly with a conclusion that still seems...
The moody countryside wanderings of an adventurer Hill (A Question of Identity, 2013, etc.) sends on a glacially paced adventure in search of the truth about his hero.
After an unconventional childhood during which he was raised in Africa by a distant guardian, Sir James Monmouth has made his life traveling the world questing for adventure. He seeks in part to travel in the footsteps of his hero, the famous (or infamous) Conrad Vane. On his arrival in England, Monmouth plans to learn the history surrounding Vane, from his early life onward. Though all those he meets try to dissuade him from this quest, citing feelings of wariness and concern for Monmouth, he soldiers on, tracking down a surprising connection between Vane’s life and his own. Once his research becomes personal, Monmouth is more determined than ever to learn about Vane’s history as well as his own. With the help and support of his new friend Lady Quincebridge, Monmouth traces his origins to the mysterious and remote Kittiscar Hall. Although Lady Quincebridge insists that Monmouth give up when the madness of researching Vane begins to infect him as an illness, Monmouth cannot rest until he understands how their lives are intertwined. His journey to Kittiscar Hall holds secrets that Monmouth had never guessed and yet always instinctively knew—and not only secrets, but danger too.
The eponymous mist seems to cloud the writing, and the meandering tale ends quickly with a conclusion that still seems obscure. Even if Monmouth doesn’t deserve the truth, doesn’t the loyal reader?Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-345-80667-3
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Vintage
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A modern day fable, with modern implications in a deceiving simplicity, by the author of Dickens. Dali and Others (Reynal & Hitchcock, p. 138), whose critical brilliance is well adapted to this type of satire. This tells of the revolt on a farm, against humans, when the pigs take over the intellectual superiority, training the horses, cows, sheep, etc., into acknowledging their greatness. The first hints come with the reading out of a pig who instigated the building of a windmill, so that the electric power would be theirs, the idea taken over by Napoleon who becomes topman with no maybes about it. Napoleon trains the young puppies to be his guards, dickers with humans, gradually instigates a reign of terror, and breaks the final commandment against any animal walking on two legs. The old faithful followers find themselves no better off for food and work than they were when man ruled them, learn their final disgrace when they see Napoleon and Squealer carousing with their enemies... A basic statement of the evils of dictatorship in that it not only corrupts the leaders, but deadens the intelligence and awareness of those led so that tyranny is inevitable. Mr. Orwell's animals exist in their own right, with a narrative as individual as it is apt in political parody.
Pub Date: Aug. 26, 1946
ISBN: 0452277507
Page Count: 114
Publisher: Harcourt, Brace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1946
This book sings with the terrible silence of dead civilizations in which once there was valor.
Written with quiet dignity that builds to a climax of tragic force, this book about the dissolution of an African tribe, its traditions, and values, represents a welcome departure from the familiar "Me, white brother" genre.
Written by a Nigerian African trained in missionary schools, this novel tells quietly the story of a brave man, Okonkwo, whose life has absolute validity in terms of his culture, and who exercises his prerogative as a warrior, father, and husband with unflinching single mindedness. But into the complex Nigerian village filters the teachings of strangers, teachings so alien to the tribe, that resistance is impossible. One must distinguish a force to be able to oppose it, and to most, the talk of Christian salvation is no more than the babbling of incoherent children. Still, with his guns and persistence, the white man, amoeba-like, gradually absorbs the native culture and in despair, Okonkwo, unable to withstand the corrosion of what he, alone, understands to be the life force of his people, hangs himself. In the formlessness of the dying culture, it is the missionary who takes note of the event, reminding himself to give Okonkwo's gesture a line or two in his work, The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.
This book sings with the terrible silence of dead civilizations in which once there was valor.Pub Date: Jan. 23, 1958
ISBN: 0385474547
Page Count: 207
Publisher: McDowell, Obolensky
Review Posted Online: April 23, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1958
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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