Despite a few weak spots, an enticing first book that reveals plenty of potential.
A young, successful lawyer living in New York City discovers that his closest friend harbored secrets built on shame and love.
Peter and Simon became friends in grade school when they discovered themselves to be not just the only Asian students but also part of a very small crowd of non-Jewish children. Over the years they shared triumphs and setbacks, providing emotional and financial support to each other as needed. Peter never expected to be acting as executor of his friend’s estate, but when Simon dies from self-inflicted stab wounds, Peter is left to work out the details of the will and recover from the shock and grief as best he can. Part of the shock comes from meeting Simon’s girlfriend Catherine and their daughter Joanna for the first time at the funeral. A successful businessman, Simon left behind a journal detailing the pivotal moments of his life (graduation, falling in love, depression) and through reading it, Peter gains further understanding of his friend, much of which Peter was protected from. He also gains a clearer view of the malicious intrigues surrounding the Chaebol, an elite group of powerful South Korean immigrants who may have played a hand in Simon’s death. Kim nicely handles intricate, recurring themes and images, such as that of the pigeon Simon saved from his mother’s balcony. The author is also talented at portraying a rough side of the city—room salons where men can purchase the attentions of beautiful women—with respect and compassion. Kim’s characters are precisely written yet maintain enough of a spark of vitality to keep readers caring and concerned. The story occasionally slows to a sluggish pace, specifically during the 40-plus pages of journal extraction, and a few of the plot twists seem based more on narrative convenience than natural development. Flashbacks and tangents sometimes overpower the quieter thrust of the contemporary mystery.
Despite a few weak spots, an enticing first book that reveals plenty of potential.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0984435937
Page Count: 394
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Nov. 16, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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