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A SPRING LIKE ANY OTHER

Name: A SPRING LIKE ANY OTHER
Author: Takashi Tsujii
ISBN: 4-770-01550-X

by Takashi Tsujii ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1992

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A sensitive portrait of the man who has everything and nothing, from the pseudonymous prize-winning Japanese author Tsujii—a tale enriched by the insights gained from the writer's other career as founder and CEO of a giant conglomerate, which includes the Inter-Continental Hotel chain. Rereading Pascal's PensÇes has only further reminded the middle-aged narrator, Junzo, of the difficulty of resolving problems with the clarity ``one brings to bear on solving a geometrical problem.'' Alienated from his colleagues, worried by his disintegrating family, Junzo is also aware of his own inadequacies, especially in his marriage, and his youthful attempts at left-wing rebellion that failed so humiliatingly. Founder and CEO of the Maruwa Department Stores, Junzo, divorced and without children, has been as successful a businessman as his despotic and womanizing father, a self-made man, who came from a small village to found a real-estate empire. As he deals with routine matters of business and pressing family problems, Junzo recalls the events and his own responses that have led him to feel that ``What was clear was that someone had to act as a core around whom everyone could gather. And it was also clear that in reality I neither wanted nor was able to be that core.'' His divorced sister, Kumiko, who had moved to France to get away from the family, has been accused of tax fraud; his nephew, for whom he is responsible, is deeply troubled; his longtime lover has told him that she wants to end the affair because he's ``not any good at making a woman happy''; and though his business prospers, its success means little to him. All it provides is a reason to move away from the abyss and into the spring day that's ``waiting for me to walk through.'' Frequently claustrophobic introspection—but relieved by fine writing and evocative details about corporate life that give a familiar theme a refreshing lift. A distinctive debut.

Pub Date: April 1, 1992

ISBN: 4-770-01550-X

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Kodansha

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1992

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
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by Kristin Hannah

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THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

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THE GREAT ALONE
by Kristin Hannah

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THE ALCHEMIST

by Paulo Coelho & translated by Margaret Jull Costa ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1993

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.

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Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.

The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.