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DEEP DOWN THINGS

Name: DEEP DOWN THINGS
Author: Tamara Linse
ISBN: 978-0991386734

by Tamara Linse ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 2, 2014

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In Linse’s (How to Be a Man, 2014) novel, three orphaned siblings must rely on each other through a host of tragedies and triumphs.
CJ, Tibs and Maggie are siblings whose lives fell apart when, during their childhood, their parents were killed in an accident. Their relationships with each as adults other are fraught, and their coping mechanisms, poor. CJ, the eldest, throws herself into her bartending job and relationships with unavailable men. Tibs idolizes Ernest Hemingway and dreams of becoming an author but can’t bring himself to actually begin writing. And sweet Maggie, the youngest, throws a wrench into all of their lives when she falls for Jackdaw, a macho cowboy. When Maggie gets pregnant, Jackdaw reluctantly agrees to marry her but then withdraws completely when their child is born with spina bifida, leaving Maggie to rely on her siblings for support. Linse certainly has a feel for the world of rodeos, ranches and the West. Her descriptions ably evoke the landscape, with its “long string of beaver ponds that ripple and dazzle in the light.” However, certain plot developments—a sudden pregnancy, the birth of a special needs child—don’t feel organic to the narrative. Instead, the story turns into a soap opera, particularly when, late in the novel, an unexpected love triangle develops and is left unresolved. Furthermore, the story is divided into short chapters that alternate perspectives among the four main characters. While this can certainly be an effective storytelling technique, the chapters are so short (sometimes just a page or two), the transitions feel jarred and choppy. Each character therefore feels a little underdeveloped, left to the devices of the machinery of the plot. Ultimately, the story has its poignant elements but feels a little too trite for its own good.
A moving but uneven depiction of a family struggling through loss.

Pub Date: July 2, 2014

ISBN: 978-0991386734

Page Count: 328

Publisher: Willow Words

Review Posted Online: July 15, 2014

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
EARTH'S IMAGINED CORNERS
by Tamara Linse

- BOOK REVIEW
HOW TO BE A MAN
by Tamara Linse

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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
THE WOMEN
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
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.