From the winner of the 1987 PEN/Faulkner Award (for World's End) comes this third collection of stories, most of which are as slick as the magazines in which they first appeared (Playboy, Harper's, GQ, etc.). Boyle levels his satire at a number of familiar targets. An anxious lover in "Modern Love" is spurned by his absurdly antiseptic girlfriend who insists on using "body condoms." A talented and struggling chef in "Sorry Fugu" must romance a notoriously cranky food-critic. A show-bizzy fast-talker in "Hard Sell" is hired to remake the Ayatollah Khomeini's image for the West. "The Devil and Irv Cherniske" tells of a greedy stockbroker who strikes a Faustian pact with the Devil. Two tales concern loony characters who identify with bugs: in "The Human Fly," an L.A. agent down on his luck agrees to represent a crazy Hungarian who pulls off incredible stunts in order to become famous, which he does, posthumously; the bee-boy of "King Bee" is a nine-year-old sociopath adopted by a childless couple who witness his suicide by bee attack. Heavy-handed drama. tic ironies mark the endings of "Peace of Mind," in which owning an alarm system causes a family's victimization, and "The Ape Lady in Retirement," in which a renowned primatologist meets her death by trusting a chimp spoiled in Western captivity. More than a little blarney explains the wild "Miracle at Ballinspittle" and "Zapatos"—the first an apocalyptic vision of a "common sinner's" life as it miraculously appears before him in Ireland, and the latter the tale of an enterprising shoe-importer in a mythical Latin country who cleverly subverts the government's expensive regulations. The best stories rely on more recognizable characters and subjects: the loneliness of a newly widowed woman ("Sinking House"); relations among a group of antisocial types who live year-round in a resort town ("The Hat"): a profligate lover ("Thawing Out"); and, in the title story, a father and son torn apart by alcoholism. Though some of these 16 pieces display a depth of feeling and a complexity of vision, they're mostly glib and gimmicky, relying on one-liners and one-dimensional plots.
Pub Date: March 24, 1989
ISBN: 670-82690-1
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
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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