The travails of a colonial Scarlett O'Hara, her free black friend, and the man they both love, by the prolific Fleming (Loyalties, 1994; Over There, 1992, etc.). As children, Catalyntie, who is Dutch and white, and Clara, a family slave, are captured by the Seneca and adopted into Indian families. As they approach adulthood, kindly and beautiful Clara is much pursued by the tribe's aspiring warriors, while Catalyntie, known as Moonwoman for her pale skin, is considered scrawny and ugly. Nevertheless, the two are devoted friends. When, in a prisoner exchange, the girls are returned to colonial society, Catalyntie discovers their roles are reversed: Now it's Catalyntie who's the sought-after beauty, while Clara is expected to serve her. As Catalyntie, who's not yet old enough to inherit her grandfather's estate, schemes to buy Clara's freedom, Clara is sent to work for neighbors. There, she begins an affair with strapping Malcolm Stapleton, her mistress's stepson, that ends tragically after Clara becomes pregnant and is forced to undergo a brutal abortion. Finally, Catalyntie manages to free her friend, but, having been jilted by a fortune-hunting rouÇ, she's become willful and selfish. As she realizes her own attraction to Malcolm, she and Clara become rivals, even as they go on a harrowing fur-trading expedition together and form a partnership as shopkeepers. Catalyntie then manages to trick Malcolm into marriage, Clara takes up with an ambitious slave who's both a thief and a revolutionary, Malcolm gets in touch with his Scottish roots, and Catalyntie goes to Amsterdam, where she becomes the talk of the town—all leading ultimately to scenes first of acrimony, then weepy reconciliation. Plausibility goes out the window within the first few pages, making room for Fleming to conjure up a rollicking moral melodrama with an intriguing pair of heroines.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-312-86308-X
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1997
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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