A new collection that intriguingly sheds light on a famous legend.
An updated retelling of the tales of King Arthur and his knights.
As the uninitiated reader will learn from the preface to this extensive work, the tales of King Arthur, as modern audiences know them, were translated from the French and compiled by Englishman Sir Thomas Malory. A version of his work was set in print for wider consumption by William Caxton in 1485. Then, in 1934, a second Malory manuscript, which was arguably closer to his original intent, was discovered in Winchester, England. This latest rendition by translator Davis (The Canterbury Tales, 2016, etc.) is a lengthy amalgam of the Caxton and Winchester works, retelling what he felt were the “best” parts of each. In this way, the reader is launched into his version of a wild world of knights, chivalry, horses, and bloodshed, with details that may be unfamiliar to many. The work is broken up into individual books; Book Five, for example, sees King Arthur battling his way to Rome, and Book Thirteen details the famed quest for the Holy Grail. Many tales center on the desires of particular knights, and for the most part, those desires extend toward the realm of combat. As depicted here, knights—of which there are many—seem to love nothing more than to attack, preferably on horseback. Jousting is the most common activity, and the text vividly recounts knights being knocked off their perches. At one point, for instance, Sir Tristan deals such a blow to his opponent that the latter “fell upside-down from his horse, and the blood burst out from the vents of his helmet.” However, although these passages are full of action, such scenes eventually become tedious. If anyone ever stops to wonder whether the life of a “Fair Knight” holds any meaning outside of fighting, it is rarely expressed. Still, for those readers who may be expecting a straightforward quest narrative, Davis’ compilation contains a number of unexpected elements, including some highly specific religious detail. Book Two, “The Tale of Balin,” for instance, provides background on Joseph of Arimathea’s involvement with the Holy Grail, and the aforementioned Book Thirteen, about the quest for the artifact itself, also involves an explanation of the parable of Jesus and a fig tree, which appears in the Gospels of Mark and Matthew in the New Testament. Davis’ text can be repetitive in places, and the style of the retelling, as a whole, doesn’t ultimately read with the ease of a modern story. However, many readers will still find it illuminating to see how Davis presents all the parts of the legend of King Arthur that the popular culture has ignored since the days of Malory. Indeed, there are some truly odd moments here; at one point, for example, the great Sir Lancelot kills someone with his bare hands for not letting him ride in his cart, and at another, it’s pointed out that Sir Gawain “loved all kinds of fruit, especially apples and pears.”
A new collection that intriguingly sheds light on a famous legend.Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-79460-760-6
Page Count: 726
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: May 25, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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