Once again, Simpson (The Gypsy Storyteller, 1993, etc.) takes a popular form—previously the family dynasty saga, here the political biography—and tweaks it to produce giggles but few belly laughs. The novel opens on January 20, 2001, with political reporter Jack Steel standing outside of the rustic island home of 32-year- old president-elect William Conrad Brant MacKenzie. Steel explains ``into the camera'' that there are several controversial factors surrounding MacKenzie's election and promises to delve into the background of ``The Last Innocent Man in America.'' What follows is a mix of reporting on MacKenzie's family background (beginning with his foul-mouthed fat-cat great-grandfather, who once sent a postcard from New Zealand reading, ``I have come halfway around the world...Big fucking deal'') and excerpts from the journals that MacKenzie has kept since he was 10, as well as the occasional exchange between Steel and his subject. Simpson perfectly re- creates the tone of modern, and presumably future, television journalism; his Steel both takes an overly familiar air and insists that he has played no part in the story itself, which turns out to be patently untrue. MacKenzie, however, is never clearly rendered and resembles various political figures at different points in the book. He is alternately portrayed as a political blank slate (Quayle); a wealthy family's son (Bush); a loose cannon running on an independent ticket (Perot); and the author of a book on the environment (Gore). His journals also reveal his single-minded devotion to his now-deceased wife, Dawn, and a childhood friend notes that she expected Dawn, not her husband, to be president some day (guess who). Clearly this slippery hold on MacKenzie's personality is meant to reveal something about the intersection of politics and journalism, but it reveals nothing interesting and instead weakens the satire. Original concepts that fizzle, from an author whose best work is probably still to come.
Pub Date: Aug. 10, 1994
ISBN: 0-446-51808-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The Stand did less well than The Shining, and The Dead Zone will do less well than either—as the King of high horror (Carrie) continues to move away from the grand-gothic strain that once distinguished him from the other purveyors of psychic melodrama. Here he's taken on a political-suspense plot formula that others have done far better, giving it just the merest trappings of deviltry. Johnnie Smith of Cleaves Mills, Maine, is a super-psychic; after a four-year coma, he has woken up to find that he can see the future—all of it except for certain areas he calls the "dead zone." So Johnnie can do great things, like saving a friend from death-by-lightning or reuniting his doctor with long-lost relatives. But Johnnie also can see a horrible presidential candidate on the horizon. He's Mayor Gregory Aromas Stillson of Ridgeway, N.H., and only Johnnie knows that this apparently klutzy candidate is really the devil incarnate—that if Stillson is elected he'll become the new Hitler and plunge the world into atomic horror! What can Johnnie do? All he can do is try to assassinate this Satanic candidate—in a climactic shootout that is recycled and lackluster and not helped by King's clumsy social commentary (". . . it was as American as The Wonderful Worm of Disney"). Johnnie is a faceless hero, and never has King's banal, pulpy writing been so noticeable in its once-through-the-typewriter blather and carelessness. Yes, the King byline will ensure a sizeable turnout, but the word will soon get around that the author of Carrie has this time churned out a ho-hum dud.
Pub Date: Aug. 16, 1979
ISBN: 0451155750
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1979
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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