In Pointer’s (Vivian’s Song, 2009) dramatic novel, a troubled newcomer to a small Texas town unexpectedly becomes a local hero.
In the mid-1950s, William “Rooster” Brown stands outside Mel’s Truck Stop in Merky, Texas, holding a gun. He’s waiting for a waitress who humiliated him by rejecting his offer of a date. But when two would-be robbers suddenly raid the diner, Rooster stops them from raping a girl and possibly murdering the patrons—by shooting them both dead. The Merky townsfolk are smitten with Rooster’s valiant deed, and Mel Tucker—the diner’s owner, whose daughter, Laurie, was nearly assaulted—offers him a job and a place to live. Sheriff Bill Hickey, on the other hand, is skeptical, particularly after hearing that Rooster is the grandson of notorious outlaw Devil Brown. Mel pushes Rooster to run for sheriff in the upcoming election, and Rooster eventually does so, much to the chagrin of the town’s cops. Despite all that happens in these 500-plus pages, including a romance between Rooster and Laurie, surprisingly little narrative time passes—no more than two years. This allows the plot to center on Rooster, an imperfect protagonist who commendably recognizes his flaws: He never forgets his original, dark intentions at Mel’s, which contradict his status as a hero. He’s also torn between having religious faith, like his preacher father, or falling victim to alcohol, as his criminal grandfather did. When Rooster becomes part of the Tucker family by marrying Laurie, it adds a nice dynamic, particularly when he grows weary of Mel’s controlling influence and considers an affair with Merky’s newest resident, a beautiful German woman whose officer husband is overseas. Some of the novel’s supporting characters outshine the Tuckers, such as moonshiners Cletus and Alice, who befriend Rooster; and Harvey, a sympathetic cop whom many have written off as the “town idiot” but who seems to have an eidetic memory. Some scenes are also a bit overlong, as when Rooster undergoes “debate boot camp” during his campaign, but the solid final section significantly amps up the suspense.
An appealing tale that shows that even the luckiest people have barriers to overcome.
Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2014
ISBN: 978-0615917832
Page Count: 552
Publisher: Tom Pointer
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
Britisher Swift's sixth novel (Ever After, 1992 etc.) and fourth to appear here is a slow-to-start but then captivating tale of English working-class families in the four decades following WW II. When Jack Dodds dies suddenly of cancer after years of running a butcher shop in London, he leaves a strange request—namely, that his ashes be scattered off Margate pier into the sea. And who could better be suited to fulfill this wish than his three oldest drinking buddies—insurance man Ray, vegetable seller Lenny, and undertaker Vic, all of whom, like Jack himself, fought also as soldiers or sailors in the long-ago world war. Swift's narrative start, with its potential for the melodramatic, is developed instead with an economy, heart, and eye that release (through the characters' own voices, one after another) the story's humanity and depth instead of its schmaltz. The jokes may be weak and self- conscious when the three old friends meet at their local pub in the company of the urn holding Jack's ashes; but once the group gets on the road, in an expensive car driven by Jack's adoptive son, Vince, the story starts gradually to move forward, cohere, and deepen. The reader learns in time why it is that no wife comes along, why three marriages out of three broke apart, and why Vince always hated his stepfather Jack and still does—or so he thinks. There will be stories of innocent youth, suffering wives, early loves, lost daughters, secret affairs, and old antagonisms—including a fistfight over the dead on an English hilltop, and a strewing of Jack's ashes into roiling seawaves that will draw up feelings perhaps unexpectedly strong. Without affectation, Swift listens closely to the lives that are his subject and creates a songbook of voices part lyric, part epic, part working-class social realism—with, in all, the ring to it of the honest, human, and true.
Pub Date: April 5, 1996
ISBN: 0-679-41224-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1996
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