Ingenious but exhausting fiction—essentially a continuation of Martínez's The Perón Novel (1988)— that examines the mercurial and enigmatic figure of Evita, the ``poverty-stricken second-rate actress'' who became both heroine and saint to Argentina's populace. The narrator journalist, who is not distinguished from the author himself, tells the epically absurd (and true) story of the peregrinations of ``Evita'' Per¢n's embalmed corpse—back and forth across the oceans, in and out of the possession of ``Perónists'' eager to preserve her legacy and representatives of the military junta that drove Juan Perón into exile and now wish to demonstrate her mortality and corruptibility. Despite a flexible structure and the presence of several interesting subsidiary characters (Eva's hairdresser, the celebrated embalmer who made her his ``masterpiece,'' and especially the harassed Colonel, who is assigned the task of finding and burying her), the story consists largely of ever more detailed expositions of the same recurring essentials: Eva's popularity with the common folk who believed her to be their savior, later representations of her in stories by Latin American authors and the musical Evita, the macabre comedy of preserving (and replicating) her body, and her lingering effect on those who knew her or became involved in the effort to manage her image after her death. Perhaps it is simply a subject that doesn't travel well. In Argentina, Evita's body is a matter that clearly possesses the stature of myth. In any case, Martínez's novel is overlong, hectic, and something of a chore to get through.
Pub Date: Sept. 30, 1996
ISBN: 0-679-44704-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A presold prefab blockbuster, what with King's Carrie hitting the moviehouses, Salem's Lot being lensed, The Shining itself sold to Warner Bros. and tapped as a Literary Guild full selection, NAL paperback, etc. (enough activity to demand an afterlife to consummate it all).
The setting is The Overlook, a palatial resort on a Colorado mountain top, snowbound and closed down for the long, long winter. Jack Torrance, a booze-fighting English teacher with a history of violence, is hired as caretaker and, hoping to finish a five-act tragedy he's writing, brings his wife Wendy and small son Danny to the howling loneliness of the half-alive and mad palazzo. The Overlook has a gruesome past, scenes from which start popping into the present in various suites and the ballroom. At first only Danny, gifted with second sight (he's a "shiner"), can see them; then the whole family is being zapped by satanic forces. The reader needs no supersight to glimpse where the story's going as King's formula builds to a hotel reeling with horrors during Poesque New Year's Eve revelry and confetti outta nowhere....
Back-prickling indeed despite the reader's unwillingness at being mercilessly manipulated.
Pub Date: Jan. 28, 1976
ISBN: 0385121679
Page Count: 453
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1976
PERSPECTIVES
There are unforgettable beauties in this very sexy story.
Passion, friendship, heartbreak, and forgiveness ring true in Lovering's debut, the tale of a young woman's obsession with a man who's "good at being charming."
Long Island native Lucy Albright, starts her freshman year at Baird College in Southern California, intending to study English and journalism and become a travel writer. Stephen DeMarco, an upperclassman, is a political science major who plans to become a lawyer. Soon after they meet, Lucy tells Stephen an intensely personal story about the Unforgivable Thing, a betrayal that turned Lucy against her mother. Stephen pretends to listen to Lucy's painful disclosure, but all his thoughts are about her exposed black bra strap and her nipples pressing against her thin cotton T-shirt. It doesn't take Lucy long to realize Stephen's a "manipulative jerk" and she is "beyond pathetic" in her desire for him, but their lives are now intertwined. Their story takes seven years to unfold, but it's a fast-paced ride through hookups, breakups, and infidelities fueled by alcohol and cocaine and with oodles of sizzling sexual tension. "Lucy was an itch, a song stuck in your head or a movie you need to rewatch or a food you suddenly crave," Stephen says in one of his point-of-view chapters, which alternate with Lucy's. The ending is perfect, as Lucy figures out the dark secret Stephen has kept hidden and learns the difference between lustful addiction and mature love.
There are unforgettable beauties in this very sexy story.Pub Date: June 12, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-6964-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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