Shrewd but gentle satire of various contemporary British types that never misses a beat. And it’s wonderfully funny to boot.
An eccentric English clan, in and out of love—in a first from Britisher Ashley.
Charlotte (“Charlie”) Rhymer may be too old for the droopy gothic get-ups her stodgy husband Matt thinks make her look young—but she doesn’t give a damn what she wears anymore. She’s absorbed in her painting, and in her sorrows after many miscarriages. She didn’t even notice when Matt cleared out most of his things before announcing that he wanted a divorce. He’s off to Saudi Arabia in a jiffy, but not before absent-minded Charlie accidentally cracks the skull of his lecherous best friend with a frying pan. Cleared of murder charges, back she goes to her family in a rambling old parsonage on the windswept moors. Nearby, a stone cottage houses her dear old dad, Ranulf Rhymer, a distinguished literary biographer who named his brood after the Brontës. He wants to move his idiot mistress-of-the-month, skinny Jessie, and her giggling twin girls up to the main house, but Em, Charlie’s virgin sister, a devotee of white magic, won’t have it. Branwell, their genius brother, can’t be bothered for his opinion, not that anyone would understand it. He mutters to himself in Amharic as he pens his latest indecipherable tome. Then there’s tough-talking foreign correspondent Anne, who comes home after breast-cancer surgery swearing like a pirate’s parrot. Charlie takes on the thankless task of babysitting an assortment of brats at a New Age nursery and meets Mace North, a handsome actor/playwright and the conveniently single father of the only child she likes: precocious Caitlin. Soon Em and the Yorkshire-bred housekeeper are brewing spells and reading tealeaves, conjuring up true love for those who deserve it and tummy-aches for those who don’t. They succeed beyond their wildest dreams when the local vicar goes Wicca and falls for Em, and Mace North waylays Charlie in the hedgerows for the erotic romp of a lifetime.
Shrewd but gentle satire of various contemporary British types that never misses a beat. And it’s wonderfully funny to boot.Pub Date: June 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-312-31372-1
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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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