A chaotic mashup of a Beltway political thriller and several fractured fairy tales.
A debut satirical novel presents a lobbyist as literally a puppet.
In London’s tale, Max Wiggs, reporter for the Washington Star, introduces Pinocchio as a junior analyst for the Kronos Group, “the first firm dedicated solely to lobbying the government of the United States.” Unfortunately, Pinocchio feels “meaningless” both at work and at home with his wife, Whitney; 5-year-old son, Albero; and father, Geppetto. After a fender bender with Congressman Frank Barnes, Pinocchio, “at the urging of his boss,” tells the press that Barnes’ female companion was his secretary, earning Pinocchio ironic praise as “the last honest man in Washington.” For his own nefarious reasons, CEO Charles Stevens promotes Pinocchio to junior partner, and the wooden-headed up-and-comer cheerfully champions a slew of bills across the country. Reveling in his newfound success, Pinocchio neglects his family—“You’re just a puppet to them!” Whitney shouts—and forces Geppetto into assisted living, threatens his son, and dallies with a sexy co-worker. As Pinocchio’s personal life falls apart, so does the novel’s first-person narration. Suddenly an omniscient narrator describes characters’ interior lives, including that of Wiggs himself (“Max leapt up”), although the reporter’s voice reappears intermittently. When Pinocchio must testify on behalf of a bill that would wipe out the Environmental Protection Agency or lose his job, his nose grows into “a 24-inch wooden branch, complete with bark and leaves” and his skin hardens into “a smooth, sanded surface.” From this point on, Pinocchio’s journey goes full-on fantasy, remixing elements from The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan, complete with a gift-bestowing Fairy Queen, talking cockroaches, and comforting supporters whispering, “I believe in you.” Meanwhile, Stevens kidnaps Whitney and Albero, and Wiggs assists in a far-fetched, action-packed climax that involves a familiar whale. Despite some promising satirical insights and well-written dialogue, the extreme situations, otherworldly elements, and heavy moralizing (“It’s time to get back to who you are, and in that, find what you are”) give readers too little to believe in.
A chaotic mashup of a Beltway political thriller and several fractured fairy tales.Pub Date: July 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5151-2356-9
Page Count: 428
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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