An engrossing fictionalized history that examines an ingenious and powerful Chinese ruler.
Xiong (The A to Z of Medieval China, 2010, etc.) tells the story of Chinese Emperor Taizong of Tang in this historical novel.
The China of the late Sui dynasty faces barbarian threats from outside its borders and rebellious barons within them. When Li Shimin’s father, the Duke of Tang, decides he must replace the sovereign in order to restore stability to the state, the teenager finds himself a general in command of a rebel army. His relatives become the rulers of the new Tang dynasty in 618, though their reign is just as fraught with intrigue and treachery as that of the Sui. Li Shimin turns out to be the shrewdest tactician of the family. In the July 2 coup, the crown prince “eliminated his challengers, effectively sidelined his father, and emerged as the true power-holder at court.” Forcing his father to abdicate the throne, Li Shimin becomes the Emperor of Tang. He then sets to ruling the fractured prefectures of China, adopting policies of benevolence and reconciliation and accepting critical appraisals from his court. He uses all his skills to bring his nation into a new golden age, going down in history as one of the greatest rulers China has ever known. Supplementary material includes a bibliography, chronology, and a 20-page glossary/dramatis personae that the reader should put to great use. The novel, more fictionalized history than historical fiction, essentially reads like a work of popular history, with many scenes dramatized. The book dispenses with superfluous plot elements of the sort one would expect to find in a historical novel but includes many explanatory passages that read as though they’ve been excerpted from a textbook. While this may sound stilted, it actually makes for an engaging cross-genre reading experience. It’s reminiscent of nothing so much as the pre-modern texts from which it takes its inspiration, where fact, legend, and anecdote sit comfortably side by side. The technique lends a compelling veracity to the events even if it forces Xiong to hold his characters at a greater distance from the reader.
An engrossing fictionalized history that examines an ingenious and powerful Chinese ruler.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-9-86-628666-7
Page Count: 278
Publisher: Airiti Press
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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