Sophisticated, slightly daffy poke at our Masters of the Universe.
A pretty Marseillaise, a pretty grim Corsican and a happily pessimistic hedge-fund manager get themselves into a pretty fix with world shattering results, in the second novel from Berberian (The Cyclist, 2002).
Wayne is the very young and very successful manager of Empiricus, a hedge fund built on the belief that there is always something nasty lurking around the corner and that bubbles always burst. While the rest of the world searches for the Next Big Thing, Wayne and Empiricus search for the Next Awful Thing. And it doesn’t matter what: Political upheaval. War. Disease. There’s always trouble somewhere, and always money to be made if one spots the disaster while everyone else looks for the silver lining. One little pocket of trouble is on Corsica, where a cardboard manufacturer is about to breathe its last, further worsening the woeful economy of the depressed French province, further depressing an anti-global local known to Alix, his architectural student sweetheart in Marseilles, and to Wayne, who has been dumping the cardboard company stock, only as the Corsican. But Wayne, never completely satisfied with letting nature schedule her own disasters, has uses for the Corsican. He also has hopes for an eventual meeting with Alix, with whom he has been corresponding. Alix is a rather fey thing, given to spending nights under the stars on the rooftops of the local high rises. Although she rather fancies Wayne, whom she has yet to meet, she still has liaisons with the Corsican. Wayne has more than a romantic interest in Alix; he’s having her ship diagrams of prominent architectural landmarks, drawings that will find their way, marked with Alix’s signature, into the hands of the Corsican. When Wayne and Alix finally meet, they strike sparks. And more sparks.
Sophisticated, slightly daffy poke at our Masters of the Universe.Pub Date: June 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-7432-6723-6
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
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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