An impenetrable cosmic battle.
Metaphysics and murder collide in this uneasy sci-fi, mystery and Christian fiction mashup.
The narrative, presented as a mixture of poetry and prose, concerns the travails of an unnamed law enforcement investigator, who’s also the book’s narrator. He’s a loving family man, happily married, devoted to his young daughter and professionally partnered with his friend Felix. But an unusual encounter in the park involving a strange book with disturbing illustrations rips the narrator’s family away from him, and in the aftermath of the tragedy, he and Felix become caught up in a struggle between cosmic forces. What seems to be a gruesome series of murders is gradually revealed to be part of the ongoing battle against Evil—a war in which the narrator and Felix find themselves outmatched. However, what could be a relatively straightforward progression of events turns into anything but. The first-person point of view often takes a metafictional perspective that haphazardly addresses readers as it careens past the fourth wall without slowing down. The time period jumps without cues, and the narrative constantly shifts among several mysteries, an overtly religious discussion that lays out a moral and spiritual argument for dealing with the world today, and what appears to be an alien invasion. On top of that, the writing is often overly mannered and off-putting, stuffed with excessive amounts of adverbs, numerous words used in ways that contradict both the dictionary and common usage (“Why to live in boundless suffer?”) and a puzzling array of words surrounded by quotation marks: e.g., “My subconscious mind ‘insisted’ using a ‘live lure’ was our only chance of capturing the monsters.” That habit tends to give these words a seemingly unwanted sarcastic edge, and the general cognitive dissonance can be confusing.
An impenetrable cosmic battle.Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2013
ISBN: 978-0989517478
Page Count: 170
Publisher: You Are to Decide
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2013
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
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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