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THE HARRY AND SYLVIA STORIES

An odd grab-bag of 13 stories—fabulisms, minimalisms, and absurdities—each containing a character named Harry and another named Sylvia: a gimmicky device, though it does manage to make the otherwise disparate pieces hang together. ``The Woman on the Bus'' describes a family man (at home, ``Harry plays the part of Harry'') obsessed with a woman who commutes with him on the bus. The juxtaposition between workaday reality and this Harry's fantasy life is apt and revealing of a man who is Walter Mitty-like. ``Harry and Sylvia and Sylvia and So On'' concerns a divorced Harry who replaces wife Sylvia—first with parakeet Sylvia, then with dog Sylvia—and eventually brings home a prostitute, whom he calls Sylvia; the dog attacks the prostitute, and they both disappear into the night. Likewise, ``The Family Album'' is a haunting exploration of a lonely man who begins to receive photos of a Sylvia in the mail, in the beginning weekly, then more intermittently; Harry and his vicarious Sylvia will grow old together. Of the remaining pieces, a few are based on premises merely superficial or silly—``The King of Clubs,'' for instance, is about a Harry on a plane who falls in love with a club sandwich and traces down the Sylvia who makes them for the airline; ``Nuts'' is about a Harry who talks to squirrels—and some others, though promising, just don't quite come off. Absurdist forays into fantasies or eccentricities that are at their best when they're also funny. Some of the pieces first appeared in magazines like Grand Street, North American Review, and The South Carolina Review.

Pub Date: Feb. 25, 1993

ISBN: 1-55713-052-3

Page Count: 160

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1992

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MAGIC HOUR

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

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

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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