Utter nonsense, but as readable as ever. Really big retro-fun for the gents.
Superprolific chronicler of Afro-colonial glory days Smith continues the saga of the Courtney family from where it left off in Monsoon (1999).
The outcome of Smith’s Big African Adventures is never in doubt: big lusty white men will prevail over evil, grasping white men with considerable assistance from hordes of adoring black men who have had the good sense to recognize lusty leadership when they see it. So what tension there is must come from the many, many, many intermediate battles between the big lusty white men and the evil, grasping white men, and from the electricity that flies between the big lusty white men and the fair bodies of the straight-shooting, outdoor-loving women lucky enough to come into their lives. Sailing now into the lives of the superrich 17th-century British Courtney family is long-legged Louisa Leuven, a plucky Dutch orphan who escaped the plague only to fall into the clutches of a sexually predatory, sadomasochistic, Amsterdam burgher who framed her when she tried to blow the whistle on him. As the ship transporting her and other hussies to the Indies rounds the Cape of Good Hope, Louisa captures the heart of young Jim Courtney, who, when the ship comes a cropper in a squall, spirits her away, enraging the grumpy Dutch overlords of the Cape Colony and forcing the entire Courtney clan to flee with their fortune. Louisa, understandably off sex for the present, is not immune to the manly charms of her rescuer, but Jim is a perfect gentleman, never pushing, just showing her a swell time as they hack their way north, dodging pursuers, slaying animals by the score, riding the finest horseflesh in Africa, prying the biggest tusks anyone has ever seen from elephants unlucky enough to meet up with them. While the young folk blaze new trails, the older generation sails up the east coast and into big trouble. Time to call in those adoring native armies.
Utter nonsense, but as readable as ever. Really big retro-fun for the gents.Pub Date: May 13, 2003
ISBN: 0-312-27824-1
Page Count: 624
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2003
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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