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
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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