A well-crafted “memoir” of an unforgettable person, with plenty of questions about freedom, love and responsibility.
A fictional memoir of Lucy Ann Lobdell, a 19th-century American woman who sought her freedom while disguised as a man.
After her husband leaves for good, Lucy, a 25-year-old mother, realizes she has few options—she can work as a servant or marry any man who will have her. Instead, she creates a third option: She disguises herself as a man (bound breasts, cropped hair and all) and sets out to try her luck as a music and dance instructor in Honesdale, Pa., as far from her New York home as she can easily travel. As “Joseph” Lobdell, she finds not only a wealth of economic opportunity that she was denied as a woman, but also the chance to participate in intellectual and political discussions and become involved with her community. Much to her distress, she finds herself becoming invested in this life and loath to return home; she plans to send for her daughter one day but in the meantime, finds she enjoys the freedom of living her own way. Of course, as a woman posing as a man, Lucy is often in danger of being exposed and has to travel frequently to protect her secret, eventually leaving behind her daughter and the woman she came to love to establish herself in the wild Minnesota Territory. Lucy Ann Lobdell was a real person, expertly brought to life in this book. Although not a true memoir, it draws heavily from Lucy’s own accounts and from real-life stories and articles by those who encountered her. As a character, Lucy is troubled but hopeful, conflicted but always seeking a new path. Her understanding of her own struggles, and of those around her, makes her a fine lens through which to view her friends and neighbors. The book also ably addresses questions of personal freedom—what it means to Lucy and to others and how they seek it or keep others from it.
A well-crafted “memoir” of an unforgettable person, with plenty of questions about freedom, love and responsibility.Pub Date: June 18, 2013
ISBN: 978-1608325627
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group
Review Posted Online: April 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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