In that sense, it’s better than a spell in the Tower of London–but not much.
Fibs? The title fits less well than Hastings Pudding, or, better, Don't Know Much About the Middle Ages.
Whatever the case, think Barney Fife Meets Beowulf. Imagine that Bennett Cerf had suffered a form of amnesia in which he lost most of his storytelling skill but still recorded on paper every pun and groaner that ever crossed his mind. Do so, and you have the sense of this thin novel, chockablock with jokes along the lines of, “Deputy, did you know that my friend Herbert the Norman is a voracious reader? He eats a book a week!” The setup: A youngish post–Norman Conquest fellow named William the Scribbler (or Villamus Scribbalatorii, if you’re not into the brevity thing) finds himself summoned to serve the Earl of Leicester as a sort of combination clerk, prosecutor, accountant and cop. (Add monk, and you would have a very dull Cadfael.) Now William Justice, he sets forth to do his bit for his liege and for the a-borning government of Henry II, everyone’s favorite Plantagenet. William is a clever one, a step ahead of the others, who are inclined to express sentiments of wonderment such as, “By St Sally’s holy owned subsidiary, how did you know about that?” (And as for the pun: ouch.) Not much ensues. The author gets off enough zingers about modern life that the book should come with a snare drum, but in the main, the anachronisms are sheltered behind the fourth wall, safe and sound and constant. In the end, it’s not that the book is terrible so much as that it is utterly forgettable, a hot turkey sandwich served at a roadside diner by an insistent waiter and made by a cook who hasn’t spent much time learning the trade.
In that sense, it’s better than a spell in the Tower of London–but not much.Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2006
ISBN: 978-0-7414-3528-6
Page Count: 376
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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