by William Storandt ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 21, 2002
An amusing diversion, but no more.
In a fluffy latter-day comedy of errors, Storandt (Outbound, 2001) envisions a sleepy New England seaside town being turned into a gay resort overnight.
Lying Spit, Rhode Island, is not in any of the tour books. A small coastal village a few miles from Westerly, it has a nice beach and some fine old houses, but there are precious few amenities, and even the summer crowd here is sparse—until Artie Kinzie gets his fingers into the pie. Artie is a venture capitalist from New York who discovers Lying Spit on one of his sailing trips. All the factors for success (accessibility to major cities, unspoiled beachfront, adequate shop frontage, etc.) are there, but a pioneer core of upmarket customers needs to be found quickly. So Artie puts ads in various gay papers pitching Lying Spit as the next Fire Island. The first arrivals, who show up with nipple rings and crew cuts, raise a few eyebrows, but the locals quickly notice that their business is way up. Word-of-mouth quickly supplements the ads (“As June progressed, word spread rapidly in New York, Providence, Boston, and all through Connecticut of that potent spark of gay life, the New Place to Go”) and a trend soon becomes an invasion, setting off a real-estate boom unlike anything the town has ever seen. Suddenly the local beach is clothing-optional, a new bar is constructed with urinals as ashtrays, and the beach shops put in a line of leather wear. Oddly, one of the locals who is least enchanted by the transformation is Hollis Wynebourne, one of Lying Spit’s few old-family gays, who doesn’t care for the tone of the newcomers. But most of the others take to the new order like dirt farmers who have struck oil.
An amusing diversion, but no more.Pub Date: May 21, 2002
ISBN: 0-375-75909-3
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Villard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2002
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BOOK REVIEW
by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
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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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
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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