A 15-year-old small-town lad in WW II Ireland expands his social horizons, and develops a romantic obsession—in this fine, characteristic Trevor story, one of the slightest (if purest) entries in the Harper Short Novel Series thus far. Harry, now 58, unmarried, and childless, recalls his adolescence during the war—when he was finishing up at a rectory grammar school, slated to start work soon at his father's timberyard. (His sister Annie—despite dreams of working as a Dublin shopgirl—has already been consigned forever to the timberyard office.) But Harry's life is changed forever when beautiful newcomer Mrs. Messinger, the young, thin English wife of a middle-aged German refugee, asks the youth to help her with some packages. Smitten, Harry is soon paying frequent visits to the Messingers' comfortable, European-style country house—where Frau Messinger reminisces about her English childhood and speaks of her unlikely marriage to 62-year-old Herr Messinger (a widower Whose sons are Nazi soldiers) with glowing affection. Despite coarse pressures from his bigoted parents, his sex. obsessed schoolmates, and other provincial sorts, Harry remains steadfast in his idealized devotion to the couple. So, when wealthy Herr M. decides to build a lavish, elegant cinema for the town (the romantic Alexandra), Harry's heart-and-soul are wrapped up in the project—especially once he realizes that the building of the moviehouse is Herr M.'s gift to a dying wife in her last months. And in time Harry will inherit the ultimately doomed Alexandra—escaping the world of the timberyard, but spending his life (not entirely plausibly) in the shadow of the Messingers' special love: "Fate has made me the ghost of an interlude; once in a while I say that in the town, trying to explain." More longish story than novella, without the strong political/historical resonance of some bolder Trevor tales—but exquisitely detailed, perfectly modulated in its bittersweet tone, and quietly, leanly, expertly told.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1987
ISBN: 0375504710
Page Count: 99
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: Oct. 6, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1987
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
