This tale will give readers some laughs on a summer afternoon, which is all one asks of it.
Surely this is the only novel, comic or otherwise, starring an agrostologist, and this one escapes what seems to be a very long bad dream with his pride, if little else.
This story’s protagonist and narrator, a likable schlub named Joe (called “Slim” for most of the novel), is a grass botanist, or “grassman.” He comes under the sway of Bill Borrington, a man who exemplifies that hackneyed phrase, “a force of nature.” Bill always has some mad scheme going, and this one involves growing one’s own putting green. Joe knows that the project is doomed from the start, like Bill’s plan to breed prize beef cattle from one bull that’s literally on its last legs, but he’s also broke and desperate. Readers then meet a cast of characters that includes two sycophantic lawyers that never leave Bill’s side; the exotic, ravishing Autumn Bliss (with whom Joe unsurprisingly falls in love), the evil Zomboni sisters, and others. Bill is demanding, but also a bit of a flake; Joe has to recruit his own workforce from local winos, as the crew that Bill got from the women’s prison didn’t work out. He does manage to build a pond, dam, and irrigation system on Muddy Brook, which meanders through the property, but that doesn’t work out either. Meanwhile, the Zomboni sisters have put a curse on all of Bill’s endeavors, so that just the thought of them reduces him to a quivering wreck. Young (Hail, Cigaros!, 2016) is genuinely witty and seems to be enjoying himself as he keeps the plot stirred. He’s not on the level of, say, Peter De Vries, but readers will await more comic novels from him. The basic joke in this story is Joe’s insecurity and his relentless anxiety about being found out; he is a bona fide agrostologist, but he also knows he’s taken on an impossible task. On the other hand, he does have his resourceful moments, and there’s never a time when readers aren’t rooting for him. He finally escapes the wreckage of Muddy Brook Farm, counting himself lucky, and readers will count themselves satisfied.
This tale will give readers some laughs on a summer afternoon, which is all one asks of it.Pub Date: June 11, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-312-78030-9
Page Count: 220
Publisher: Lulu
Review Posted Online: Aug. 4, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
© Copyright 2025 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.
