And who else would trouble to inform us that “The Emperor Justinian, . . . believed that homosexuality caused earthquakes”?...
The lives, loves and (numerous) eccentricities of the residents of an Edinburgh boardinghouse.
Written in 110 installments and published five times weekly in The Scotsman, Smith’s appealing comedy (also see p. 321) swiftly introduces its major characters, then follows their separate and shared adventures like a large friendly dog (one of which, incidentally, makes several amusing appearances). Pat, a university student muddling trough her second “gap year,” nurses a hopeless passion for smashingly handsome—and absurdly narcissistic—“flatmate” Bruce, while politely deflecting the hesitant attentions of Matthew, in whose mostly unpatronized art gallery she more or less works. Super-supercilious doting mom Irene micromanages her precocious five-year-old Bertie’s progressive education, ignoring his obvious desire to be a real kid and misbehave. Coffee-bar owner and autodidact Big Lou plays Proust-loving mother hen to a clutch of customers that features Matthew and his Mutt-and-Jeff friends Ronnie and Pete. This glum trio balances the Todds (owners of the surveying firm where Bruce blithely toils): morose Gordon, his buttoned-up brother Raeburn and the latter’s annoyingly bubbly wife Sasha, who aims to pair up their manless daughter Lizzie with the dashing Bruce. Also, forthright wealthy widow Domenica, who undertakes to raise Pat’s worldliness quotient, and effusive artist Angus Lordie (proud owner of the aforementioned mutt, Cyril). Smith’s well-paced plot accommodates a possibly valuable painting’s dizzying misadventures and a lavishly planned and hilariously pointless Conservative Ball (attended by only six—count ’em—“guests”), as well as a genial cameo appearance by mystery novelist Ian Rankin. You feel it could go on for a 110 thousand episodes—and may, if Smith continues on the sure-footed path that’s making him something very like Scotland’s P.G. Wodehouse.
And who else would trouble to inform us that “The Emperor Justinian, . . . believed that homosexuality caused earthquakes”? Sheer readerly bliss.Pub Date: June 14, 2005
ISBN: 1-4000-7944-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Anchor
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of...
Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State.
Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle’s answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate’s buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, only to blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully’s latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she’s given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it’s too late?
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36408-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007
BOOK TO SCREEN
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