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BITTER LAKE

Name: BITTER LAKE
Author: Ann Harleman
ISBN: 0-87074-404-6

by Ann Harleman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 20, 1997

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A polished but bloodless first novel from the author of Happiness (1994), winner of the John Simmons Short Fiction Award, that offers yet another tale of women—here, a mother and daughter- -abandoned by the men they love too much. Set in a gritty Pennsylvania town dominated by its steel mill, the story's narrators are mother Judith and alienated teenage daughter Lil. In alternating chapters (replete with obligatory flashbacks to supposedly seminal but often banal moments in the past), the two record the events of the weeks following husband/father Gort's disappearance. Gort, an engineer at the mill, has gone off before. An idealist who cherishes his own space, he's easily threatened by too much routine and by emotional dependency. A two-week timeout has usually been enough to restore him to the family and workplace, but this time he seems to be staying away longer. As money grows short, Judith, who's lost her job and suffers from all sorts of phobias, is forced to seek work, which she finds as an apprentice carpenter across town. Meanwhile, Lil, who reveres Gort, despises her mother's timidity, and is irritated by younger sister Susie, moves in with great-aunt Clesta, who lives in a crumbling mansion. As the summer passes, Judith has an affair with Eli, a co-worker; Lil embarks on a sexual relationship with cousin Daniel, also living with Clesta; and Judith recalls how she met and married Gort, a first cousin, when she was only 19. The discovery of Gort's body in his favorite lake leads to one of those familiar cathartic crises that tests both Judith and Lil. And, also as usual, both women pass the trial: Mother and daughter find a new restorative closeness. Smoothly done, but tired and overworked.

Pub Date: Jan. 20, 1997

ISBN: 0-87074-404-6

Page Count: 264

Publisher: Southern Methodist Univ.

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE ALCHEMIST

by Paulo Coelho & translated by Margaret Jull Costa ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1993

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.

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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.