Amusing and meaningful, light and yet profound, like the best magazine in the world—which unfortunately comes out only once...
In his foreword, editor Eggers makes note that the second entry in this particular Best American series is not as limited as other Best series are, “making them whimper and cower in a way that is shameful.”
Making no real claim to be anything other than a gathering of “good work of any kind,” the volume seems like nothing more than a literary mix-tape of stories that Eggers and his committee members thought were really cool. And thank God. Because if there had been any real divining purpose here, a powerful vision of any sort, we most likely would never have seen a book collect Lynda Barry comics, deadly serious articles from The Atlantic, and side-splitting pieces from The Onion, and make them all seem akin: good and definitely not-required reading (Zadie Smith makes a valiant effort, in her introduction, to define what’s so great about non-required reading, but it’s a scattered piece, and should probably be passed by). Of the material itself, the aforementioned Atlantic article is that monster of an exposé by Mark Bowden, “Tales of a Tyrant,” slyly and impressionistically taking the reader inside the twisted, Mao-esque world of Saddam Hussein, back when he had a country. There are skilled forays into fiction, like David Drury’s “Things We Knew When the House Caught Fire,” one of several items here that deals alarmingly well with the cruelty of children to other children. Surprisingly enough, two of the strongest pieces come from Esquire, whose death has been announced perhaps prematurely: David Sedaris’s “Rooster at the Hitchin’ Post” is predictably funny, but nonetheless unique, and Daniel Voll’s “Riot Baby,” an epic piece of reportage on the 1992 LA riots, closes the book with a resounding knell of doom.
Amusing and meaningful, light and yet profound, like the best magazine in the world—which unfortunately comes out only once a year.Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2003
ISBN: 0-618-24695-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2003
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
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
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