A humorous, heartwarming cautionary tale about vacationing with family.
A backpacking globetrotter seriously rethinks his decision to partake in a family cruise in Swanson’s comic novel.
Garrulous, perpetually single Darren Dallavalle is an insatiable traveler—his wanderlust takes him to far-flung locations, like his latest excursion to Sub-Saharan Africa. Darren’s snarky cousin Ryan informs him that their single, uber-wealthy uncle, Jorge Da Silva, a recent heart attack survivor, has lobbied all of the cousins to take “one final trip with him before he goes to meet his maker.” This epic, bucket-list vacation is an all-expenses-paid, five-star cruise aboard a luxury liner—with the condition that everyone invited attend or forfeit their inheritance to his estate. Despite his reservations—the trip isn’t really the type of spontaneous adventure he typically craves—Darren eventually accepts the offer and instantly dreads the nightmarish consequences. The author flexes his characterization muscle with his creation of an energetic clan of relatives; after several chapters of build-up, the “great Da Silva Nieces & Nephews European River Cruise of 2018” launches. The journey reunites Darren with his somewhat estranged family members, who surprisingly end up gelling as a group, despite Ryan’s mean-spiritedness. As Swanson fills in the quirky details of each family member, uncle Jorge emerges with the most resonant backstory, though the entire cast grows more engaging as the cruise progresses. The story has some minor problems: Darren’s chatty, neurotic, internal monologue-style commentary can become tedious, and the overuse of italics, which appear on virtually every page, is distracting. Thankfully, the author knows how to spin an addictive yarn, which more than makes up for these flaws. Swanson’s satirical, hyperactive prose will keep readers on their toes, and vacationers and readers with challenging relatives will find much to relate to in this funny and surprisingly thoughtful novel.
A humorous, heartwarming cautionary tale about vacationing with family.Pub Date: June 30, 2023
ISBN: 9798888109502
Page Count: 236
Publisher: Writers Republic LLC
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
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
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