A Western tale packed with intriguing historical issues but lacking fully developed characters.
This third installment of a series revives Marshal Angus Esperraza for another eventful ride, this time joining a research expedition retracing the forced relocation of the Navajo.
Angus has no plans for the day in Chama, New Mexico, beyond studying a map, but when a telegraph comes in telling him about a new assignment, he jumps into action. Or rather, first he has a chat with his gunsmith wife, Jill, which sets the tone for this Western, full of long discussions and thoughtful interactions in 1888. In fact, lengthy talks are the point of Angus’ latest mission. He is accompanying a Smithsonian researcher and writer, a military man, and a Navajo woman along the path used by the Army when the Navajo were relocated to Bosque Redondo in New Mexico. Naturally, tensions flare, and a series of crimes—a young guide shot and killed, a stagecoach brake sabotaged, etc.—raises the possibility that someone doesn’t want this research concluded. While this seems like a classic Western setup—complete with a stagecoach full of diverse characters—the focus isn’t on typical action scenes, but on more cerebral issues of history. At times that emphasis on dialogue leads to some didacticism, and not just from the Smithsonian’s researcher: for instance, the man described as “an experienced teamster” goes on to note regional differences in what the driver is called—“a whip back East, or a teamster out West.” The Navajo woman imparts a history lesson, asking, “Did you also know that it was a Mexican, a man called Nakhayazih, who established the first trading post at Chinle in 1882?” There are some engrossing tidbits about the past in Stuart’s (Anatomy of a Confession, 2016, etc.) work, and some impressive conversations about the violent Long Walk of the Navajo. But with many in the cast sounding more alike than different, and with much of the book being taken up by those exchanges, readers may end up educated about the bloody history of the Southwest, but not necessarily engaged by these characters.
A Western tale packed with intriguing historical issues but lacking fully developed characters.Pub Date: March 8, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9863441-4-5
Page Count: 300
Publisher: Gleason & Wall Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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