An outstanding debut that succeeds in gathering domestic drama, philosophical fiction, and a touch of Southern Gothic style...
Two generations of Kentucky women navigate familial obligation and legacy in Hanratty’s debut novel in stories.
In 1936, Salinda “Sal” Skinner, scarred by the public shame of her drunk father and a “trash” family name, vows to leave Gray Hampton, Kentucky’s small-town prejudice far behind. And so begins a generational tale of women searching to find meaning in their roles as daughters, wives, and mothers. Sal sees her salvation in local rich boy Ivan Barkley, but their “oil and water” marriage ends with an accident at work, which leaves Sal a widow and forces a return to her despised hometown. Sal’s daughters go on to struggle with their own identities. After an interlude with hints of Southern Gothic, youngest Heddy becomes the voice of the second half of the book, narrating her formative years with a narcoleptic handyman stepfather, through marriage and motherhood, until a freak tragedy threatens to destroy her family. A grief-stricken Heddy secludes herself in a woodland cabin, where she attempts to come to terms with personal wounds both old and new and find a kind of philosophical peace among the “community of trees.” Such themes suggest a sprawling tome, but although the novel covers decades of family life, Hanratty displays the short story writer’s keen eye for concision and elision, allowing years to pass in a blink without leaving readers adrift. A fine sense of place helps, as do the well-observed details of family life, with its in-jokes and secret language. The characters feel lived-in and authentic, although Heddy’s voice is marred later on by an unnecessary switch in point of view (from close third- to first-person), and Penny’s voice is conspicuously absent from the narrative, which can sometimes give readers the feeling that the stories are merely an excerpt of a much larger work. But these are minor flaws in an otherwise assured and beautifully crafted novel that packs more into one short book than most writers do in an entire series.
An outstanding debut that succeeds in gathering domestic drama, philosophical fiction, and a touch of Southern Gothic style into one family saga.Pub Date: May 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9960120-1-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Fleur-de-Lis Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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