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SIGN-TALKER

Name: SIGN-TALKER
Author: James Alexander Thom
ISBN: 0-345-39003-2

THE ADVENTURE OF GEORGE DROUILLARD ON THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION

by James Alexander Thom ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 5, 2000

Uneven, heavy with ironic culture clashes, and as slowly paced as the expedition itself. Still, the narrative ripples with a...

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Thom retells the Lewis and Clark journey, which he first visited in From Sea to Shining Sea (1984), from the point of view of Drouillard, a half-breed Native American.

Adapting the less romantic view of contemporary historians, Thom, again trying to evoke history from a Native American perspective, sees that famed expedition as a harbinger for the subjugation and annihilation of the Indians, who, though threatened by European diseases, weapons and whiskey, would soon find betrayal, slaughter, cultural destruction and slow starvation in the white man's bag of gifts. In Drouillard (his father was French, his mother a Shawnee), Thom has a reluctant, stranger-in-a-strange-land hero. Drouillard is a superb hunter with an almost psychic understanding of living things, as well as an illiterate linguist who can speak English, French, Spanish, and variations on his Shawnee dialect. Unmarried, shunned by whites and unattached to any tribe, Drouillard is at first reluctant to join the expedition, having suspected correctly that William Clark's brother, George Rogers Clark, massacred his tribal relatives. He decides that the money he might make could be of use to his mother, though, and becomes the odd man in among the Corps of Discovery, reacting with mostly silent contempt at the foul odors, hypocrisy, dishonesty, and management blunders of the group's leaders, especially Lewis, whose depressive rages Drouillard senses as an almost demonic possession. In numerous meetings with Indians, Drouillard envisions the seeds of conflicts to come, but also finds much to respect on both sides—until he becomes an unwilling accomplice as the explorers lie, cheat, and steal their way to the Pacific and back.

Uneven, heavy with ironic culture clashes, and as slowly paced as the expedition itself. Still, the narrative ripples with a luminous fascination for nature, both human and spiritual, as it rains down so much sorrow and wonder.

Pub Date: July 5, 2000

ISBN: 0-345-39003-2

Page Count: 480

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2000

Categories:

HISTORICAL FICTION | GENERAL FICTION

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WARRIOR WOMAN
by James Alexander Thom & Dark Rain Thom

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THE CHILDREN OF FIRST MAN
by James Alexander Thom

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DISTANT SHORES

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2002

Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...

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Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.

After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?

Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).

Pub Date: July 1, 2002

ISBN: 0-345-45071-X

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WOMEN
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT ALONE
by Kristin Hannah

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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.