In a patchwork of family life is the pattern of Captain Leander's belief in the "unobserved ceremoniousness" of life which is a "gesture and sacrament toward the excellence and continuousness of things" and through parts of his diary, episodes in St. Botolph's, at the Wapshots' West Farm (on the New England coast), and in the gropings of his sons, Moses and Coverly, the lineage and heritage come through. Come through from an undated Independence Day to Leander's death after both the boys have left home because of Cousin Honora's financial blackmailing; after Leander has lost, regained and lost again the ferry-boat which was his reason for living; after the daughter — who was not his — of an earlier marriage- has tried to claim him; after his wife has converted the ferryboat into a fussy tearoom and gifte shoppe. Through the years Moses has been dismissed from a Washington top secret job, Coverly has become a part of rocket launching as a Taper and been deserted by his wife, and Moses' marriage to the ward of a distant, wealthy, unpredictable, vengeful widowed cousin has had time to turn from bad and then to good when the old harridan's ramparts burn, and the boys make good with sons to claim Honora's promised inheritance. And since the financial security is based on Wapshot virility, the Wapshots have their interest in women from a basically sexual approach; and since their father believes in the romance and nonsense, the joy and the cockiness of living, theirs is an uncharted course — for Coverly almost turning to homosexuality and Moses trying to maintain some balance in a household of financial dependents. The interludes of Leander's diary and of Honora's disturbances have a tart sting and the whole offers candor and a loving care for men and their concerns in a world tyrannized by women. A rowdy, bawdy, feeling, root-sensed New England gallery, this has its high — and not quite so high — moments for an audience which may suffer shock but never shame. Watch the critics.
Pub Date: June 15, 1957
ISBN: 0060528877
Page Count: 372
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1957
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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