A well-plotted story likely to entrance all but the most cynical.
A saga by a former California newspaper editor spans more than 200 years and events ranging from horrific Civil War action to a romance in present-day San Francisco.
Conner, a sixth-generation Californian, weaves together several stories in an absorbing novel rooted in a deep knowledge of his native state. Elliott Madison, an editor who has retired from the San Francisco Chronicle, is writing an account of his great-grandparents William Henry Madison and Amelia Snyder Madison, who met and prospered in California after hard beginnings in Mendocino County: William had come west by sea, around Cape Horn, and Amelia made a cross-country wagon journey. In 2005 Madison gets a letter from a Phoebe Crighton in New York whose great-grandmother was the niece of Civil War veteran Benjamin Harrigan, who appears to have eventually gone west and worked on the Madisons’ ranch for the last 30 years of his life. Much of the book is taken up with those stories: the horrendous sea passage around the Horn and William’s failed gold mining attempts, Amelia’s arduous wagon journey and the loss of her father on the trail. But the story also sweeps in Benjamin’s terrifying engagements in the war and his worse time in a Confederate POW camp. Phoebe, a romantic, is convinced that Benjamin and Amelia were lovers (William died early on). Elliott agrees to travel with her to Mendocino County to investigate. Some readers may find the denouement a bit much, but Elliott’s characterizations are spot-on, especially the classic pairing of the quirky Phoebe and the reserved Elliott, who is quite ready to ease into a solitary old age until Phoebe arrives, and Elliott’s granddaughter Alissa, a resentful piece of work and a drummer in a grunge-rock trio. Near the end of the book comes, in effect, a wonderful scenic postcard celebrating San Francisco, a city Conner clearly loves.
A well-plotted story likely to entrance all but the most cynical.Pub Date: Dec. 22, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-9856312-2-2
Page Count: 318
Publisher: NaCl Press
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet bedtime story.
A boy and his stuffed bear head into the woods.
Having captured readers’ attention with Born a Crime (2016), his bestselling memoir of growing up in South Africa, comedian and television host Noah has written a parable about decision-making. As he puts it in a brief prologue, “It’s about disagreements and difference—but it’s also about how we bridge those gaps and find what matters most, whether we’re parents or kids, neighbors, gnomes, or political adversaries. It’s a picture book, but it’s not a children’s book. Rather, it is a book for kids to share with parents and for parents to share with kids.” With plentiful illustrations by Hahn and in language aimed at young listeners, it tells the story of a small boy so impatient to start his Saturday adventures that he rebels against the rules of his household and heads out without brushing his teeth or making his bed, despite the reminders of his stuffed bear, Walter. “We can’t just run away,” protests the bear. “Your mother will miss you. And where will we sleep? And who will make us waffles?” “We’ll build our own house,” the boy responds. “And we’ll grow our own waffles!” From there, the pair go on their walkabout, encountering a garden gnome, a pair of snails, and a gang of animated coins who have lessons to offer about making choices. Though the author suggests in the introduction that adult readers might enjoy the book on their own, those looking for a follow-up to the memoir or a foray into adult fiction should be warned that this is not that book.
A sweet bedtime story.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2024
ISBN: 9780593729960
Page Count: 128
Publisher: One World/Random House
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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
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