A playful comedy that delivers more silliness than outright laughs.
A fast-food mogul desperately yearns for respectability and is willing to do extreme things to get it in Schmidt’s farcical novel.
By all objective measures, Phil Ochs is a successful businessman. Despite descending from a “pedigree of losers,” as he thinks of it, he’s built a fast-food empire in South Carolina, made up of 17 Fry Buddy franchises. Nevertheless, he remains dogged by the feeling that he hasn’t received the respect he deserves, and he remains annoyed by the fact that he shares a name with a famous liberal folksinger—a terrible yoke for a “committed conservative”: “You don’t know the burden it’s been to drag that hippie’s weight up the ladder.” To make matters worse, he longs to win the Outstanding Entrepreneur award from the Chamber of Commerce; this year, he’s losing out to a company that produces fake testicles for neutered pets. Frustrated that his adult son, David Samuel, is, in his view, an “over-sensitive, disgraceful goddamn mooch,” he pays a teenager to beat his offspring up, hoping the experience will usher him into manhood. David Samuel’s fantastical depiction of the assault is among the farce’s comedic highlights, as when he imagines his assailants’ thoughts about him: “His grace intimidates me! Me too! Even a thug like me can feel the elegance of his spirit! The devil has presented us a martyr for our adolescent rage, our wild, brutish passion!” Phil finally decides to run for state senate, and uses that opportunity to reinvent himself, allowing voters to come up with a new middle name for him. The entire book is written with nimble enthusiasm, and some of it is very funny, indeed. However, the author’s comedic stylings can hit lower registers at times, as with some of the middle names that the public suggests, such as “Phil Mummy-Fart Ochs,” “Phil Dinosaur Ochs,” and “Phil R.I.P. Ochs.” Also, the book’s inventiveness unfortunately fizzles out long before its conclusion; one may wish that the author had set about crafting a novel that was half as long.
A playful comedy that delivers more silliness than outright laughs.Pub Date: May 26, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-956769-13-5
Page Count: 270
Publisher: Library Tales Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 21, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
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
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