Equal melodrama and farce.
No, no, not that New York Nanny—an English one. Sort of like Bridget Jones, but not so jaded, with unmistakable echoes of I Don’t Know How She Does It and other chick-lit classics.
Gather round, twentysomethings, and identify with spunky Jo Green, who leaves the peaceful village where she grew up, tired of the same old crowd at the same old pub, ready for something, anything, new. Bidding her mates and devoted boyfriend good-bye, she arrives in London, awed by the great city—but unimpressed by the beleaguered parents who hire her about a minute after their last nanny quit. Vanessa, an advertising exec, loathes all aspects of mommydom and openly prefers her clever colleagues to Dick, her henpecked husband. The Fitzgeralds indulge themselves endlessly in vicious bickering, which troubles Jo, though she soldiers on bravely nonetheless, somewhat comforted by her own suite, huge TV, and sole use of a Renault. The three adorable children are a handful, of course; and so Jo seeks advice from the other nannies, English and foreign (all accents duly noted and elaborately mocked). The young women dish on their obnoxious employers, confess to crushes on the better-looking husbands, and tell wide-eyed Jo how to wangle days off and perks such as facials and aerobic classes. Despite her devoted boyfriend’s pleading, Jo hopes to find new love with her new life. Conveniently, Josh, Dick’s grown son from a previous marriage, moves back home to (she thinks) sponge off his father. Josh breaks his leg, the two bond over heaps of ironing, and at last the truth is revealed: Dick has been unable to keep up his share of expenses, and Josh, a successful accountant, has been secretly slipping him money so dear old dad won’t incur the simmering wrath of his bitchy wife. Can the marriage be saved? Will wedding bells ring for Josh and Jo?
Equal melodrama and farce.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-06-056011-8
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2003
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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