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BENGAL NIGHTS

Name: BENGAL NIGHTS
Author: Mircea Eliade
ISBN: 0-226-20418-9

by Mircea Eliade ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1994

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Eliade (19071986), a major figure in the scholarly study of world religions, tells his version of younger days and of what his ``research'' in India was really all about. This is the roman Ö clef about a torrid young love blown apart by cultural and colonial chasms in response to which, years later, Maitreyi Devi wrote It Does Not Die (see above). Alain, Eliade's persona in the story, comes to take up residence with an Indian family who have a sublime, mysteriously beautiful daughter, Maitreyi. Though the blossoming young woman has read widely in English, American, and Indian literature, Alain sees in her and her sister a certain savage Otherness that intrigues him. As the young man and the teenager spend more and more time together, they are drawn together and end up, of course, spending passionate nights behind closed doors. As Alain discovers that even the recently virginal Maitreyi knows the sexual secrets of the East, the two are tortured by a foreknowledge that their affair will be discovered by the teen's modernizing, but still traditional, Hindu family. After the younger sister blabs and the father sends Alain away, Maitreyi becomes a victim of her father's physical wrath. Tormented and grandiose (``I suffered ten times more than she at the idea of the punishments she would suffer''), Alain retreats to the Himalayas to tell fellow seekers of Indian truth that they are merely romantics who, unlike him, don't know the real story behind the mysteries of the East. In the end, Alain seems at most to have found that his fantasies don't hold up to concrete experience rather than to have come to any authentic understanding of India. A typical colonial tale of adventure and conquest, with too many fantastic edges to come across as being about actual human beings.

Pub Date: April 1, 1994

ISBN: 0-226-20418-9

Page Count: 176

Publisher: Univ. of Chicago

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1994

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TELL ME LIES

by Carola Lovering ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 12, 2018

There are unforgettable beauties in this very sexy story.

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Passion, friendship, heartbreak, and forgiveness ring true in Lovering's debut, the tale of a young woman's obsession with a man who's "good at being charming."

Long Island native Lucy Albright, starts her freshman year at Baird College in Southern California, intending to study English and journalism and become a travel writer. Stephen DeMarco, an upperclassman, is a political science major who plans to become a lawyer. Soon after they meet, Lucy tells Stephen an intensely personal story about the Unforgivable Thing, a betrayal that turned Lucy against her mother. Stephen pretends to listen to Lucy's painful disclosure, but all his thoughts are about her exposed black bra strap and her nipples pressing against her thin cotton T-shirt. It doesn't take Lucy long to realize Stephen's a "manipulative jerk" and she is "beyond pathetic" in her desire for him, but their lives are now intertwined. Their story takes seven years to unfold, but it's a fast-paced ride through hookups, breakups, and infidelities fueled by alcohol and cocaine and with oodles of sizzling sexual tension. "Lucy was an itch, a song stuck in your head or a movie you need to rewatch or a food you suddenly crave," Stephen says in one of his point-of-view chapters, which alternate with Lucy's. The ending is perfect, as Lucy figures out the dark secret Stephen has kept hidden and learns the difference between lustful addiction and mature love.

There are unforgettable beauties in this very sexy story.

Pub Date: June 12, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-5011-6964-9

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Atria

Review Posted Online: March 19, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
CAN'T LOOK AWAY
by Carola Lovering

- BOOK REVIEW
TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE
by Carola Lovering

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TRUE COLORS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 9, 2009

Above-average formula fiction, making full display of the author’s strong suits: sense of place, compassion for characters...

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Female rivalry is again the main preoccupation of Hannah’s latest Pacific Northwest sob saga (Firefly Lane, 2008, etc.).

At Water’s Edge, the family seat overlooking Hood Canal, Vivi Ann, youngest and prettiest of the Grey sisters and a champion horsewoman, has persuaded embittered patriarch Henry to turn the tumbledown ranch into a Western-style equestrian arena. Eldest sister Winona, a respected lawyer in the nearby village of Oyster Shores, hires taciturn ranch hand Dallas Raintree, a half-Native American. Middle sister Aurora, stay-at-home mother of twins, languishes in a dull marriage. Winona, overweight since adolescence, envies Vivi, whose looks get her everything she wants, especially men. Indeed, Winona’s childhood crush Luke recently proposed to Vivi. Despite Aurora’s urging (her principal role is as sisterly referee), Winona won’t tell Vivi she loves Luke. Yearning for Dallas, Vivi stands up Luke to fall into bed with the enigmatic, tattooed cowboy. Winona snitches to Luke: engagement off. Vivi marries Dallas over Henry’s objections. The love-match triumphs, and Dallas, though scarred by child abuse, is an exemplary father to son Noah. One Christmas Eve, the town floozy is raped and murdered. An eyewitness and forensic evidence incriminate Dallas. Winona refuses to represent him, consigning him to the inept services of a public defender. After a guilty verdict, he’s sentenced to life without parole. A decade later, Winona has reached an uneasy truce with Vivi, who’s still pining for Dallas. Noah is a sullen teen, Aurora a brittle but resigned divorcée. Noah learns about the Seattle Innocence Project. Could modern DNA testing methods exonerate Dallas? Will Aunt Winona redeem herself by reopening the case? The outcome, while predictable, is achieved with more suspense and less sentimental histrionics than usual for Hannah.

Above-average formula fiction, making full display of the author’s strong suits: sense of place, compassion for characters and understanding of family dynamics.