A breezy read that centers on wish fulfillment.
A woman gets a chance to start over in this romantic novel.
On her 50th birthday, Missouri Rothman has a horrible day that culminates with Doyle’s, her husband of 32 years, leaving her for a younger woman. Doyle is a high-ranking professor at the University of Georgia, while Missouri, who does not have a degree, is an administrative associate. Their older son, Michael, only makes Missouri feel worse by asking what she did to drive Doyle away. But the couple’s younger son, Cody, is soon by her side to offer comfort and cook for her. The terms of the divorce give Missouri a chance to go back to school, and with help from her friend Amelia and her former high school art teacher, Thelma Coley, she gets into art school. Despite the awkwardness of being an older student, Missouri is quickly recognized for her talent and given a chance to study in Florence. Doyle, who has started to regret his decision, is resistant to this idea and gets his sons to object as well. She decides to go anyway. In Italy, she is intrigued to discover that one of her new professors is a handsome American. He turns out to be quite interested in her, but her family finds ways to meddle in their budding relationship. It is very easy for readers to root for Missouri, and her post-divorce adventures are often satisfying. But there are some missed opportunities in the construction of the narrative. Readers don’t learn much about the basis of Missouri’s love for Doyle other than that he was attractive and that they were together a long time. This makes it difficult to relate to the feelings she has about their divorce. In addition, the events in Pritchett’s (Like Peaches and Pickles, 2017) tale are somewhat predictable, and things can come a little too easily to Missouri. Readers never get to see her truly struggle with school. But while the writing and story transitions can be abrupt, the text shines brightest in the details of Missouri’s artistry and the landscapes of Italy.
A breezy read that centers on wish fulfillment.Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-61296-797-4
Page Count: 138
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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