Another straw in the wind suggesting a new trend in novels of spiritual import. Leslie Greener's No Time To Look Back (Viking) —published last Spring — was a significant and moving novel in this genre. Now comes the new Nevil Shute, showing advance in power over a rather fumbling handling of the spiritual impinging on the material in his No High- — almost, in this new book, a successful achievement. In both books, flying plays a vital part; in both, the mechanic is the central figure rather than the pilot. Here he uses the time honored Servant in The House motif. As Tom Cutter tells the story, the reader identifies himself with Cutter recurrently glimpsing divinity in the chief mechanic, half-caste, British-Chinese, more Atlantic than British in his spiritual values. Cutter didn't want to believe his friend and associate in the burgeoning commercial flying venture in the Persian Gulf area was anything but human. But he knew that his spiritual message to the mechanics in the air strips all through the East had made better men as well as better craftsmen of them all. He knew that the man himself was looked upon as Prophet and Teacher, by Buddhists, Muslims, Hindoos, and those countless fringe religions of the East. He knew that through him taboos of race and creed were being overcome. He knew the legend was growing, though the man himself did not seek it. He knew that the conservative British were afraid — and he moved Shaklin on to Bali; then the Dutch, too, became fearful, as planeloads of pilgrims sought his blessing. Finally, when fatal illness belied his divinity, the message he carried still dominated, and with his death the question, though still insoluble, hung in the air — and the legend, with its valued concomitant of worship through skills, grew and strengthened. Perhaps this is Shute's most important book, though not on the level of straight story. At times difficult, at times technical, at times distasteful to those who pigeonhole religion as apart from daily life- there is nonetheless that emphasis on seeking spiritual values which is a trend in modern fiction not to be overlooked.
Pub Date: Jan. 31, 1950
ISBN: 1741211557
Page Count: 435
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 10, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1950
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
More of the same: Sparks has his recipe, and not a bit of it is missing here. It’s the literary equivalent of high fructose...
Sparks (The Longest Ride, 2013, etc.) serves up another heaping helping of sentimental Southern bodice-rippage.
Gone are the blondes of yore, but otherwise the Sparks-ian formula is the same: a decent fellow from a good family who’s gone through some rough patches falls in love with a decent girl from a good family who’s gone through some rough patches—and is still suffering the consequences. The guy is innately intelligent but too quick to throw a punch, the girl beautiful and scary smart. If you hold a fatalistic worldview, then you’ll know that a love between them can end only in tears. If you hold a Sparks-ian one, then true love will prevail, though not without a fight. Voilà: plug in the character names, and off the story goes. In this case, Colin Hancock is the misunderstood lad who’s decided to reform his hard-knuckle ways but just can’t keep himself from connecting fist to face from time to time. Maria Sanchez is the dedicated lawyer in harm’s way—and not just because her boss is a masher. Simple enough. All Colin has to do is punch the partner’s lights out: “The sexual harassment was bad enough, but Ken was a bully as well, and Colin knew from his own experience that people like that didn’t stop abusing their power unless someone made them. Or put the fear of God into them.” No? No, because bound up in Maria’s story, wrinkled with the doings of an equally comely sister, there’s a stalker and a closet full of skeletons. Add Colin’s back story, and there’s a perfect couple in need of constant therapy, as well as a menacing cop. Get Colin and Maria to smooching, and the plot thickens as the storylines entangle. Forget about love—can they survive the evil that awaits them out in the kudzu-choked woods?
More of the same: Sparks has his recipe, and not a bit of it is missing here. It’s the literary equivalent of high fructose corn syrup, stickily sweet but irresistible.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4555-2061-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
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