Wiley (Soldiers in Hiding, 1985, etc.) continues to range far afield for his material; here, his subject is the reeducation of an American in Nigeria. Forthright, hard-working and incorruptible, 57-year-old Jerry Neal is the very model of a modern school principal, and his International School is an enclave of calm in the turbulence of Lagos. But Jerry has tunnel vision: the Nigeria beyond his campus is a blur, and his prized collection of Nigerian artwork is mere decor. Wiley uses the mechanism of a political conspiracy to have Jerry really see his habitat. It's late 1983; various military factions are plotting the overthrow of the corrupt civilian government, while a civilian group hopes the military will give their guy—Beany Abubakar, a charismatic populist—a break. Beany's group needs a Western pawn to demonstrate government corruption; they choose Jerry. They set fire to a ministry; Jerry is charged with arson. An American embassy plan to smuggle him out of the country goes awry; Jerry is surrounded by the conspirators, who come clean, appealing to him to stay and stand trial. Especially persuasive is Beany's gorgeous ex-wife Pamela, who almost ends Jerry's five years of celibacy (dating from the death of his beloved wife Charlotte). Jerry lets her drive him out of Lagos to Beany's ancestral village, and we switch from a suspense to a road novel as Jerry looks, listens, and learns: that pidgin English is not inferior to standard English; that juju (voodoo) is a vital component of Nigerian art and culture. He returns to Lagos with a bundle of talismanic artwork, and though Beany is killed in the confusion of the military coup and Jerry resumes his career, inwardly he has been changed for life. Wiley's affection for Nigeria and Nigerians gives his work a buoyancy that compensates for but cannot hide its weaknesses: Jerry's blandness, the contrivance of his immersion in Nigerian culture, and an ending that elevates his cleansed vision above the national tragedy of Beany's death.
Pub Date: Sept. 8, 1992
ISBN: 0-525-93547-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1992
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
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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