by Stephen Davenport ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 18, 2018
A book for anyone who's wondered about the inner workings and worries of a school administration.
A year in the life of a New England boarding school on the brink of dissolution.
This book begins on graduation day for Miss Oliver's, an independent boarding school for girls, and it's also the last day for Marjorie Boyd, the headmistress for the last 35 years. When she is replaced by Fred Kindler, a chaotic year ensues. It was the board's decision to fire Marjorie and hire Fred, and the staff is divided on their feelings about the new headmaster's presence. The change is most traumatic for Francis and Peggy Plummer, a married couple who have devoted their lives to the school—he as a math and English teacher, she as librarian. Partly to avoid being confronted by this change and partly as a personal journey of discovery, Francis leaves for the summer on an archaeological dig—and this, coupled with Francis' disdain for the new headmaster, may mean the end of his marriage. It comes to light that Fred was brought aboard because the school is in danger of shutting down; enrollment has drastically declined, and the budget appears irreparable. The question of how to solve this problem and save the school is the thrust of the entire novel. At its center is a debate about whether boys should be allowed to attend—for some people, going coed is the obvious solution, while others would rather see the school shut down than witness such a horror. Most of the drama comes from unnecessary misunderstandings between people who fail to effectively express themselves and from unexplained—but convenient—disasters, such as the library burning down. There are moments here that indicate that Davenport, who, as his bio notes, "had a long career in education," was probably an excellent teacher, like a scene in which Francis explicates a Robert Frost poem with his class, and there are some wonderful students, like the head of the school newspaper who is conducting research about the sex lives of students. But those attributes are overshadowed by the book's focus on bureaucracy and the boardroom, and the narrative suffers for it.
A book for anyone who's wondered about the inner workings and worries of a school administration.Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5132-6131-7
Page Count: 380
Publisher: WestWinds Press
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
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BOOK REVIEW
by Hanya Yanagihara ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 10, 2015
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
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Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2004
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
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