A funny, poignant, and uplifting canine tale.
Two astute pooches offer lessons in life, loss, love, and the power of positive thinking.
In this novel, readers meet Javi (officially named Java for his café au lait coloring), a purebred Shih Tzu, and Binah, a Havanese whose name means “understanding” in Hebrew. Their vocalizations may be limited to barks, growls, and whimpers, but these two adorable, furry creatures can read and write and frequently wax philosophical. Javi has already crossed the Rainbow Bridge, but he left behind a diary that Binah digs up in the backyard. Binah came into Javi’s life only a few months before his death, but she promised him she would tell his story to her friends. Stopler’s second novel, whimsical and imaginative, treats readers to the thoughts, pranks, and conversations among these two charmers and their canine friends. Be prepared for chuckles, a bit of magic, and, of course, some tears. Javi was born in 1999 and was fortunate to be able to spend two years with his Mama and his human family—Neha, Roger, and their two young children. But when the humans moved to a new house, much to Javi’s distress, they gave Mama away. Still, he learned some important survival lessons from her, most especially how to ignore the negative voice in his head that told him to misbehave—the voice that triggered “melon collie” and always got him into trouble. When Javi was 9 years old, Neha became overworked and stressed. She gave him to Tali, a young woman who once rescued him when he became lost. It was a match made in heaven. Tali and Javi were soul mates. She called him “mi amore”; he called her “my lady.” Through Tali, Javi found his “mission.” Binah joined them as a young pup two years later. In alternating chapters, Binah intersperses her own story, sharing with her friends the wisdom of her beloved “superhero” brother. This enjoyable escapist read for dog lovers, dotted with canine factoids, should also delight youngsters ready to move up to storytime chapter books. The enchanting work delivers a welcome distraction from today’s darkness and acrimony.
A funny, poignant, and uplifting canine tale.Pub Date: Feb. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5413-1943-1
Page Count: 250
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.
A falsely accused Black man goes into hiding in this masterful novella by Wright (1908-1960), finally published in full.
Written in 1941 and '42, between Wright’s classics Native Son and Black Boy, this short novel concerns Fred Daniels, a modest laborer who’s arrested by police officers and bullied into signing a false confession that he killed the residents of a house near where he was working. In a brief unsupervised moment, he escapes through a manhole and goes into hiding in a sewer. A series of allegorical, surrealistic set pieces ensues as Fred explores the nether reaches of a church, a real estate firm, and a jewelry store. Each stop is an opportunity for Wright to explore themes of hope, greed, and exploitation; the real estate firm, Wright notes, “collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent from poor colored folks.” But Fred’s deepening existential crisis and growing distance from society keep the scenes from feeling like potted commentaries. As he wallpapers his underground warren with cash, mocking and invalidating the currency, he registers a surrealistic but engrossing protest against divisive social norms. The novel, rejected by Wright’s publisher, has only appeared as a substantially truncated short story until now, without the opening setup and with a different ending. Wright's take on racial injustice seems to have unsettled his publisher: A note reveals that an editor found reading about Fred’s treatment by the police “unbearable.” That may explain why Wright, in an essay included here, says its focus on race is “rather muted,” emphasizing broader existential themes. Regardless, as an afterword by Wright’s grandson Malcolm attests, the story now serves as an allegory both of Wright (he moved to France, an “exile beyond the reach of Jim Crow and American bigotry”) and American life. Today, it resonates deeply as a story about race and the struggle to envision a different, better world.
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-59853-676-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Library of America
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
BOOK TO SCREEN
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