A very mixed bag indeed, comprising 36 talks and essays (1976-88) and 17 reviews (1977-86), ranging from travel pieces and literary discussions to feminism, commencement addresses, and social-consciousness-raisers. Nonfictional Le Guin is not an easy writer to grapple with: her style veers from mercurial and eclectic through straightforward and banal to wholly elusive. For instance, the essay discussing her famous novel The Left Hand of Darkness ("Is Gender Necessary?") tends to dodge the real issue; a "redux" presented here alongside the original essay clarifies some points but elsewhere muddies the waters still further: in fact, the novel is its own testament, perhaps above interpretation. Essays on narrative, character, and storytelling do good work breaking up old, misogynous categories, only to delineate new, albeit feminist, ones ("The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction," "Heroes," etc.). The travel pieces often pique the interest without breaking any new ground. The reviews, too, suffer from similar encumbrances. Le Guin demolishes Star Wars and Close Encounters as both science fiction and film (an all-too-easy task) without explaining or even acknowledging the movies' vast popularity. Again, she savages C.S. Lewis—he's in a mode where he thoroughly deserves it—but only by comparing him to J.R.R. Tolkien, whom she uncritically admires. Le Guin's unabashed feminism can be an eye-opener, and much of what she has to say is eminently sensible and often penetrating. But all too soon she'll wobble off toward terra incognita, leaving her readers floundering, bored, or frustrated in her wake. Her often brilliant fiction scores higher by setting aside the didacticism.
Pub Date: Feb. 13, 1988
ISBN: 0802135293
Page Count: 314
Publisher: Grove
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1988
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
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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