An enthralling celebration of an American cultural archetype.
Following his involvement in a fatal sports accident, a young man takes to riding the rails in this debut novella.
Paul Thompson is a record-breaking university baseball player whose life changes when a batter falls down dead after being struck by one of his pitches in 1929. Fearing the result of the inquiry, Paul jumps on a moving train to begin a new life as a “wayfarer.” Five years later, he is found close to death in his hometown of Centralia after being beaten by a notorious railroad security guard named Cassidy Bills. Paul dies briefly before miraculously jolting back to life. He is cared for by the enigmatic Doc Browne, a man who is also tormented by demons after serving in World War I. Paul’s brush with death lends him a profound spiritual insight into life, and the two men help each other come to terms with their troubling pasts. Meanwhile, Paul discovers surprising news about the batter who dropped dead and sets about carving out a new life for himself as the Depression takes root. Still, the ghosts of his former life persist in returning to haunt him. This charming fictional story, inspired by Blair’s uncle who “rode the rails” in the 1930s, is an eloquent tribute to the resilience of the American hobo. The author uses crisp, straightforward prose adorned with a scattering of richly original similes to describe the plight of his blue-collar hero: “Not all of a sudden, but in short, pulsating intervals of dim light, like through a piece of glass smeared with Vaseline, Paul began to focus on his immediate surroundings.” The novella also has a similarly subtle yet engaging philosophical undertow that explores what drives individuals to become outsiders: “Maybe they don’t fit in because they refuse to, whatever their reasons are. They refuse to carry other men’s burdens. They can’t do what most men do, carry the burden of family.” The story does suffer from a few typos and the occasional unnecessary tense change: “The two exited Doc’s place...and walked to the front door as Doc and the sheriff begin to drive away.” This does little to detract from beguilingly honest storytelling with sufficient plot twists to keep readers guessing to the very end.
An enthralling celebration of an American cultural archetype.Pub Date: June 9, 2022
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 110
Publisher: BookBaby
Review Posted Online: Jan. 6, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
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
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