Mary Higgins Clark started her writing career writing suspense stories and she hasn’t changed very much since then. All her books are very interesting to read and they will always keep your attention to the end.
All Around the Town was one of the stories written by Mary Higgins Clark. This book was a suspenseful, interesting, intriguing book. It held my interest until the end. The plot was twisty and unpredictable which meant that I would never get bored.
The story takes place in Ridgewood, New Jersey. It takes place from June 1974 to about September 1991. This effects the rest of the story because this is the time period that the main character had her abduction and her multiple personalities started to form.
The main character in this story was Laurie Kenyon, a four year old girl in the beginning of the story who eventually grows up to be a twenty-one year old woman. She has blond hair, green eyes and a fragile little body. Sarah Kenyon is present throughout the story. She is Laurie’s sister and helps Laurie deal with all her problems as best she can. Bic and Opal were Laurie’s abductors. Bic had a beard and his arms had a lot of curly hair. He was a very domineering person towards Opal and Laurie. Opal had long stringy hair and had a plain face. She was passive and did whatever she was told. They were con-artist who fooled everyone they met. They were mean and didn’t care about anybody else but themselves. Justin Donnelly was the psychiatrist who helped Laurie with therapy and helped find the real person that was within her all along.
The story begins when Laurie Kenyon was abducted by Bic and Opal when she was four years old. They abused her sexually and mentally when they had her for those two, long, tedious years. When they were doing these things to her such as sexually abusing her she would place herself in a different state of mind, which over time began to be her altered personalities. She had four main altered personalities which were Leona, the woman in Laurie, Debbie, the baby or woos, Kate, the strong leader of the bunch, and Lee, the little scared shy nine year old boy who helped, in the end, bring all the personalities together as one.
All the King’s Men: History’s Importance
All the King’s Men: History’s Importance
Throughout All the King’s Men, history plays an important role in
the motivations and lives of all the characters. History’s
importance is most noticeable, not surprisingly, in the story main
characters – Willie Stark and Jack Burden – whose lives focus on and,
in some cases, depend upon history and how they relate themselves to
it. While Willie Stark views history as a tool with which to
manipulate people for his own ends, an attitude resulting in his
own destruction, Jack Burden’s view of history changes over time
and eventually allows him to accept his relationship to the past
and, therefore, present. Since each man has such a differing view
it is no wonder that history becomes important to each in different
ways. Willie Stark must support his entire empire in a world of
enemies and corruption, to do this he relies on the past to
provide him with the foundation.
“Dirt’s a funny thing,” the Boss said. “Come to think of it, there
ain’t a thing but dirt on this God’s green globe except what’s
under water, and that’s dirt too. It’s dirt makes the grass grow.
A diamond ain’t a thing in the world but a piece of dirt that got
awful hot. God-a-Mighty picked up a handful of dirt and blew on it
and made you and me and George Washington and mankind blessed in
faculty and apprehension. It all depends on what you do with the
dirt.”1 In this case, Stark is referring to the past as dirt – something
to be used in many ways. The way he chooses to use it of course is
as blackmail; “Then he would lean suddenly forward, at the man, and
say, not slow and easy now, `God damn you, do you know what I can do
to you?’ And he could too. For he had the goods.”2 Thus history is
important to Stark as the device by which he maintains power.
Both Stark and Burden use history differently according to the way
it figures into their lives. To Stark, ultimate power being paramount,
history is a thing to be used in the manipulation of others to