Rating: 
Summary: A beautifully written mystery, both satisfying and scenic.
Review: A stubborn old rancher refuses to accept the official version of his troubled son's suicide. From his ranch high in the mountains of Colorado he travels to a small town in the Yucatan, entering his son's shadowy world of American ex-patriates and Maya shamen, small-time politicians and often-times drunks, and maybe murderers. Layers of love, grief and guilt are stripped away as he unravels the tragic death of a disturbed young man. Long after the book is finished and the puzzle is solved, you'll find yourself pondering the lasting mystery of a parent's love.
Rating: 
Summary: Short And Sweet
Review: This was a fast and easy read and well worth it. The character Atticus is one of the best I've come across in a long time. The descriptions of life in Mexico were interesting and the mystery was intriguing. The ending was especially satisfying.
Rating: 
Summary: Atticus was poorly written with a weak plot and characters.
Review: The author was trying way too hard to please the book critics here. The plot was thin, the characters either too canned or too ethereal to be believed. I couln't "feel" them at all. I like to get lost in a book and I couldn't even get interested, even when I guessed the ending correctly half-way through. It was like icing on a store-bought cake...it looks great when you see it, but it tastes heavy and greasy. What a disappointment
Rating:
Summary: Engaging short novel
Review: The character of Atticus stands out from the start, in my opinion because Ron Hansen has described him just enough for each reader to fill in the blanks of what a good, upright man is. Contrast this with his son, who, throughout the book, remains alluring vague and pulled me along in the search for his sanity. In the two hours it took me to read the book, I found myself in a rollercoaster of emotion, very happy I was reading and not watching a movie
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Summary: A winner
Review: Ron Hansen has described the father I hope I am someday.
This is a book of contrasts. A hardworking father, living alone amongst the cold, snow and wind of a Colorado winter juxtaposed with a wayward (lazy?) son living in the warm, lush tropical Mexico. Is it suicide or murder?
Rising above all of the contradictions, we see a father who accepts and loves his son despite their differences. Read this book and let me know what you think
Rating: 
Summary: Atticus sends a modern Prodigal Son to Mexico
Review: ATTICUS the novel retells the parable of the Prodigal Son as contemporary private detective story with elements of Greek comedy (mistaken identities) and a lush Mayan setting.
Atticus, the hero of the novel, is a recovering cattleman and prospering 67-year old minor oilman from Antelope County, Colorado. He has two sons: Frank, the older a State Senator, and Scott, an unintentional matricide (lost control of his car while driving through a snowstorm to buy alcohol for the holidays).
Understandably depressed by this event, as also by his his father's perceived lack of love, Scott receives in advance part of his inheritance, then wades into a life of mental hospitals and evil companions. He settles at age 40 as an American expatriate on Mexico's east coast. There he half-heartedly pursues his erstwhile profession (painting) while sinking ever deeper into drugs, sex and dependence on his true love, Renata.
With a Winchester twelve-gauge shotgun, a recent Christmas gift from older brother Frank, Scott takes his life in Mexico. Or does he? Atticus arrives, interacts with Scott's colorful circle of friends and acquaintances. He pieces together conflicting facts until he virtually compels a happy ending (for the moment) to this clever detective story in an exotic setting of tropical beaches and Mayan ruins (Scott lives atop one, reminiscent of the young James Joyce's tower in Dublin). Just before Atticus's happiness becomes complete, "The governor appointed him to a fish and game board...and he was re-elected to the parish council at St. Mary's"--in Antelope County, it goes without saying.
There are enough themes here for four novels. Ron Hansen's ATTICUS is one thoroughly stuffed sausage of a tale. But he largely pulls it off.
-OOO-
Patrick Killough 3/29/97
Rating:
Summary: Well written but unsatisfing
Review: Atticus starts off well, rendering a fine portrait of a good man (Atticus), sort of the Marlboro man meets Atticus of To Kill a Mockingbird. Hansen is a great writer but it sort of falls apart as it goes on because the plot becomes very conventional. It's as if he got tired of the plot, the mystery element of it and rushed the ending. So as mystery it's not very special and that's fustrating because it drags the novel down and keeps it from working as a whole
Rating:
Summary: Elegantly crafted moral tale
Review: Atticus is the moving, moral tale of a father's love for his wayward son. Ron Hansen's prose is transparently elegant and well crafted leaving the reader with the sense that they have not just read but lived the story
Rating:
Summary: Mexico, a good place for a US mystery.
Review: I wanted to become an expatriate with the others in Mexico but there were some questionable plot devices for adding characters. It was easy to get into the pattern that Atticus was following and I was anxious to see the next twist. The flashbacks brought enough meaning to the present action that the coincidences didn't seem forced but that they could have happened just that way, at least in Mexico
Rating:
Summary: Atticus: great prodigal son mystery
Review: Ron Hansen's "Atticus" abounds with colorful imagery and mysterious characters, perhaps a little too mysterious for the novels good. Atticus Cody portrays a forgiving and loving father with a name from a similar father in Harper's novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" although no specific reference to the book is made. Hearing that his prodigal son Scott killed himself in Resurreccion, Mexico, he goes down immediately. When he gets there, however, clues turn up that suggest murder. After investigating Scott's death he begins to trust no one, including Renata, Scott's occassional lover and confidant. As the plot deepens, other characters surface, but their backgrounds and motives seem vague and incomplete. As I continued reading the book, many questions arose concerning the people of Resurreccion, but some were left unanswered. For example, Rhinehardt Schmidt was undoubtedly the most mysterious character in the book, and his presence in some parts of the book seemed too coincidental to be realistic. Overall, the book kept me turning the pages and searching for answers, and Atticus' unbounding love for Scott leaves the reader in awe.
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