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BLACK WOLF

Name: BLACK WOLF
Author: Andrés Aloi
ISBN: 978-1492893790

by Andrés Aloi ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 24, 2014

A quasi-humorous novel and field guide for broken-hearted adolescents.

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In Aloi’s debut novel, a young man struggles to decide whether to stay with his girlfriend or try to sleep with many other girls.

Vincent Wing—call him “Wing,” everybody else does—is a typical misogynistic teen, obsessed with sex but terrified of commitment with his girlfriend Clara. The problem is that he’s also (maybe) in love with the enchanting Maggie. She has certain physical features that draw our randy hero, although, to be fair, she’s hardly the only girl Wing’s age whose prominent features elicit his full-tilt, testosterone-fueled lust spiral. Such juvenile reduction of women and girls to sex objects is a major bonding point for Wing and his friends, who have names such as Hot Dog, Figs, Chink, the Shit, Monkey, the Bull and Nails. In fact, Aloi devotes much of the novel to describing their dehumanizing dialogue in what can best be described as a boys-will-be-boys tone, which does little to generate compassion for the narrator or much interest in his plight. The plot, such as it is, revolves around a much-anticipated senior trip to Porto Seguro, Brazil. While there, Wing has the opportunity to seduce copious women, but, of course, his heart belongs to Clara. Will they or won’t they get back together? The minor dramas of adolescent sexual politics may make for an intriguing lived experience, but it takes a skilled hand, often lacking here, to pull it off on the page. The real drama is whether or not the painfully self-aware Wing will ever realize that sexist vernacular isn’t the magic key to a woman’s heart (or body). Comedy can do much to illuminate the human condition, but Wing’s and his friends’ jokes never move beyond slut-shaming and gay-baiting to get at deeper truth, which is unfortunate. Aloi’s prose has the potential to be quite strong, and at its best, it comes through crisply: “She went back clumsily to talking to the rugger, though he looked like he might as well have been a pair of headphones.” In the final estimation, however, this story of Wing and his friends seems as anachronistic as its pop-culture references.

A quasi-humorous novel and field guide for broken-hearted adolescents.

Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2014

ISBN: 978-1492893790

Page Count: 264

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2014

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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MAGIC HOUR

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

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A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.

"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.