Somewhat superficial, funny, and short.
A college junior with an advice column discovers that following her own counsel is easier said than done.
Harriet lives a fairly standard college life: hanging out with her two closest friends, going to classes, drinking, and enduring hangovers—all while secretly dispensing wisdom to peers in her advice column, "Dear Emma." Each week, students write in with dating and friendship problems, and Harriet replies with clearheaded and thoughtful solutions. After all, Harriet’s been an observer for so long that she’s developed a knack for identifying the hidden fault lines in others’ lives. But when she meets the enigmatic Keith in her Spanish Civil War class, everything changes; she’s finally at the center of her own drama, and the weeks that follow are a flurry of excitement, study dates, and road trips. As their texts fizzle out, though, Harriet’s plunged into despair. As she continues to harp on Keith, everything seems to be going wrong around her: she’s fighting with her roommate; going to the civil war class is torture; she spots a pretty girl writing on Keith’s Facebook wall. Things get interesting when that girl, a senior named Remy, begins working the same library shift as Harriet, whom she begrudgingly begins to befriend; and when Remy writes Emma asking whether she should break things off with Keith, Harriet is forced to re-evaluate the way she views guys, friendship, and the integrity of her column. Heaney’s (Never Have I Ever, 2014) debut novel is a relatable depiction of modern college romance, and Harriet, despite her annoying obsession with Keith, has an endearingly humorous voice (“I have been waiting my whole life to quiz a hot guy in the library and now that it’s here I’m like, not ready”). However, the novel’s scope is so limited that it may not hold readers’ attention. College can indeed be a bubble, but Harriet’s sole focus on guys and day-to-day dramas precludes more complicated or long-term plotlines—which could have transformed Harriet from a merely humorous character into a well-rounded, satisfying one.
Somewhat superficial, funny, and short.Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-455-53460-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of...
Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State.
Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle’s answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate’s buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, only to blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully’s latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she’s given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it’s too late?
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36408-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007
BOOK TO SCREEN
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