The first in a proposed series, readers will welcome the time spent with the enigmatic Mona Baker.
In Batts’ thriller, a woman learns whom to trust (or not) after her husband is arrested for drug trafficking and she becomes a target for murder.
When cops find a kilo of cocaine in the Bakers’ house, they arrest Exxon-Mobil VP Aaron and pressure his wife, Mona, into giving them proof of a secret bank account where Aaron’s stashed his drug money. And the police have leverage: They’ve found Mona’s sister, Simone, who disappeared nearly a decade ago and was presumed dead, and will keep her out of prison (for killing her rapist uncle) if Mona helps. Mona, however, knows nothing about Aaron’s drug trafficking, let alone any hidden money. She soon realizes that she’s being followed, and when she survives more than one attempt on her life, it’s clear that someone sees Mona as a loose end. Batts’ (Walls Fall Down, 2003) novel is a fascinating tale of a woman rediscovering her lost identity: Mona’s mother was a strict disciplinarian and raised her girls in a crime-riddled neighborhood, but the adult Mona, who admits to marrying Aaron for his money, has embraced an indulgent lifestyle. She finds her strength again, thanks to Simone, a sublime character who has made her own way without a rich husband. Mona is deeply flawed: She claims that the cops are using her to secure a case against Aaron, but Mona is likewise using numerous people, namely her various lovers—men and women whom she’s strung along with no intention of forging any emotional connection. What makes Mona a resounding protagonist is her acknowledgement of her weaknesses and her love for her 7-year-old daughter, Sophie. The story reads like a mystery; it begins by almost immediately asking questions: Is there a foreign bank account? Was the cocaine Aaron’s or, as he maintains, part of a frame-up? But, though answers eventually surface, it’s a bit disappointing that Mona doesn’t act as amateur sleuth or initiate her own investigation. Notwithstanding, there’s definitely suspense—Mona’s distrust of police is derived from Aaron’s friendship with the mayor and the possibility of corrupt cops.
The first in a proposed series, readers will welcome the time spent with the enigmatic Mona Baker.Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2014
ISBN: 978-0692226377
Page Count: 276
Publisher: The Real Ideal, LLC
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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