An expansive, immersive look at Edward II.
Zanghellini (The Sexual Constitution of Political Authority, 2015) imagines the personal life and loves of English King Edward II in this work of historical fiction.
In 1308, 12-year-old Queen Isabella of France comes to England to marry its king, Edward II. However, on the night of the wedding, Edward—a decade her senior—assures her that he won’t consummate the marriage until she’s an adult. Isabella then meets the king’s best friend, Sir Piers Gaveston, Earl of Cornwall. The two men have a friendship that makes other nobles at the English court whisper. “My husband the King is always quite full of life, from what I can judge,” Isabella observes, “but never so much as when he’s with the Earl.” Edward met Piers, the dashing son of a Gascon banneret, when the former was only 15. He succeeded to the throne with Piers as his lover and closest adviser, although the relationship—and the power it grants Piers—draws the ire of Edward’s earls. They scheme to banish Piers, but when the king thwarts their wishes, they find a more permanent, and deadly, solution. In the aftermath of Piers’ murder, his memory—perhaps even his ghost—haunts Edward, who must find a way to rule a country that doesn’t understand him. Zanghellini writes in a deliberative, detailed prose style throughout that illuminates the historical record while also imbuing his characters with agency and urgency: “He didn’t try to explain to her that sinking to the bottom of the sea, clutching Piers to his heart, seemed far more desirable to him than any number of alternative fates likely to await them if Lancaster and the others had their way.” Although some readers may find the central relationship of the novel to be a bit too idealized, the author also creates a complex, engrossing character in Isabella, who serves to ground the narrative; her observations give readers a clear window into the life of an unusual medieval monarch. Overall, the book should please aficionados of historical fiction—particularly those who are interested in the things that history books usually leave out.
An expansive, immersive look at Edward II.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-59021-696-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Lethe Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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
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