by Angelica Scott ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 31, 1995
A psychological thriller about murder, incest, and lies from Scott (a pseudonym) that's a bit too puzzling and melodramatic to deliver the kick it tries for. Georgie Hillman is charged with the murder of her husband, Tim. She admits to killing him but insists it was done to stop his sexual abuse of their daughter Sarah. Georgie and her case become a cause cÇläbre for feminists and for attorney Joanna McCarthy. The prosecution argues that Georgie was angry and jealous over Tim and Sarah's close relationship, created the incest story, and then coolly murdered Tim. Some evidence points in this direction (after killing Tim, Georgie bakes muffins, gets Sarah off to a friend's house, doesn't call the police until 14 hours later, and lies when they arrive). The defense's case centers on Tim's alleged incest, while Georgie produces photos which seem to show Tim and Sarah engaged in sexual acts. Throughout, Georgie, as narrator, insists that Tim was a manipulator and liar who saw Sarah as a rival for Georgie's love and therefore hated her. A promising enough plot, but early on you begin to doubt the reliability of long-suffering Georgie. Her many flashbacks portray her as a victim from childhood on through marriage to the dominating Tim. Even in her trial, she's essentially being used by Joanna for political reasons, a fact that Georgie knows and accepts. For every time you believe Georgie, on or off the stand, there's another situation where you think she's making overly dramatic excuses for her own passivity. Is this a novel about the difficulty of ever knowing the truth, even about yourself? Or about selfish motives disguised as martyrdom and victimhood? A disquieting read, unsatisfying and unresolved. You're never sure about Georgie's true motives, and the jury's ruling in no way settles this very central issue.
Pub Date: July 31, 1995
ISBN: 1-55611-451-6
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Donald Fine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1995
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by Hanya Yanagihara ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 10, 2015
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
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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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by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960
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
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