A story with sumptuous description and a gradually intensifying plot that makes for compulsive reading.
An American scholar visits Cuba and becomes embroiled in the politics of everyday life in this poetic novel by Putnam, author of Full Moon at Noontide (2009).
Professor Laura Gallagher is traveling to Havana to read a paper she has written on Ernest Hemingway to fellow American and Cuban scholars. It’s the 1990s, and such opportunities to visit the country had previously been quite rare. Gallagher is excited and a bit afraid, although her motivation to travel goes beyond mere academic interest; she’s also desperate to use the trip as a way to outrun painful memories. Ever since the death of her mother when she was 12, Gallagher has struggled to face her darkest moments, including the loss of a baby following an emergency C-section, an unrewarding love life, and a traumatic hysterectomy. Almost as soon as she arrives in Cuba, she falls ill with a gastrointestinal illness. Her caregiver is the mysterious Maria, who was once a doctor but is now a hotel cleaner. Maria introduces Gallagher to her daughter, Pilar, who, as a child, believed Hemingway was a spirit watching over her. After Gallagher recovers, she feels an immediate bond with this Cuban family. However, she’s soon accosted by a man on the street who tells her to “mind [her] own business” and “stay away.” In an environment where neighbors spy on neighbors, Gallagher must tread very carefully in order to comprehend and fight against the dangers that are facing her newfound friends and rediscover a lost sense of purpose and peace within herself.
As the novel goes on, Putnam skillfully intertwines history and fiction by carefully pondering the impact of political events from the perspective of the Cuban people: “On those dark October days years ago, what was it like from here, with the lighthouse dark and missiles aimed every which way?...No cannons at nine to announce that all is well.” Overall, she offers readers a multifaceted, elegantly described portrait of Cuban life—from the sensual enticement of a famed highball cocktail (“I want the chink of ice cubes, the splash of water, the sweet immersion….Rum, lime, mint, a spritz of seltzer and ice. Mojito”) to the haunting yet enthralling local atmosphere that’s informed by the religion Santeria. However, despite the novel’s breathtakingly evocative descriptive focus on the country and culture, the author never neglects the intricacies of her complex plot. She shows herself to be expert at poetically exploring and pinpointing her protagonist’s psychological state: “I’m an outsider to my own story. I’m still the little girl with the unopened chest buried under her bed.” The novel’s portrayal of Gallagher’s story of altruism and catharsis makes for a satisfying and rewarding read—and one that also confronts a range of relatable anxieties. In addition, there are sufficient Hemingway references here to satisfy fans of that author. Overall, this impressively expansive novel will appeal to academics, Cubanophiles, and general readers alike.
A story with sumptuous description and a gradually intensifying plot that makes for compulsive reading.Pub Date: June 2, 2022
ISBN: 979-8-42647-677-6
Page Count: 347
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Aug. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A magic trick: a novel that’s both deeply unsettling and tenderhearted.
Twin siblings run off to join the circus, which proves to be a dark carnival indeed.
Bolt and Eleanor, the teenage twins at the center of Chaon’s brilliant fifth novel, are orphans who’ve fallen under the watch of “Uncle Charlie,” a con man and serial killer. They escape Charlie’s clutches with the assistance of a mysterious Mr. Jengling, who operates a circus and recruits them for his sideshow—which includes a strongwoman, dog-faced boy, and, most creepily, Rosalie, a woman with a second head growing out of the side of her neck and who can predict how and when you will die. For all that darkness, the brother and sister find a welcoming ersatz family; interstitial chapters explore the background of each performer and the unique talents Jengling detected in them. (Bolt and Eleanor’s own talents—telepathy and telekinesis—are only just emerging.) Chaon is focused on how we find our identities outside the ones the world wants to apply to us; as the title suggests, Chaon takes inspiration from Tod Browning’s 1932 film, Freaks, in which the sideshow performers chant “one of us” as a sign of acceptance. Meanwhile, Chaon has also delivered a sharp thriller, as Uncle Charlie attempts to chase down the twins, leaving a bloody path along the way. Set mainly in 1915, the novel captures a vanished vaudeville world that Chaon resurrects in thoughtful detail, down to the era’s slang (ziggety, conflustered, woofits). But in its latter chapters, the novel is also powerfully otherworldly, deliberately warping assumptions about life, death, and the nature of souls. Bolt and Eleanor take divergent paths once they’ve joined the circus, but Chaon suggests that any path rooted in consideration of others is a valid one.
A magic trick: a novel that’s both deeply unsettling and tenderhearted.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781250175236
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
Sturdy legal thrills for readers willing to go the distance with a flawed hero in an even more flawed world.
Now that he’s won two high-profile murder cases, Alabama “billboard lawyer” Jason Rich takes on his most challenging client: himself.
When methamphetamine lord Tyson Cade is gunned down outside a grocery store moments after clerk Marcia “Dooby” Darnell spurned his latest advance, you’d think the woods would be full of suspects, from Matty Dean, the distributor who immediately seizes violent control of the Sand Mountain meth operation in Cade’s absence, to the hard-used Dooby herself. But newly appointed Marshall County Sheriff Hatty Daniels and newly reelected D.A. Aloysius Holloway “Wish” French ignore all the others to concentrate on Jason, whose two earlier brushes with Cade brought him nothing but grief, who was seen nearby and caught on camera a few minutes later, and whom Cade identified as his killer with his dying breath. Insisting against all advice on defending himself, Jason accepts an inspired suggestion as his advisory counsel: Shay Lankford, the career prosecutor Wish French defeated in the last election. After rooting around endlessly in local secrets and scandals that take a heavy toll on Jason’s allies, profiler Albert Hooper comes up with enough evidence to guarantee a mistrial. But Jason doesn’t want a new trial; he wants to win the trial he’s in, and eventually he does, though not without spending a good deal of time relitigating the painful legacies of his first two murder cases. And although this case seems designed to avoid the very possibility of a surprise ending, Bailey closes by pulling a rabbit as big as a kangaroo from his hat.
Sturdy legal thrills for readers willing to go the distance with a flawed hero in an even more flawed world.Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9781662516634
Page Count: 527
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
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