A cacophonous but compelling new voice.
A Russian-Jewish immigrant has a tempestuous and life-altering fling with an American investment banker in Fishbeyn’s debut.
Russian native Elena “Lenochka” Kabelmacher changed her name to Emma Kaulfield because it sounded more American. Her parents and grandmother, Russian Jews who, after a struggle with the KGB, were able to emigrate with Emma and her sister to the U.S., are now, in the late 1990s, wealthy Chicago suburbanites. Emma’s grandmother, the undisputed family tyrant and sage, has decreed that 20-something Emma will pursue a high-achievement career track, studying statistics at N.Y.U. rather than following her true passion, painting. Emma is terrible at statistics, both in academe (she’s flunking) and real life, where she fails to appreciate the odds against finding true love in the ladies’ room of La Cote Basque. Ineffably drawn to a complete stranger with whom she makes out in that very bathroom, Emma assumes that will be the end of it. Then, on an outing with her fiance, fellow émigré Alex (a match made by Grandmother), she re-encounters the stranger: he is Eddie, Alex’s colleague. As she and Alex plan an elaborate Chicago wedding, she and Eddie fall inexorably back into one another’s arms. What’s a girl to do? Eddie promises to support her and let her paint to her heart’s content, but Emma wants to be financially independent; she just isn’t sure how. The most interesting sections of the novel depict family encounters, both in Moscow flashbacks and in '90s Winnetka, wherein the Kabelmachers and their friends one-up each other, overshare, and squabble in two languages, never failing to demonstrate fierce loyalty and unconditional if domineering love. Contrast this with Eddie’s family, which is dysfunctional in a different way (à la Tolstoy?), withholding, undermining, and uncommunicative. What elevates this above the standard rom-com is the language, idiosyncratic, inventive, and ornate, although Fishbeyn's word choices, overworked and/or a little off, often read like a slightly out-of-kilter translation.
A cacophonous but compelling new voice.Pub Date: May 23, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62872-758-6
Page Count: 484
Publisher: Arcade
Review Posted Online: March 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017
A thoughtful and pensive tale with intelligent characters and a satisfying romance.
A promise to his best friend leads an Army serviceman to a family in need and a chance at true love in this novel.
Beckett Gentry is surprised when his Army buddy Ryan MacKenzie gives him a letter from Ryan’s sister, Ella. Abandoned by his mother, Beckett grew up in a series of foster homes. He is wary of attachments until he reads Ella’s letter. A single mother, Ella lives with her twins, Maisie and Colt, at Solitude, the resort she operates in Telluride, Colorado. They begin a correspondence, although Beckett can only identify himself by his call sign, Chaos. After Ryan’s death during a mission, Beckett travels to Telluride as his friend had requested. He bonds with the twins while falling deeply in love with Ella. Reluctant to reveal details of Ryan’s death and risk causing her pain, Beckett declines to disclose to Ella that he is Chaos. Maisie needs treatment for neuroblastoma, and Beckett formally adopts the twins as a sign of his commitment to support Ella and her children. He and Ella pursue a romance, but when an insurance investigator questions the adoption, Beckett is faced with revealing the truth about the letters and Ryan’s death, risking losing the family he loves. Yarros’ (Wilder, 2016, etc.) novel is a deeply felt and emotionally nuanced contemporary romance bolstered by well-drawn characters and strong, confident storytelling. Beckett and Ella are sympathetic protagonists whose past experiences leave them cautious when it comes to love. Beckett never knew the security of a stable home life. Ella impulsively married her high school boyfriend, but the marriage ended when he discovered she was pregnant. The author is especially adept at developing the characters through subtle but significant details, like Beckett’s aversion to swearing. Beckett and Ella’s romance unfolds slowly in chapters that alternate between their first-person viewpoints. The letters they exchanged are pivotal to their connection, and almost every chapter opens with one. Yarros’ writing is crisp and sharp, with passages that are poetic without being florid. For example, in a letter to Beckett, Ella writes of motherhood: “But I’m not the center of their universe. I’m more like their gravity.” While the love story is the book’s focus, the subplot involving Maisie’s illness is equally well-developed, and the link between Beckett and the twins is heartfelt and sincere.
A thoughtful and pensive tale with intelligent characters and a satisfying romance.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64063-533-3
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Review Posted Online: Jan. 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
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