An engaging exploration of what it takes to make art and, more importantly, what it takes to love those who make it.
When love and art collide in Sophie Stark’s life, art always wins.
Sophie, a filmmaker, is elusive in the way we're told only true geniuses can be. From a precocious age, she flits in and out of people’s lives, as her career moves from that of a cult favorite to the highest levels of fame. Though she’s the book’s focal point, her voice is never part of the story; instead, the reader only comes to know her from the perspectives of those who love and watch her, one person and one chapter at a time. Tragedy haunts each section as Sophie keeps choosing to put her art ahead of everybody she loves, whether it’s her college girlfriend, her ex-husband, or the people she crashes with in between relationships. With every betrayal, Sophie’s art improves, and her mental health crumbles further. The novel builds slowly, and, though its denouement is promised by the book’s title, it unfolds with a surprising depth of feeling. Articles by journalist Benjamin Martin appear between most of the chapters; his growth lends a quiet parallel to the growth of Sophie's career, which fleshes out the book nicely. North’s writing is assured and engrossing, though the voices of those who love Sophie are fairly similar, creating the effect of a Greek chorus rather than separate narrators. If we're to accept the cliché that human kindness is the price of great art, it's a welcome change to see a woman play the role of tortured artist and to hear instead from those who are left behind in her pursuit.
An engaging exploration of what it takes to make art and, more importantly, what it takes to love those who make it.Pub Date: May 19, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-399-17339-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Blue Rider Press
Review Posted Online: March 4, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Charming, challenging, and so interesting you can hardly put it down.
The relationship between a privileged White mom and her Black babysitter is strained by race-related complications.
Blogger/role model/inspirational speaker Alix Chamberlain is none too happy about moving from Manhattan to Philadelphia for her husband Peter's job as a TV newscaster. With no friends or in-laws around to help out with her almost-3-year-old, Briar, and infant, Catherine, she’ll never get anywhere on the book she’s writing unless she hires a sitter. She strikes gold when she finds Emira Tucker. Twenty-five-year-old Emira’s family and friends expect her to get going on a career, but outside the fact that she’s about to get kicked off her parents’ health insurance, she’s happy with her part-time gigs—and Briar is her "favorite little human." Then one day a double-header of racist events topples the apple cart—Emira is stopped by a security guard who thinks she's kidnapped Briar, and when Peter's program shows a segment on the unusual ways teenagers ask their dates to the prom, he blurts out "Let's hope that last one asked her father first" about a Black boy hoping to go with a White girl. Alix’s combination of awkwardness and obsession with regard to Emira spins out of control and then is complicated by the reappearance of someone from her past (coincidence alert), where lies yet another racist event. Reid’s debut sparkles with sharp observations and perfect details—food, décor, clothes, social media, etc.—and she’s a dialogue genius, effortlessly incorporating toddler-ese, witty boyfriend–speak, and African American Vernacular English. For about two-thirds of the book, her evenhandedness with her varied cast of characters is impressive, but there’s a point at which any possible empathy for Alix disappears. Not only is she shallow, entitled, unknowingly racist, and a bad mother, but she has not progressed one millimeter since high school, and even then she was worse than we thought. Maybe this was intentional, but it does make things—ha ha—very black and white.
Charming, challenging, and so interesting you can hardly put it down.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-525-54190-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
McEwan is a gifted storyteller, but this one is as frustrating as it is intriguing.
The British author’s latest novel concerns a triangle formed by two humans and one android in an alternate version of England.
The year is 1982, the British are about to lose the Falklands War, and Alan Turing is not only still alive, but his work has helped give rise to a line of androids almost indistinguishable from humans. The narrator, Charlie Friend, an aimless 32-year-old, inherits enough money to buy one of the pricey robots. He and Miranda, the younger woman living above him, each supply half the “personality parameters” required to push Adam past his factory presets. Before long, as things between the humans seem to be getting serious, Charlie finds himself the first man “to be cuckolded by an artefact.” They all survive the fling, although Charlie imagines he detects “the scent of warm electronics on her sheets,” and Adam turns lovesick, composing 2,000 haiku for Miranda (namesake of the Bard’s character who famously utters: “O brave new world, / That has such people in’t”). Early on, the android has told Charlie that Miranda is a liar and might harm him without providing details. These statements flag a fateful backstory comprising a teenage Miranda, two schoolmates, and a death threat. Along the way to a busy and disturbing ending, Charlie makes a connection with Turing that allows for some nerd-pleasing kibble like “non-deterministic polynomial time.” McEwan (Nutshell, 2016, etc.) brings humor and considerable ethical rumination to a cautionary tale about artificial intelligence. But his human characters seem unfinished, his plot a bit ragged. And why the alternate 1982 England, other than to fire a few political shots about the Falklands, Thatcher, and Tony Benn? Does the title make sense as either clause or complete sentence? Are we meant to imagine the “real” author as a present-day Adam?
McEwan is a gifted storyteller, but this one is as frustrating as it is intriguing.Pub Date: April 23, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-385-54511-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
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