An important, gripping story about facing change with curiosity, fear, love and, ultimately, acceptance.
In Weissman’s poignant first novel, three adult sisters and their ailing mother struggle to reconcile their often divergent points of view.
The oldest Hoffman sister, Barbara, tries to re-establish her identity now that her children are grown and out of the house, while the middle sister, Rhonda, a single mother, raises two teenage boys—one of whom is headed down a potentially dangerous path. The youngest sibling, Ellen, lives her life as a single research scientist at the University of Iowa. In the book’s prologue, their 80-year-old mother, Rae, attempts to complete the basic tasks of getting out of the house and driving. Readers later learn that Rae suffers from “constricted capillary disease,” which causes her to experience dementia. When she gets into a car accident, she and her daughters are finally forced to confront her declining health and failing memory. Weissman subtly portrays how Rae’s deterioration affects all the sisters—in their individual lives and in their relationship to one another. When Rhonda takes Rae to live with her in Arizona, it raises the emotional stakes; Barbara and Ellen are concerned that Rhonda will take advantage of their mother financially, and Rhonda, in turn, is annoyed by her sisters’ mistrust as she becomes their mother’s primary caretaker. As Rae’s health declines, the three sisters keep circling one another in their efforts to communicate. At one point, Rae thinks, “The girls are angry with each other. I wonder why this time. I hoped they would get closer when they grew up, but it didn’t happen.” Toward the end of the novel, Rhonda wonders “whether our bond is strong enough to endure the loss of Mom, the glue.” Throughout, the sisters evolve as they find love, relocate and take care of their own families. Weissman’s direct, unsentimental prose provides each woman with a compelling, authentic perspective. She also deftly captures the mixture of denial and grief that parents and children feel when their roles are reversed.
An important, gripping story about facing change with curiosity, fear, love and, ultimately, acceptance.Pub Date: April 10, 2013
ISBN: 978-1482543148
Page Count: 376
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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