A lot of history packed into a short novel.
This fictional biography portrays Julius Caesar as a brilliant military leader and strategist.
In his debut novel, Paone casts himself as a high school Latin teacher forced into early retirement by declining interest in his subject. He moves to Rome and, in a scene reminiscent of Indiana Jones, discovers a hidden trove of scrolls from Caesar’s time. He uses the scrolls to write an account of the final years of Caesar’s life, starting with his rise to military power and subsequent civil war against Pompey the Great. The story begins in earnest with Caesar’s arrival in the famed city of Alexandria in 48 B.C.: “It is the center of all Greek learning, with its fabulous library and academy where scholars from all over the world study, discuss everything, and write books.” The Alexandrians present Caesar with the severed head of his enemy Pompey, but rather than gaining his admiration, the greeting repulses him. He takes Cleopatra’s side in the war between brother and sister for the throne of Egypt. While under siege in Alexandria, the two rulers begin a love affair and lifelong friendship, engaging in intellectual debates and strategizing how to expand their power. Caesar also befriends two Chinese scholars, who show him a new weapon and tell him tantalizing stories about the Far East. (In an intriguing subplot, after hearing about Caesar, operatives of the Chinese emperor hatch a bizarre scheme to topple him.) Paone relies heavily on dialogue to provide historical context and explain the complex relationships among the many characters, which tends to bog down the action. Occasionally putting modern terms—e.g., “weirdo” and “bookworm”—into the mouths of ancients seems anachronistic. Regardless, Caesar truly comes to life on the battlefield; at the battles of the Nile and Zela, he brilliantly outmaneuvers his enemies. After Caesar returns to Rome, a group of conspirators plot against him. Cicero, portrayed as a self-serving ditherer, is the most interesting of the bunch, but he enters the book too late to fully develop as the story rushes on to Caesar’s well-known ending.
A lot of history packed into a short novel.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0974636696
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Belmar Publications
Review Posted Online: Nov. 6, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Britisher Swift's sixth novel (Ever After, 1992 etc.) and fourth to appear here is a slow-to-start but then captivating tale of English working-class families in the four decades following WW II. When Jack Dodds dies suddenly of cancer after years of running a butcher shop in London, he leaves a strange request—namely, that his ashes be scattered off Margate pier into the sea. And who could better be suited to fulfill this wish than his three oldest drinking buddies—insurance man Ray, vegetable seller Lenny, and undertaker Vic, all of whom, like Jack himself, fought also as soldiers or sailors in the long-ago world war. Swift's narrative start, with its potential for the melodramatic, is developed instead with an economy, heart, and eye that release (through the characters' own voices, one after another) the story's humanity and depth instead of its schmaltz. The jokes may be weak and self- conscious when the three old friends meet at their local pub in the company of the urn holding Jack's ashes; but once the group gets on the road, in an expensive car driven by Jack's adoptive son, Vince, the story starts gradually to move forward, cohere, and deepen. The reader learns in time why it is that no wife comes along, why three marriages out of three broke apart, and why Vince always hated his stepfather Jack and still does—or so he thinks. There will be stories of innocent youth, suffering wives, early loves, lost daughters, secret affairs, and old antagonisms—including a fistfight over the dead on an English hilltop, and a strewing of Jack's ashes into roiling seawaves that will draw up feelings perhaps unexpectedly strong. Without affectation, Swift listens closely to the lives that are his subject and creates a songbook of voices part lyric, part epic, part working-class social realism—with, in all, the ring to it of the honest, human, and true.
Pub Date: April 5, 1996
ISBN: 0-679-41224-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1996
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