In this sequel to Wade of Aquitaine (2008), two lovers continue their trips through antiquity in hopes of outwitting a mighty, manipulative force.
Wade Linwood of 21st-century Long Island is a potent synesthete. His senses are crisscrossed, but he can control the disorienting influx of sights, tastes, and smells to access the astral plane. Further, using an acupuncture point on his ankle, he can travel in time. Kreindia the Strange of ninth-century Amorium is an even more powerful synesthete. She and Wade, time-lost lovers, had found each other. Following the disastrous C.E. 814 battle at the Brennii Pass (in Wade of Aquitaine), Wade tries to return to the 21st century with Kreindia in tow. While he returns intact, she ends up in the quadriplegic body of Kreindel, a young woman who visits the same acupuncture clinic as Wade. He catches up with his love and her parents in the parking lot after an appointment. Faron Richter, Kreindel’s abusive stepfather, manages to brush Wade off despite his curative presence. Later, after Kreindel somehow disappears from the Richter home, Faron asks Wade where she might have gone. Though he suspects she’s escaped back in time, Wade remains silent. “Nothing to say to me?” begs Faron, whose foreboding name drips with villainy. Parris (Today You Write the Book, 2015, etc.) doubles down on everything that made the previous novel so rewarding. A devotion to ancient history allows the author to send his protagonists on individual, meticulously plotted adventures in time; Wade visits the sixth century to aid Theoderic the Great, while Kreindia lands in C.E. 820 to help her uncle, the imprisoned Michael of Amorium. Agile prose enlivens an already heady narrative, as in the line “Light illuminated a stripe of his face, making his darting eye appear to be mounted on the middle of a stick.” Parris doesn’t stop at depicting historical titans and epic battles. The quantum aspect of his series is just as thrilling; upon seeing the fabric of existence, Kreindia becomes “certain that this was the composition of both life and nonlife.” A dismal, uncertain finale propels readers toward the third installment. An exhilarating time-travel tale hits a bull’s-eye.
Pub Date: March 6, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-942183-05-1
Page Count: 396
Publisher: Blueberry Lane Books
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A bold but flawed debut novel.
There’s a mystery, a coming-of-age, abundant melodrama and even more abundant medical lore in this idiosyncratic first novel from a doctor best known for the memoir My Own Country (1994).
The nun is struggling to give birth in the hospital. The surgeon (is he also the father?) dithers. The late-arriving OB-GYN takes charge, losing the mother but saving her babies, identical twins. We are in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1954. The Indian nun, Sister Mary Joseph Praise, was a trained nurse who had met the British surgeon Thomas Stone on a sea voyage ministering to passengers dying of typhus. She then served as his assistant for seven years. The emotionally repressed Stone never declared his love for her; had they really done the deed? After the delivery, Stone rejects the babies and leaves Ethiopia. This is good news for Hema (Dr. Hemalatha, the Indian gynecologist), who becomes their surrogate mother and names them Shiva and Marion. When Shiva stops breathing, Dr. Ghosh (another Indian) diagnoses his apnea; again, a medical emergency throws two characters together. Ghosh and Hema marry and make a happy family of four. Marion eventually emerges as narrator. “Where but in medicine,” he asks, “might our conjoined, matricidal, patrifugal, twisted fate be explained?” The question is key, revealing Verghese’s intent: a family saga in the context of medicine. The ambition is laudable, but too often accounts of operations—a bowel obstruction here, a vasectomy there—overwhelm the narrative. Characterization suffers. The boys’ Ethiopian identity goes unexplored. Shiva is an enigma, though it’s no surprise he’ll have a medical career, like his brother, though far less orthodox. They become estranged over a girl, and eventually Marion leaves for America and an internship in the Bronx (the final, most suspenseful section). Once again a medical emergency defines the characters, though they are not large enough to fill the positively operatic roles Verghese has ordained for them.
A bold but flawed debut novel.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-375-41449-7
Page Count: 560
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2008
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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