Less selfish & perverse than slow & pointless.
A gay L.A. writer finds himself fishing for salmon—and men—in Alaska.
At 34, Nelson Kunker thought he’d be doing more with his life than fetching coffee as a script supervisor for a mediocre TV show, ignoring the novel he’s been claiming to write for a decade and searching wistfully for the boyfriend he claims he has no time for. But one fateful day, two promising men walk into the studio. Roy is a colleague’s cousin—a salmon fisherman and archeology student from Anchorage who all too conveniently shares Nelson’s love of science and kissing in elevators. Dylan, a theoretically straight movie star with a drug habit, is the much-anticipated guest star on the show. The three end up smoking pot in Dylan’s trailer, which gets Nelson fired and sets in motion a trip to Alaska following Roy’s return. Nelson and Roy quickly become committed boyfriends. But Dylan throws them both for a loop when they find out that he is not only gay but a nymphomaniac who is trying to steal Nelson from Roy (and sleep with Roy, too, while he’s at it). The trio leaves Anchorage for Coffee Point, where Roy spends seasons as a commercial fisherman, and Roy’s mother hires Nelson as a part of her crew. There, Nelson finds himself in a quandary. He still loves Roy, but, amazingly, despite his incorrigible cockiness and obnoxious disregard for the Alaskan culture and landscape, he is falling for Dylan, too. A visit from his best friend, Wendy, brings unexpected news—Nelson’s former boss had finally read his script and wants him to return to L.A. to talk about it. And, after the inevitable threesome, Roy and Nelson learn that Dylan isn’t exactly what he seems. The fishing world of Coffee Point is an interesting setting, particularly for a gay love triangle, but all its merit is drowned out by endless insipid banter, as much gratuitous sex as Smith can squeeze in and a complete lack of plot.
Less selfish & perverse than slow & pointless.Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-78672-040-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
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
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
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