Beautifully written, introspective, and packed with Eastern philosophy and mysticism; a smart book that will appeal to...
In this tale of magic and self-discovery, 10-year-old Su Ling—given the so-called honorof being sent to a workhouse in place of her older sister—discovers she possesses hidden powers when she gains entry into a secret society in touch with the unseen forces of the universe.
In Osborne’s first novel, set in Imperial China of 5 B.C., she meticulously constructs her protagonist from the ground up. Su Ling is a nonentity in a rigidly structured society, clinging to her only possession—a glass fledgling bird. The first-person narrative poignantly conveys her fear, awe and submissiveness as she leaves her family to sleep in a windowless room with many other girls, toiling day after day under the watchful eyes of seemingly everyone. Eventually, her skills at preparing potions are noticed, and she’s promoted to the temple, where she, along with her friend Wèi Wèi, a budding clairvoyant, is brought into a clandestine spiritual group. “I named our special group Kou, or ‘family members,’ but I kept this description to myself.” Su Ling becomes an integral part of Kou, which actually engineers the empire’s smooth running, but she pays a tremendous emotional and physical price for her participation. Osborne makes exquisite use of color and description: “It seemed to be adorned with precious lapis lazuli, garnets, rubies, and other stones of deeper hues….These were surrounded by embroidered figures in subtler shades of soft pinks, greens, and ivory.” She intriguingly portrays the tale’s magical aspects—particularly a labyrinth of doors and hallways that appear and disappear at will—and employs to great effect a pervasive theme of bird symbolism, from the glass fledgling to the Temple of the Heavenly Bird with its gardens lined with caged birds. However, the book seems to go on longer than necessary. Of two major incidents that concern Kou, Su Ling is a major participant in only the first, which also seems to be the denouementand her epiphany; the second, she merely sits out.
Beautifully written, introspective, and packed with Eastern philosophy and mysticism; a smart book that will appeal to fantastical and thoughtful sensibilities alike.Pub Date: May 6, 2013
ISBN: 978-1481793025
Page Count: 362
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2014
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
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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