A fragmented, off-kilter romance that never quite coheres.
Two young lovers—a Scotsman and an American—move to Oregon to start a life together in this novel.
In the early 1990s, Jim Cumming and Lou MacLeod, 28 and 22, respectively, meet in Glasgow, fall in love, and decide to move to the U.S. Jim is a Scottish civil engineer, hoping to find work soon in America, and Lou is an Oregonian with an M.A. in the humanities. They fly to Portland to stay with Lou’s family in Eugene for a bit as they get settled. The couple plan to stick around with the clan for the holidays and then embark on a road trip through California into Mexico. In Eugene, they befriend Lou’s cousin Jack, “the richest old” hippie in Oregon. Jim and Lou’s marriage is briefly tested when she encounters old flame Matt Gere. But she ultimately returns to Jim, and in the New Year they drive to Mexico. Along the way, they meet Running Wolf, a Native American struggling off the reservation. They ask Jack to help Running Wolf get work in Eugene as well as return him to his wife, Red Shield, who has been put in a mental institution. Jim and Lou drive through California, spending time with friends along the route, including a harrowing trip to Los Angeles in the wake of the Rodney King riots. In Mexico, they share an illuminating vacation, exploring and expanding their relationship before they begin again in Oregon. The ambitious tale features rich details about the appealing couple’s travels and a diverse cast of characters. But the plotting, as handled by Cumming (Pieces of You, 2016), is haphazard and jumps around frequently; there are multiple threads introduced throughout the story that do not come to anything. Characters are often introduced with no context and are just as quickly discarded, making the story somewhat hard to follow. Besides Lou’s brief reunion with Matt, the novel lacks conflict; mostly, Jim and Lou have fine experiences, and the more ominous plot strands never come to fruition. In addition, some errors throughout—typos like “dessert” for “desert”—can make for a disorienting read.
A fragmented, off-kilter romance that never quite coheres.Pub Date: March 11, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4918-9225-1
Page Count: 156
Publisher: AuthorHouseUK
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2018
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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