Eloquent prose, rich characterizations, and knotty concepts—an emotional and intellectual tour de force.
In this gripping novel with elements of a fairy tale, Chidgey examines the lives of parentless children in an alternative Britain that feels frighteningly plausible.
Imagine World War II ended in a treaty without winners or losers after Hitler’s assassination by German conspirators in 1943; since then, British scientists have had access to studies “of immense scientific value” made in “the camps,” as they are called with pointed vagueness. In 1979, this history is taught to 13-year-old triplet brothers—mercurial William, softhearted Lawrence, and thoughtful, watchful Vincent, who narrates most of the book. They live in a group home for boys, part of the Sycamore Homes program established by the government in 1944 to raise parentless children. Doted on by a threesome of Morning, Afternoon, and Night mothers, taught from the encyclopedic Book of Knowledge (an actual publication) and in weekly ethics discussions, the Sycamore boys have had happy if isolated childhoods marred only by incessant sickliness. Those who recuperate from “the Bug” get to move to “the Big House in Margate,” which, according to the brochure, is a wonderful place next to an amusement park. Only the triplets still remain when a new Conservative government decides to discontinue the Sycamore program to cut costs. Soon the Prime Minister puts the well-meaning but clueless Minister of Loneliness in charge of rehoming the triplets. But where? That these children have been part of a creepy scientific experiment is obvious early on, but one shocking, horrifying surprise follows another in what is, at its most basic, a cat-and-mouse thriller. Meanwhile, Chidgey forces readers to delve into moral questions concerning science (and by extension, technology), pragmatism, personal responsibility, and institutional evil. Then there’s the novel’s unavoidable, disquieting contemplation of just who is given equal right in any given society (including ours). Chidgey, a New Zealander, borrows elements from Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, but the character Vincent most resembles is Pinocchio. Broad themes and issues become deeply personal as his coming-of-age becomes a monumental struggle toward self-discovery.
Eloquent prose, rich characterizations, and knotty concepts—an emotional and intellectual tour de force.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781538774076
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Cardinal
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.
A falsely accused Black man goes into hiding in this masterful novella by Wright (1908-1960), finally published in full.
Written in 1941 and '42, between Wright’s classics Native Son and Black Boy, this short novel concerns Fred Daniels, a modest laborer who’s arrested by police officers and bullied into signing a false confession that he killed the residents of a house near where he was working. In a brief unsupervised moment, he escapes through a manhole and goes into hiding in a sewer. A series of allegorical, surrealistic set pieces ensues as Fred explores the nether reaches of a church, a real estate firm, and a jewelry store. Each stop is an opportunity for Wright to explore themes of hope, greed, and exploitation; the real estate firm, Wright notes, “collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent from poor colored folks.” But Fred’s deepening existential crisis and growing distance from society keep the scenes from feeling like potted commentaries. As he wallpapers his underground warren with cash, mocking and invalidating the currency, he registers a surrealistic but engrossing protest against divisive social norms. The novel, rejected by Wright’s publisher, has only appeared as a substantially truncated short story until now, without the opening setup and with a different ending. Wright's take on racial injustice seems to have unsettled his publisher: A note reveals that an editor found reading about Fred’s treatment by the police “unbearable.” That may explain why Wright, in an essay included here, says its focus on race is “rather muted,” emphasizing broader existential themes. Regardless, as an afterword by Wright’s grandson Malcolm attests, the story now serves as an allegory both of Wright (he moved to France, an “exile beyond the reach of Jim Crow and American bigotry”) and American life. Today, it resonates deeply as a story about race and the struggle to envision a different, better world.
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-59853-676-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Library of America
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
BOOK TO SCREEN
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