An excellent story of the American dream that manages a remarkable combination of breadth and depth.
In a family saga that spans the 20th century, Laing provides an expansive portrait of American life on the Mississippi in this first of two volumes.
Willy McGregor, ignoring his father’s advice, lies about his age to fight in World War I. But when he comes out the other side, aged and traumatized by the things he’s seen and done, he finds himself lost, without a home. It’s this setup—a broken warrior/poet in a shaken world—that gives the novel its potency. Much of Willy’s story is familiar: He finds a new home, puts down roots, starts a family, and meets the many challenges of these and other milestones. But through it all, Willy’s bone-deep knowledge of how frail happiness is shows through, even as he demonstrates a heroic tenacity for keeping its warmth alive. Willy’s idealized vision of contentment can’t last, but illness and loss make it shine brighter. Of course, the cycle of life doesn’t affect Willy alone, and the rich cast of secondary characters gradually changes as Willy’s children come of age and the focus of the story shifts. Eventually, Willy’s grandson, Dan, takes over the narration, and the story grows more and more distant from the old, blessed years as the book approaches the modern age. The story unfolds as if told by a fireside, sometimes breezing over years in an instant and at others, lingering over the details of singular moments and memories (“a husband smoking his pipe and reading the paper while his wife knitted, their eyes meeting for a moment, a warm connection, a glimpse of their palpable love”). As the first installment in a duology, the story doesn’t wrap up at the end, despite the book’s length, but the overall theme of the pursuit of happiness could scarcely be stronger. Even if there were no second volume to further chart this family’s peaks and valleys through the years, its genuine understanding of life would make it a stirring success.
An excellent story of the American dream that manages a remarkable combination of breadth and depth.Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2013
ISBN: 978-0991173402
Page Count: 426
Publisher: Signal Flag Publishing & Promotions LLC
Review Posted Online: Sept. 11, 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
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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