Tragedy makes Jane Austen more relatable than ever in this concluding installment.
Jane Austen struggles under the burden of loss in the final volume of Hemingway’s (The Marriage of Miss Jane Austen: Volume II, 2016, etc.) trilogy.
In the first two installments, Hemingway reimagined the author Jane Austen as a young mother and wife, filling in the missing years of her historical record. Jane has adapted to marriage and the running of a household and acquired wealth and pregnancy; now, she’s exhausted. Her new son, George, requires her complete attention, and her relationship with her husband, Ashton, is at an all-time low. George also suffers from seizures, which triggers difficult conversations about inherited conditions on Jane’s side of the family. When tragedy strikes, Jane flees to that family, seeking refuge from her marriage and her sorrow. Her profound anger and sadness are incredibly moving, as Hemingway offers a more humanized version of Jane Austen than readers may be used to. She’s not the mysterious and gifted writer they know but a mother and wife haunted by loss, desperately seeking a path forward. Ironically, it’s death that finally brings Jane back to life and allows a reconciliation with Ashton. Determined to stay with him this time, Jane joins her husband and the British Army, who set sail for Spain to fight Napoleon Bonaparte’s forces. As the couple encounters new places and old enemies (the Lovelaces, last seen in the previous installment, reappear here to Jane and Ashton’s detriment), they’re continually faced with the terrible cost of war. After a long physical and emotional journey, Hemingway leaves us with Jane the writer, who takes back her voice after losing so much in her life. Although sorrow sweeps through much of this story, Hemingway’s thoughtful, well-written book also offers an incredibly moving portrayal of a young woman confronting love and loss. The narrative also touches on the political, technological, and cultural changes of the early 19th century, but the most successful portions involve the evolution of Jane as a woman and a writer. In the end, she muses, “I cannot go on as if nothing has changed, but I can go on.”
Tragedy makes Jane Austen more relatable than ever in this concluding installment.Pub Date: Nov. 21, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-979472-76-0
Page Count: 338
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of...
Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State.
Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle’s answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate’s buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, only to blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully’s latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she’s given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it’s too late?
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36408-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007
BOOK TO SCREEN
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