A pleasing tale of emerging adulthood.
In this coming-of-age YA novel, a young teenager questions her frivolous concerns when they clash with the societal changes of the 1960s.
On Angie Finley’s first day at Lafayette Senior High School in North Carolina in 1966, she witnesses the students playing keep-away with an African-American student’s backpack while yelling racial slurs. “I was doubly, triply, quadruply, even quintuply glad I was white,” she thinks as she sits down in her first classroom. At first, she doesn’t have the courage to stand out or stand up for others, but she feels a need to befriend the only black student in her history class, Valerie Franklin—the victim of the keep-away harassment, who becomes the target of repeated insults and injuries. They share a friendship with Stan Bukowski, who encourages Angie to write for the school paper about issues surrounding the Vietnam War. She discovers that she enjoys being valued for her mind and her opinions; however, her mother advises her that “The road to popularity is paved with pompoms.” Angie also starts dating handsome, white football player Craig Anderson, but later, she starts wondering whether he might harbor racist views. As she grows more aware of the larger world around her, she starts to question everything about herself, from her appearance to her friends. Lacy’s (The Time Telephone, 2018, etc.) journalism background is evident throughout this novel, particularly in her characterizations of Angie and Stan. Their mutual bonding over writing for the school paper takes them from an initially confrontational relationship to a respectful friendship. The focus on issues of the day, including bigotry and the draft, give some tension to the familiar first-love storyline. The attacks against Valerie, in particular, tie into contemporary themes, giving this period piece a modern feel at times. That said, it remains firmly grounded in the 1960s, with appropriate clothing and musical references.
A pleasing tale of emerging adulthood.Pub Date: Dec. 13, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9996084-1-8
Page Count: 318
Publisher: Wild Falls Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 14, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 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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