An intriguingly multilayered, if slightly uneven, novel of one man’s Italian adventures.
Leviant presents a surreal work of “true fiction,” set in modern-day Italy.
Narrator CL has been awarded a writing fellowship in Venice by the Committee on the Arts of the Jewish Venice Quincentenary. CL’s goal is to write about the colorful 16th-century rabbi Leone da Modena, who was also a prolific gambler and author. CL meets some intriguing figures during his stay; at a synagogue, for example, he encounters a silent woman with two different-colored eyes. It turns out the woman doesn’t speak at all, and it will take CL some time to get her to open up to him. He also meets a compelling woman from France named Mazal who calls herself “almost ultra-Orthodox”; she and CL, after some initial awkwardness, find themselves drawn to each other, despite his lack of French and her halting English. Their rapport eventually leads them to accompany each other on a visit to Padua, where she seeks to visit the final resting place of another famous rabbi. (The 11th-century Spanish Hebrew poet Shlomo ibn Gvirol also plays a surprisingly significant role in the novel.) At other points, CL encounters a jogging, multilingual rabbi and a mysterious poet who writes with a quill; with so many offbeat characters, one wonders if CL will be able to get any writing done at all. Leviant incorporates a number of intriguing, and thought-provoking points about Judaism into his story, including a discussion of whether Jewish people should visit cemeteries. There are some moments, however, that are less compelling, particularly during some of CL and Mazal’s interactions, as when he comments to her that she’s “delicious, like fresh baguette”; readers may not share Mazal’s sentiment that CL is a “laughy man.” Thankfully, this is not solely a work about oddball seduction; things take a decisively strange turn late in the story, as it turns out that there’s more to CL’s new acquaintances than expected.
An intriguingly multilayered, if slightly uneven, novel of one man’s Italian adventures.Pub Date: Dec. 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-60489-294-9
Page Count: 278
Publisher: Livingston Press
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A standout in the series.
The sixth adventure of Harvard symbology professor Robert Langdon explores the mysteries of human consciousness, the demonic projects of the CIA, and the city of Prague.
“Ladies and gentlemen...we are about to experience a sea change in our understanding of how the brain works, the nature of consciousness, and in fact…the very nature of reality itself.” But first—Langdon’s in love! Brown’s devoted readers first met brilliant noetic scientist Katherine Solomon in The Lost Symbol (2009); she’s back as a serious girlfriend, engaging the committed bachelor in a way not seen before. The book opens with the pair in a luxurious suite at the Four Seasons in Prague. It’s the night after Katherine has delivered the lecture quoted above, setting the theme for the novel, which features a plethora of real-life cases and anomalies that seem to support the notion that human consciousness is not localized inside the human skull. Brown’s talent for assembling research is also evident in this novel’s alter ego as a guidebook to Prague, whose history and attractions are described in great and glowing detail. Whether you appreciate or skim past the innumerable info dumps on these and other topics (Jewish folklore fans—the Golem is in the house!), it goes without saying that concision is not a goal in the Dan Brown editing process. Speaking of editing, the nearly 700-page book is dedicated to Brown’s editor, who seems to appear as a character—to put it in the italicized form used for Brownian insight, Jason Kaufman must be Jonas Faukman! A major subplot involves the theft of Katherine’s manuscript from the secure servers of Penguin Random House; the delightful Faukman continues to spout witty wisecracks even when blindfolded and hogtied. There’s no shortage of action, derring-do, explosions, high-tech torture machines, attempted and successful murders, and opportunities for split-second, last-minute escapes; good thing Langdon, this aging symbology wonk, never misses swimming his morning laps. Readers who are not already dyed-in-the-wool Langdonites may find themselves echoing the prof’s own conclusion regarding the credibility of all this paranormal hoo-ha: At some point, skepticism itself becomes irrational.
A standout in the series.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9780385546898
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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