by David Fitz-Gerald ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 11, 2019
This engrossing, well-written novel tells the story of a pivotal moment in Iroquois history through a well-traveled...
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A Mohawk boy grows to adulthood in the 12th century and has a front-row seat to the formation of the Iroquois Confederacy.
In this historical novel, Fitz-Gerald (In the Shadow of a Giant, 2017) imagines life in the area that is now the Northeastern United States during the 1100s, following one boy from birth through old age. Wanders Far, one of the People of the Flint, is born into a comfortable clan led by his mother, Bear Fat. From early childhood, he exhibits a taste for exploration that earns him his name (“Fisher put one of his hands on each of his little brother’s shoulders, gave him a single, gentle shake, and proclaimed that Wanders Far was destined to be a runner, a traveler, a messenger between villages, and perhaps between tribes!”). Wanders Far also has a talent for visions. With the help of a mentor, Follows Stars, he foresees the arrival of Hudson, Champlain, and other European explorers hundreds of years in the future as well as the much more proximate unification of his tribe and others into the Iroquois Confederacy, an event that he helps to bring about in his role as a runner. Fitz-Gerald has clearly done his research into early Mohawk life, and the book features many elaborate descriptions of daily activities (“Bear Fat and Squash used bone awls to poke holes into the birch bark and used the spruce roots as stitching to sew the seams”). The novel is based on Iroquois oral tradition (the story of Hiawatha; the circumstances of the confederacy’s founding) combined with fictional characters and events. Some readers may feel that Fitz-Gerald indulges in “just the sort of leap the author of an historical novel gets to make,” taking undue liberties with Iroquois history. But for those who enjoy an invented version of the past, this work presents a solidly written tale with engaging characters and ample details, making for an enjoyable read.
This engrossing, well-written novel tells the story of a pivotal moment in Iroquois history through a well-traveled protagonist.Pub Date: May 11, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-977211-37-8
Page Count: 198
Publisher: Outskirts Press
Review Posted Online: July 11, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Hanya Yanagihara ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 10, 2015
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
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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
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by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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