An offbeat though informative lesson in personal finance.
Debut author Longworth presents a brief allegorical novel about financial well-being.
Richard Wyvern may be a commoner with yellow teeth who “reeks of cat piss,” but thanks to his ability to accumulate wealth, he has attracted the attention of one King Gwayne Sterling. King Gwayne makes Richard his treasurer, a position that allows Richard to expound on topics like the importance of putting away a percentage of one’s income, acceptable kinds of debt, and the appeal of passive income streams. Meanwhile Richard’s brother Abelot, a skilled swordsman and blacksmith, embarks on a man-of-war called the Silver Hare. Abelot’s mission involves much more action than Richard’s number crunching, though Abelot will also exercise good economic sense on his adventure. Abelot even learns the importance of increasing one’s skill set when he encounters a blacksmith named Cahít Andíno who will sell him a book of techniques to improve the quality of his equipment. The story surrounding Richard and Abelot is not a mere collection of practical advice, however. Throughout the book, swords swing, snakes bite, and blood spills. The latter is especially true when Abelot dispatches a foe by throwing a “kukri dagger,” causing the target to fall “facedown onto the floor, unable to move.” The juxtaposition of hack-and-slash fiction with practical advice is certainly a strange one, though the message is not lost. If King Gwayne had been more careful in tracking his expenses, he might not have needed to hire Richard in the first place. The narrative becomes cluttered at times, with characters introducing themselves to other characters and minor characters being introduced to the reader (as with “Tax Collector Sim Fostand, a scrawny pale man who wears a beige cotton tunic”), but generally, the descriptions are sparse. The narrative moves unencumbered by too much backstory or the reasons why Richard knows so much about keeping a tidy account book. The book is short and can be understood in a single sitting.
An offbeat though informative lesson in personal finance.Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9996809-0-2
Page Count: 106
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 23, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 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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