A well-intentioned and uneven novel—but one that, on balance, is worth a read.
In Beck-Clark’s debut novel, a group of troubled people try a quirky method of spiritual and psychological healing in order to get on with their lives.
In 1973, Michelle Cooper is a 23-year-old who’s lost in life and into drugs, booze, and casual sex; she’s later stalked by a White supremacist named Paul Smith. Ida and Al Birnbaum are both Holocaust survivors. Theo Gafoor is an optimistic young Black immigrant to the United States from Guyana. Charles Rogen, who later changed his last name to Wentworth, is also a Holocaust survivor and the founder of a telephone counseling service known as Call and Pray. More importantly, he’s the creator of the Rogen Treatment Program—a series of dramatic, challenging treatments that shock the other characters into overcoming their fears, thus freeing themselves. Most of them wind up stronger after the Rogen Treatment Program, although the story takes some odd turns, as when a character becomes pregnant from a one-night stand with a drug abuser. Beck-Clark, a retired social worker, tells a tale that seems to believe in the efficacy of the fictional program, but many readers will be dubious. In fact, most jurisdictions would probably shut it down, and for good reason: Rogen comes off as half savior and half sadist, with a program that would invite serious psychological damage. The case of Al, who improbably becomes a Nazi for a time, is almost humorous, as further treatment manages to reverse this effect. Another character is miraculously cured of their lifelong antisemitism in a twist that particularly strains credulity. There are also some loose ends, including a lack of clarity regarding a pact between two major players. All that said, Beck-Clark does a good job of developing her cast, especially Michelle, who has the infuriating habit of taking one step forward and two steps back.
A well-intentioned and uneven novel—but one that, on balance, is worth a read.Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5069-0453-5
Page Count: 294
Publisher: First Edition Design Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
This fresh reworking of a Greek myth will resonate.
An otherworldly Latinx retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth set in the South Bronx.
Pheus visits his father in the Bronx every summer. The Afro-Dominican teen is known for his mesmerizing bachata music, love of history, and smooth way with the ladies. Eury, a young Puerto Rican woman and Hurricane Maria survivor, is staying with her cousin for the summer because of a recent, unspecified traumatic event. Her family doesn’t know that she’s been plagued since childhood by the demonlike Ato. Pheus and Eury bond over music and quickly fall in love. Attacked at a dance club by Sileno, its salacious and satyrlike owner, Eury falls into a coma and is taken to el Inframundo by Ato. Pheus, despite his atheism, follows the advice of his father and a local bruja to journey to find his love in the Underworld. Rivera skillfully captures the sounds and feels of the Bronx—its unique, diverse culture and the creeping gentrification of its neighborhoods. Through an amalgamation of Greek, Roman, and Taíno mythology and religious beliefs, gaslighting, the colonization of Puerto Rico, Afro-Latinidad identity, and female empowerment are woven into the narrative. While the pacing lags in the middle, secondary characters aren’t fully developed, and the couple’s relationship borders on instalove, the rush of a summertime romance feels realistic. Rivera’s complex world is well realized, and the dialogue rings true. All protagonists are Latinx.
This fresh reworking of a Greek myth will resonate. (Fabulism. 14-adult)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0373-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
It's hard to read but hard to look away from.
When two women who share a birthday meet, a journalist becomes the subject of her own true-crime mystery.
On their 45th birthdays, Josie Fair and Alix Summer meet at a pub and discover they were born not only on the same day, but in the same hospital. Alix is a successful journalist, and Josie convinces Alix that her story is worth telling: Josie met her husband when she was 13 and he was 40. “I can see that maybe I was being used, that maybe I was even being groomed?” she confesses to Alix. “But that feeling of being powerful, right at the start, when I was still in control. I miss that sometimes. I really do. And what I’d like, more than anything, is to get it back.” From this premise Alix creates a Netflix series, Hi! I’m Your Birthday Twin! which investigates Josie’s life as she reconciles what happened to her as a teen and seeks a new path. With the story unfinished, the narrative unfolds in the present tense, with prose that jingles like song lyrics: “He turns to see if the girl is behind him, and sees her wishy-washy, wavy-wavy, in double vision through the glass windows of the hotel.” Alix is both intrigued and repulsed by Josie, but she initially gives her the benefit of the doubt. After all, Alix’s husband, Nathan, has a drinking problem, and Alix knows what it’s like to be reluctant to leave a bad situation. But Josie seems more interested in being part of Alix’s seemingly glamorous life than she is in fixing her own, and when three people end up dead and Alix’s life is turned upside down, the evidence points to Josie—and turns the TV series into a murder mystery. Transcripts from Alix’s interviews alternate with the narrative, offering increasingly varied perspectives on Josie’s story as told by her neighbors, friends, and family members. With so many versions of events, the ending shatters, leaving readers to decide whose is the truth.
It's hard to read but hard to look away from.Pub Date: Aug. 8, 2023
ISBN: 9781982179007
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2023
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