Hits close to home but misses.
Swannson’s (Crash Gordon and the Revelations from Big Sur, 2014, etc.) latest sci-fi takes place in a familiar near future in which conspiracy theories are “conspiracy facts.”
Sabina Hrafnsson is a 39-year-old “iAesthetician,” essentially a digital PR and image-control guru. As an iAesthetician, she works to repair the public opinions about rich and powerful men whose proclivities have come to light in information made available in post–National Security Agency–leak America. The power of the iAesthetician is such that, through clever branding, one iAesthetician managed to rebound Anthony Weiner’s political career, landing him the role of New York City mayor. Sabina’s chance at professional repute comes when a strange new client offers her a cryptic proposal backed by an anonymous millionaire. As it turns out, she’s granted an opportunity to contribute to a small morally motivated campaign to expose the “conspiracy facts” and ultimately set in motion a movement to correct pervasive government corruption. The story is set in New York with real-life staples like Beauty Bar and frequent celebrity name-dropping, making it somewhat difficult to decipher what’s fact and what’s fiction, which enhances the eeriness of the sci-fi plot. The narrative describes Sabina in a male-gaze kind of way: “Scandinavian genes had blessed her with a heart-shaped face, well-defined cheekbones, a perfect Barbie nose, and a thick mane of toffee-blonde hair that she usually kept in a silky side-braid resting on her left breast, where she tended to flick at it whenever she felt angry or tense.” Still, with her frequent casual references to David Lynch and Nick Cave, Sabina is apparently more than “a high-strung slut wearing see-through yoga pants from Lululemon,” as one friend tells her. Though the storyline cleverly builds on very real concerns about NSA spying and shockingly corrupt politicians, its cheesy action scenes, tawdry sexual references, and one-note characters diminish the impact of what could be a riveting tale.
Hits close to home but misses.Pub Date: Dec. 9, 2014
ISBN: 978-0979910586
Page Count: 192
Publisher: THREE GRACES PRESS, LLC
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A fat pancake of a novel, the author's second hardcover production tells the life story of one Ruby Blue—from an abused childhood and youth, to years as wife of a Marine, personal liberation, life in the world of industry, and her golden years in a rural retreat. Throughout the career of Ruby Blue, monster men abound. There's Papa George in their Pennsylvania home, a slasher, smacker, and wife beater, who requires that his daughters repay him, in bucks, for the cost of raising them. Then there's Ruby's husband, Andrew (met in those WW II glory days in D.C.), who is heavy on the verbal abuse and generally amoral. Ruby's lifelong friend Dixie is regularly slugged mercilessly by husband Hugo. Ruby's longtime true love, Calvin, is a gentle soul, but his wife, Eva, is as lethal as the men; fortunately for Calvin, she lacks the biceps. Ruby weathers life with Andrew at Marine bases and puts up with his callous treatment of their two children, but after Andrew admits to having gambled away their son's college money she finally decamps to New Jersey. Ruby soldiers on with Dixie, and their kitchen cookie business goes international in no time. As for the men, they'll get theirs: Papa George is Bobbittized with scalding grape jelly; the late Hugo's ashes get lost in traffic; and Ruby dumps Calvin. But Andrew sees the light. Glop. However, bear in mind the author's smashing success in paperback, including her Texas saga (5 million sold).
Pub Date: April 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-345-36774-X
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1994
Honeyman’s endearing debut is part comic novel, part emotional thriller, and part love story.
A very funny novel about the survivor of a childhood trauma.
At 29, Eleanor Oliphant has built an utterly solitary life that almost works. During the week, she toils in an office—don’t inquire further; in almost eight years no one has—and from Friday to Monday she makes the time go by with pizza and booze. Enlivening this spare existence is a constant inner monologue that is cranky, hilarious, deadpan, and irresistible. Eleanor Oliphant has something to say about everything. Riding the train, she comments on the automated announcements: “I wondered at whom these pearls of wisdom were aimed; some passing extraterrestrial, perhaps, or a yak herder from Ulan Bator who had trekked across the steppes, sailed the North Sea, and found himself on the Glasgow-Edinburgh service with literally no prior experience of mechanized transport to call upon.” Eleanor herself might as well be from Ulan Bator—she’s never had a manicure or a haircut, worn high heels, had anyone visit her apartment, or even had a friend. After a mysterious event in her childhood that left half her face badly scarred, she was raised in foster care, spent her college years in an abusive relationship, and is now, as the title states, perfectly fine. Her extreme social awkwardness has made her the butt of nasty jokes among her colleagues, which don’t seem to bother her much, though one notices she is stockpiling painkillers and becoming increasingly obsessed with an unrealistic crush on a local musician. Eleanor’s life begins to change when Raymond, a goofy guy from the IT department, takes her for a potential friend, not a freak of nature. As if he were luring a feral animal from its hiding place with a bit of cheese, he gradually brings Eleanor out of her shell. Then it turns out that shell was serving a purpose.
Honeyman’s endearing debut is part comic novel, part emotional thriller, and part love story.Pub Date: May 9, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7352-2068-3
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
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