An engrossing world and a strong supporting cast put a fresh veneer on familiar moral allegories.
After surviving a sacrificial ritual, an African teenage girl is tasked by God to end the custom once and for all in this historical fantasy novel.
Every seven years, the citizens of Jigoland gather to honor God with a ritual sacrifice of a virgin maiden, and this year, they’ve selected a 14-year-old girl named Nankyer. After they cast her into Ampidong Lake, she has a spiritual experience in which she discovers she’s been chosen to end the tradition of blood tribute and usher in a new age for Jigoland. Nankyer survives the ritual, and many citizens label her as cursed, or even a witch; meanwhile, the land’s leader, known as the Jigolo, and his array of advisers are unsure how to proceed. Nankyer finds few allies beyond the psychic village drunk, Darlong; a woman named Satzen, who first offered the maiden aid; and Satzen’s father-in-law, the Chief Hunter Dadet, whose dead ancestors have called upon him to protect Nankyer. However, the Chief Warrior Gwol, a powerful sorcerer and shape-shifter, stands between the maiden and the Jigo traditions she seeks to alter. In this fantasy set in precolonial Nigeria, Kwardem crafts a unique culture with its own customs, sayings and social norms, complete with greetings and extensive folklore. This worldbuilding makes it easy for readers to become invested in how Nankyer will change the society. However, the protagonist herself isn’t as engaging; she shows little agency in the story, always looking to others to move her to action. This flaw is assuaged, however, by the novel’s impressive supporting cast. Darlong, for example, joins the delightful Shakespearean tradition of the visionary fool, and Gwol grows ever more desperate in his villainous machinations. The book’s female characters are particularly exceptional, from brave Satzen, unmoving in her support for the maiden she rescued, to Jigoland’s queen, brazenly defying tradition for her king and people. The narrative relies heavily on Christian teachings, with many obvious analogues to the stories of Adam, Noah, Abraham and others. This choice effectively blurs the lines that separate religion, mysticism and superstition, in order to further explore how doubt, panic and fear can spread in uncertain times.
An engrossing world and a strong supporting cast put a fresh veneer on familiar moral allegories.Pub Date: Dec. 21, 2013
ISBN: 978-9789365579
Page Count: 578
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2014
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
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
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