A novel with a unique structure that falls victim to stunted prose, thin characters, and a barely justified climax.
A metaphysical thriller that follows a mysterious set of terra-cotta tablets through a violent history.
For his first novel, Bhattacharyya (Kernel of Vedic Truth, 2014, etc.) traces a set of untranslated, ancient artifacts as they disappear and reappear in various eras. Although the story begins in contemporary Rome, the bulk of the narrative occurs in India, from the late Roman Empire to the Middle Ages to the Roaring ’20s. The tablets begin in the hands of a guru, who, to foil possible Roman encroachment and treachery from his local circle, takes the tablets’ secrets to his grave. But his earlier conversation with a student complicates the novel’s philosophy, as does a later scene of a different guru (in the Middle Ages) giving a lecture on the relationship between the Absolute and the Self. Though these dialogues on Vedic interpretations interrupt the narrative flow, they do lend some metaphysical value to what’s otherwise an action-based story of hidden assassins, doomed treasure hunts, and conspiracy. These adrenaline-filled events, though, deepen the mystery in their own way, in that Bhattacharyya rarely explains the natures of the various assailants, creating a paranoid mood as the main characters meet attacks from all directions. Likewise, the fact that these attacks take place on a large timeline may also provoke readers’ questions. Bhattacharyya helpfully addresses many of them, perhaps too easily, in the final chapter, as some fantasy creeps into the story. Unfortunately, the book’s intriguing form can’t make up for its often awkward prose and its lack of character development. Some of the characters are never even named, instead going by “the student” and “the learned”: “The learned tried to think, despite impaired senses. In a stubborn move, he stopped the falter—it was like an impulse; he breathed hard, strength and recovery returning to his limbs.” With such missteps, the text rarely builds any momentum.
A novel with a unique structure that falls victim to stunted prose, thin characters, and a barely justified climax.Pub Date: Dec. 25, 2014
ISBN: 978-1500226848
Page Count: 192
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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