An often good read, particularly for Civil War enthusiasts.
Political intrigue in Britain threatens to scupper Trenton Grey’s plans to continue as a Confederate blockade runner in Wonnell’s (‘290’: Volume I: Blockade Runner, 2015) sequel.
Grey is in Liverpool, England, supervising the construction of a new ship to replace his, which was commandeered by the Confederate navy, as well as another, called 290, whose owner intends to use it to disrupt Union shipping. Grey is lonely and longs for his cousin Joanna, who is waiting for him in the Bahamas. To circumvent a law against “equipping and arming” ships in England to use against countries with which Britain is not at war, the shipyard is relying on a legal opinion that distinguishes “equipping and arming” from basic construction. The U.S. Consul in Liverpool, Thomas Dudley, gets wind of this, and the American minister in London, Charles Adams, convinces the authorities to adopt a more expansive reading of the law. Despite the sharpest maneuverings of the British system by Confederate sympathizer Austen Layard, undersecretary to the British Foreign Minister, an official order to seize the 290 slowly wends its way through the British legal system. Layard connives to warn Grey, but will the 290 be able to flee Liverpool before the American steamship Tuscarora arrives to shut it down? As with the previous volume, this novel is rife with authentic detail and period language. Wonnell’s knowledge of the British governmental structure rivals his impressive knowledge of sailing ships and Civil War history. The result, again, is a book of impressive authenticity with a compelling plot and diverse characters. It starts off a bit slowly, but once the intrigue starts, it’s gripping. However, the author might have given more depth to the female characters and expanded on the social activity in Liverpool and New Providence, which is important to the plot but given short shrift. The romance between Trent and Joanna is also a bit melodramatic, and a few action scenes early on could have made some of the extensive background information on British law and politics a bit easier to digest.
An often good read, particularly for Civil War enthusiasts.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-692-42260-1
Page Count: 386
Publisher: Brail Books LLC
Review Posted Online: Sept. 2, 2015
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
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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