Insightful, stimulating, and unforgettable tales.
In Lawson’s (A Patrimony of Fishes, 1997) short story collection, dynamic characters struggle to stay together or gradually drift apart.
In “The Mushroom Hunter,” a man named Chundo is looking for a rare fungus, but at the heart of the story is the fact that the narrator, Barnaby, idolizes him—a fact that Chundo has used to his advantage for years. Each of these character-driven tales, primarily set in California, astutely examines interpersonal relationships. In “My Year Under the Dog Star,” for example, a man named Scott must deal with the animosity between his fiancee, Kelly, and his venture capitalist father, Ted. Ted gifts Scott with a new dog, but it doesn’t get along with the canine that the couple already have; indeed, the animals are literally at each other’s throats—an apt representation of Ted and Kelly’s dynamic. In the sublime “House on Bear Mountain,” April and her young daughter, Claire, lose husband and father Alec, and they fight to hang on to his lake house, which his brother and sister-in-law believe is rightfully theirs. Although many stories provide at least some humor, the endings are generally somber or unsettling—though certainly memorable. For example, in “Catch the Air,” Gordon’s father, Cris Hogart, once a member of a popular music group, has just turned 75. Although the story initially uses Cris as comic relief, it’s clear by the end that he’s not a happy man. The book concludes with two exceptional tales: “The Beekeeper of Río Momón” and the titular story, which both take truly chilling turns; in the first, characters search for a friend in South America, and in the second, a group goes into the woods to film a staged Bigfoot video. Lawson’s taut, graphic prose sparkles, as in this passage from “House on Bear Mountain”: “The tape clicks into place in the amped-up sound system, and the soundtrack of the movie of Claude’s miserable life begins, sung by a resurrected chorus of 1980s American girl bands.”
Insightful, stimulating, and unforgettable tales.Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-59709-692-8
Page Count: 214
Publisher: Red Hen Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.
Atwood goes back to Gilead.
The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), consistently regarded as a masterpiece of 20th-century literature, has gained new attention in recent years with the success of the Hulu series as well as fresh appreciation from readers who feel like this story has new relevance in America’s current political climate. Atwood herself has spoken about how news headlines have made her dystopian fiction seem eerily plausible, and it’s not difficult to imagine her wanting to revisit Gilead as the TV show has sped past where her narrative ended. Like the novel that preceded it, this sequel is presented as found documents—first-person accounts of life inside a misogynistic theocracy from three informants. There is Agnes Jemima, a girl who rejects the marriage her family arranges for her but still has faith in God and Gilead. There’s Daisy, who learns on her 16th birthday that her whole life has been a lie. And there's Aunt Lydia, the woman responsible for turning women into Handmaids. This approach gives readers insight into different aspects of life inside and outside Gilead, but it also leads to a book that sometimes feels overstuffed. The Handmaid’s Tale combined exquisite lyricism with a powerful sense of urgency, as if a thoughtful, perceptive woman was racing against time to give witness to her experience. That narrator hinted at more than she said; Atwood seemed to trust readers to fill in the gaps. This dynamic created an atmosphere of intimacy. However curious we might be about Gilead and the resistance operating outside that country, what we learn here is that what Atwood left unsaid in the first novel generated more horror and outrage than explicit detail can. And the more we get to know Agnes, Daisy, and Aunt Lydia, the less convincing they become. It’s hard, of course, to compete with a beloved classic, so maybe the best way to read this new book is to forget about The Handmaid’s Tale and enjoy it as an artful feminist thriller.
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-385-54378-1
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
This book sings with the terrible silence of dead civilizations in which once there was valor.
Written with quiet dignity that builds to a climax of tragic force, this book about the dissolution of an African tribe, its traditions, and values, represents a welcome departure from the familiar "Me, white brother" genre.
Written by a Nigerian African trained in missionary schools, this novel tells quietly the story of a brave man, Okonkwo, whose life has absolute validity in terms of his culture, and who exercises his prerogative as a warrior, father, and husband with unflinching single mindedness. But into the complex Nigerian village filters the teachings of strangers, teachings so alien to the tribe, that resistance is impossible. One must distinguish a force to be able to oppose it, and to most, the talk of Christian salvation is no more than the babbling of incoherent children. Still, with his guns and persistence, the white man, amoeba-like, gradually absorbs the native culture and in despair, Okonkwo, unable to withstand the corrosion of what he, alone, understands to be the life force of his people, hangs himself. In the formlessness of the dying culture, it is the missionary who takes note of the event, reminding himself to give Okonkwo's gesture a line or two in his work, The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.
This book sings with the terrible silence of dead civilizations in which once there was valor.Pub Date: Jan. 23, 1958
ISBN: 0385474547
Page Count: 207
Publisher: McDowell, Obolensky
Review Posted Online: April 23, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1958
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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