The last two novels of French writer Bove (The Stepson, 1994, etc.), contemporary and friend of Gide and Beckett, evoke in stunning, characteristically minimalist prose the plight of an intellectual antihero forced to act by war. Published separately after Bove's death in 1945, these final works of his career have an interconnected plot as well as the same narrator/protagonist: RenÇ de Talhouet, a French soldier on the run. Together, they describe the acts and attitudes that will culminate in Talhouet's eventual choice of the only liberty possible for a man of his sensibilities. In Night Departure, RenÇ, a German prisoner of war, persuades a group of his French fellows to escape. But RenÇ kills two German guards, and though the prisoners escape, their long walk through Germany is shadowed by knowledge of the retribution that awaits them if captured. Cowardly, prickly, and sensitive to the point of paranoia, RenÇ is obsessively and increasingly fearful and suspicious. He can't sleep because he fears the comrade on watch will be negligent, and he often goes hungry because he mistrusts the local peasants' help. After an arduous journey, he reaches Paris, but No Place suggests that freedom in occupied France is as elusive as in a German camp. RenÇ stays with friends and relations but never feels safe. His fears, as he himself observes, are not only real but existential: ``...the problem with thinking too much is that in the end you never do anything and you always look suspicious.'' Finally, he's caught, imprisoned, then released, but it's too late: Freedom is not possible in France, and so RenÇ flees to Spain, where certain imprisonment and death await. A masterful, always understated, portrait of a man as much imprisoned by his own inner demons as by circumstances. And a reminder of how tragic Bove's early death was.
Pub Date: June 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-941423-91-3
Page Count: 467
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1995
Not as thematically ambitious as Whitehead’s earlier work, but a whole lot of fun to read.
Another surprise from an author who never writes the same novel twice.
Though Whitehead has earned considerable critical acclaim for his earlier work—in particular his debut (The Intuitionist, 1999) and its successor (John Henry Days, 2001)—he’ll likely reach a wider readership with his warmest novel to date. Funniest as well, though there have been flashes of humor throughout his writing. The author blurs the line between fiction and memoir as he recounts the coming-of-age summer of 15-year-old Benji Cooper in the family’s summer retreat of New York’s Sag Harbor. “According to the world, we were the definition of paradox: black boys with beach houses,” writes Whitehead. Caucasians are only an occasional curiosity within this idyll, and parents are mostly absent as well. Each chapter is pretty much a self-contained entity, corresponding to a rite of passage: getting the first job, negotiating the mysteries of the opposite sex. There’s an accident with a BB gun and plenty of episodes of convincing someone older to buy beer, but not much really happens during this particular summer. Yet by the end of it, Benji is well on his way to becoming Ben, and he realizes that he is a different person than when the summer started. He also realizes that this time in his life will eventually live only in memory. There might be some distinctions between Benji and Whitehead, though the novelist also spent his youthful summers in Sag Harbor and was the same age as Benji in 1985, when the novel is set. Yet the first-person narrator has the novelist’s eye for detail, craft of character development and analytical instincts for sharp social commentary.
Not as thematically ambitious as Whitehead’s earlier work, but a whole lot of fun to read.Pub Date: April 28, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-385-52765-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2009
BOOK TO SCREEN
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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