A historically astute story with a memorable protagonist, undermined by overdone dialogue.
A British teenager connives his way into the Royal Navy during World War II in this debut novel.
After the German occupation of Poland, Britain officially declares war, forcing teenager Eddie Roberts from the London area to the countryside. He lives there begrudgingly until he makes the acquaintance of a young woman named Barbara Lewis. But then Eddie’s mother comes to fetch him home at his dying older brother’s request. Eddie returns to find that air raid shelters are being built for safety, and that his family is suffering financially. He takes the entrance exam for the Royal Navy College and passes, but his mother forbids his matriculation. However, he forges a birth certificate so that he can enlist nevertheless, inspired by a desire to travel the globe and also to find his friend, Jack Barrette, who was lost in the war. Eddie distinguishes himself with his bravery, but he’s injured during a torpedo strike on his vessel. He’s later selected for a secretive search-and-destroy mission in the Far East—a task he relishes as an opportunity to find Jack. However, he’s captured and kept at a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Thailand. Rhodes’ novel is, at its core, an adventure story: Eddie’s heart is so filled with wanderlust that it’s hard for readers to imagine him settling down, even in a time of peace. The author also stirringly captures the dawning reality of war for those on the homefront—particularly how the hope of averting disaster is swiftly replaced with brave resignation. But although the writing is frequently entertaining, Eddie almost exclusively communicates in witty quips and one-liners, which not only becomes tiresome, but also results in some overwritten dialogue. For example, when a girlfriend, Anita Barrett, tells him goodbye by saying, “You were the one who taught me how to fly, and were an excellent teacher,” he responds with an even sillier line: “Maybe so, but Peter Pan’s only flying on one wing, and has some growing up left to do.”
A historically astute story with a memorable protagonist, undermined by overdone dialogue.Pub Date: March 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5255-0098-5
Page Count: 324
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Sept. 8, 2017
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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