A fun, fast read with some history and feminist themes thrown in.
In her latest historical novel, Justice (Sword of the Gladiatrix, 2015, etc.) examines the life of little-known Roman empress Placidia.
In the fifth century, the Roman territory of Ravenna in northern Italy is sacked by the Goths. Young Princess Placidia is captured and held as a “guest” in the Goths’ royal court so that she can be used as a negotiation tool with the Romans. The author creates great tension as readers follow Placidia to the Gothic land, where she’s taken care of by Queen Gaatha, the wife of Alaric, king of the Goths. After a series of events that warms Placidia to the barbarian tribe, she finds herself falling for Ataulf, Gaatha’s brother, who takes control of the Goths after Alaric falls dead of a fever. Alaric’s and others’ demises come rather abruptly, but the book is an addictive read, as Justice chooses her key moments wisely, weaving a decadeslong narrative about Placidia’s layered life as she rises to eventual leadership. The opening scenes make clear that as a woman, Placidia’s bloodline is her most useful asset in ancient society. The author does a fine job of delicately underlining the limits of female governance during the period, creating sympathy for the heroine, whose only option is to rule through men. The sharp protagonist effectively navigates the politics surrounding her incapable brother, as well as conspirators, tragic deaths, and war, all while trying to save the nearly deflated Roman Empire. Justice shies away from in-depth political and geographical history, which keeps the novel from feeling like a historical lesson; however, at times, the text feels rushed, with myriad new names constantly appearing. If the author had allowed the various characters a little more room to breathe, it would have added more richness to the book. That said, the prose is tight and clean throughout, and the characters’ missions are always clear despite the complexities of the situations.
A fun, fast read with some history and feminist themes thrown in.Pub Date: May 8, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-692-46051-1
Page Count: 392
Publisher: Raggedy Moon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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