An effective one-sitting crime story with an existential bent.
A moody murder tale complicated by Covid-19 and other evidence of looming mortality.
Before he became a prolific novelist (The Dog Killer of Utica, 2014, etc.), Lentricchia was an academic scholar of postmodern literature. Fittingly, this melancholy novella reads like a Law & Order episode scripted by one of his favorite subjects, Don DeLillo. Eliot, a former private eye who’s figured in previous Lentricchia novels, arrives in New York with his longtime friend Antonio in March 2020 to sort out some family issues. They share a car into the city with their flight’s first officer, Gina, who’s the daughter of the airline’s CEO and niece of a notorious mobster. A couple of NYPD detectives draw Eliot and Antonio into the mob investigation, and much of the story involves untangling Gina’s involvement. But Lentricchia strives to avoid a familiar police-procedural story arc; the novel is girded with scenes of the aging friends killing time in Manhattan’s Yale Club, bantering about their failing septuagenarian bodies and busted relationships. (“Revenge-desire, kills on the inside. Heart destruction. High blood pressure. Eating binges. Look at your poundage. Forgive her.”) And as the coronavirus forces the city into lockdown, Topic A for everyone is fear of death. Elliot, coming off heart surgery, is skeptical about the virus (“It couldn’t have jumped over the entire continent in one leap and landed in New Rochelle. Is the Times that hysterical with fake news?”). One of the cops has to manage the mob case, his wife’s newfound aggressive cancer, and the murder of Gina's co-pilot. The novel is too brief to address any of these crises very deeply, but it successfully conjures up a city constricting upon itself and the feeling of asphyxiation it provokes in its characters.
An effective one-sitting crime story with an existential bent.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-77183-675-3
Page Count: 100
Publisher: Guernica World Editions
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.
A falsely accused Black man goes into hiding in this masterful novella by Wright (1908-1960), finally published in full.
Written in 1941 and '42, between Wright’s classics Native Son and Black Boy, this short novel concerns Fred Daniels, a modest laborer who’s arrested by police officers and bullied into signing a false confession that he killed the residents of a house near where he was working. In a brief unsupervised moment, he escapes through a manhole and goes into hiding in a sewer. A series of allegorical, surrealistic set pieces ensues as Fred explores the nether reaches of a church, a real estate firm, and a jewelry store. Each stop is an opportunity for Wright to explore themes of hope, greed, and exploitation; the real estate firm, Wright notes, “collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent from poor colored folks.” But Fred’s deepening existential crisis and growing distance from society keep the scenes from feeling like potted commentaries. As he wallpapers his underground warren with cash, mocking and invalidating the currency, he registers a surrealistic but engrossing protest against divisive social norms. The novel, rejected by Wright’s publisher, has only appeared as a substantially truncated short story until now, without the opening setup and with a different ending. Wright's take on racial injustice seems to have unsettled his publisher: A note reveals that an editor found reading about Fred’s treatment by the police “unbearable.” That may explain why Wright, in an essay included here, says its focus on race is “rather muted,” emphasizing broader existential themes. Regardless, as an afterword by Wright’s grandson Malcolm attests, the story now serves as an allegory both of Wright (he moved to France, an “exile beyond the reach of Jim Crow and American bigotry”) and American life. Today, it resonates deeply as a story about race and the struggle to envision a different, better world.
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-59853-676-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Library of America
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
BOOK TO SCREEN
A warm and winning "When Harry Met Sally…" update that hits all the perfect notes.
A travel writer has one last shot at reconnecting with the best friend she just might be in love with.
Poppy and Alex couldn't be more different. She loves wearing bright colors while he prefers khakis and a T-shirt. She likes just about everything while he’s a bit more discerning. And yet, their opposites-attract friendship works because they love each other…in a totally platonic way. Probably. Even though they have their own separate lives (Poppy lives in New York City and is a travel writer with a popular Instagram account; Alex is a high school teacher in their tiny Ohio hometown), they still manage to get together each summer for one fabulous vacation. They grow closer every year, but Poppy doesn’t let herself linger on her feelings for Alex—she doesn’t want to ruin their friendship or the way she can be fully herself with him. They continue to date other people, even bringing their serious partners on their summer vacations…but then, after a falling-out, they stop speaking. When Poppy finds herself facing a serious bout of ennui, unhappy with her glamorous job and the life she’s been dreaming of forever, she thinks back to the last time she was truly happy: her last vacation with Alex. And so, though they haven’t spoken in two years, she asks him to take another vacation with her. She’s determined to bridge the gap that’s formed between them and become best friends again, but to do that, she’ll have to be honest with Alex—and herself—about her true feelings. In chapters that jump around in time, Henry shows readers the progression (and dissolution) of Poppy and Alex’s friendship. Their slow-burn love story hits on beloved romance tropes (such as there unexpectedly being only one bed on the reconciliation trip Poppy plans) while still feeling entirely fresh. Henry’s biggest strength is in the sparkling, often laugh-out-loud-funny dialogue, particularly the banter-filled conversations between Poppy and Alex. But there’s depth to the story, too—Poppy’s feeling of dissatisfaction with a life that should be making her happy as well as her unresolved feelings toward the difficult parts of her childhood make her a sympathetic and relatable character. The end result is a story that pays homage to classic romantic comedies while having a point of view all its own.
A warm and winning "When Harry Met Sally…" update that hits all the perfect notes.Pub Date: May 11, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0675-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
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