Despite minor flaws, the strong, captivating heroine and an allure of conspiracy and organized crime make this novel an...
The first in a series, Valjan’s debut novel explores the hidden history preserved beneath the streets of Rome and the even more elusive world of covert government agencies.
Alabaster Black is a government analyst on the run after she compromises her position in a secret U.S. government operation called “Rendition.” Her flight brings her to Rome, but, unfortunately, her former employers are hot on her trail. In the Eternal City, she meets Dante—a government investigator, amateur archaeologist and possible love interest—who lets her in on a huge case involving Mafiosi and stolen historical artifacts. Dante’s passion for underground cave exploration leads the pair on several subterranean adventures during which they are afforded a unique view of Rome’s history, while Valjan’s passion for Rome colors his crisp, idiosyncratic descriptions of its geography, history and customs. There are also keen depictions of Roman social life and the media. Such attention to detail not only makes the city a character, it also makes for a more believable narrative. Although this isn’t a traditional high-octane thriller, the book still manages to incite frantic page-turning and knuckle-biting reactions. Weapons and car chases are as deftly handled as pasta and bruschetta. Sophisticated subplots are conflated with ease and cleverly extended toward a sequel. Twists and turns are convincingly executed, but the artfulness of the structure is not mirrored in rhetorical finesse. For the most part, the author writes with a skilled hand, although important information can be revealed much too bluntly, and the dialogue is sometimes inorganic.
Despite minor flaws, the strong, captivating heroine and an allure of conspiracy and organized crime make this novel an undoubted success.Pub Date: Feb. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0983676485
Page Count: 342
Publisher: Winter Goose Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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