Doesn’t traverse new narrative ground, but this is a lively tale about balancing one’s moral commitments with the realities...
A political drama that follows a campaign novice’s attempt to win a Senate seat from a cynical incumbent.
Author Collins’ second book-length effort (co-author Warning the Witness, 2011) draws heavily from his own experience as a lawyer, activist and as someone who has run for public office and has served as the assistant United States attorney in Washington, D.C., under President Clinton. The story opens with a scene from the protagonist’s childhood: Quinn Barnes, a black second-grader navigating a school largely attended by privileged white students, sees one of his peers being tormented by bullies. Following the counsel of his father, he intervenes and tries to shield the boy from harm. That child’s father turns out to be Aidan Coyle, a Democratic Party boss in Connecticut, a man who wields considerable clout and devotedly serves as a mentor to Quinn for the remainder of his days. The narrative fast-forwards to an adult Quinn, now an up-and-coming lawyer married with children, who is asked by an ailing Aidan to challenge Saul Berg for his Senate seat in the next primary election. Saul is corrupt, stirred only by power itself and shorn of any transcendent moral purpose. With great reluctance, Quinn finally agrees to run and finds his life torn asunder by the race; his wife departs with the kids, his own firm fires him, and Aidan, beleaguered by medical problems, is slowly slipping away. The drama of the campaign unfolds rapidly, highlighting the tension between Quinn’s idealism and the dark demands of political competition. Sometimes, as the author tries too hard to inspire the reader, the writing borders on cloying and the dialogue reads as stale boilerplate fare; e.g., “The Saul I know is choosing billionaires over college students drowning in student loan debt. The Saul I know is continuing to support subsidies for big oil and claims that there’s no money to put people to work rebuilding roads and bridges. The Saul I know puts his friends and his own interests first. And if you’re putting yourself first, you’re not doing the business of government.” Despite these occasional missteps, however, the story remains both timely and gripping.
Doesn’t traverse new narrative ground, but this is a lively tale about balancing one’s moral commitments with the realities of political life.Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2014
ISBN: 978-0990568377
Page Count: 330
Publisher: 21st Century Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 6, 2014
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
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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