A thought-provoking and intriguing, though unevenly written, novel of the expatriate life and one man’s discovery of what...
An American expatriate reevaluates his life in China.
In this contemporary novel, Moreau (Understanding China, 2015) draws on his own experience living and working in China as he tells the story of Adam Bertrand, an American executive in charge of a Chinese manufacturing operation. Adam’s management style is effective, but serves as a source of conflict with his boss, a by-the-books CEO unfamiliar with the culture, from the opening pages. Adam is also on his third marriage, this time to Li Qing, his former masseuse, also known as Lisa. When it becomes clear that Adam’s career in China has reached its end, he looks back at his life while figuring out the next steps, made more difficult by laws limiting the immigration of Chinese wives like Li Qing. Adam confronts his strengths and shortcomings, establishes a comfortable relationship with the children of his previous marriage, and plots a path forward that meets his physical and emotional needs. Moreau’s familiarity with the expatriate experience in China is evident throughout the book, with a vividly drawn setting, though the blanket statements about Chinese culture delivered in an authoritative voice (“As receiver-oriented communicators, the Chinese can be poor conversationalists if the feel no sense of personal obligation to the speaker” [139]) may raise eyebrows. The narrative is somewhat uneven, filled with professorial asides (“Humans think through a process called precognitive conclusion. Even in the current moment when all data is theoretically available, our brains process only a small fraction of the data presented to it for analysis” [147]) and organized into a timeline that leaves the reader wondering at some points whether action is taking place in Adam’s past or present. Adam is a flawed but ultimately likable protagonist whose emotional and intellectual growth over the course of the book serve as his redemption, and Moreau presents a unique vantage point for understanding the role Americans play in a multicultural world.
A thought-provoking and intriguing, though unevenly written, novel of the expatriate life and one man’s discovery of what matters most to him.Pub Date: May 9, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5307-9881-0
Page Count: 222
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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