CONSTELLATION

Name: CONSTELLATION
Author: Greg Mulcahy
ISBN: 1-888105-13-5

by Greg Mulcahy ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 20, 1996

Mulcahy is often clever and funny. But he never fleshes out any of his conceits, as if they weren't worth the bother....

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Short, manic, experimental first novel from the author of the story collection Out of Work (1993).

``All this talk—this language—what is it but air?'' asks Wolf, a character who seems to be loosely modeled after Hamlet, and whose conceit informs every compressed, disjointed scene of Mulcahy's underdeveloped tale. What there is of a story begins with Wayne, a drifter who appeals to his brother, Bob, an obsessive physician, to take him in while he looks for work. Wayne does find work as a clerk in a gun shop; his brother dies. Wolf then emerges as the major character, using his father's assets to buy the gun store and then turning it, overnight, into a chain of franchises; meanwhile, Wayne marries his sister-in-law, Colleen. Colleen, given to long, nostalgic soliloquies that are like parodies of remembrances in other novels, is the most nearly convincing character here, but even so it's impossible to tell what motivates her. There are other walk-on figures: two prostitutes, a performing dog named Sponge Boy, and an ex-cowboy, Bill. Bill tells a story that is, in part, quite ingenious: A modern cowboy, seasoned by the outdoor life, grimly saddles up to chase rustlers who then disappear in a helicopter. He tracks the helicopter, follows a truck that leads to a slaughterhouse, follows the meat to a grocery. But after this, the story, which could have been a marvelous commentary on how corporate technology renders older, simpler values meaningless, fizzles into nothing—into the ``air'' of postmodernism. Shortly, Wolf's strange financial empire collapses and his mother absconds with what's left of her husband's fortune. Wolf handcuffs Wayne, sets fire to his house, and leaves too, hoping to collect on Wayne's life insurance.

Mulcahy is often clever and funny. But he never fleshes out any of his conceits, as if they weren't worth the bother. Readers will concur.

Pub Date: Aug. 20, 1996

ISBN: 1-888105-13-5

Page Count: 160

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
O'HEARN
by Greg Mulcahy

- BOOK REVIEW
OUT OF WORK
by Greg Mulcahy

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

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A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.

"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

Pub Date: June 15, 1951

ISBN: 0316769177

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- SEEN & HEARD
Salinger Focus of NYPL Exhibit

- SEEN & HEARD
NYC Mayoral Candidates Name Favorite Gotham Books

- APPRECIATIONS
Holden Caulfield: Forever Young

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JURASSIC PARK

by Michael Crichton ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 7, 1990

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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.