uncompromisingly suspenseful tale of heroic adventure. ($150,000 ad/promo; radio satellite tour)
Another penetrating dissection of the passion and terror of warfare from the modern master of life-under-combat, this time
on a snowbound Slovakia, where a mixed bag of US Army infantry, acting as NATO peacekeepers, cope with murderous "ethnic cleansers"—and a far more threatening conflict between commanding officers. After examining battlefield bravado in American history, Coyle goes back to the near future, picking up the adventures of Army Lt. Nathan Dixon, son of his series hero Scott Dixon (Code of Honor, 1994, etc.). Nathan's cushy job as a battalion staff officer, is interrupted when he’s ordered to accompany a platoon led by greenhorn Lt. Gerald Reider on what is supposed to be a routine ’show of force" mission. Sparks fly long before the two lieutenants leave their battalion base: The product of the Virginia Military Institute and his father's hard-won wisdom, Dixon is put off by Reider, an elitist martinet fresh out of West Point. Meanwhile, Reider views Dixon's presence as a meddlesome imposition on his command. The two are barely speaking as their platoon trudges off into Slovakian hills to rendezvous with a trio of American tanks 25 kilometers away. Their orders are ambiguous: protect civilians, don't start any conflicts, be prepared to return fire if fired on. Coyle uses the escalating squabbles between the two men to illustrate contrasting styles of leadership, delivering intricate if long-winded asides about how crucial a commander's slightest twitch can be in maintaining control. Reider makes several mistakes, barely escaping calamity. When Dixon finds the burning hulk of a US tank, and can't contact the base on the platoon radio, he concludes that war has finally broken out. The platoon is then torn apart after a series of heartstopping, brutally realistic firefights, and the two officers, separated by hostile forces, must fight their way back any way they can. A grunt's life that, despite too many lectures on military mores, and a distracting romantic subplot, succeeds as an engrossing,
uncompromisingly suspenseful tale of heroic adventure. ($150,000 ad/promo; radio satellite tour)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-312-86296-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2000
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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