Despite its lack of freshness, a thoroughly enjoyable novel.
A small-time director is forced to make a movie written by a ruthless gangster with artistic aspirations in Holtzman’s novel.
Howard Moss has many of the trappings of conventional success—a beautiful home in Connecticut, a luxury car, and a career directing television commercials. However, he’s lost in ennui—his wife, Anne, divorced him, and he’s estranged from his daughter, Molly, who loathes him. He’s all but given up on his youthful ambitions to become a serious artist. Then, a peculiar opportunity—or a catastrophe, depending on how one views it—arises for Howard: His wayward brother, Bernie, a minor gangster, shows up at his door pleading for help. He owes a monstrous amount of money to the Mafiosi Bromberg brothers, and for some reason they demand to see Howard. When Howard sits down with Watso and Notso, a morbidly obese pair, they demand that he direct a movie written by Vinny Pisacane, a notoriously brutal gangster who keeps a live crocodile in his home, to which he sometimes feeds his enemies. Howard accepts the job—he really doesn’t have a choice—but unexpectedly takes a real interest in the script, The Hitman’s Lament, a story about the criminal underworld and a glamorization of that milieu vividly depicted by the author. Predictably, Howard falls deeply in love with the movie’s lead actor (and Vinny’s girlfriend), Gabrielle Silverman, almost instantaneously, a romantic attachment described in formulaic terms typical of the author’s writing: “I would die for her. I would kill for her. I was deathly afraid that she could sense that. When the audition was done, I was totally lost in love.”
The best element of Holtzman’s entertaining novel is his portrayal of Howard’s passionate interest in the movie—one might expect he would be violently opposed to the idea of making it. Instead, he’s not only committed to it, but fights for various changes with a mad devotion to artistic integrity that could endanger his life (“I would fight to the death for my idea. I lost some of my best clients that way. This time, I could lose a lot more than a client. And if I fought for my idea without getting murdered, and lost; what would I do? Would I go along? Or walk away? Could I walk away? Or would I become the crocodile’s lunch?”). Much of the story is constructed out of hoary clichés—even Vinny, the criminal who really wants to express his creative side, is constructed from familiar stereotypes. The dangerous love affair between Howard and Gabrielle seems drawn from a prefabricated selection of fictional storylines. However, despite the novel’s general lack of originality and the author’s uninspired prose style, this remains an irresistibly enjoyable book, mostly because Howard is such a compelling protagonist. While everyone else sees disaster looming—Anne and Molly both reach out to him and beg him not to take such a perilous job working for a sociopathic murderer—he sees a chance to recover some of his squandered artistic dreams. This eccentricity keeps the book afloat and ultimately makes it a worthwhile adventure.
Despite its lack of freshness, a thoroughly enjoyable novel.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 263
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: May 8, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A standout in the series.
The sixth adventure of Harvard symbology professor Robert Langdon explores the mysteries of human consciousness, the demonic projects of the CIA, and the city of Prague.
“Ladies and gentlemen...we are about to experience a sea change in our understanding of how the brain works, the nature of consciousness, and in fact…the very nature of reality itself.” But first—Langdon’s in love! Brown’s devoted readers first met brilliant noetic scientist Katherine Solomon in The Lost Symbol (2009); she’s back as a serious girlfriend, engaging the committed bachelor in a way not seen before. The book opens with the pair in a luxurious suite at the Four Seasons in Prague. It’s the night after Katherine has delivered the lecture quoted above, setting the theme for the novel, which features a plethora of real-life cases and anomalies that seem to support the notion that human consciousness is not localized inside the human skull. Brown’s talent for assembling research is also evident in this novel’s alter ego as a guidebook to Prague, whose history and attractions are described in great and glowing detail. Whether you appreciate or skim past the innumerable info dumps on these and other topics (Jewish folklore fans—the Golem is in the house!), it goes without saying that concision is not a goal in the Dan Brown editing process. Speaking of editing, the nearly 700-page book is dedicated to Brown’s editor, who seems to appear as a character—to put it in the italicized form used for Brownian insight, Jason Kaufman must be Jonas Faukman! A major subplot involves the theft of Katherine’s manuscript from the secure servers of Penguin Random House; the delightful Faukman continues to spout witty wisecracks even when blindfolded and hogtied. There’s no shortage of action, derring-do, explosions, high-tech torture machines, attempted and successful murders, and opportunities for split-second, last-minute escapes; good thing Langdon, this aging symbology wonk, never misses swimming his morning laps. Readers who are not already dyed-in-the-wool Langdonites may find themselves echoing the prof’s own conclusion regarding the credibility of all this paranormal hoo-ha: At some point, skepticism itself becomes irrational.
A standout in the series.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9780385546898
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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