An often appealing, well-informed novel about cultural differences and animal rights.
A California veterinarian travels to Japan to protest animal slaughter and meets a carefree executive in Pourasgari’s novel.
American Tessa Walker visited her aunt in Japan when she was young and has since been haunted by a particular memory: In coastal Taiji, when she was 16, she witnessed the slaughter of dolphins in a bloody bay. Now 40, she’s still troubled by the recollection and plans a trip to Japan to protest the commercial killing of dolphins and whales: “It was personal. For her, it had all started in Japan, and it would have to end here.” Upon arrival, her friend Akira, an American who lives in Tokyo, shows her around and teaches her about complexities of Japanese culture, including specific traditions of gift giving. While alone one day, a drunk, obnoxious man, out with his buddies, grabs and kisses Tessa on a dare. She feels violated, slaps him, and tells him off. Sometime later, she sees him again on the street and grabs and kisses him in front of his girlfriend to embarrass him. She eventually finds out that he’s the son of the co-owner of a clothing corporation. Tessa initially sees him as rich and spoiled but finds herself intrigued by him, and the feeling is mutual. As the day of the protest approaches, she’s opened Toshiro’s eyes to the issue but has also attracted the attention of the police, who watch her closely. Pourasgari presents a multifaceted novel that is as much about travel and culture clashes as it is an unexpected story of a relationship, with a protagonist who brings a refreshingly seasoned perspective to the proceedings. As a veterinarian, Tessa’s concern for animals is convincing and heartfelt. Toshiro’s introduction, achieved through unlikely chance meetings in Tokyo, is handled in a clunky manner, but his role develops and becomes more complicated as the book goes on, and his feelings about visitors from abroad add complexity. Tessa’s exposure to and ruminations on Japan’s culture are also carefully considered.
An often appealing, well-informed novel about cultural differences and animal rights.Pub Date: Jan. 23, 2023
ISBN: 9780977978045
Page Count: 456
Publisher: Linbrook Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
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