An idealistic young public defender and his colleagues decide to stop plea-bargaining in Franklin’s (An Irish Experience, 2008, etc.) historical novel.
The year 1968 was a tumultuous time in America. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated, Vietnam War protestors filled the streets, and violence broke out during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. That chaotic year is the setting for this legal thriller, which tries to recapture some of that era’s idealistic spirit. Matt Harris joins the public defender’s office in Solina, California, where the court system is filled with bullying and prejudicial judges and where poor African-Americans, Hispanics and others at the bottom of society’s ladder receive no justice. Sparked by the feelings of rage in the air, Harris and other public defenders decide that they are going to stop advising their clients to take plea bargains because they usually result in innocent people receiving unjust punishment; instead, they resolve to start trying every single case. This plays havoc with the system and makes enemies of the judges. Meanwhile, Harris deals with the fact that his girlfriend, Stella, is battling cancer. In this novel, Franklin attempts to recapture a unique time in American history: The judges represent the law-and-order element that wanted to keep a lid on change, and the public defenders are, in effect, the liberals who aimed to tear down the establishment. The book exclusively tells its story from Harris’ point of view, which doesn’t allow readers to see how the other public defenders are faring in court, beyond the occasional casual reference. Franklin does successfully use many 1968 touchstones, particularly song titles (such as Dion DiMucci’s rendition of “Abraham, Martin and John”), to set his scenes. Sometimes he tries too hard, however, particularly with his characters’ clichéd and constant use of the term “pigs” to describe those representing the established system. Harris’ love affair with Stella is reminiscent of Love Story, and she, like other characters here, often seems like a cardboard construct who doesn’t exist except when she’s with him.
A thriller with a unique story idea and a well-captured historical mood but hampered by one-dimensional characters.
Pub Date: March 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9908398-0-4
Page Count: 565
Publisher: Chamberlain Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Categories: GENERAL FICTION
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The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
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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
Categories: GENERAL FICTION
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State.
Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle’s answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate’s buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, only to blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully’s latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she’s given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it’s too late?
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36408-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007
Categories: GENERAL FICTION | FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP
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