An original, painful tale of youthful isolation.
Conjoined twins in the Soviet Union face loneliness and alienation in Eliseev’s debut novel.
Faith and Hope were born anatomically attached at the hip—a sight so shocking that the midwife who delivered them fainted. Their mother was so horrified that she was persuaded by a nurse to sign their death certificate and give them away to scientists; the father—away on business—was informed of their passing by telegram. First, they were studied as scientific anomalies, but eventually they attended a special boarding school. Later, they moved to a foster home for disabled children, where they suffered grim indignities and grotesque mistreatment. When one sick child at the home dies of illness as a result of utter neglect, the attendants treat the rest of the kids like they’re prisoners doing penance. The pair become intoxicated with the possibility of a surgical separation, and they eventually escape in the hope of finding a doctor willing to perform the procedure—one that would likely kill one of them. On their own, they soon suffer extraordinary cruelty; at one point, a truck driver picks them up as hitchhikers and brutally rapes them. Homeless, penniless, and ostracized from society, they’re reduced to panhandling as they set out to find the mother they never knew. Hope becomes suicidal as the two yearn to lead a normal life, free of deprivation. Author Eliseev unflinchingly limns the psychological nuances of the twins’ predicament, showing that despite their intimate connection, each longs to be free: “I often wondered what it would be like—having your own body, going where you wanted, doing what you liked doing,” Faith thinks. “How does it feel not being the hostage of somebody else, even if it is your closest and dearest relative?” Eliseev’s prose is straightforward and appropriately childlike, and Faith’s wisdom and anguish are heart-rending. As she narrates the story in the first person, her emotional range swings from endearingly optimistic to despairing. The backdrop of the tale—set in the twilight years of the USSR—vividly depicts the social dysfunction of a so-called “normal” society of “one-headed” people.
An original, painful tale of youthful isolation.Pub Date: Nov. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-911414-23-0
Page Count: 194
Publisher: Glagoslav Publications
Review Posted Online: Feb. 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
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