SAINT MONKEY

Name: SAINT MONKEY
Author: Jacinda Townsend
ISBN: 978-0-393-08004-9

by Jacinda Townsend ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 24, 2014

Townsend has attempted a big-canvas novel, but it's only in the close-knit Mt. Sterling neighborhood that she seems at home.

bookshelf

The friendship between two black teenage girls in Kentucky flags when one of them moves to Harlem in this low-energy first novel.

In the 1950s, the small town of Mt. Sterling is strictly segregated. Audrey and Caroline are neighbors in the “colored” section. Audrey is only 11 when her beloved father, Lindell, enlists in the Air Force and dies his very first day in Korea (friendly fire). The shock drives her mother to drink; she works two jobs and is seldom home. Caroline’s situation is far worse. For starters, she’s plug ugly, inheriting unwelcome features from the white man who raped her grandmother. The horror comes when her mother disappears; she has been murdered and dismembered by her husband, known as Sonnyboy. He confesses but never explains why he killed his meek, faithful wife; Townsend’s awkward handling of the episode is a tear in the fabric. Caroline refuses to speak to her father again (incredibly, he only does five years jail time) but moves right along: “Ain’t like some big thing happened.” She’s first to snag a boyfriend, putting distance between the two friends. Audrey’s ace in the hole is her skill as a pianist. Mr. Glaser, a talent scout from the world-famous Apollo, hears her playing at a funeral and insists she come to New York. This is Audrey’s big moment—joining the Apollo house band at 17 and living in Harlem—but Townsend can’t make it shine, even when the bassist, August, 11 years her senior, falls for her big time. There will be rough sledding ahead for the lovebirds and for the two childhood friends; it's Sonnyboy that has the smooth ride.

Townsend has attempted a big-canvas novel, but it's only in the close-knit Mt. Sterling neighborhood that she seems at home.

Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2014

ISBN: 978-0-393-08004-9

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2013

Categories:

HISTORICAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
TRIGGER WARNING
by Jacinda Townsend

- BOOK REVIEW
MOTHER COUNTRY
by Jacinda Townsend

bookshelf

IN THE DISTANCE

by Hernan Diaz ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 3, 2017

Not for the faint of heart, perhaps, but an ambitious and thoroughly realized work of revisionist historical fiction.

bookshelf

Violent, often surrealistic Wild West yarn, Cormac McCarthy by way of Gabriel García Márquez.

Håkan Söderström is a force of nature, a wild giant whose name, in the frontier America in which he has landed, is rendered as the Hawk. On the docks back in Gothenburg he was separated from his brother, Linus, and he has sworn to find him in a land so big he can scarcely comprehend it. The Hawk lands in California and ventures eastward only to find himself in all kinds of odd company—crooks, con men, prophets, and the rare honest man—and a tide of history that keeps pushing him back to the west. Along the way, his exploits, literary scholar Diaz (Hispanic Institute/Columbia Univ.; Borges, Between History and Eternity, 2012) writes, are so numerous that he has become a legend in a frontier full of them; for one thing, says an awe-struck traveler, “He was offered his own territory by the Union, like a state, with his own laws and all. Just to keep him away.” The Hawk protests that most of what has been said about him is untrue—but not all of it. As Diaz, who delights in playful language, lists, and stream-of-consciousness prose, reconstructs his adventures, he evokes the multicultural nature of westward expansion, in which immigrants did the bulk of the hard labor and suffered the gravest dangers. One fine set piece is a version of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, in which religious fanatics dressed as Indians attack a pioneer party—save that in Diaz’s version, Håkan tears his way across the enemy force with a righteous fury befitting an avenging angel. “He knew he had killed and maimed several men,” Diaz writes, memorably, “but what remained most vividly in his mind was the feeling of sorrow and senselessness that came with each act: those worth defending were already dead, and each of his killings made his own struggle for self-preservation less justifiable.”

Not for the faint of heart, perhaps, but an ambitious and thoroughly realized work of revisionist historical fiction.

Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-56689-488-3

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Coffee House

Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017

Categories:

HISTORICAL FICTION

bookshelf

THE LAST COLLECTION

by Jeanne Mackin ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 25, 2019

Fashion lovers will enjoy descriptions of the design of clothing and accessories and the machinations of running fashion...

bookshelf

A widowed American woman navigates the world of fashion in 1938 Paris, getting caught up in the rivalry between two famous designers.

Lily Sutter is teaching art at a girl’s boarding school in England when her brother, Charlie, invites her to Paris. Drowning in the memories of her husband, who died two years earlier, and living in a world of gray, Lily has been unable to paint. Once in Paris and caught up in the glamorous circles of her brother and his married lover, Ania, Lily begins to see the world in color once again and picks up her brushes. The novel is divided into three parts, each section labeled with an oft-referenced primary color meant to symbolize the emotions described within it. The first, blue, is a paradox, representing longing, sadness, joy, and fulfillment. The second, red, is for love, death, and passion. And the last, yellow, is for sunshine, gold, and new beginnings but also warning and fear. Creating a world where fictional and real worlds overlap is tricky, particularly when famous events and people (in this case Elsa Schiaparelli and Coco Chanel) are a major part of the narrative. The novel includes as a plot point the reported real-world instance when the rivalry between Chanel and Schiaparelli became physical—accidentally or on purpose—and Chanel caused Schiaparelli’s costume to catch fire at a party. Mackin (A Lady of Good Family, 2015, etc.) goes beyond the facts, however. A substantial portion of the novel is composed of hypothetical interior monologues, thoughts, and motivations of the two real-life fashion icons. Readers interested in historical accuracy may find this distracting.

Fashion lovers will enjoy descriptions of the design of clothing and accessories and the machinations of running fashion houses before World War II.