A vivid portrayal of Hamilton and those who lived in his influential sphere.
A historical novel about the emotional and political events that led up to the famous duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.
It’s 1801, and Hamilton’s eldest son, Philip, is in the streets of Manhattan, celebrating the inaugural Independence Day under Thomas Jefferson’s administration, when he hears George Eacker besmirch his father, calling him a traitor. Young and focused almost singularly on the concept of honor, Philip is unwilling to let go of the insult. He challenges Eacker to a duel, careful to keep the news from his parents. However, when Hamilton learns of his son’s plans, he and Philip debate the merits of “delope”— throwing away one’s shot. Philip is unwilling to do this, so Hamilton suggests that he shoot, but not kill, Eacker, which will allow Philip to retain his honor. Their plan goes awry, however, resulting in a heart-wrenching fatality. This loss leads Hamilton to carry guilt, as well as the secret of his prior knowledge of Philip’s duel, for the rest of his life. Meanwhile, Burr, Jefferson’s vice president, learns that he will not be on the ballot for Jefferson’s second term. He agrees to support a Federalist plot to have New England secede from the Union if he’s elected governor of New York and subsequently named president of the new confederacy. With support from the Federalists and his connections to the corrupt Tammany Hall, Burr feels his political star rising once again. Now in retirement, Hamilton learns of this plan, which he believes to be treasonous. He hops back into the fray of the political world to stop his fellow Federalists and do his best to block Burr from becoming governor.
Casey, author of Kateri (2012), has an exciting command of language. His skill is particularly evident in the chapters that focus on Burr’s escaping debtors and mingling with women at parties. As a character, Burr is truly alive; readers can sense the charm that he might have exuded in real life. The author’s study of him, including his depictions of his discussions with Hamilton and his letters with his daughter, Theodosia, paint the vice president as not merely a villain in a tragedy, but rather a complex, flawed man whose political aspirations lead to questionable actions. Eliza, Hamilton’s wife, is another strong character; over the course of the book, Casey deftly examines the frustrating reality of being the spouse of a politician, as when Eliza criticizes the actions of the men in her life: “Men lie, Angelica. They all lie. They treat us like fools. We bear their babies and keep their homes and comfort and console them….And they blunder on…without a thought about our well-being or our feelings.” The passages focusing on Hamilton are a bit slow at times; however, the story picks up when necessary, and these sections effectively highlight how the former Treasury secretary is often torn between his love for his family and his commitment to his country.
A vivid portrayal of Hamilton and those who lived in his influential sphere.Pub Date: Jan. 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73436-669-3
Page Count: 356
Publisher: Diamonds Big as Radishes LLC
Review Posted Online: April 17, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
A vibrant tale of a remarkable woman.
Who was Shakespeare?
Move over, Earl of Oxford and Francis Bacon: There’s another contender for the true author of plays attributed to the bard of Stratford—Emilia Bassano, a clever, outspoken, educated woman who takes center stage in Picoult’s spirited novel. Of Italian heritage, from a family of court musicians, Emilia was a hidden Jew and the courtesan of a much older nobleman who vetted plays to be performed for Queen Elizabeth. She was well traveled—unlike Shakespeare, she visited Italy and Denmark, where, Picoult imagines, she may have met Rosencrantz and Guildenstern—and was familiar with court intrigue and English law. “Every gap in Shakespeare’s life or knowledge that has had to be explained away by scholars, she somehow fills,” Picoult writes. Encouraged by her lover, Emilia wrote plays and poetry, but 16th-century England was not ready for a female writer. Picoult interweaves Emilia’s story with that of her descendant Melina Green, an aspiring playwright, who encounters the same sexist barriers to making herself heard that Emilia faced. In alternating chapters, Picoult follows Melina’s frustrated efforts to get a play produced—a play about Emilia, who Melina is certain sold her work to Shakespeare. Melina’s play, By Any Other Name, “wasn’t meant to be a fiction; it was meant to be the resurrection of an erasure.” Picoult creates a richly detailed portrait of daily life in Elizabethan England, from sumptuous castles to seedy hovels. Melina’s story is less vivid: Where Emilia found support from the witty Christopher Marlowe, Melina has a fashion-loving gay roommate; where Emilia faces the ravages of repeated outbreaks of plague, for Melina, Covid-19 occurs largely offstage; where Emilia has a passionate affair with the adoring Earl of Southampton, Melina’s lover is an awkward New York Times theater critic. It’s Emilia’s story, and Picoult lovingly brings her to life.
A vibrant tale of a remarkable woman.Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2024
ISBN: 9780593497210
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
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