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
One of the noblest characters in American literature gets a novel worthy of him.
Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as told from the perspective of a more resourceful and contemplative Jim than the one you remember.
This isn’t the first novel to reimagine Twain’s 1885 masterpiece, but the audacious and prolific Everett dives into the very heart of Twain’s epochal odyssey, shifting the central viewpoint from that of the unschooled, often credulous, but basically good-hearted Huck to the more enigmatic and heroic Jim, the Black slave with whom the boy escapes via raft on the Mississippi River. As in the original, the threat of Jim’s being sold “down the river” and separated from his wife and daughter compels him to run away while figuring out what to do next. He's soon joined by Huck, who has faked his own death to get away from an abusive father, ramping up Jim’s panic. “Huck was supposedly murdered and I’d just run away,” Jim thinks. “Who did I think they would suspect of the heinous crime?” That Jim can, as he puts it, “[do] the math” on his predicament suggests how different Everett’s version is from Twain’s. First and foremost, there's the matter of the Black dialect Twain used to depict the speech of Jim and other Black characters—which, for many contemporary readers, hinders their enjoyment of his novel. In Everett’s telling, the dialect is a put-on, a manner of concealment, and a tactic for survival. “White folks expect us to sound a certain way and it can only help if we don’t disappoint them,” Jim explains. He also discloses that, in violation of custom and law, he learned to read the books in Judge Thatcher’s library, including Voltaire and John Locke, both of whom, in dreams and delirium, Jim finds himself debating about human rights and his own humanity. With and without Huck, Jim undergoes dangerous tribulations and hairbreadth escapes in an antebellum wilderness that’s much grimmer and bloodier than Twain’s. There’s also a revelation toward the end that, however stunning to devoted readers of the original, makes perfect sense.
One of the noblest characters in American literature gets a novel worthy of him.Pub Date: March 19, 2024
ISBN: 9780385550369
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.
Hunter’s debut novel tracks the experiences of her family members during the Holocaust.
Sol and Nechuma Kurc, wealthy, cultured Jews in Radom, Poland, are successful shop owners; they and their grown children live a comfortable lifestyle. But that lifestyle is no protection against the onslaught of the Holocaust, which eventually scatters the members of the Kurc family among several continents. Genek, the oldest son, is exiled with his wife to a Siberian gulag. Halina, youngest of all the children, works to protect her family alongside her resistance-fighter husband. Addy, middle child, a composer and engineer before the war breaks out, leaves Europe on one of the last passenger ships, ending up thousands of miles away. Then, too, there are Mila and Felicia, Jakob and Bella, each with their own share of struggles—pain endured, horrors witnessed. Hunter conducted extensive research after learning that her grandfather (Addy in the book) survived the Holocaust. The research shows: her novel is thorough and precise in its details. It’s less precise in its language, however, which frequently relies on cliché. “You’ll get only one shot at this,” Halina thinks, enacting a plan to save her husband. “Don’t botch it.” Later, Genek, confronting a routine bit of paperwork, must decide whether or not to hide his Jewishness. “That form is a deal breaker,” he tells himself. “It’s life and death.” And: “They are low, it seems, on good fortune. And something tells him they’ll need it.” Worse than these stale phrases, though, are the moments when Hunter’s writing is entirely inadequate for the subject matter at hand. Genek, describing the gulag, calls the nearest town “a total shitscape.” This is a low point for Hunter’s writing; elsewhere in the novel, it’s stronger. Still, the characters remain flat and unknowable, while the novel itself is predictable. At this point, more than half a century’s worth of fiction and film has been inspired by the Holocaust—a weighty and imposing tradition. Hunter, it seems, hasn’t been able to break free from her dependence on it.
Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-56308-9
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
BOOK TO SCREEN
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