Strongest when Johnny is among his taunting brothers and concerned parents back in suburban Maryland, far from the parochial...
Fans of critic Wolcott, who’s written some of the funniest, most penetrating cultural reviews of the last 25 years, will be surprised by this, his first book, a novel that’s so milquetoast you have to wonder if it’s really by the same James Wolcott, scourge of shabby prose and shoddy thinking.
A weak sally in the war between the sexes, Wolcott’s breezy guide to modern romance in New York City has all the soul of a second-rate sitcom. Johnny Downs, a thirtysomething “actor slash bartender,” has just been dumped again, this time by his go-getting girlfriend Nicole, who commits the sin of sins: forgetting to feed Johnny’s cherished cat, Slinky, while Johnny was visiting family down in Maryland. The 17-year-old furball is about the only faithful companion in Johnny’s world, except for his long-distance confidante Darlene Ryder, a smart-talking southerner who’s determined to transform Johnny into husband material. Finding Johnny “malleable,” and “oblivious” (like most men), Darlene dictates her advice over the telephone, countering the caveman attitude of Johnny’s best friend, Tom Gleason, a fellow actor constantly on the prowl. Johnny goes through a quick list of potential mates: Claudia, bitch goddess actress, who doesn’t even make it through one date; Amanda, her wealthy friend, who benefits from Darlene’s counterintuitive guidebook; and Kris, a sexy young thing Darlene sends north, partly to spoil Johnny’s success with Amanda. When Johnny discovers Darlene’s duplicity, and her considerable secrets are revealed, he breaks from his cracked Svengali and courts a gamine photographer, Annette, nevertheless benefiting from Darlene’s sensitivity training. Meanwhile, Johnny’s career takes a turn for the better: he channels all his male angst and anger into a performance piece that catches the eye of the theater crowd and TV producers.
Strongest when Johnny is among his taunting brothers and concerned parents back in suburban Maryland, far from the parochial Manhattanites. And Wolcott is incapable of writing inept prose. But all the defining features of his best book, film, and television reviews are absent here: wit, skepticism, insight. Those who’ve suffered his scorn will be loaded for kill.Pub Date: July 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-06-019414-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.
Atwood goes back to Gilead.
The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), consistently regarded as a masterpiece of 20th-century literature, has gained new attention in recent years with the success of the Hulu series as well as fresh appreciation from readers who feel like this story has new relevance in America’s current political climate. Atwood herself has spoken about how news headlines have made her dystopian fiction seem eerily plausible, and it’s not difficult to imagine her wanting to revisit Gilead as the TV show has sped past where her narrative ended. Like the novel that preceded it, this sequel is presented as found documents—first-person accounts of life inside a misogynistic theocracy from three informants. There is Agnes Jemima, a girl who rejects the marriage her family arranges for her but still has faith in God and Gilead. There’s Daisy, who learns on her 16th birthday that her whole life has been a lie. And there's Aunt Lydia, the woman responsible for turning women into Handmaids. This approach gives readers insight into different aspects of life inside and outside Gilead, but it also leads to a book that sometimes feels overstuffed. The Handmaid’s Tale combined exquisite lyricism with a powerful sense of urgency, as if a thoughtful, perceptive woman was racing against time to give witness to her experience. That narrator hinted at more than she said; Atwood seemed to trust readers to fill in the gaps. This dynamic created an atmosphere of intimacy. However curious we might be about Gilead and the resistance operating outside that country, what we learn here is that what Atwood left unsaid in the first novel generated more horror and outrage than explicit detail can. And the more we get to know Agnes, Daisy, and Aunt Lydia, the less convincing they become. It’s hard, of course, to compete with a beloved classic, so maybe the best way to read this new book is to forget about The Handmaid’s Tale and enjoy it as an artful feminist thriller.
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-385-54378-1
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
This book sings with the terrible silence of dead civilizations in which once there was valor.
Written with quiet dignity that builds to a climax of tragic force, this book about the dissolution of an African tribe, its traditions, and values, represents a welcome departure from the familiar "Me, white brother" genre.
Written by a Nigerian African trained in missionary schools, this novel tells quietly the story of a brave man, Okonkwo, whose life has absolute validity in terms of his culture, and who exercises his prerogative as a warrior, father, and husband with unflinching single mindedness. But into the complex Nigerian village filters the teachings of strangers, teachings so alien to the tribe, that resistance is impossible. One must distinguish a force to be able to oppose it, and to most, the talk of Christian salvation is no more than the babbling of incoherent children. Still, with his guns and persistence, the white man, amoeba-like, gradually absorbs the native culture and in despair, Okonkwo, unable to withstand the corrosion of what he, alone, understands to be the life force of his people, hangs himself. In the formlessness of the dying culture, it is the missionary who takes note of the event, reminding himself to give Okonkwo's gesture a line or two in his work, The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.
This book sings with the terrible silence of dead civilizations in which once there was valor.Pub Date: Jan. 23, 1958
ISBN: 0385474547
Page Count: 207
Publisher: McDowell, Obolensky
Review Posted Online: April 23, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1958
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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