Sensual, spiritually intuitive writing.
A free-spirited middle-aged woman leaves her husband and family to pursue her dreams in this second novel by Furst.
Furst’s 2016 debut novel, Everyday Truth of a Rainbow Woman, recounts the story of Grace Heronheart, a school psychologist from rural West Virginia who quits her job to become a writer. This follow-up rejoins Grace on her journey. The aspiring writer has formed a strong bond with an enigmatic “cabin-dweller” named Shaun, who lives alone by a river. Grace makes day trips to the river and talks with Shaun about “books, reading, writing, or his life in the cabin” while her son, Justin, swims in the river. It’s not long before passions flare between Grace and Shaun, and they become locked in a deeply sensual relationship. Grace leaves her unhappy marriage to live in the cabin, much to the chagrin of her son, who refuses contact with her. So continues Grace’s spiritual and literary adventure as she plunges deeper into a bohemian lifestyle, living simply and spending nights by the campfire listening to music, wrapped in Shaun’s arms or embarking on road trips. As with the first book, the voice used here is first-person singular, and Furst has the uncanny knack of fooling readers into thinking that this is a memoir. Her writing has a natural confessional style that seems to speak directly from the heart: “The little voice inside me that had drawn me to him was not one of logic. I had given up on the world of logic several years earlier. I listened to the voice without knowing, without attachment.” Readers skeptical of New-Age spirituality may balk at some of the language: “Oya is the goddess of change and wind and weather. We spun in circles nine times and asked for gentle changes in our lives.” Yet those who enjoyed being introduced to Grace and learning about her past lives in this book’s prequel will delight in reuniting with her as she embarks on a new and exciting journey.
Sensual, spiritually intuitive writing.Pub Date: Dec. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5043-7336-4
Page Count: 172
Publisher: BalboaPress
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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