This tale should prove entertaining for readers who enjoy amusing characters and a less pulpy style of intrigue.
A novel details the gossip and rumors surrounding a renowned theater family, as its would-be biographer searches for the truth.
The story is set in 1965 and most of it takes place in the quiet fictional town of Oldfield, Connecticut, not far from New York City. Jasper de Vole, columnist for the Scrutator, travels to Oldfield to conduct research for a biography on the Harts, a famous acting family that resided in the town. Rex and Dora Hart have died, and locals haven’t seen their daughter, Margot, for many years. But socialite Winifred “Freddie” Hart (who is not an actress) is agreeable and shows Jasper many artifacts in the family’s home of Coverdale, with the help of curmudgeonly housekeeper Mrs. Plunkett. Freddie even invites Jasper to take up residence at Coverdale, which he does. At first Jasper is taken in by the treasure trove of objects he is shown and the hospitality of Freddie, but he can’t shake the feeling that there is a bigger story to uncover and that the family is hiding something. He wonders about the disappearance of Margot, whom Freddie doesn’t mention. Living at Coverdale allows him to snoop around the house whenever he’s able to avoid Mrs. Plunkett. Meanwhile, Freddie’s property, Wilderhall, sits in disrepair, as she hasn’t used or maintained it for many years. And elsewhere in town, Margot’s old friend Whitty Daniels meets Mr. Moravec, a handsome Shakespeare scholar, who says he’s interested in purchasing Wilderhall. The story’s characters are likable and appealing, particularly Whitty, who loves the dilapidated Wilderhall (“There is a beauty in crumbling ruins, don’t you think? They engage the imagination: you have to complete them in your mind”). And Farewell’s (House Party, 2017, etc.) prose is bright and evocative. But it’s difficult to categorize this book—it lacks the fast pace and urgency of a thriller. It doesn’t always feel like a mystery either, because the knowledge that a character is missing is often imparted to readers first, and the players don’t have to expend death-defying efforts to learn crucial information. It’s a bit gentler than those genres while still remaining engaging for audiences that aren’t looking for heart-stopping suspense.
This tale should prove entertaining for readers who enjoy amusing characters and a less pulpy style of intrigue.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9778509-7-6
Page Count: 238
Publisher: Puddingdale Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 13, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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