A passionate ode to dogs and their people, with little plot and lots of heart.
A short, sweet novel from Smith (Murder on the Trap, 2011, etc.) about the mysterious relationship between man and beast.
When Bill hears the cries of a wounded dog coming from a dark, swampy area of his rural property, he feels compelled to help. In doing so, he sets off a chain of mystical events in which the animals of the bog start behaving very oddly indeed. Oddest of all, Bill hears a wolf speak to him. Initially inclined to deny the experience, Bill is lured back to the bog by his longing to understand the true nature of dogs: is it possible they could speak with humans? Do they have souls? The rest of the book revolves around Bill’s attempts to answer these questions, with Christian themes shaping the narrative. Bill, who is particularly disturbed by the Bible’s apparent claim that dogs cannot go to heaven, struggles to reconcile Christian teachings with his belief that dogs are “a species that was personally selected by God to watch over us.” Bill’s musings are folksy and conversational, sprinkled with homespun wisdom: “Expectations are like the edge of a mountain we force ourselves to walk to…not knowing until we get there whether we’ll take that extra step or not.” Such asides and digressions drag the narrative down at times, taking readers out of the action at crucial moments. The plot itself is straightforward and never builds much tension; the story’s momentum is derived more from Bill’s internal spiritual journey than from his experiences out in the bog. That journey, though, is sincere and thoughtful. Bill’s love of dogs and other animals is affectingly immense; he even suggests an amendment to the Bible to provide for the afterlives of dogs. Animal lovers concerned with the same Christian dilemmas will be especially drawn to Bill’s story, but any reader may find bits of inspiration. “How,” Bill asks, “would your world…be affected if, upon waking tomorrow morning, there were no dogs in the world?” It’s a question that will speak to many, and Smith’s book is a worthwhile meditation on its answer.
A passionate ode to dogs and their people, with little plot and lots of heart.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2014
ISBN: 978-1502830326
Page Count: 158
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 23, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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