A recent graduate ditches Buffalo, New York, for a monthslong stay in a Mexican college town in this novel.
William James dreads the thought of a workaday life as a teacher, so at age 23 he accepts an invitation from his friend Salvatore Juarez and heads down to Mexico. The plan is to party, fall in love, enjoy the warm weather, and escape Buffalo. But, as Will wryly notes, “No one truly leaves Buffalo.” In the tropical town of Lila, he moves into a scorpion-infested house and immerses himself in the local expatriate scene, which largely comprises students, volcanologists, and an inordinate number of Germans. His life becomes one of nightly parties, awful bars, sketchy street festivals, and massive amounts of alcohol. Will fights through the horrors of his Roman Catholic upbringing to overcome shame and self-doubt, helped by Luz Oscura, a head-turning college student who becomes his girlfriend. With funds running low, Will gets inconsistent work teaching English but still manages to travel, visiting quaint Guanajuato and pricey Puerto Vallarta. Luz, unfazed by his volatile lifestyle and moments of irrationality, plays just enough games to keep the boorish yet insecure Will hot on her trail. Will wants to see Mexico from the inside, and he largely succeeds in experiencing its wonders, though he remains hampered by significant gringo bashing. As he plots a final trip around the country with Luz, he feels his future is more up in the air than ever. LaPoma (Developing Minds, 2015, etc.) obviously knows Mexico well, framing the nation not by its problems but by the hearts of its people. Will is hardly perfect, but his job teaching English to children shows him at his best and most dedicated while also giving insights into the economic issues that plague the country. The numerous party scenes tend to bog down in detail, but the descriptions of Mexican locales are as vibrant, colorful, and illuminating as the novel’s unique characters (“There were great open fields of tall grass with fires burning in the distance, whose flames leapt off the world like brilliant localized solar flares”). The author can write about serious things with humor, and Will’s tale shows an understanding of Mexico that goes beyond the ordinary.
A bit off-kilter as a coming-of-age story, but it succeeds as an account of an American abroad trying to escape—and see beyond—the tourist traps.Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9988403-0-7
Page Count: 456
Publisher: Almendro Arts
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Categories: GENERAL FICTION
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The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
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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
Categories: GENERAL FICTION
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State.
Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle’s answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate’s buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, only to blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully’s latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she’s given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it’s too late?
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36408-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007
Categories: GENERAL FICTION | FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP
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