An unusual story about the way a single event can change the course of someone’s life.
Two lives are forever changed after a sexual assault during World War II in this debut novel inspired by real-life events.
It’s 1943, and all over England people are doing what they can to support the war effort. In rural Yorkshire, 20-year-old Mary Louise manages the canteen at the local base; her parents take in a boarder, Jock McGregor, a married engineer overseeing the base’s expansion. One evening, Jock rapes Mary Louise. Soon, she discovers she’s pregnant. Jock refuses support—“I don’t want your child spoiling my future successes,” he tells her. Over the ensuing decades, Mary Louise’s and Jock’s paths diverge. She marries a widowed farmer, has more children, and gradually builds a comfortable life for herself. Jock returns home to his wife and children, but alcoholism and mental illness destroy his hopes for happiness. These two people, connected only by their brief encounter, lead totally separate lives until an old acquaintance arrives and encourages Mary Louise to come to terms with her past. Husband’s first novel is based on his own family’s remarkable history: his mother was the victim of a wartime rape, and he was born as a result. The author draws readers back through history with his detailed accounts of life in midcentury England and America. The book is well-researched and peppered with facts that help give the events context. Occasionally, however, these details intrude on the narrative—asides about the American Indian Movement’s occupation of Alcatraz Island or the effects of immigration in England’s West Midlands distract from the story’s larger drama. At times, these historical details seem to be a substitute for emotional depth. Some of the fictionalized elements, like Jock’s acid-tripping escapades in 1960s San Francisco, don’t ring true; it’s hard to imagine the uptight Jock suddenly discovering his inner love child. But the novel works as a study in the way war can drastically change people’s lives, even for those who never see action. It’s also a penetrating look at how different people respond to crisis.
An unusual story about the way a single event can change the course of someone’s life.Pub Date: March 6, 2014
ISBN: 978-1483408095
Page Count: 258
Publisher: Lulu
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 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
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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