A step up for Amiel (Star Time, 1991, etc.) as he plots a strong courtroom meller that hooks you fast—and pulls you straight through to a knotty, post-courtroom surprise ending. Amiel also goes for deeper thoughts than usual, with burned- out hero, criminal defender Dan Lazar, sunk in spiritual disbelief. The main story details the high-gloss lives of old money in Philadelphia, but it's anchored in the gutter tricks of Lazar as he gets a rapist-murderer off the hook, as well as a boorish Mafia chieftain. Lazar's reputation is so shady, in fact, that even though he's innocent of wrongdoing his license gets lifted for six months, a bad blot on his honor. Meanwhile, he falls for Susan Boelter, wife-then-widow of wealthy publisher Peter Boelter—head of the prestigious Philadelphia Herald, whose city desk, pressroom, union problems, and plant layout get plenty of play. Peter wants to sell the family paper to the owner of the ailing local tabloid, the Mirror, the Herald's only rival. The Herald will then fade into the Mirror. Susan, however, has inherited controlling stock because Peter's father didn't trust his wild son, and she's against the sale (which would bring Peter personally $60 million). So Peter sues for divorce, cuts Susan off from all income, and—trying to sway her vote—behaves like a monster, especially in seducing the affections of their daughter Karen. When Peter is found dead at the bottom of the cellar stairs, the medical examiner declares the death a homicide by a blunt instrument. Susan calls in Dan Lazar to defend her, who pleads to have his license returned for the case. Subplots about the rapist gone rampant and other dirty deeds multiply until the day in court arrives.... Reader sympathies are dizzied by the resolution's who-did- what-to-whom tennis match, but you're likely to go through with it. Neat storytelling with the usual suspects—though you'll never guess who did it.
Pub Date: June 2, 1993
ISBN: 0-517-57520-5
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1993
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. 22, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
Categories: GENERAL FICTION
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Female rivalry is again the main preoccupation of Hannah’s latest Pacific Northwest sob saga (Firefly Lane, 2008, etc.).
At Water’s Edge, the family seat overlooking Hood Canal, Vivi Ann, youngest and prettiest of the Grey sisters and a champion horsewoman, has persuaded embittered patriarch Henry to turn the tumbledown ranch into a Western-style equestrian arena. Eldest sister Winona, a respected lawyer in the nearby village of Oyster Shores, hires taciturn ranch hand Dallas Raintree, a half-Native American. Middle sister Aurora, stay-at-home mother of twins, languishes in a dull marriage. Winona, overweight since adolescence, envies Vivi, whose looks get her everything she wants, especially men. Indeed, Winona’s childhood crush Luke recently proposed to Vivi. Despite Aurora’s urging (her principal role is as sisterly referee), Winona won’t tell Vivi she loves Luke. Yearning for Dallas, Vivi stands up Luke to fall into bed with the enigmatic, tattooed cowboy. Winona snitches to Luke: engagement off. Vivi marries Dallas over Henry’s objections. The love-match triumphs, and Dallas, though scarred by child abuse, is an exemplary father to son Noah. One Christmas Eve, the town floozy is raped and murdered. An eyewitness and forensic evidence incriminate Dallas. Winona refuses to represent him, consigning him to the inept services of a public defender. After a guilty verdict, he’s sentenced to life without parole. A decade later, Winona has reached an uneasy truce with Vivi, who’s still pining for Dallas. Noah is a sullen teen, Aurora a brittle but resigned divorcée. Noah learns about the Seattle Innocence Project. Could modern DNA testing methods exonerate Dallas? Will Aunt Winona redeem herself by reopening the case? The outcome, while predictable, is achieved with more suspense and less sentimental histrionics than usual for Hannah.
Above-average formula fiction, making full display of the author’s strong suits: sense of place, compassion for characters and understanding of family dynamics.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-312-36410-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2008
Categories: GENERAL FICTION | FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP
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