Historical fiction that focuses less on history and more on those who survive it.
One British navy family faces the horror of two wars, forcing father and son apart—and down similar paths.
Lt. Cmdr. Charles Courtland is a loyal member of the British Royal Navy, a renowned hero who was thought to be the only survivor of the HMS Valor during World War I’s Battle of Jutland. But this experience has taken a toll on his mind, leaving him unable to adapt to life ashore or even connect with his children Anna and Brent, with father and son growing especially cold toward each other. Despite this distance, Brent shares his father’s passion for the sea and joins the navy himself, eventually coming to command a submarine at the outbreak of World War II. His reputation as a bold leader brings him notoriety and Brent is soon called upon to undertake a secret mission, one which will expose him to the horrors that scarred his father. Cordaro’s debut is well-researched and highly readable, blending historical fiction with military drama while providing a detailed look into British naval service during the early-to-mid 20th century. The novel’s primary focus is Brent’s military career, and there is some repetition in the younger Courtland’s earlier trials, including his constant clashes with higher ranking officers. This could have been more compelling if Brent was occasionally wrong in his protests, but his “wise-beyond-his-years” foresight and sense of justice isn’t developed realistically through mistakes or experiences, making them feel innate instead of a product of his growth. This perfection is thankfully tapered by his pigheadedness when it comes to the elder Courtland, and the discord with his father is an ever-present thread that holds the story together so that even when the two are not interacting their relationship is always in the background. The appearance of Winston Churchill is one of the novel’s high points, and his portrayal is handled with an honor and humor befitting the man’s legend.
Historical fiction that focuses less on history and more on those who survive it.Pub Date: March 25, 2011
ISBN: 978-1456339951
Page Count: 321
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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