Exhausting and disappointing.
The formation and disintegration of a family, overshadowed by the rape of Alaska.
British novelist Hardy (Mister Candid, 2005, etc.) produces pages as if from some bottomless source. The back stories of her principal characters are copious, and whether writing of Minnesota hog farms, trawler fishing around the Aleutians or Irish subsistence crofters, she has anecdotes, local color and incident to spare. Two central figures emerge from this wealth of description: poor Irish beauty Maggie Regan and haunted American oil man Billy-Ray Rickman. Maggie escapes rural poverty in County Mayo to taste freedom briefly, working in London, before returning in shame. Billy-Ray survives a scarring childhood—the death of his two brothers in World War II destroys his parents—to become a successful geophysicist riding the wave of oil exploration. The point at which the paths of Maggie and Billy-Ray intersect is the book’s pivotal moment and the reason for its confusing back-and-forth timeline, spanning the 1950s to 2000. Intended as some kind of epic, and freighted with heavy moral themes about the despoliation of the wilderness and the expropriation of Native Indian lands, the story has the requisite breadth and intelligence but falls short when it comes to the actual plot. In essence it chronicles, lengthily and rather flatly, Billy-Ray’s fall from grace. He sacrifices youthful ideals—respect for the earth’s majesty, appreciation of its wild beauty—as well as his happy marriage to a British blue blood in exchange for blind service to the energy industry (he’s involved in the extraction of black gold from Alaska, whatever the environmental or ethical cost). He is last seen skulking in the background during George W. Bush’s election. For all its devotion to texture as well as weighty themes, the novel fails to ignite, offering absorption and a tragic mood but cool characters and ultimately, an oddly empty reading experience.
Exhausting and disappointing.Pub Date: April 15, 2006
ISBN: 0-7432-6849-0
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2006
Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.
Hunter’s debut novel tracks the experiences of her family members during the Holocaust.
Sol and Nechuma Kurc, wealthy, cultured Jews in Radom, Poland, are successful shop owners; they and their grown children live a comfortable lifestyle. But that lifestyle is no protection against the onslaught of the Holocaust, which eventually scatters the members of the Kurc family among several continents. Genek, the oldest son, is exiled with his wife to a Siberian gulag. Halina, youngest of all the children, works to protect her family alongside her resistance-fighter husband. Addy, middle child, a composer and engineer before the war breaks out, leaves Europe on one of the last passenger ships, ending up thousands of miles away. Then, too, there are Mila and Felicia, Jakob and Bella, each with their own share of struggles—pain endured, horrors witnessed. Hunter conducted extensive research after learning that her grandfather (Addy in the book) survived the Holocaust. The research shows: her novel is thorough and precise in its details. It’s less precise in its language, however, which frequently relies on cliché. “You’ll get only one shot at this,” Halina thinks, enacting a plan to save her husband. “Don’t botch it.” Later, Genek, confronting a routine bit of paperwork, must decide whether or not to hide his Jewishness. “That form is a deal breaker,” he tells himself. “It’s life and death.” And: “They are low, it seems, on good fortune. And something tells him they’ll need it.” Worse than these stale phrases, though, are the moments when Hunter’s writing is entirely inadequate for the subject matter at hand. Genek, describing the gulag, calls the nearest town “a total shitscape.” This is a low point for Hunter’s writing; elsewhere in the novel, it’s stronger. Still, the characters remain flat and unknowable, while the novel itself is predictable. At this point, more than half a century’s worth of fiction and film has been inspired by the Holocaust—a weighty and imposing tradition. Hunter, it seems, hasn’t been able to break free from her dependence on it.
Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-56308-9
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
BOOK TO SCREEN
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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