Genuinely compassionate and likely to resonate among families and young adults with loved ones in the service.
A fraternal bond is stressed beyond the breaking point in this heartfelt, if initially slow-moving, coming-home story.
High school senior Chase Peterson, whose first name may or may not refer to the title, is determined to join the Marines after graduating high school. Never mind the offer of a track scholarship from an Iowa university, or the parental pleas to accept it. And never mind the increasingly disturbing behavior of his brother, Danny, a Marine Corps corporal who returned from Afghanistan with mental wounds vastly worse than his physical wounds. Chase intends to enlist when he turns 18 regardless of anything his friends and family say. The reason for his determination, though plausible, is withheld until the end of the book, which raises the question of how plausible it is that Chase hasn’t been pressed to reveal the reason earlier in the story. Perhaps to address this arguably significant problem, Schulteis has Chase pointing out that he didn’t mention it earlier because “no one has ever asked me straight up.” The folks who haven’t bothered to ask, Chase adds, include his track coach, his mother and father, his girlfriends and his best friend. Beyond that, there’s no debate about his pending decision to enlist, not to mention a debate about the virtuousness of the Afghan war itself, which robs the first two-thirds of the story of significantly greater tension. Otherwise, much of the plot is devoted to increasing concerns about Danny’s anger and drinking, as well as the usual high school angst involving boredom and romantic longings. Olga Gutierrez, the girl who gradually becomes the focus of Chase’s longings, is particularly compelling, and the eventual explanation of her brother’s death in war-related circumstances provides a poignant revelation during the prolonged, powerful denouement.
Genuinely compassionate and likely to resonate among families and young adults with loved ones in the service.Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-1484046968
Page Count: 220
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2013
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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