An autumnal novel that combines the poignancy of Persuasion with the sentimentality of Love Story.
A disenchanted—and recently unemployed—banker goes to Ireland to trace his ancestral roots and finds life and love in the form of Addie, his second cousin.
It’s October 2008, and Bruno Boylan has had it. He’s just lost his buttoned-down life at Lehman Brothers, and the presidential election, only three weeks away, looms large in his consciousness. He impulsively gets a round-trip ticket to Ireland, with a return on Wednesday, November 5th, but vows that if Obama loses he’ll stay on the Ould Sod. Although Bruno has gotten some sketchy information about family ties from his aunts, once he arrives in Dublin, he realizes how little he actually knows about the family. Still, he makes an effort, arranging a “chance” meeting with Addie on the beach while she walks her dog. Addie is far from impressed by the 50-year-old, for she’s seen the type before—Americans who romanticize their Celtic roots and seek connections to an imagined past they’ve never had. Despite her reservations and her initial coldness, Addie quickly finds herself taken by Bruno, for his vulnerability and “lostness” appeal to her. In her late-30s, Addie has recently lost a child, and she finds Bruno genuinely interested in her life experience, the first man who has shown her both empathy and respect. Addie also has to deal with her abrasive father, Hugh, a physician who’s temporarily laid up, and like many physicians, he’s a demanding patient. He also faces an inquiry into medical negligence that’s preoccupying for the two of them. What starts as a passionate love affair for Bruno and Addie eventually leads to a marriage cut short by tragedy.
An autumnal novel that combines the poignancy of Persuasion with the sentimentality of Love Story.Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4555-1131-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
A tour de force.
In 1974, a troubled Vietnam vet inherits a house from a fallen comrade and moves his family to Alaska.
After years as a prisoner of war, Ernt Allbright returned home to his wife, Cora, and daughter, Leni, a violent, difficult, restless man. The family moved so frequently that 13-year-old Leni went to five schools in four years. But when they move to Alaska, still very wild and sparsely populated, Ernt finds a landscape as raw as he is. As Leni soon realizes, “Everyone up here had two stories: the life before and the life now. If you wanted to pray to a weirdo god or live in a school bus or marry a goose, no one in Alaska was going to say crap to you.” There are many great things about this book—one of them is its constant stream of memorably formulated insights about Alaska. Another key example is delivered by Large Marge, a former prosecutor in Washington, D.C., who now runs the general store for the community of around 30 brave souls who live in Kaneq year-round. As she cautions the Allbrights, “Alaska herself can be Sleeping Beauty one minute and a bitch with a sawed-off shotgun the next. There’s a saying: Up here you can make one mistake. The second one will kill you.” Hannah’s (The Nightingale, 2015, etc.) follow-up to her series of blockbuster bestsellers will thrill her fans with its combination of Greek tragedy, Romeo and Juliet–like coming-of-age story, and domestic potboiler. She re-creates in magical detail the lives of Alaska's homesteaders in both of the state's seasons (they really only have two) and is just as specific and authentic in her depiction of the spiritual wounds of post-Vietnam America.
A tour de force.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-312-57723-0
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Oct. 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2017
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.
Ten years after her teenage daughter went missing, a mother begins a new relationship only to discover she can't truly move on until she answers lingering questions about the past.
Laurel Mack’s life stopped in many ways the day her 15-year-old daughter, Ellie, left the house to study at the library and never returned. She drifted away from her other two children, Hanna and Jake, and eventually she and her husband, Paul, divorced. Ten years later, Ellie’s remains and her backpack are found, though the police are unable to determine the reasons for her disappearance and death. After Ellie’s funeral, Laurel begins a relationship with Floyd, a man she meets in a cafe. She's disarmed by Floyd’s charm, but when she meets his young daughter, Poppy, Laurel is startled by her resemblance to Ellie. As the novel progresses, Laurel becomes increasingly determined to learn what happened to Ellie, especially after discovering an odd connection between Poppy’s mother and her daughter even as her relationship with Floyd is becoming more serious. Jewell’s (I Found You, 2017, etc.) latest thriller moves at a brisk pace even as she plays with narrative structure: The book is split into three sections, including a first one which alternates chapters between the time of Ellie’s disappearance and the present and a second section that begins as Laurel and Floyd meet. Both of these sections primarily focus on Laurel. In the third section, Jewell alternates narrators and moments in time: The narrator switches to alternating first-person points of view (told by Poppy’s mother and Floyd) interspersed with third-person narration of Ellie’s experiences and Laurel’s discoveries in the present. All of these devices serve to build palpable tension, but the structure also contributes to how deeply disturbing the story becomes. At times, the characters and the emotional core of the events are almost obscured by such quick maneuvering through the weighty plot.
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-5464-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
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