A beguiling low-key story, from first-time British novelist Barrett, about unconventional parenting so rich in affection that it defies all conventional wisdom. When young American Alex is orphaned at age nine, the elegant brother of her late English father arrives to take charge. Uncle Evelyn, a bachelor and wealthy businessman, is reticent to the point of secrecy about his personal life. This encourages Alex— who, as her uncle complains, ``has no limits to the luridness of her imagination''—to suspect he might indeed be either her own father, a spy, or a previously married man. Evelyn takes Alex back to London—and though everyone, including his own family, thinks he's most ``unsuitable,'' he's determined to raise the child. Meanwhile, homesick and troubled by nightmares, the young Alex has difficulty adjusting, but Evelyn does his best to comfort her. He takes her traveling, introduces her to his friends, and treats her more like a congenial spirit than a child, which is just fine with Alex, who's not the conventional sort herself. But as she grows older, her curiosity about Evelyn's well-hidden personal life intensifies—especially as friends and relatives express their continuing surprise that someone as unsuitable as Evelyn has taken such good care of her. Evelyn drinks too much when depressed; has an eclectic assortment of male friends, young and old; and has his current mistress move in, but all that matters to Alex is that Evelyn really cares for her—something she's not sure of until she's 16 and realizes that Evelyn is probably bisexual and will always be mysterious. But it doesn't matter—the arrangements he had made for Alex could not have been more suitable. A refreshingly unmawkish tale of a decidedly different but no less loving family, and the promising debut of an accomplished storyteller.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1993
ISBN: 1-85242-248-3
Page Count: 339
Publisher: Serpent’s Tail
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1992
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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