Rigorous and accomplished, but it could use some of the warmth that pervades Cohen’s nonfiction.
A second outing by astute cultural critic Cohen (The Stuff of Dreams, 2001, etc.) discovers a lot of angst in Brooklyn.
From the bleachers of the Prospect School in Brooklyn, high-school junior Ann James kind of falls and kind of jumps, fracturing both heels in late December. Now she needs tutoring in her Brooklyn Heights home from Prospect math teacher Esker (she prefers to go by her last name), a withdrawn immigrant from upstate New York. Ann’s father, Wally, runs the trendy West Village restaurant Game, established with the inheritance of his gone-though-not-ex-wife Alice, who left three years earlier to become an indie movie star. Ann thinks Wally and Esker would be a good match, and one agreeable dinner suggests that that might be so, until Alice interrupts it. But this isn’t a story about romantic rivalry; the author is most interested in Esker’s wounds from a college love affair and a bleak childhood. True, Wally’s perhaps unduly agreeable personality and Ann’s adolescent confusions also get a fair amount of attention, paid in prose sometimes a little too exquisite, like the Christmas presents the James family exchanges: “ . . . very subtle and witty and charming presents, all boasting a certain kind of intimate and hard-won knowledge of one another, all a bit self-congratulatory in their celebration of life” (this is supposedly 16-year-old Ann’s insight). Ann rehearses a nouveau-beatnik dance with best friend Hannah and heartthrob Malcolm while Wally pursues Esker, who’s wrestling the ghost of the lover who left her to marry within his faith. Nothing much happens between the adults, but the school’s headmistress threatens Esker’s job anyway. The downbeat finale chimes with what we’ve seen throughout of Esker’s emotional scars, but it’s hard to feel more than detached empathy for someone so quick to cut herself off from human contact. Ann and Wally are left adrift in the middle of their stories.
Rigorous and accomplished, but it could use some of the warmth that pervades Cohen’s nonfiction.Pub Date: May 12, 2003
ISBN: 0-670-03167-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2003
Though extension is possible, make no mistake about it; this is a ward and not a microcosm.
This is a book which courts the dangers of two extremes.
It can be taken not seriously enough or, more likely, critical climate considered, too seriously. Kesey's first novel is narrated by a half-Indian schizophrenic who has withdrawn completely by feigning deaf-muteness. It is set in a mental ward ruled by Big Nurse—a monumental matriarch who keeps her men in line by some highly original disciplinary measures: Nursey doesn't spank, but oh that electric shock treatment! Into the ward swaggers McMurphy, a lusty gambling man with white whales on his shorts and the psychology of unmarried nurses down to a science. He leads the men on to a series of major victories, including the substitution of recent issues of Nugget and Playboy for some dated McCall's. The fatuity of hospital utilitarianism, that alcohol-swathed brand of idiocy responsible for the custom of waking patients from a deep sleep in order to administer barbiturates, is countered by McMurphy's simple, articulate, logic. This is a thoroughly enthralling, brilliantly tempered novel, peopled by at least two unforgettable characters. (Big Nurse is custom tailored for a busty Eileen Heckert.)
Though extension is possible, make no mistake about it; this is a ward and not a microcosm.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1962
ISBN: 0451163966
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1961
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
APPRECIATIONS
An extremely powerful story of a young Southern Negro, from his late high school days through three years of college to his life in Harlem.
His early training prepared him for a life of humility before white men, but through injustices- large and small, he came to realize that he was an "invisible man". People saw in him only a reflection of their preconceived ideas of what he was, denied his individuality, and ultimately did not see him at all. This theme, which has implications far beyond the obvious racial parallel, is skillfully handled. The incidents of the story are wholly absorbing. The boy's dismissal from college because of an innocent mistake, his shocked reaction to the anonymity of the North and to Harlem, his nightmare experiences on a one-day job in a paint factory and in the hospital, his lightning success as the Harlem leader of a communistic organization known as the Brotherhood, his involvement in black versus white and black versus black clashes and his disillusion and understanding of his invisibility- all climax naturally in scenes of violence and riot, followed by a retreat which is both literal and figurative. Parts of this experience may have been told before, but never with such freshness, intensity and power.
This is Ellison's first novel, but he has complete control of his story and his style. Watch it.
Pub Date: April 7, 1952
ISBN: 0679732764
Page Count: 616
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 22, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1952
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
APPRECIATIONS
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
