A vivid historical homage to dauntless adventurism.
A collection of colorful tales about the Alaskan gold rush at the end of the 19th century.
A Russian adventurer first discovered gold in the Alaskan territory in 1849, but a deluge of hopeful “Argonauts,” as they were called, came flooding into the territory nearly half a century later. The country was still reeling from the economic depression of 1893, and the promise of quick riches ignited the newcomers’ enthusiasm. As many as 100,000 people made the arduous journey via various routes to search a swath of land that stretched over 2,000 miles. Eventually, a railroad was built to replace the Chilkoot and White Pass trails, and its construction was a perilous task, as well. Author and journalist Jordan (Reflections of a Reluctant Alaskan, 2011, etc.) offers a kaleidoscopic mélange of different perspectives in his memorable biographical vignettes of those who sought fortune. Most of them had no previous mining experience, but a few were very lucky. One, Belinda Mulrooney, came to the United States in 1872 from Ireland as a child and, after finding gold, ended up as a successful hotelier. Others, like Austrian Antone Standers, made a fortune but still died penniless; he was bled dry by a money-hungry paramour. Although Jordan effectively makes the pursuit of wealth the backbone of the narrative, he also reveals that some people had other motivations; the Rev. Samuel Hall established a Presbyterian church, for example, and Sheldon Jackson started a series of religious schools. As a newspaperman, the author seems particularly interested in how the gold rush was covered by reporters, so he discusses a bevy of writers and journalists, such as Eugene Allen, the founder of the Klondike Nugget, and novelist Jack London. Overall, this is a delightfully eclectic and nonlinear chronicle written in a clear, anecdotal style that belies its journalistic rigor. Even though the mad stampede to affluence lasted less than a decade, the author ably limns its rich legacy and its spirit of American boldness.
A vivid historical homage to dauntless adventurism.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-9721166-5-7
Page Count: 380
Publisher: Samson Press
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
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
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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