A slow, but ultimately rewarding tale of a lonely psychologist and her poetic client.
A novel examines a clinical psychologist, the healing power of verse, and a journey to self-discovery.
Life for Vera Lewis is unsatisfying. A typical evening begins with too many glasses of Chablis and ends with “clearing up dishes and misunderstandings with Raymond,” her egocentric Washington lobbyist spouse. After one client commits suicide and another is convicted of violent crimes, she questions her merit as a psychologist. She’s unable to connect with those around her, and conversations with friends and co-workers are brimming with thoughts unsaid. In short, Vera longs for more: “I would like to be filled with passion, for my work, my husband, to feel a constant tingle in my hands as though I were touching skin.” The only person who can break through the monotony is Marcel Malone, a painfully shy client who expresses himself through sonnets, haiku, and carefully metered speech. In an effort to better understand him, Vera, too, immerses herself in the world of poetry. Watts (Lessons for Tangueros, 2011) is a Ph.D., and this is where his background in academia bleeds through. Disappointed at the selections in a certain anthology or a dull chapter that she had to skim through, Vera embarks on one-sided arguments with scholars that read like a review of literature. In the midst of her adventures in verse, Vera is increasingly haunted by her past and disenchanted with her marriage, becoming dependent on sessions with Marcel. Jealous of his gradual recovery, she spirals into near-alcoholism, solitude, and self-doubt. At times, it can be hard to empathize with Vera. She is reserved, formal, and relentlessly analytical. Her world is one of white affluence—lunches at exclusive restaurants, bottles of expensive wine, showy dinner parties, and friends who are World Bank executives. But she is vindicated in the book’s final chapters, which offer a glimpse into life’s beauty and the opportunities for redemption. A dense and loaded work of fiction, this cerebral novel should certainly appeal to intellectuals and fans of feminist literature.
A slow, but ultimately rewarding tale of a lonely psychologist and her poetic client.Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9973102-2-1
Page Count: 282
Publisher: Red Mountain Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 29, 2016
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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