While undeniably formulaic, Genova’s latest is one of her strongest—more internalized, sometimes slow, but an eloquent and...
“Demoralized, pathetic, emasculated, dying”—such is the state of a classical pianist afflicted by a fast-moving, incurable disease. But it’s not the end of the story, rather the beginning of a parallel journey, in neuroscientist Genova’s (Inside the O’Briens, 2015, etc.) fifth work of fiction.
Having made her reputation with novels about Huntington’s disease, autism, and, most famously, Alzheimer’s—Still Alice (2009), which was turned into a movie with Julianne Moore—Genova now turns to the merciless degenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The unsuspecting sufferer is Richard Evans, a renowned musician for whom the irretrievable loss of muscle control begins with paralysis in his arms, denying him both the joy and life’s purpose of playing music. But as important as Richard’s career is, it’s his emotional life to which the larger part of the book is devoted, specifically his failed marriage to Polish immigrant (and equally talented pianist) Karina, his distant relationship with his daughter, Grace, and his unresolved feelings toward his father, who never valued Richard’s gift. While charting Richard’s physical decline with her customary and precise mustering of medical symptoms, facts, treatments, and equipment, Genova appears equally interested in exploring the psychological ramifications of Richard’s prognosis. In the limited time remaining to him, Richard and Karina need to find a way to apologize and forgive each other for their individual failings in the marriage; Grace needs to understand her father’s regrets about his inadequate parenting; and Richard must come to terms with the damage his own father inflicted. Thus the novel has contrapuntal themes—the body’s decline matched with a different struggle, toward psychic reconciliation for Richard, and Karina too.
While undeniably formulaic, Genova’s latest is one of her strongest—more internalized, sometimes slow, but an eloquent and touching imagining of how a peaceful terminal place might be reached.Pub Date: April 3, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4767-1780-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Scout Press/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
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
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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