Fast and upbeat, but not much substance or mystery.
Bridget Montrose fears that her successful first novel was such a fluke that she’ll never write a second. With four small children to raise, the Palo Alto housewife can’t steal any time to work. So her acceptance at the prestigious Ars Ranch, a secluded writers’ retreat near Santa Cruz, seems like a godsend. Her raucous pals Liz and Claudia offer to look after her kids and her helpless husband Emery. Envisioning a pastoral paradise and toney discussions of literature, Bridget finds instead a gossipy snake pit obsessed not with who’s writing what but who’s doing whom. The guests includes a few obviously inspired by real-life writers (like incisive V.J. Sunjupany), and many more generic types like glamorous thriller-spinner Madeline Bates, condescending biographer Ed Weis, and lesbian feminist author Sandra Chastain, attending with Elaine, the girlfriend she can’t keep her hands off. But the strongest impression is made by bestselling novelist Johanna Ashbrook, who bursts drunkenly into Bridget’s room on a desperate search for alcohol just a few minutes after crisp Ars Foundation administrator Sharon Buskins instructs Bridget that “the only rule is no disturbing the other writers in their rooms.” After announcing that her new secret ghostwriter is among the guests, Johanna’s found floating in the ocean, and guest writers set themselves the parlor game of solving her murder. Because of Bridget’s involvement in a prior murder investigation (Revolting Development, 1993), Liz and Claudia crash the ranch to lend moral support—to the chagrin of investigating detective Gonzales.
Fast and upbeat, but not much substance or mystery.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2002
ISBN: 1-880284-54-5
Page Count: 216
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
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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