A stunning work of historical conjecture.
A debut historical novel reconstructs the life of Leotychides, the controversial heir to the Spartan throne in the fifth century B.C.E.
Leotychides first became aware that his father, Agis, was one of the two kings of Sparta when he was 3 years old. He was born into crisis—the protracted war between Sparta and Athens was in its 19th year. But there was significant division within Sparta despite its reputation for solidarity, a disunity brewing over the official policy regarding Athens. As a result of the disharmony, Pausanios, the other king, is charged with treason, and Agis votes in favor of his guilt, a verdict that would’ve resulted in his execution had he not been acquitted. Meanwhile, Leotychides hears rumors that Agis isn’t his real father, whispered gossip that is finally confirmed. Agis makes an official declaration of recognition of Leotychides on his death bed, a move necessary to ensure his succession to the throne. But Agis’ brother, Agisilaos, publicly raises suspicions about Leotychides’ legitimacy and makes his own bid for royal power. Leotychides, for so long at loggerheads with his father, comes to be tormented by the anguish his birth must have caused him, a complex internal conflict described with great sensitivity by Butler: “I, the fruit of a liaison that had caused the husband so much pain, the King such shame.” Leotychides’ deepest desire is to fulfill his father’s wish that he restore unity to Sparta. He also pines to avenge Agis’ mortification at the hands of Alkibiades, an infamous traitor and Leotychides’ biological father, the man who “had cast his shadow across my life.” Little is known about Leotychides beyond the succession dispute, and the author’s novelistic hypothesis is as imaginative as it is historically plausible. His command of the material is magisterial—this is a work of impressive erudition. The volume, however, presumes knowledge of the period—it will be a daunting read for audiences entirely unfamiliar with the era. Still, this is a rare book—literarily inventive, dramatically gripping, and historically astute.
A stunning work of historical conjecture.Pub Date: July 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-71811-560-6
Page Count: 570
Publisher: CNPOSNER BOOKS
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
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