by M. N. J. Butler ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 24, 2018
A stunning work of historical conjecture.
Awards & Accolades
Our Verdict
GET IT
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
Share your opinion of this book
by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
Share your opinion of this book
by Graham Swift ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 5, 1996
Britisher Swift's sixth novel (Ever After, 1992 etc.) and fourth to appear here is a slow-to-start but then captivating tale of English working-class families in the four decades following WW II. When Jack Dodds dies suddenly of cancer after years of running a butcher shop in London, he leaves a strange request—namely, that his ashes be scattered off Margate pier into the sea. And who could better be suited to fulfill this wish than his three oldest drinking buddies—insurance man Ray, vegetable seller Lenny, and undertaker Vic, all of whom, like Jack himself, fought also as soldiers or sailors in the long-ago world war. Swift's narrative start, with its potential for the melodramatic, is developed instead with an economy, heart, and eye that release (through the characters' own voices, one after another) the story's humanity and depth instead of its schmaltz. The jokes may be weak and self- conscious when the three old friends meet at their local pub in the company of the urn holding Jack's ashes; but once the group gets on the road, in an expensive car driven by Jack's adoptive son, Vince, the story starts gradually to move forward, cohere, and deepen. The reader learns in time why it is that no wife comes along, why three marriages out of three broke apart, and why Vince always hated his stepfather Jack and still does—or so he thinks. There will be stories of innocent youth, suffering wives, early loves, lost daughters, secret affairs, and old antagonisms—including a fistfight over the dead on an English hilltop, and a strewing of Jack's ashes into roiling seawaves that will draw up feelings perhaps unexpectedly strong. Without affectation, Swift listens closely to the lives that are his subject and creates a songbook of voices part lyric, part epic, part working-class social realism—with, in all, the ring to it of the honest, human, and true.
Pub Date: April 5, 1996
ISBN: 0-679-41224-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1996
Share your opinion of this book
More by Graham Swift
BOOK REVIEW
by Graham Swift
BOOK REVIEW
by Graham Swift
BOOK REVIEW
by Graham Swift
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.