Essential for the development and reassessment of language-arts curricula in California schools.
A broad debut survey of a century’s worth of Golden State writing.
These short, manageable chapters examine specific eras or identities of California-centric fiction via well-selected quotations and brief discussions of various themes. From there, students can pursue original source material on their own. Significantly, Breiger, a longtime high school English teacher, addresses not just ethnic and gender diversity, but also class considerations and, to a lesser extent, sexuality. Of particular note are occasional moments when the author inserts personal asides into his analysis, as when he identifies with Charles Bukowski’s portrayal of postal workers based on his own experiences as an employee at the USPS main office in Oakland. Regarding Of Mice and Men, he writes: “Why do I honor John Steinbeck’s memory? Because I know he would have felt for my sister, understood her struggle with a seizure disorder, identified with her bravery and pain.” Similarly, Breiger isn’t afraid to share opinions that may be unpopular in certain circles—criticizing, for example, Huey Newton or defending Richard Rodriguez. This work nicely embodies the tension between recognizing literature’s so-called universal themes and erasing differences. Indeed, Breiger argues, disagreements between writers—even those often grouped together—should be welcomed: “The argument between Frank Chin and Maxine Hong Kingston does not need to have a winner or loser. Literature is not about winning or losing but about the attempt to find our individual truth that is, yet, about more than ourselves.” Some of the references (Phil Donahue, Peter Jennings, Maury Povich) may seem outdated for younger readers, though probably not for teachers of a certain age. Still, it’s easy to envision this handy reference as the first stop for students researching independent or group projects. Breiger’s humanist approach to literary criticism and appreciation supports the notion that literature must be accessible to all students as they engage with ideas that, with varying degrees of success, represent them and their communities.
Essential for the development and reassessment of language-arts curricula in California schools.Pub Date: April 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-9913652-0-3
Page Count: 196
Publisher: Valley Memories Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
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
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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