An engaging opus, packed with action and conspirators, that gains punch and steam after a sluggish start.
An array of players instigates a three-pronged terrorist attack in Puerto Rico in this debut thriller.
A mysterious man named San Miguel meets with accomplices regarding their plan to wreak havoc in Puerto Rico’s Old San Juan area by blowing up bridges and capturing hostages at a hotel, cruise ship, and the governor’s residence. The terrorists’ stated aim is independence for Puerto Rico, with a student group, Socialist militants, and consulting Venezuelan army specialists all part of the coalition. Yet San Miguel, whose nationality is unclear, also has a henchman wheel a “device” to a secret location within the city. The terrorist plot is executed successfully, forcing officials and everyday people to react. A key responder turns out to be Lucas Alfaro, who runs a jewelry shop in Old San Juan yet also has Army Ranger training. Rushing to the governor’s residence to rescue his godson, who’s visiting the leader’s young son, Lucas manages to disrupt the terrorists’ operations. His TV reporter sister Michelle plays a part as well, as does a professional male escort aboard the cruise ship. Working with these citizen helpers and trying to meet the terrorists’ demands for cash and the release of an imprisoned militant leader is a weary police superintendent, who’s also tracking a mole within his department. Before the novel’s end, there’s renewed patriotism and harmony in Puerto Rico, but then Lucas discovers, and must foil, San Miguel’s plans for that device. In this novel, Pabon creates a fun, San Juan–set pastiche of cinematic blockbusters such as Independence Day, Die Hard, Poseidon Adventure, Rambo, and, especially, given the story’s tense showdown, Speed. The narrative gets off to a slow start, burdened by having to introduce its overly extensive cross-section of characters and provide the flavor of its political backdrop. Somewhat fuzzy, especially to a non-native, is whether some political/historical elements are fictional or not. Still, once the plot gets rolling, the author effectively cross-cuts between his three theaters of war, providing a page-turning brew of humor, pathos, and suspense.
An engaging opus, packed with action and conspirators, that gains punch and steam after a sluggish start.Pub Date: April 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9965481-5-1
Page Count: 1190
Publisher: IPBooks
Review Posted Online: May 12, 2016
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
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
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
