Of special interest to native Chicagoans, but will appeal to those who don’t mind keeping a scorecard of the many players.
Along its meandering way, this narrative details the inner workings of a longtime political machine.
Set in a fictionalized city strongly resembling Chicago, this action-packed novel reveals–and almost exults in–the municipality’s political corruption by tracing the reluctant rise of city Alderman Eamon DeValera Collins, more generally known as “the Chairman.” The novel chugs through the late 20th century, fueled by personal loyalty, behind-the-scenes reciprocity and just a little old-fashioned strong-arming. The Chairman is a career pol in the eighth ward whose sobriquet derives from his powerful and lucrative position as head of the city council’s zoning committee. An old-school backroom dealmaker in a city still ruled by monolithic machine politics, he’s set for life. But when the mayor is assassinated (apparently by organized crime, though no one seems eager to investigate too closely), a young reformer unexpectedly manages to get elected as his successor. The ensuing consequences–for the chairman and the city–take more than a decade to unfold, and the novel takes frequent detours to explore the nefarious infighting, nepotism and graft that motor the machine. But without being an apologia, the book also provides ample evidence of the machine’s efficiency, resilience and service to the public. Quinn, a journalist, provides a wealth of damning detail–both of the politicians’ shenanigans and the voters’ indifference, as long as their streets are safe and the city runs smoothly. What’s most interesting and original, though, is not the down-and-dirty politicking, but the discussion of how the machine adapts to changing times. These cagey bosses modernize their methods by courting the new populations taking over their old ethnic wards–here, African-Americans, Mexicans and gentrifiers replacing the Irish and Italians, among others–and encouraging their sons and daughters to earn fancy academic credentials. However, the book’s wealth of detail and concern for verisimilitude can sometimes bog down the action as the author retraces history to introduce a new character or digresses into anecdotes which may illustrate the city’s corruption, but don’t always further the plot.
Of special interest to native Chicagoans, but will appeal to those who don’t mind keeping a scorecard of the many players.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4392-5559-9
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2010
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
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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