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JD

Name: JD
Author: Mark Merlis
ISBN: 978-0-299-30350-1

by Mark Merlis ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 24, 2015

While the novel should be applauded for its ambitious goals, it falls short of actually achieving most of them.

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Merlis’ new novel deals with the tenacity of the past and one woman’s struggle to reconcile her dead husband’s account of their life, their marriage and the death of their son with her own memories.

Living alone in New York in 2003, Martha Ascher is the last of her family. Her husband, renowned author Jonathan Ascher, has been dead for 30 years, and their son, Mickey, died overseas during the Vietnam War. When a hopeful intellectual asks for access to Jonathan’s writings for a biography, Martha finally reads the journals her husband left behind. Much of the novel is taken up by Jonathan’s chronicle of his life from 1964 to ’73, centering on his struggle with his sexuality and encounters with men, as well as an increasingly complicated relationship with Mickey. Through Jonathan, the novel also examines—with varying degrees of success—what it was to be gay during a time of social upheaval. This examination, however, falls into a tedium that extends throughout Jonathan’s journal entries. He's not especially likable, and his shortcomings and personality flaws tend to repel the reader in all-too-familiar ways. Often, the characters are too forthcoming with one another and seem remarkably articulate when it comes to expressing complicated emotions. Even Martha’s narration tends to state emotional facts so bluntly that it eliminates room for complexity. One aspect of the novel that overcomes any shortcomings, however, is its depiction of Mickey. Jonathan and Martha don't know quite how to treat their son—they describe him as “blank” and “inscrutable”—and their fumbling attempts to connect with him are heartbreakingly genuine.

While the novel should be applauded for its ambitious goals, it falls short of actually achieving most of them.

Pub Date: March 24, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-299-30350-1

Page Count: 312

Publisher: Univ. of Wisconsin

Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2015

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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MAN ABOUT TOWN
by Mark Merlis

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AN ARROW'S FLIGHT
by Mark Merlis

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AMERICAN STUDIES
by Mark Merlis

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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Sisters in and out of love.

Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.

Pub Date: May 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-345-45073-6

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WOMEN
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT ALONE
by Kristin Hannah

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.