A gratifying follow-up that will leave readers clamoring for more.
Driver-Thiel’s (The World Undone, 2012) sequel continues the story of Anne Bennett, a woman who, after a personal upheaval, must reconnect with her two estranged daughters.
For most of her adult life, Anne has been a reserved, unemotional woman. In a companionable yet loveless marriage to Henry, she has what seems to be an ideal life: affluence in a house that “had been featured in New England Designer Showcase Homes.” Anne wants for nothing—nothing except perhaps to forget about her rebellious daughter Sylvia. Seven years ago, just before her wedding in the previous book, Sylvia ran away to the unlikely state of Michigan. Not only that, but she had threatened to force Anne to meet Sylvia’s half sister Callie, whom Anne had given up for adoption as a teenager. The one to whom Anne, through her lawyer, had paid a hefty sum to never speak with again. However, when Henry dies suddenly from a heart attack, she learns that his business is under federal investigation. Nearly all her assets frozen, Anne moves in with her sister Julia. The visit goes from unpleasant to intolerable, so when Anne receives an invitation from Sylvia, she accepts. Anne is again reluctant, though, for she doesn’t know how or if she will ever repair their relationship, and she dreads seeing Callie, who lives and works nearby. In order to cobble together an entirely new life, Anne must challenge deeply rooted beliefs about herself and her family as she confronts emotions she has pushed down for far too long. Fans of Driver-Thiel’s first novel may be surprised by the shift from third- to first-person narration here, all in Anne’s point of view. They will likely understand, though, as Anne certainly has a lot of explaining to do. Through the story, Anne shifts from a model of arrogance and cruelty to a more receptive, pragmatic woman willing to accept and attempt to change her own faults. This progression is slow, almost imperceptible, so although readers may sometimes feel that Anne’s bouts of introspection are a bit lengthy, the overall impression of her transformation is satisfyingly realistic. In Driver-Thiel’s capable hands, the story hits its target: the possibility of redemption in even the unlikeliest of people.
A gratifying follow-up that will leave readers clamoring for more.Pub Date: March 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9886568-2-6
Page Count: 362
Publisher: Pine Lake Press, LLC
Review Posted Online: Aug. 24, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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