A bracing portrayal of war in all its macabre reality.
A Canadian drone operator in Afghanistan struggles to maintain his own humanity in the midst of war in Jones’ novel.
Jones is an officer in the Canadian Navy deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan, as one of the small number of Canadians there taking part in the American-led Operation Enduring Freedom. He is a drone operator, charged with eliminating enemy combatants from afar, guided less by moral restraint than a diligent regard for the rules of engagement. His superior Bell is less cautious and pines to let the bombs fly, almost killing a young boy they nickname Sahar (they nickname most of their targets) for the crime of suspiciously filling a sack with potatoes. Everywhere, Jones sees the ravages of war and violence (he witnesses a woman savagely stoned for her alleged adultery) and wrestles with the toll all of this exacts on his soul. (“I have forgotten how to human.”) He becomes the caretaker of a bizarre man he meets on base—he is not a soldier and resembles some sort of “tremendous gorilla-bear.” Jones nicknames him Bigfoot, though his actual name is Noah. Keeping Noah safe and hidden from the authorities is foolishly imprudent, but it’s an act of moral compassion that feels redemptive to Jones. The author artfully juxtaposes the ugly and the beautiful in war—his protagonist falls in love with Jen, his major, but military rules prevent him from even hugging her; real romance is replaced by discreet “chess games.” Meanwhile, a rapist targets the men on base, tasing the soldiers into submission before he violates them. The author’s prose sometimes falters, trying too hard for some creative amalgam of clever and moving—when Jones encounters a terrible scene, he thinks to himself, “No—not like this. No. No NO NO NO. Rewind, damnit—rewind!” However, the strength of the novel is its unflinching look at the absurdity of modern war, which reduces the destruction of human beings to a video game; the chilling senselessness of this is intelligently captured. This is a disturbing work of fiction, but a worthwhile one.
A bracing portrayal of war in all its macabre reality.Pub Date: March 20, 2025
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Dec. 3, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
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BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
The mystery plot and the Italian idyl both play supporting roles in this fairy tale for grownups.
Scottoline’s latest links her great love of Italy with her long record of female-centered crime fiction.
Julia Pritzker has a presentiment that something terrible is around the corner, but she never imagines just how terrible: When her husband, Philadelphia attorney Mike Shallette, tries to protect her from a man who grabs her designer bag, he gets stabbed to death before her eyes. Julia’s grief becomes laced with guilt when she realizes that her daily horoscope had predicted a calamity she’s now convinced she could have prevented. The news from Italian attorney Massimiliano Lombardi that his late client has left her millions in cash and an estate worth nearly as much again doesn’t comfort her, but it does provide distraction—especially since she’s never heard of Emilia Rossi and has no idea why she’s been chosen as her heir. Since Julia, adopted at an early age by a couple who’ve been dead for years, wonders if Emilia might have been her biological grandmother, she travels to Chianti in hope of recovering some of Emilia’s DNA. Unfortunately, caretakers Anna Mattia Vesta and Piero Fano have burned all of Emilia’s clothing and personal items on her orders, so there’s nothing left to test. Growing convinced that the stars are directing her and that her history is rooted in Emilia’s decrepit house, Julia turns down repeated offers for the property and resolves to secure evidence confirming the relationship between Emilia and her. Now all she has to do is protect herself from the shadowy figures tracking and following her and recover from a series of vivid, hallucinatory nightmares that seem to be the cost of claiming her heritage.
The mystery plot and the Italian idyl both play supporting roles in this fairy tale for grownups.Pub Date: July 15, 2025
ISBN: 9781538769997
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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