A lively cross-cultural story about a rapidly expanding America, but it’s hindered by a weak third act.
In Patrick’s (On the Beat, 2011) historical novel, a young American man marries a beautiful Chinese woman at the dawn of the railway era in the West.
Edwin Stratton grew up on an Iowa farm, but after his biological parents died young, he was raised by his stepmother, Lorraine. In 1870, after turning 18, he sets out for Omaha, Nebraska, with his horse, Ross, and no clear plans for the future. He soon lands a job as a German-English translator at a hospital and secures a second gig working for the police after doing some translation work for them on a case. He also becomes acquainted with the leadership of Omaha’s Chinatown; he becomes interested in learning the Chinese language, and he makes an offer to the Chinese leaders to teach English in exchange. This leads him to meet Mu Waun, a pretty, young teacher; they fall in love and plan to marry. Unfortunately, she and her family are called back to China to settle a dispute in their home village, and Edwin prepares for a long wait for her return. After he gets news that village violence has claimed Mu Waun’s life, he relocates to Utah to become a telegraph operator and station manager. Later, he receives word that Mu Waun may actually be alive, and he sets out on a journey across the ocean with two Chinese compatriots to rescue her. Patrick’s novel intriguingly uses the protagonist’s love of foreign languages to advance his career, social standing, and marriage prospects. His skills as a polyglot help him to foil train robberies, fend off foreign assassins, and join an insular Chinese community. As a result, the storytelling can be compelling; Edwin’s journey home from China is a particular standout. However, because the story covers so many decades of Edwin’s life, the final third of the novel loses steam and becomes somewhat cursory. An earlier ending would have better highlighted Edwin and Mu Waun’s travels and accomplishments.
A lively cross-cultural story about a rapidly expanding America, but it’s hindered by a weak third act.Pub Date: March 21, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5255-2386-1
Page Count: 306
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2018
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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