An atmospheric debut, but the leisurely plot hinders the thrills.
One man’s business trip to a foreign country changes his life irrevocably in O’Quin’s debut inspirational suspense novel.
Stephen Cranton is in a funk. Although his job for International Courier Services takes him to exotic locations such as Java, Indonesia, he can’t shake the feeling that the spark is gone with his wife, Leah, and he can’t seem to truly connect with their two children, Randall and Tristan. When Stephen spots a copy of a self-help book called Fear Not and Live Hot! he hopes it will inspire him to make big changes in his life. One of the book’s first instructions is to “Do something spontaneous.” So when Stephen spots a limo driver holding a sign for another man upon landing in Indonesia, he throws caution to the wind and impersonates the car’s intended passenger, Carlton Easley. Unfortunately for Stephen, however, Carlton is the target of an abduction plot—a plot that is swiftly executed, and Stephen is taken by a group of three Indonesians to the other side of the island. With the help of one of his abductors, Stephen escapes and meets up with soon-to-be-retired Bible teacher Om Donri. The two become captives once again to one of the abductors, and during their lengthy ordeal, they discuss spirituality and faith. Stephen must decide whether to live in fear and hiding as he always has or learn to view his life in a new way. The book points out that O’Quin “served as missionary in Indonesia for nearly 14 years,” and his knowledge of the landscape, culture, and climate shine through here, creating a vibrant sense of place. Some readers, however, may be disappointed that he does not give equal attention to Indonesian cuisine. The characters, especially poor Stephen, seem to spend an inordinate amount of time waiting: exhaustively long plane rides, immobile traffic jams, prison rooms, even a cave. While this certainly provides Stephen the time to reflect on his life, many readers won’t exactly relish having to wait along with him.
An atmospheric debut, but the leisurely plot hinders the thrills.Pub Date: April 28, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-692-35013-3
Page Count: 332
Publisher: Mantap Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 10, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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
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