A rollicking, absurdist take on the standard midlife-crisis adventure.
A nondescript man’s humdrum life becomes suddenly and unpredictably upended.
This latest novel from LaTorre introduces sad sack Joe Kerson, a disgruntled husband, regretful father of two teenagers, and beaten-down drone employee at the Soren Agency, where he hates his job, co-workers, and bosses. At the story’s outset, one of those bosses tells Joe that he must meet a prospective new client on the man’s yacht. That client, Luciano “Luke” Galdonchino, isn’t strictly on the up and up, but the agency would like to cultivate him, so Joe sets off. Joe’s path will soon intersect with a group called the Schmorde, a goofy gang of overgrown, free-spirited delinquents who live in a run-down house and enjoy various escapades. The Schmorde is led by larger-than-life figures like Ron (the brains of the outfit), the Pirate (who likes to break things), and Brute (a 260-pound enforcer). But before they enter the scene, Joe meets Luke and immediately takes in his lavish lifestyle with signature glum insights (“This Luke guy has it made, and I’m just a bum”). On the spur of the moment, Joe knocks Luke overboard and steals the boat and piles of mobster cash; impulsively recruits the Schmorde as his ramshackle crew; and embarks on a madcap sail around the world. Joe is always just barely ahead of Luke and his colleagues in the League of International Gangsters. The misadventures of Joe and the Schmorde almost immediately run off the rails.
The author piles absurdity on absurdity in the construction of his picaresque novel, and he whittles the narrative to a leanness that keeps the whole thing bubbling along at a page-turning pace. This is a broad, Rabelaisian comedy, and LaTorre has a keen eye for crafting over-the-top caricatures and seemingly mundane dialogue that’s constantly teetering on the brink of ridiculousness. The key to this kind of comedy is that the characters must be one-dimensional but not flat. Joe must be down on his luck but not repulsive; his wife and kids—who crop up to play sizable roles in the plot—must be outraged but not angry; the Schmorde must be roustabout sidekicks but not compellingly individualistic. The author comfortably shifts the tale into the fantastic (the heroes visit Phantasmic Island, presided over by President Richard Nixon and Humpty Dumpty) and then backs out of it. Luke’s increasingly shrill quest for personal revenge will have readers chuckling in the book’s second half. The story’s very gentle levels of violence and crudity never darken the humorous tone of the work. Long before readers reach the conclusion, they’ll be guessing the author has a fairly air-tight and eminently satisfying ending in mind. LaTorre deftly complicates his straightforward tale with amusing side characters like a band of inept Jamaican gangsters, and he has the storytelling skills to avoid narrative dead ends. This is a remarkably streamlined comic expedition.
A rollicking, absurdist take on the standard midlife-crisis adventure.Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-578-58312-9
Page Count: 207
Publisher: Nick Daydreams
Review Posted Online: Feb. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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