Ivan is a hardworking protagonist, but the single-minded outward focus that makes him a natural businessman also makes him a...
From Tyree (The Last Street Novel, 2007, etc.), a Horatio Alger update with bling.
For 28-year-old Ivan David, the eureka moment occurs after he is relegated to the “nobody” line at a crowded nightclub. Suddenly realizing that his well-regarded work for a respected San Diego accounting firm will never land him the kind of money and cachet he craves, he decides to go into business for himself as a party promoter. He first tastes small-scale success holding African-American networking mixers at a local soul-food restaurant. Then he catches the eye of fellow promoter Lucina Gallo, an Italian/Brazilian beauty with the class and connections that Ivan lacks, who admires his ambition. The physical attraction is mutual, but they resist acting on it, settling for a remarkably lucrative partnership. Under Lucina’s influence Ivan’s life changes in every way, right down to the diamond earring she attaches as part of the sexy makeover she gives him. Quickly branching out into high-profile, celebrity-studded parties, Ivan also dabbles in real estate and the Web. He manages to negotiate a salary from his former firm by bringing them big-money athletes as clients. In no time, it seems, he becomes a major player in the local scene, attracting his share of golddiggers and envy. But apart from a weakness for some of the young ladies in Lucina’s party-girl entourage, methodical Ivan is all work, all the time. His rise from pencil pusher to Bentley-driving VIP is so dizzying, if somewhat implausible, that even sophisticated Lucina begins to question his motives. In fact, his hubris causes them to grow apart, prompting Ivan to ponder which matters more: Love or money? Or can he possibly have both?
Ivan is a hardworking protagonist, but the single-minded outward focus that makes him a natural businessman also makes him a less-than-compelling hero.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-4165-4193-6
Page Count: 498
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2008
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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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