A lively, multilayered novel that connects two uncommon souls to a shared past.
In Cacoyannis’ (The Dead of August, 2013) sophomore effort, a London man meets with a mysterious ghostwriter, taking him deep into his past.
Leon Cheam has made a lot of money in his lifetime. He currently lives in a large, semidetached home in London. His talent is painting Picassos—not reproductions but paintings so masterful they could be worthy of being called original unknown works by Picasso himself. He’s also a fan of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, so much so that he’s having some builders construct a replica of Gregor Samsa’s bedroom right in his own home. It’s a quirk, he admits, not craziness—“I am neither a lunatic nor a fanatic. My bedroom is an affectation, not a delusion.” He just wants to see what it will feel like to be abnormal. In the midst of this, a ghostwriter named Anna Tor contacts Leon. She knows about the Picassos, but she also seems to know about Leon’s past. She suggests she could write a book about him, if he’s interested, and out of curiosity he decides to meet her. Leon is intrigued: Anna knows his real name, she has eyebrows like his, and she touches on topics from the past that Leon has yet to resolve. As the two stroll around North London—a marathon talk that lasts upward of 24 hours—Anna and Leon reveal things to each other about their pasts that will take them all the way back to the beginning of the Chilean dictatorship in 1973. Cacoyannis’ talent for connecting art and literature with the personal lives of his characters is on full display. Leon’s artistic talent—not to mention the commerce of it all—is nearly a character unto itself, and recollections of difficult events are adeptly woven into the larger narrative. Anna and Leon are unpretentious, smart compatriots who stomp on familiar ground in London, and their growing connection, as well as the labyrinthine tale that emerges, is as unsettling as it is satisfying. The novel may not be as explosive as his first, but it’s nevertheless a unique tale about secrets and the quixotic nature of artistry.
A lively, multilayered novel that connects two uncommon souls to a shared past.Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5190-2029-1
Page Count: 229
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Sept. 24, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
