A rather strange but skillfully written study of a group of friends doing their best to get by.
In Cacoyannis’ novel, set in present-day London, a public relations exec struggles to find peace after the death of his beloved wife and finds some solace in his friends.
Just as Ollie Bridge is about to commit suicide by taking an overdose of pills with vodka, his friends cajole him into attending a poetry performance titled “They Them.” There, he meets the poet, a woman named Alex, but it turns out that the meeting is a setup—an attempt by his pals to bring him back from the brink and return him to life, as it were. It appears to work—not only for Ollie, but for Alex, as well. Her husband, Sam, actually did commit suicide, leaving her as bereft as Ollie, whose own spouse, Eden, died of cancer. “They Them” features Alex and a life-size puppet that represents Sam; Alex is a ventriloquist, and as she trades quips onstage with the avatar of her dead husband, a pervasive creepiness takes hold. Claudia Ellis, known to her friends as “Claw,” is a physician who treated both Sam and Eden, who was her true friend, and she has a casual attitude when it comes to prescribing pills. Rounding out the cast is Sigismund, Claw’s first husband, a historian who left her for one of his students, and Patrick, who becomes Claw’s second husband. Readers learn that Patrick and Sigismund once had a fling, as did Claw and Ollie; it’s clear that this is a group of friends with benefits.
Cacoyannis writes very well on a small canvas. His previous works have had elements of satire, though it may be a stretch to see this latest as having such; these characters appear, at least, to be very serious as the author puts them through their paces—perhaps too serious. But maybe that is the point: They’re all navel-gazers, well meaning most of the time, but self-absorbed nonetheless. They demonstrate a panoply of sexual variety, and bed-hopping is a recurring motif, with so-and-so being unfaithful with what’s-his/her-name with abandon. But to offset this, they all seem to be compulsive confessors; in fact, transgression followed by confession is shown to be a social tactic among this group, a strategy for leverage. Still, this is Ollie’s story and, true to the title, readers get such soliloquies as this: “Broken by the addition, I have now become one minus two: a subtraction—in amongst the blackened silhouettes, a hollow displacement of matter.” It’s no wonder his friends thought it prudent to get him a girlfriend. The preceding quote is just the first of many arithmetical maunderings. Still, readers will come to like Ollie and care about the outcome of his new love with Alex, which holds real promise. The story closes with Ollie and Claw in a kind of autumnal mood as old, genuine friends lob insights to one another like players in a slow-motion tennis match.
A rather strange but skillfully written study of a group of friends doing their best to get by.Pub Date: Feb. 29, 2024
ISBN: 9798873338832
Page Count: 271
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.
An artwork’s value grows if you understand the stories of the people who inspired it.
Never in her wildest dreams would foster kid Louisa dream of meeting C. Jat, the famous painter of The One of the Sea, which depicts a group of young teens on a pier on a hot summer’s day. But in Backman’s latest, that’s just what happens—an unexpected (but not unbelievable) set of circumstances causes their paths to collide right before the dying 39-year-old artist’s departure from the world. One of his final acts is to bequeath that painting to Louisa, who has endured a string of violent foster homes since her mother abandoned her as a child. Selling the painting will change her life—but can she do it? Before deciding, she accompanies Ted, one of the artist’s close friends and one of the young teens captured in that celebrated painting, on a train journey to take the artist’s ashes to his hometown. She wants to know all about the painting, which launched Jat’s career at age 14, and the circle of beloved friends who inspired it. The bestselling author of A Man Called Ove (2014) and other novels, Backman gives us a heartwarming story about how these friends, set adrift by the violence and unhappiness of their homes, found each other and created a new definition of family. “You think you’re alone,” one character explains, “but there are others like you, people who stand in front of white walls and blank paper and only see magical things. One day one of them will recognize you and call out: ‘You’re one of us!’” As Ted tells stories about his friends—how Jat doubted his talents but found a champion in fiery Joar, who took on every bully to defend him; how Ali brought an excitement to their circle that was “like a blinding light, like a heart attack”—Louisa recognizes herself as a kindred soul and feels a calling to realize her own artistic gifts. What she decides to do with the painting is part of a caper worthy of the stories that Ted tells her. The novel is humorous, poignant, and always life-affirming, even when describing the bleakness of the teens’ early lives. “Art is a fragile magic, just like love,” as someone tells Louisa, “and that’s humanity’s only defense against death.”
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781982112820
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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