A riveting adventure, both historically astute and emotionally stirring.
A biblical historian, reeling from personal tragedy, travels to the Middle East to join an archaeological dig and finds the potential for love and theological discovery.
In this debut novel, Cassidy Stevens is an associate professor of theology in New York, an expert on New Testament history. The last five years of her life have been stymied by anguish and ennui—her husband and young daughter were both killed in a horrific car accident. Now she languishes in a listless relationship and throws herself into her work; the “only thing that made her feel alive and authentic was her research.” She decides to volunteer for an archaeological dig in Pella, an ancient city in Jordan, desperate for a change of scenery and hopeful it will advance her research. Cass believes that St. James the apostle, the brother of Jesus, was slyly written out of the Bible because his existence undermines the doctrinal immaculateness of Mary, a prospect enticingly described by Gangi. Cass suspects that St. Peter, though, may be “James in disguise,” and the true heir to Jesus’ ministry. While on the dig, Cass becomes romantically enthralled with Jed McIntyre, the project’s co-director and “archaeology’s ‘bad boy,’ ” as ruggedly handsome as he is academically accomplished. But Cass is torn by her attraction to the man—she’s still enmeshed in that serious, if unfulfilling, relationship—and discovers a past connection between her and Jed both peculiarly implausible and emotionally devastating. Meanwhile, Cass unearths an amulet that could unlock the mystery she’s been trying to crack—it points her in the direction of an ancient scroll that could prove her thesis regarding St. James’ true identity. Unfortunately, there are others just as eager to suppress her findings, even if it means resorting to violence. In this gripping novel, Gangi ambitiously combines two genres: romantic drama and theological thriller. Cass carefully studies the amulet for clues, musing: “If this turned out to be a Christian artifact, it would be an extraordinary find.…she could be holding the oldest Christian symbol ever found!” But while the author’s writing is always lucid, if unliterary, it inclines toward formulaic clichés—before Cass is properly introduced to Jed, she endures an acrimonious encounter with him, only to learn later he’s effectively her boss. Still, the plot is fiercely intelligent, skillfully combining intellectual provocation with fast-paced action.
A riveting adventure, both historically astute and emotionally stirring.Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-9772-0078-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Outskirts Press
Review Posted Online: March 4, 2019
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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