In McLean’s debut novel, an alcoholic ex–Big Leaguer who’s coaching in the boondocks while awaiting a liver transplant suddenly gets a girlfriend, an offer to play for the St. Louis Cardinals and a slew of exploits he never saw coming.
Paul Kolbe’s adventure begins with a perhaps-imagined conversation with long-dead Triple Crown winner Joe Fisher, who leaves Kolbe with a decidedly real tin of pine tar. One drunken night, Kolbe, who has an “endowed seat” at the All Pro Sports Pub & Grill, in Rochester, Minnesota, is picked up by Heather, a beautiful woman who’s the niece of Sam the bartender; she’s also Fisher’s great-granddaughter. On top of that, Kolbe is offered a spot as an outfielder for the Cardinals—and that’s just the beginning. Well-written and hard to put down, McLean spices his redemption tale with baseball politics, personality conflicts, ownership issues, illegal gambling, romance and attempted murder. During Kolbe’s tenure with the Cards, his hitting places him squarely in the competition for the Triple Crown. Meanwhile, he cuts back on his drinking, his physical condition deteriorates and he gets involved with a hooker named Nikki. This all leads to threats from a gambler (who hints that he wants Kolbe to fake a hitting drought), a strange vehicle tailing him and someone taking potshots. McLean skillfully moves his tale along while transitioning between styles. To keep the blow-by-blow progression of the baseball season from becoming tedious, McLean employs the lively voice of a baseball announcer and “Bernie’s Bytes,” an online column: One column, titled “Kolbe sends the fans home happy, again,” reads, “Paul Kolbe has shown remarkable patience in his plate appearances this season, averaging over five pitches per trip to the plate. Every pitcher in the league knows his approach and reminds himself of Paul’s tendencies when going over ‘the book’ on the Cards left fielder.” McLean is also fond of wordplay. Names echo each other—Kolbe, Colby, Cole—while characters continually force monikers on one another: “Boss Lady,” “geezer,” “Paulie,” “Sailor,” “slugger.”
A joy for baseball fans and, in the frigid offseason, anyone looking for summer dreaming.
Pub Date: May 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-0615677262
Page Count: 276
Publisher: One Last Hurrah
Review Posted Online: July 29, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of...
Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State.
Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle’s answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate’s buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, only to blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully’s latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she’s given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it’s too late?
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36408-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007
BOOK TO SCREEN
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