Intense adventures that make for an exciting, timely read.
This military adventure follows Alpha Team, a group of Navy Seals specializing in the covert capture of al-Qaida and Taliban leaders for interrogation, as they engage in military actions, deal with bureaucracy and relax at home with friends and family.
Alpha leader Patrick “Mac” McNamara—ostensibly the book’s author, although this too might be part of the fictive reality—tells this story, with a voice somewhere between the “just the facts” of Dragnet’s Sgt. Friday and a standup comedian’s deadpan. Like all the members of Alpha, his wit is the type of gallows humor found in men who face death on a daily basis. There are also plenty of elaborate practical jokes. Mac’s father is a Vietnam veteran who was a “tunnel rat,” part of a special unit that crawled through subterranean passageways dug by the Viet Cong. A number of other Alpha members also come from military families, and all seem to act like overgrown boys; hence the title. The various players are drawn well to a point, each with distinguishing tics and traits, but they’re all paragons of perfection. Some readers may grow tired of heavily muscled men with multiple masters’ degrees and coconut-crushing handshakes. However, the abundance of military acronyms, weapons specifications and the extensive glossary of military terms enhance the book’s realism and will no doubt be a treat for military buffs. After running down various bad guys, Alpha meets its chief adversary, Asa Ali, a weapons and explosives dealer who not only manages to elude them but also kills or wounds several members of Alpha and other covert teams. Even Mac is wounded on two occasions and captured and tortured on another. The pursuit begins in the Middle East and ultimately leads to the Philippines, where insertion becomes problematic due to that country’s diplomatic relationship with the United States. Though the characters are somewhat stereotypical, their overarching attitudes, along with the candid narration, open a window into the psychology of real-life warriors who live above and beyond the call of duty.
Intense adventures that make for an exciting, timely read.Pub Date: Dec. 29, 2012
ISBN: 978-0615650968
Page Count: 202
Publisher: Daniel J. Dyer
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
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
PERSPECTIVES
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
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