A Da Vinci Code for the literate, reminiscent of Arturo Pérez-Reverte and Carlos Fuentes at their best; sure to draw...
A tour de force of a debut novel, recounting the life of the last great poet of Spain’s Golden Age and, “arguably, the most mythologized mortal in human history.”
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648–95), the Mexican poet, was uniquely brilliant, as one-of-a-kind as Albert Einstein. Anderson dares to inhabit her mind and that of another woman separated by centuries, weaving their lives and creations and those of their confidants and lovers into a carefully constructed lattice. One story belongs to Beulah Limosneros, a gifted young woman who falls under the tutelage—but not the spell—of a cynical professor who switched from philosophy to literature in order to meet women and has never regretted the choice until now. “Smart, pretty, psycho” Beulah is torn by gradually revealed wounds, but she rises to tough occasions more willingly than Don Don, as she tauntingly calls her professor. When things turn ugly, he is by her side, but not for selfless reasons, and her sufferings and his subsequent trials are both hellish and perfectly believable. Enfolding their tale is that of Sor Juana, whose sad life Beulah has been exploring (and unconsciously emulating): A reader since the age of three, her ample mind nourished by a freethinking grandfather, she is learned, beautiful and rebellious, profoundly aware of the violent and tragic world she inhabits; as a bedazzled and himself dazzling suitor writes, “We are driven from Eden for the blood on our hands, yet prolong our exile only to plunge them in ink.” Books and words are powerful, as everyone in this bookish and strikingly written novel comes to discover, and they exact a cost. Anderson’s is a tale of hidden messages, of secrets kept from inquisitors, of manifold mysteries, and he does an admirable job of keeping them all sorted out without dropping a single thread.
A Da Vinci Code for the literate, reminiscent of Arturo Pérez-Reverte and Carlos Fuentes at their best; sure to draw attention to Sor Juana, who remains one of the most fascinating figures in world literature.Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2005
ISBN: 0-7867-1541-3
Page Count: 1376
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.
Atwood goes back to Gilead.
The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), consistently regarded as a masterpiece of 20th-century literature, has gained new attention in recent years with the success of the Hulu series as well as fresh appreciation from readers who feel like this story has new relevance in America’s current political climate. Atwood herself has spoken about how news headlines have made her dystopian fiction seem eerily plausible, and it’s not difficult to imagine her wanting to revisit Gilead as the TV show has sped past where her narrative ended. Like the novel that preceded it, this sequel is presented as found documents—first-person accounts of life inside a misogynistic theocracy from three informants. There is Agnes Jemima, a girl who rejects the marriage her family arranges for her but still has faith in God and Gilead. There’s Daisy, who learns on her 16th birthday that her whole life has been a lie. And there's Aunt Lydia, the woman responsible for turning women into Handmaids. This approach gives readers insight into different aspects of life inside and outside Gilead, but it also leads to a book that sometimes feels overstuffed. The Handmaid’s Tale combined exquisite lyricism with a powerful sense of urgency, as if a thoughtful, perceptive woman was racing against time to give witness to her experience. That narrator hinted at more than she said; Atwood seemed to trust readers to fill in the gaps. This dynamic created an atmosphere of intimacy. However curious we might be about Gilead and the resistance operating outside that country, what we learn here is that what Atwood left unsaid in the first novel generated more horror and outrage than explicit detail can. And the more we get to know Agnes, Daisy, and Aunt Lydia, the less convincing they become. It’s hard, of course, to compete with a beloved classic, so maybe the best way to read this new book is to forget about The Handmaid’s Tale and enjoy it as an artful feminist thriller.
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-385-54378-1
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
This book sings with the terrible silence of dead civilizations in which once there was valor.
Written with quiet dignity that builds to a climax of tragic force, this book about the dissolution of an African tribe, its traditions, and values, represents a welcome departure from the familiar "Me, white brother" genre.
Written by a Nigerian African trained in missionary schools, this novel tells quietly the story of a brave man, Okonkwo, whose life has absolute validity in terms of his culture, and who exercises his prerogative as a warrior, father, and husband with unflinching single mindedness. But into the complex Nigerian village filters the teachings of strangers, teachings so alien to the tribe, that resistance is impossible. One must distinguish a force to be able to oppose it, and to most, the talk of Christian salvation is no more than the babbling of incoherent children. Still, with his guns and persistence, the white man, amoeba-like, gradually absorbs the native culture and in despair, Okonkwo, unable to withstand the corrosion of what he, alone, understands to be the life force of his people, hangs himself. In the formlessness of the dying culture, it is the missionary who takes note of the event, reminding himself to give Okonkwo's gesture a line or two in his work, The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.
This book sings with the terrible silence of dead civilizations in which once there was valor.Pub Date: Jan. 23, 1958
ISBN: 0385474547
Page Count: 207
Publisher: McDowell, Obolensky
Review Posted Online: April 23, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1958
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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