An array of zestful characters rescues this adventure’s somewhat muddled plot.
A former Hollywood star gets caught up in drugs, terrorists, and international espionage in this globe-trotting novel.
It’s been years since Londoner Eddy Relish’s Hollywood career fizzled. Nowadays, he’s borrowing money from “Reverend” Bill Blake, a vicious man who repeatedly quotes the Bible and has an affinity for nail guns. When Eddy can’t repay a loan, Bill forces him to become a drug mule. But Chinese intelligence operative Cynthia Tzin comes to Eddy’s aid. She knows him from his days in the United States, where she’s nightclub-owning Madam Sin. Cynthia believes Eddy can be an asset in gathering intel for China. But Eddy’s earlier chance encounter with Islamic terrorist Abdul Madbul also puts him in the unique position of being the only person who can identify the evasive extremist. Cynthia will help Eddy reestablish himself in Hollywood, where he’ll essentially be bait to catch Madbul. Indeed, the terrorist knows Eddy can ID him and is therefore on the hunt. So, too, is Bill, as Eddy failed to transport the reverend’s heroin from Hong Kong. Even Eddy’s comeback is in danger: Producer Cy Sly, who played a part in crushing the actor’s career the first time, plans to do it again. Dalzell (Everything Hurts, 2014, etc.) and debut author Radley swiftly kick-start their novel, as Bill is threatening Eddy with his nail gun in little time. The plot eventually spins threads that feature numerous other characters from around the world. Bill, in particular, finds friends and foes among the Russians, the Japanese, and more. In fact, many of the supporting characters prove much more intriguing than the protagonist, including Cynthia, whose authority and prowess are never in question, and Eddy’s girlfriend, Sharon Constable, who runs for council in the couple’s London borough. Though the authors’ tight prose and abundant subplots keep the narrative moving at a steady clip, the story is occasionally perplexing. A surprise blood relation between two characters, for example, has no real bearing on the plot. And why Madbul still wants to eliminate Eddy after the terrorist’s sketch goes public remains unclear.
An array of zestful characters rescues this adventure’s somewhat muddled plot.Pub Date: April 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-72830-793-0
Page Count: 284
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2019
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
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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