A jokey, messy novel about a college instructor who’s in over his head.
A college professor takes on a criminal hacking ring that’s targeting undergrads in Price’s debut campus thriller.
Saul Sokolsky—Solly to his friends—earned a doctorate in physics at Caltech, but in truth, he’s more of a generalist. After Solly has worked at tech startups for a few years, the death of his sister leads him to reevaluate his life’s trajectory and return to school for an English degree. Now, at age 38, he has a permanent (but not tenured) job teaching rhetoric and literature at Caltech, where he’ll also serve as a resident adviser for Blacker House—which means he’ll live in a dorm while mentoring students in the non-academic aspects of university life. Solly has been instructed not to get romantically involved with any of his students (a fair warning, given he dated an undergraduate while he was a graduate student in his 30s). He’s also been warned to keep an eye out for any unsavory characters hanging around campus attempting to hire undergrad tech whizzes to hack into computer systems (a skill that many Caltech students possess). Solly becomes infatuated—not with an undergrad, thankfully, but with a gorgeous, blond, 29-year-old Polish postdoc named Ewa “Mia” Kulpa, who, for some reason, is extremely charmed by Solly. He also takes a platonic interest in a Blacker House student named Darryl Lagerstrom, a peculiar but highly intelligent boy who’s quietly grappling with the suicide of his older brother. It turns out Darryl’s former computing partner, Fang Lou, recently dropped out of school to work with a mob-affiliated hacking outfit run by a mysterious (and very dangerous) European named Sashi. What’s more, the FBI—interested in Fang because of her father’s status as a well-connected Chinese billionaire—is desperate to find her before something bad happens. Will Solly’s habit of bending the rules help avert an escalating crisis? Or is he about to learn the hard way that even the best intentions sometimes lead to dire consequences?
Price’s witty and rapid-fire prose is loaded with quips, philosophical musings, and paeans to his alma mater, Caltech: “Wednesday, the lame-duck day, started way before I was ready for it. Mia called at 6:30 a.m. (Is there a Polish word for sleep?) She said that we should have breakfast together. She clarified: off campus…I told her I’d call, then pick her up on Wilson, right off California, as soon as I could get away.” The author is perhaps overly fond of nicknames—Mia Kulpa is truly groan-inducing—and there’s a general dad-joke tone to the novel that some readers may find off-putting. This is a shame, since Solly’s jaunty, rambling narration, far more than the book’s convoluted crime plot, is the primary source of the novel’s pleasure. Despite the multitude of deaths, the emotional stakes of the book never feel very high—indeed, in the case of one death, the stakes should probably feel much higher. Still, those looking for a breezy campus novel will find much here to enjoy.
A jokey, messy novel about a college instructor who’s in over his head.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2023
ISBN: 9798890274960
Page Count: 326
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing Co.
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.
An artwork’s value grows if you understand the stories of the people who inspired it.
Never in her wildest dreams would foster kid Louisa dream of meeting C. Jat, the famous painter of The One of the Sea, which depicts a group of young teens on a pier on a hot summer’s day. But in Backman’s latest, that’s just what happens—an unexpected (but not unbelievable) set of circumstances causes their paths to collide right before the dying 39-year-old artist’s departure from the world. One of his final acts is to bequeath that painting to Louisa, who has endured a string of violent foster homes since her mother abandoned her as a child. Selling the painting will change her life—but can she do it? Before deciding, she accompanies Ted, one of the artist’s close friends and one of the young teens captured in that celebrated painting, on a train journey to take the artist’s ashes to his hometown. She wants to know all about the painting, which launched Jat’s career at age 14, and the circle of beloved friends who inspired it. The bestselling author of A Man Called Ove (2014) and other novels, Backman gives us a heartwarming story about how these friends, set adrift by the violence and unhappiness of their homes, found each other and created a new definition of family. “You think you’re alone,” one character explains, “but there are others like you, people who stand in front of white walls and blank paper and only see magical things. One day one of them will recognize you and call out: ‘You’re one of us!’” As Ted tells stories about his friends—how Jat doubted his talents but found a champion in fiery Joar, who took on every bully to defend him; how Ali brought an excitement to their circle that was “like a blinding light, like a heart attack”—Louisa recognizes herself as a kindred soul and feels a calling to realize her own artistic gifts. What she decides to do with the painting is part of a caper worthy of the stories that Ted tells her. The novel is humorous, poignant, and always life-affirming, even when describing the bleakness of the teens’ early lives. “Art is a fragile magic, just like love,” as someone tells Louisa, “and that’s humanity’s only defense against death.”
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781982112820
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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