Recovering fuddy-duddy Chandra is a droll creation, and his journey of self-realization feels like the real thing.
Once again this year, Cambridge professor P.R. Chandrasekhar has not won the Nobel Prize, and things are going to get worse before they get any better.
"Professor Chandra was the foremost trade economist in the world, could phone any finance minister in any country at any time and have them take his call." The fourth novel from Balasubramanyam (Starstruck, 2015, etc.) introduces its self-important antihero on the day he not only misses the Nobel, but is called on the carpet and asked to take a sabbatical because he has called a student an imbecile. On the way out, he is hit by a bicyclist and has a heart attack. Ordered to spend two months resting, he lies in bed and watches the entire first season of Friends, "finally understanding the jokes his children had made throughout the nineties." But Chandra has a great deal more to understand about his children; the simple relationships he had with them when they were small have long since soured. He has been estranged from his older daughter for several years, his son lives in Hong Kong and rarely visits, and his teenage daughter is in Colorado with his ex-wife, Jean, and her new husband, Steve. He goes to visit her in Boulder, but long-simmering resentments result in his punching Steve in the nose shortly after he arrives. In exchange for pretending to Jean that his injury was caused by swimming into the wall of the swimming pool, Steve—a highly evolved being who has spent much time in India—forces Chandra to enroll in a three-day workshop at Esalen, the famous retreat center/hot springs in Big Sur. Here, the professor's bumpy road to self-awareness begins, with a detailed but not too didactic presentation of exactly what goes on at "Being Yourself in the Summer Solstice." Post-Esalen, a crisis befalls the family that gives Chandra the opportunity to rebuild his relationships.
Recovering fuddy-duddy Chandra is a droll creation, and his journey of self-realization feels like the real thing.Pub Date: March 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-51138-0
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dial Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.
Ten years after her teenage daughter went missing, a mother begins a new relationship only to discover she can't truly move on until she answers lingering questions about the past.
Laurel Mack’s life stopped in many ways the day her 15-year-old daughter, Ellie, left the house to study at the library and never returned. She drifted away from her other two children, Hanna and Jake, and eventually she and her husband, Paul, divorced. Ten years later, Ellie’s remains and her backpack are found, though the police are unable to determine the reasons for her disappearance and death. After Ellie’s funeral, Laurel begins a relationship with Floyd, a man she meets in a cafe. She's disarmed by Floyd’s charm, but when she meets his young daughter, Poppy, Laurel is startled by her resemblance to Ellie. As the novel progresses, Laurel becomes increasingly determined to learn what happened to Ellie, especially after discovering an odd connection between Poppy’s mother and her daughter even as her relationship with Floyd is becoming more serious. Jewell’s (I Found You, 2017, etc.) latest thriller moves at a brisk pace even as she plays with narrative structure: The book is split into three sections, including a first one which alternates chapters between the time of Ellie’s disappearance and the present and a second section that begins as Laurel and Floyd meet. Both of these sections primarily focus on Laurel. In the third section, Jewell alternates narrators and moments in time: The narrator switches to alternating first-person points of view (told by Poppy’s mother and Floyd) interspersed with third-person narration of Ellie’s experiences and Laurel’s discoveries in the present. All of these devices serve to build palpable tension, but the structure also contributes to how deeply disturbing the story becomes. At times, the characters and the emotional core of the events are almost obscured by such quick maneuvering through the weighty plot.
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-5464-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.
Eleven years ago, he broke her heart. But he doesn’t know why she never forgave him.
Toggling between past and present, two love stories unfold simultaneously. In the first, Macy Sorensen meets and falls in love with the boy next door, Elliot Petropoulos, in the closet of her dad’s vacation home, where they hide out to discuss their favorite books. In the second, Macy is working as a doctor and engaged to a single father, and she hasn’t spoken to Elliot since their breakup. But a chance encounter forces her to confront the truth: what happened to make Macy stop speaking to Elliot? Ultimately, they’re separated not by time or physical remoteness but by emotional distance—Elliot and Macy always kept their relationship casual because they went to different schools. And as a teen, Macy has more to worry about than which girl Elliot is taking to the prom. After losing her mother at a young age, Macy is navigating her teenage years without a female role model, relying on the time-stamped notes her mother left in her father’s care for guidance. In the present day, Macy’s father is dead as well. She throws herself into her work and rarely comes up for air, not even to plan her upcoming wedding. Since Macy is still living with her fiance while grappling with her feelings for Elliot, the flashbacks offer steamy moments, tender revelations, and sweetly awkward confessions while Macy makes peace with her past and decides her future.
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2801-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
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