A gorgeous novel about finding redemption.
In Nolan Martin’s (The Sublime Transformation of Vera Wright, 2012) latest novel, a group of eccentric nuns struggle to find themselves and each other in a convent.
Gemma stands on a hill, talking to the Hudson River. Arielle, fresh from rehab, wakes up in a jail cell to a vision of an angel. Prioress Michael Agnes reads through correspondence from the Vatican. Although each character is very different, they all soon find themselves at the same convent on a farm near Albany, N.Y. Gemma so wants to be saintly that she conducts secret acts of penance, putting rock salt in her too-small shoes and wearing full winter habits in the heat of summer. She tends the fields of the farm and protects her secret: She hears the voice of her “twin,” Maya, who begs to be “let out,” only to be pushed down by Gemma’s saintly aspirations. Sister Mike works to keep the ragtag group of nuns together, as the convent is hemorrhaging money, and caring for the group (and the “grand ancient mystic” Mother Augusta) is taking its toll. When former criminal Arielle is sent to the convent, she’s not Catholic, nor anything close to a saint, but something immediately changes. Arielle touches the life of each nun in a different way—attending to Mother Augusta, becoming Gemma’s confidante, and even getting Mike an iPhone for the office. However, Gemma’s inner voices become too much for her, and when it appears that “Maya” is here to stay, each woman springs into action. In a novel that’s similar in structure and tone to Toni Morrison’s Paradise (1997), Nolan Martin tells the story from the viewpoints of each main character and truly gives each her own distinct voice—not an easy feat. Readers get a beautifully fleshed-out and complete look at their likes, dislikes, fears and pasts, all of which add to the intensity of the novel’s main plotline. The story crosses all barriers of religion, and readers needn’t be Catholic or even Christian to appreciate its universal tropes. The author brings her obvious spirituality and humanity to this wonderful, relatable tale of failure, love and triumph.
A gorgeous novel about finding redemption.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2013
ISBN: 978-0991032211
Page Count: 358
Publisher: Wiawaka Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 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
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
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