An introspective tale that offers a beautiful ending but few surprises.
A dying millionaire reads the Persian poet Rumi on his deathbed in this novel.
Walter is a successful businessman who has earned money above and beyond even the wildest dreams of his youth, when he was nothing more than a scrappy kid raised in foster care. But Walter is dying. He’s laid up in bed, knowing that his muscles have already started to fail him and will soon quit entirely. There is no cure. His family visits: his ex-wife, Polly, who chose to end their marriage; his grown daughter, Paula, who has inherited his business acumen; his estranged son, Gavin, who has been in and out of rehab during his adulthood. But it is only when Paula leaves Walter a book of Rumi’s poetry that his perspective on life (and his impending death) starts to shift. He begins to fully understand how he built his life around his work—becoming a slave to his job—and that before he dies, he can make new choices. In his fifth novel, Alther impressively tackles what many writers call “the bathtub story” because the protagonist can only sit and think—in a bathtub or, in Walter’s case, a bed. Working within these deliberate constraints, the story shines the most through moments of humor that break the initial melancholy and acerbic tone. For instance, Irma, Walter’s nurse, brings in a high school a cappella group to serenade her patient, and it’s a humorous moment because it’s so unexpected. The situation is doubly amusing because Walter doesn’t know that “these talented young people contribute to Elderly Services that gets funded by United Way” and that he is “their Platinum Placard donor.” The author clearly intends this book to be a meditative novel, one that is driven by Walter’s character traits and interactions with Rumi’s poetry rather than a flashy plot. And yet the tale moves slowly, often frustratingly so. Perhaps some of this annoyance stems from the fact that Walter’s journey can feel as if it has an expected outcome, and it’s not clear whether there will be a payoff. While there is indeed a striking conclusion, it’s still hard to engage with Walter, especially when readers can guess his character arc fairly early on.
An introspective tale that offers a beautiful ending but few surprises.Pub Date: March 23, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64428-163-5
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Rare Bird Books
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An angry, powerful book seething with love and outrage for a community too often stereotyped or ignored.
Inspired by David Copperfield, Kingsolver crafts a 21st-century coming-of-age story set in America’s hard-pressed rural South.
It’s not necessary to have read Dickens’ famous novel to appreciate Kingsolver’s absorbing tale, but those who have will savor the tough-minded changes she rings on his Victorian sentimentality while affirming his stinging critique of a heartless society. Our soon-to-be orphaned narrator’s mother is a substance-abusing teenage single mom who checks out via OD on his 11th birthday, and Demon’s cynical, wised-up voice is light-years removed from David Copperfield’s earnest tone. Yet readers also see the yearning for love and wells of compassion hidden beneath his self-protective exterior. Like pretty much everyone else in Lee County, Virginia, hollowed out economically by the coal and tobacco industries, he sees himself as someone with no prospects and little worth. One of Kingsolver’s major themes, hit a little too insistently, is the contempt felt by participants in the modern capitalist economy for those rooted in older ways of life. More nuanced and emotionally engaging is Demon’s fierce attachment to his home ground, a place where he is known and supported, tested to the breaking point as the opiate epidemic engulfs it. Kingsolver’s ferocious indictment of the pharmaceutical industry, angrily stated by a local girl who has become a nurse, is in the best Dickensian tradition, and Demon gives a harrowing account of his descent into addiction with his beloved Dori (as naïve as Dickens’ Dora in her own screwed-up way). Does knowledge offer a way out of this sinkhole? A committed teacher tries to enlighten Demon’s seventh grade class about how the resource-rich countryside was pillaged and abandoned, but Kingsolver doesn’t air-brush his students’ dismissal of this history or the prejudice encountered by this African American outsider and his White wife. She is an art teacher who guides Demon toward self-expression, just as his friend Tommy provokes his dawning understanding of how their world has been shaped by outside forces and what he might be able to do about it.
An angry, powerful book seething with love and outrage for a community too often stereotyped or ignored.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-325-1922
Page Count: 560
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.
Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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