Wistful, yearning, and engrossing reflections on humans as creatures of uncertainty.
A debut short-story collection explores themes of sexual predilection, religion, and displacement.
Much of Anthony’s writing has sexuality at its core, either positing an unknown interpretation (“The Sexual Secrets of the Book of Esther”) or emphasizing the life-shaping magnitude of erotic—especially pederastic—encounters (“Loss”; “‘And, of course, you would have handled it much better’”). Many of the narratives carry an exotic flavor, with protagonists displaced from Latin America to the United States or vice versa. “The Rebel” goes further still, situating a white doctor in Burma during a dreamy, almost fever-ridden uprising by Kachin guerrillas. Of the 14 stories, the final six present Roman Catholic priests as viewpoint characters for events—often homoerotic encounters—that took place many years ago. Two of these (“The Temptation of Msgr. McCarthy” and “The Last Chapter”) concern themselves with men of faith uncovering the hidden proclivities of persons now deceased. The tone of writing throughout these stories suggests a broad acceptance of gay sexuality and compassion for those whose inclinations have resulted in suffering (church officials included). The result is an attitude at once more broad-minded than Catholic doctrine might suggest and yet more forgiving of abuses than readers may be comfortable with. Anthony writes with polished prose, evincing a literary fondness that will elevate the tales for some readers yet make them less accessible to others. “The Shelley Manuscript,” for instance, tells of a spirit writer (employed by a credulous Arthur Conan Doyle) who channels Oscar Wilde to recount a historically challenging eyewitness reappraisal of Shelley and Lord Byron. The story is layered and erudite, but relies in no small degree on readers possessing some familiarity with the subject matter. “Hercules: Love and Death,” in retelling the Greek myth of Alcestis and Admetus from the perspective of a modern-styled, sensitive Hercules, similarly benefits from readers knowing the original tale. Many of Anthony’s stories contain passing references to Greek mythology or Shakespeare (“The storm was Shakespearean, but no brave new world appeared”). The tense varies from past to present, the perspective from first to third person (with one story told in the second person). Most of the tales are life pieces, more reflective than hard-hitting. But when taken together, they pack a melancholic je ne sais quoi.
Wistful, yearning, and engrossing reflections on humans as creatures of uncertainty.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
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