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MOONLIGHT HELMSMAN

ROBERT SMALLS' AMAZING ESCAPE

A seamless weave of historical investigation and fictional drama starring an African-American hero.

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A debut historical novel chronicles the struggle of a slave to win his freedom in the antebellum South.

Maule’s book focuses on a real-life hero, Robert Smalls. Smalls was born in South Carolina in 1839, the result of his mother—a slave—being raped by her master, Henry McKee. McKee’s wife discovered the truth about Smalls’ parentage and ensured his treatment was superior to other slaves’ and that he received additional training. But he was denied a real education, including literacy, and Smalls chafed at his double status, privileged but still imprisoned. Due to chronic displays of defiance, he was sent away to work at the Baines Hotel in Charleston, a move that promised greater opportunity but potential danger, too. Smalls, always infatuated with water, eventually found work at the Atlantic Wharf and landed a job on the Lone Kestrel, where he achieved his dream of becoming a full sailor. He also met Hannah Jones, the woman who became his wife after he brokered a deal with her owner to gradually purchase her freedom. But the dark storms of war gathered, and Smalls decided it was necessary—however perilous—to escape. He orchestrated a daring plan that involved the theft of the boat on which he had been working, the CSS Planter—at the time in the employ of the Confederate cause. Smalls became the captain, the first African-American to achieve such status in the U.S. Navy, and distinguished himself for his valor during the Civil War. He later became a successful businessman and purchased the mansion he once served in as a slave. Maule skillfully renders Smalls’ life through fictional embellishment, powerfully portraying his indomitable longing for liberty. The narrative covers Smalls’ life up until his final escape, and the remainder, including his time as a congressman, is quickly cataloged in a bullet-point epilogue. If Maule’s account of Smalls’ early years had been more concise, the author could have devoted more time to the full fruition of the protagonist’s labors and risks. Nonetheless, this is a riveting story and a sadly neglected sliver of American history.

A seamless weave of historical investigation and fictional drama starring an African-American hero.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-9984937-0-1

Page Count: 374

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017

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TELL ME LIES

There are unforgettable beauties in this very sexy story.

Passion, friendship, heartbreak, and forgiveness ring true in Lovering's debut, the tale of a young woman's obsession with a man who's "good at being charming."

Long Island native Lucy Albright, starts her freshman year at Baird College in Southern California, intending to study English and journalism and become a travel writer. Stephen DeMarco, an upperclassman, is a political science major who plans to become a lawyer. Soon after they meet, Lucy tells Stephen an intensely personal story about the Unforgivable Thing, a betrayal that turned Lucy against her mother. Stephen pretends to listen to Lucy's painful disclosure, but all his thoughts are about her exposed black bra strap and her nipples pressing against her thin cotton T-shirt. It doesn't take Lucy long to realize Stephen's a "manipulative jerk" and she is "beyond pathetic" in her desire for him, but their lives are now intertwined. Their story takes seven years to unfold, but it's a fast-paced ride through hookups, breakups, and infidelities fueled by alcohol and cocaine and with oodles of sizzling sexual tension. "Lucy was an itch, a song stuck in your head or a movie you need to rewatch or a food you suddenly crave," Stephen says in one of his point-of-view chapters, which alternate with Lucy's. The ending is perfect, as Lucy figures out the dark secret Stephen has kept hidden and learns the difference between lustful addiction and mature love.

There are unforgettable beauties in this very sexy story.

Pub Date: June 12, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-5011-6964-9

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Atria

Review Posted Online: March 19, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018

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A LITTLE LIFE

The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.

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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

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