Otherworldly figures provide substance to a tale that’s too often dragged down by the mundane.
Debut author Ramone offers a novel about one businessman’s struggle with faith.
As the head of the pharmaceutical company Twenty-Second Century Medicine, Jason Porter is no stranger to success. Ever since the death of his grandfather—an enthusiast of biblical teachings—Jason vowed to “rid the world of as much disease as he could.” But although he was motivated by his religious relative’s passing, it also made him lose his faith in God. Now, Jason’s company is on the verge of a breakthrough: a mechanism of “focused nutrition” to enhance human health. As a result, the company is poised to close a major deal with the One-World Medical Authority, which could have a positive effect on global well-being. But Jason doesn’t feel quite right about the situation. They’re in direct competition with an equally powerful firm, and if that weren’t enough, strange things keep happening: the woman who cleans his office sees a demon in the bathroom, and soon, Jason encounters various other oddities that indicate that angels and devils may be real—just as his grandfather once said. This is driven home when Jason meets a husky angel named Patronus, who assures him that “Because of His plan for your life, they are set to destroy you.” “They” are countless demons, working for their ill-tempered leader, Abaddon. Meanwhile, Jason struggles with restoring his personal faith. This story is alive with the supernatural elements as it takes a look behind the scenes at the battle raging for humanity’s souls. In it, demons frequently influence humans directly by, for example, whispering things in order to cause doubt. This narrative choice adds an extra layer to the story, as every action a person takes is potentially influenced by a supernatural creature. However, scenes of business meetings often slow the narrative, due in part to their flat dialogue: “I’ve been thinking about some modifications for the security protocol,” says the protagonist to his security director at one point. “I would like to run them by you before the meeting.” Such statements are as thrilling as a day in the office—regardless of the invisible forces at play.
Otherworldly figures provide substance to a tale that’s too often dragged down by the mundane.Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5127-5632-6
Page Count: 278
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.
Hunter’s debut novel tracks the experiences of her family members during the Holocaust.
Sol and Nechuma Kurc, wealthy, cultured Jews in Radom, Poland, are successful shop owners; they and their grown children live a comfortable lifestyle. But that lifestyle is no protection against the onslaught of the Holocaust, which eventually scatters the members of the Kurc family among several continents. Genek, the oldest son, is exiled with his wife to a Siberian gulag. Halina, youngest of all the children, works to protect her family alongside her resistance-fighter husband. Addy, middle child, a composer and engineer before the war breaks out, leaves Europe on one of the last passenger ships, ending up thousands of miles away. Then, too, there are Mila and Felicia, Jakob and Bella, each with their own share of struggles—pain endured, horrors witnessed. Hunter conducted extensive research after learning that her grandfather (Addy in the book) survived the Holocaust. The research shows: her novel is thorough and precise in its details. It’s less precise in its language, however, which frequently relies on cliché. “You’ll get only one shot at this,” Halina thinks, enacting a plan to save her husband. “Don’t botch it.” Later, Genek, confronting a routine bit of paperwork, must decide whether or not to hide his Jewishness. “That form is a deal breaker,” he tells himself. “It’s life and death.” And: “They are low, it seems, on good fortune. And something tells him they’ll need it.” Worse than these stale phrases, though, are the moments when Hunter’s writing is entirely inadequate for the subject matter at hand. Genek, describing the gulag, calls the nearest town “a total shitscape.” This is a low point for Hunter’s writing; elsewhere in the novel, it’s stronger. Still, the characters remain flat and unknowable, while the novel itself is predictable. At this point, more than half a century’s worth of fiction and film has been inspired by the Holocaust—a weighty and imposing tradition. Hunter, it seems, hasn’t been able to break free from her dependence on it.
Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-56308-9
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
BOOK TO SCREEN
The writing is merely serviceable, and one can’t help but wish the author had found a way to present her material as...
An unlikely love story set amid the horrors of a Nazi death camp.
Based on real people and events, this debut novel follows Lale Sokolov, a young Slovakian Jew sent to Auschwitz in 1942. There, he assumes the heinous task of tattooing incoming Jewish prisoners with the dehumanizing numbers their SS captors use to identify them. When the Tätowierer, as he is called, meets fellow prisoner Gita Furman, 17, he is immediately smitten. Eventually, the attraction becomes mutual. Lale proves himself an operator, at once cagey and courageous: As the Tätowierer, he is granted special privileges and manages to smuggle food to starving prisoners. Through female prisoners who catalog the belongings confiscated from fellow inmates, Lale gains access to jewels, which he trades to a pair of local villagers for chocolate, medicine, and other items. Meanwhile, despite overwhelming odds, Lale and Gita are able to meet privately from time to time and become lovers. In 1944, just ahead of the arrival of Russian troops, Lale and Gita separately leave the concentration camp and experience harrowingly close calls. Suffice it to say they both survive. To her credit, the author doesn’t flinch from describing the depravity of the SS in Auschwitz and the unimaginable suffering of their victims—no gauzy evasions here, as in Boy in the Striped Pajamas. She also manages to raise, if not really explore, some trickier issues—the guilt of those Jews, like the tattooist, who survived by doing the Nazis’ bidding, in a sense betraying their fellow Jews; and the complicity of those non-Jews, like the Slovaks in Lale’s hometown, who failed to come to the aid of their beleaguered countrymen.
The writing is merely serviceable, and one can’t help but wish the author had found a way to present her material as nonfiction. Still, this is a powerful, gut-wrenching tale that is hard to shake off.Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-279715-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
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