A collection of intriguing characters too often situated in disjointed narratives.
A debut series of short stories set in locations around the world and told from a wide range of perspectives.
At the start of this collection, Hagen depicts the points of view of several different people who’ve come into contact with an unruly, seductive young man named Juan. His mother, her friends, and a girl he knows give their impressions and tell anecdotes about his selfish behavior; Juan also speaks for himself, at one point citing a moment of regret. The characters all relate their stories as if they’re responding to unseen questions, and it’s a style that’s maintained throughout the book; the first-person narrator of “The River,” for instance, describes two gruesome, untimely deaths in his village in the present tense. These two stories both feature compelling voices and intriguing ideas. However, they also feel fragmented, more like half an interview than a complete narrative. Hagen’s descriptions also make their context elusive; the locations may feel foreign to Americans or Europeans, as they feature islands, huts, and monsoons, but the text never gives readers a definitive sense of place. Other stories rectify these issues as they revisit similar themes with much more depth. In “Alfredo,” for example, an old man offers a European traveler details of life in Havana, including roaming packs of hungry dogs, long lines for the bus, and classic cars. The main character of “The Paradise Island” finds himself in a humorous but troubling predicament involving marriage customs in Bali. The shifting perspectives in “The Door” show how two people in love can have completely different ideas about the same situation. In these three standouts, each character has something engaging to offer readers, and the author fleshes out their worlds with concrete details to offer clearer understandings.
A collection of intriguing characters too often situated in disjointed narratives.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5035-8441-9
Page Count: 152
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An unusual and mesmerizing novel, gracefully written and deeply disturbing.
In her first novel to be published in English, South Korean writer Han divides a story about strange obsessions and metamorphosis into three parts, each with a distinct voice.
Yeong-hye and her husband drift through calm, unexceptional lives devoid of passion or anything that might disrupt their domestic routine until the day that Yeong-hye takes every piece of meat from the refrigerator, throws it away, and announces that she's become a vegetarian. Her decision is sudden and rigid, inexplicable to her family and a society where unconventional choices elicit distaste and concern that borders on fear. Yeong-hye tries to explain that she had a dream, a horrifying nightmare of bloody, intimate violence, and that's why she won't eat meat, but her husband and family remain perplexed and disturbed. As Yeong-hye sinks further into both nightmares and the conviction that she must transform herself into a different kind of being, her condition alters the lives of three members of her family—her husband, brother-in-law, and sister—forcing them to confront unsettling desires and the alarming possibility that even with the closest familiarity, people remain strangers. Each of these relatives claims a section of the novel, and each section is strikingly written, equally absorbing whether lush or emotionally bleak. The book insists on a reader’s attention, with an almost hypnotically serene atmosphere interrupted by surreal images and frighteningly recognizable moments of ordinary despair. Han writes convincingly of the disruptive power of longing and the choice to either embrace or deny it, using details that are nearly fantastical in their strangeness to cut to the heart of the very human experience of discovering that one is no longer content with life as it is.
An unusual and mesmerizing novel, gracefully written and deeply disturbing.Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-553-44818-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Hogarth
Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2015
Honeyman’s endearing debut is part comic novel, part emotional thriller, and part love story.
A very funny novel about the survivor of a childhood trauma.
At 29, Eleanor Oliphant has built an utterly solitary life that almost works. During the week, she toils in an office—don’t inquire further; in almost eight years no one has—and from Friday to Monday she makes the time go by with pizza and booze. Enlivening this spare existence is a constant inner monologue that is cranky, hilarious, deadpan, and irresistible. Eleanor Oliphant has something to say about everything. Riding the train, she comments on the automated announcements: “I wondered at whom these pearls of wisdom were aimed; some passing extraterrestrial, perhaps, or a yak herder from Ulan Bator who had trekked across the steppes, sailed the North Sea, and found himself on the Glasgow-Edinburgh service with literally no prior experience of mechanized transport to call upon.” Eleanor herself might as well be from Ulan Bator—she’s never had a manicure or a haircut, worn high heels, had anyone visit her apartment, or even had a friend. After a mysterious event in her childhood that left half her face badly scarred, she was raised in foster care, spent her college years in an abusive relationship, and is now, as the title states, perfectly fine. Her extreme social awkwardness has made her the butt of nasty jokes among her colleagues, which don’t seem to bother her much, though one notices she is stockpiling painkillers and becoming increasingly obsessed with an unrealistic crush on a local musician. Eleanor’s life begins to change when Raymond, a goofy guy from the IT department, takes her for a potential friend, not a freak of nature. As if he were luring a feral animal from its hiding place with a bit of cheese, he gradually brings Eleanor out of her shell. Then it turns out that shell was serving a purpose.
Honeyman’s endearing debut is part comic novel, part emotional thriller, and part love story.Pub Date: May 9, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7352-2068-3
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
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