by Robert Traver ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 20, 1981
No, this isn't another Anatomy of a Murder: the psychology and law are a bit too undigested here, the central mystery is a little too easy to guess, and much of the stagy, folksy dialogue is awfully dated. But Traver remains a master of low-key courtroom drama, and most of this unpretentious murder-trial novel is genially readable. The narrator is trout-fishing Michigan lawyer Frederick Ludlow, who's been hired to defend young Randall Kirk—accused of murdering (by drowning) lovely Mrs. Constance Spurrier, with whom he was having a longtime affair. The problem, however, is that sullen Randy claims to have no memory of the time surrounding the murder! Furthermore, he seems to forget even more while in jail. So Ludlow, with help from retired Dr. Hugh Salter, wants to get court permission to use hypnotism to recall Randy's memory: there's a pre-trial hearing on the subject, a mini-history of hypnotism, and a Ludlow victory. But Randy seems oddly resistant to hypnosis—and Dr. Hugh gently persists while the trial begins, with heaps of evidence against the defendant. Meanwhile, the issue focus moves to the question of "impaired consciousness" as a defense to a crime (was Randy sleepwalking or something when—if—he did it?); and though this isn't quite as interesting as the "irresistible impulse" question in Anatomy of a Murder, Traver pursues the legal precedents at length. And finally, the doc's hypnosis having succeeded at last, Randy remembers all and takes the stand, detailing how he was in fact programmed into killing his beloved Constance—by the most likely suspect. This windup twist is far from new to mystery fiction (it goes at least as far back as Wilkie Collins), but Traver documents it more seriously and authentically than most. And for those who don't mind the creakiness here—likable Ludlow's wheezy humor, the chunks of technical exposition, or some truly unreal conversational outbursts from 28-year-old Randy ("How can mere clumsy words ever tell the state of enchantment, of suspended ecstasy and bliss, that came over me when we two were together")—this is a nice old-fashioned read, with special appeal to hypnotism buffs and armchair lawyers.
Pub Date: Oct. 20, 1981
ISBN: 0312600062
Page Count: 298
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1981
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by Paulo Coelho & translated by Margaret Jull Costa ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1993
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
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by Paulo Coelho ; illustrated by Christoph Niemann ; translated by Margaret Jull Costa
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by Paulo Coelho ; translated by Eric M.B. Becker
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by Paulo Coelho ; translated by Zoë Perry
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
by Hanya Yanagihara ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 10, 2015
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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