An uneven but at times engaging war resistance tale that grapples with some of the moral complexities of the Vietnam era.
A group of callow but well-intentioned 1960s college students opposes the Vietnam War in this coming-of-age novel.
The grandson of a Colorado labor activist and a sometime college student, Tom Hill works construction jobs as a roofer. It is 1966 and the Vietnam War is heating up, but Tom, for the moment, seems more interested in his job site rivalry with a slow old-timer named Dennis whom he can run circles around. Dennis retaliates by firing a nail through part of Tom’s hand with his nail gun. Not only does Tom have to deal with his injury, but he has to confront his precarious student deferment status as well. The tale becomes intriguing when Bradbury (Kid Golly Speaks, 2018, etc.) focuses on Tom’s relationship with his student buddies, members of the steering committee for Peace Action Now, who are forever posturing and leafleting the university in their fictional Colorado campus town that somewhat resembles Boulder and Fort Collins. Tom has eyes for winsome committee member Sandra, the daughter of his mentor and adviser, the avuncular Professor Ellsworth Boyce, an expert in Colorado labor history and ardent supporter of the anti-war movement. The author effectively ratchets up the action as Tom deals with his draft board and the heavy consequences of his opposition to the war when the police attack him at a local rally. Bradbury deftly captures the taut confusion that takes place when Tom has to take his draft physical. Throughout, the author’s dialogue and prose prove crisp and sometimes succinct. “He would graduate winter quarter, 1968, the prime rate willing,” Bradbury writes of Tom. But often the book bogs down, mostly due to the lack of a strong editor (“Go the hell, Dennis”; “He decided he to get one at the post office”; “Still, their leader, Pete, upheld up the tradition willingly”).
An uneven but at times engaging war resistance tale that grapples with some of the moral complexities of the Vietnam era.Pub Date: May 19, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4787-7048-0
Page Count: 372
Publisher: Outskirts Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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