First published in 1956, this stirring, populous, large-hearted story about a rogue environmentalist is both a portrait of a...
Gary (1914-1980; The Kites, 2017, etc.), French Resistance aviator, war hero, and the only author to win the prestigious Prix Goncourt under two different names, overlays the plight of elephants and humans in this sprawling and ambitious novel set in post–WWII Africa.
The book begins as a story within a story, in a style reminiscent of Conrad, the details emerging gradually. A Jesuit priest arrives deep in the bush of French Equatorial Africa to question the colonial administrator there about events of the recent past. At the heart of the story is an idealist and former dentist named Morel, who petitions for the protection of the elephant herds. Dismissed as a crackpot and accused of misanthropy for caring more about elephants than people, he eventually abandons his petition and turns vigilante, shooting hunters and elephant trappers, burning ivory traders' buildings, ordering a trophy hunter flogged in public. His story catches the world's attention, stirring up sympathy for his cause and creating a public relations disaster for the local colonial government. Others join him: an elderly Danish naturalist and environmentalist; a young German woman orphaned in the siege of Berlin and raped by Russian soldiers; a dishonorably discharged, alcoholic American major; a charismatic Oulé tribesman with a French wife and education who wants to use Morel and his elephants in the struggle for African self-determination; a Jewish American news photographer who lost his family to the Nazis. As in The Kites, Gary is interested in the fate of idealism in a disillusioned, violent world, but this novel also compels us to consider the fate of nature in the face of human encroachment and greed. The horrors of WWII and the atomic bomb loom over the characters. Morel's identification with elephants began in a German concentration camp, where the idea of them roaming free on the plains of Africa kept him sane. Though his motives get twisted for political ends, he repeatedly rejects nationalism, insisting that the elephants are not symbols but living beings: "They breathe, they suffer, and they die, like you and me." The theme of suffering runs deeply through the novel. So does the loneliness of the human condition, which dogs each of these characters differently, including the British colonel with the pet jumping bean that is later buried with him. Gary shows a deep sympathy for his well-drawn, misfit characters as well as for the continent of Africa, shown here at a crossroads.
First published in 1956, this stirring, populous, large-hearted story about a rogue environmentalist is both a portrait of a vanished age and a timely reminder of the choices that still confront us.Pub Date: Feb. 21, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-56792-626-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Godine
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
Edgar’s own story in the present is more compelling than the revelations of the key’s past, and the novel might have been...
The prolific master of psycho-horror returns to the mysteries of the creative process, a subject that has inspired some of his most haunting work.
This could be considered a companion piece to The Shining, offering plenty of reversals on that plot. In both cases, isolation has severe effects on the psyche of an artist, yet where the former novel found its protagonist in a lethal state of writer’s block, the latter sees a one-time building magnate transformed into an impossibly prolific and powerful painter, due to circumstances beyond his control. And where the isolation in the former had a family cut off from society by a frigid northern winter, the setting of the latter is a mysterious Florida key, lush and tropical in its overgrowth, somehow immune to commercial development. A self-made millionaire, Edgar Freemantle narrates the novel in a conversational, matter-of-fact tone. He explains how a job-site accident cost him his arm, his sanity (during the early part of an extended recuperation) and his wife (whom he had physically threatened after the accident transformed him into something other than himself). What he gained was a seemingly inexplicable command as a visual artist, particularly after his recuperation (from both his accident and his marriage) takes him to the isolated Duma Key, where the only other inhabitants are an elderly, wealthy woman and her caretaker. It seems that all three have suffered severe traumas that bond them and that perhaps have even drawn them together. Soon Edgar discovers that his art has given him the power not only to predict the future, but to transform it. He ultimately pays a steep price for his artistic gifts, particularly as his investigation of the mysteries of Duma Key lead him to discover the tragic origins of his artistic vision.
Edgar’s own story in the present is more compelling than the revelations of the key’s past, and the novel might have been twice as powerful if it had been cut by a third, but King fans will find it engrossing.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-4165-5251-2
Page Count: 624
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2007
No one captures the flavor and experience of a summer place—the outdoor showers, the seafood, the sand in the...
A celebrity chef’s sudden death leaves his widow, exes, children, and best friend in a quandary.
And since this is a Hilderbrand novel, is there any doubt that the dilemma involves Nantucket real estate? A somewhat dilapidated (or at least, dated) and decidedly downscale beachfront cottage known as American Paradise serves as plot driver and central symbol. As his success grew, Chef Deacon Thorpe bought the house with his first wife, Laurel, as a repository of happy memories for his son, Hayes—the kind that Deacon himself had been denied. (He had one idyllic day on Nantucket with his own father, who then mysteriously and permanently disappeared.) Deacon and Laurel never wanted to upgrade the house, and there are still reminders of earlier inhabitants, including a ghost supposedly occupying the smallest attic room. Now, Deacon has died (on the cottage’s back deck, of a coronary), leaving nothing but debt. American Paradise is facing foreclosure due to the three mortgages Deacon took out, unbeknownst to his family. Surprisingly, or perhaps not given Deacon’s (and Hilderbrand’s) sense of humor, he has left the place to his three spouses, current and former—Laurel, Belinda, the movie star he left her for, and official widow Scarlett, the Southern belle who was the nanny for his and Belinda's adopted daughter, Angie. Best friend Buck, Deacon’s long-suffering fiduciary, has called the wives and children to American Paradise to scatter Deacon’s ashes and—a duty Buck has been dreading—read the will. Each member of this unique blended family has a say, as they squabble over turf and mull over their past and ongoing missteps, loves, and addictions. Angie, a talented chef in her own right, prepares lavish meals (rendered in mouthwatering detail, including recipes). The question looms—if Deacon’s Nantucket legacy can’t be shared, can it be saved?
No one captures the flavor and experience of a summer place—the outdoor showers, the seafood, the sand in the floorboards—like Hilderbrand.Pub Date: June 14, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-316-37514-6
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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