May appeal to teens who may be interested in—but not quite ready for—Nicholas Sparks.
From New Mexico to Canada to Scotland, Teachworth’s (Two Stones, 2008, etc.) YA short stories introduce readers to a variety of teenage protagonists whose lives have been touched by intangible forces.
In “Fireflies,” the opening story of the collection, the soccer-playing Tamia, a young girl of Navajo and Mexican-American descent, completes a science project about fireflies, but she draws community attention to problematic power lines in the neighborhood. “Callanish Stones” tells the tale of a young boy, a shipwreck, a daring rescue and a remarkable reunion. Nicho learns the extent of God’s healing powers in “Saving Grace.” A father passes down a chicken-bone necklace of potentially magical proportions in “All the Right Moves.” Each of Teachworth’s short stories addresses the forces of the natural or supernatural worlds and the power of faith. He gives characters detailed back stories. The tales are readable and may appeal to younger readers put off by long novels. Unfortunately, the voices of Teachworth’s teenagers don’t ring true. Dialogue tends to feel inflated and inauthentic. For example, in “Play,” Mila, who is coming to terms with the abhorrent behavior of her abusive father, replies to her mother’s apology with credulity-straining, mature language: “We need to support each other, stay strong, and plot out a future. There will be a lot to think about, like our livelihood.” Moreover, the exposition is so detailed, it occasionally makes the conclusion of each story feel abrupt in comparison. The resolutions often need additional explanation and support due to the supernatural elements of the plot. Readers who sympathize with these characters may want to know not just how the story ends, but how the main character fares at the conclusion of the journey.
May appeal to teens who may be interested in—but not quite ready for—Nicholas Sparks.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2013
ISBN: 978-0970939203
Page Count: 244
Publisher: RST Productions
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2013
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
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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