The current oil-spill crisis only makes the hopefulness of this novel more moving, if heart-wrenching.
In this affective second novel from Story (More Than You Know, 2004), a Dallas-based violinist with the Fort Worth Symphony, New Orleans natives struggle to recover their lives as well as their property after Hurricane Katrina.
Julian Fortier, 36, who left Louisiana years ago to pursue his career as a jazz trumpeter and has had worldwide success, returns to New Orleans to search for his missing father Simon, 76, a retired chef whose house in the Treme neighborhood was ravaged by the hurricane. One of the first people Julian visits is Matthew Parmenter, who owned the high-end restaurant where Simon was chef and who gladly offers to help Julian’s search for him. Julian believes that Matthew, who is white, cheated Simon out of his rightful share of the wealth derived from a packaged version of Simon’s recipe for red beans and rice. When Matthew dies shortly thereafter, leaving his Garden District mansion and his recipe earnings to Simon, along with an apology, Julian must re-evaluate his easy judgments. Julian is also reunited with love-of-his-life Vel, who broke off their engagement shortly before he moved to New York because she refused to leave New Orleans. Now Vel accompanies Julian to Silver Creek Hollow, the Fortier family homestead north of the city where Julian hopes to find his father. Instead he discovers that a disreputable developer is attempting to wrest away the family’s ownership through tricky dealings. Julian has never felt a connection to the land Simon loved, but he begins to understand his father’s attachment. With the help of a fledgling lawyer (the evil developer’s estranged grandson), Julian and Vel fight for the land. Meanwhile Simon lies unrecognized in a hospital. Recovering consciousness, he makes his way back to Silver Creek. Story’s musical background infuses her novel with a lyrical rhythm that smooths the creakier plot machinations as engaging characters rebuild their relationships and their city.
The current oil-spill crisis only makes the hopefulness of this novel more moving, if heart-wrenching.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-932841-55-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Agate
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
A tour de force.
In 1974, a troubled Vietnam vet inherits a house from a fallen comrade and moves his family to Alaska.
After years as a prisoner of war, Ernt Allbright returned home to his wife, Cora, and daughter, Leni, a violent, difficult, restless man. The family moved so frequently that 13-year-old Leni went to five schools in four years. But when they move to Alaska, still very wild and sparsely populated, Ernt finds a landscape as raw as he is. As Leni soon realizes, “Everyone up here had two stories: the life before and the life now. If you wanted to pray to a weirdo god or live in a school bus or marry a goose, no one in Alaska was going to say crap to you.” There are many great things about this book—one of them is its constant stream of memorably formulated insights about Alaska. Another key example is delivered by Large Marge, a former prosecutor in Washington, D.C., who now runs the general store for the community of around 30 brave souls who live in Kaneq year-round. As she cautions the Allbrights, “Alaska herself can be Sleeping Beauty one minute and a bitch with a sawed-off shotgun the next. There’s a saying: Up here you can make one mistake. The second one will kill you.” Hannah’s (The Nightingale, 2015, etc.) follow-up to her series of blockbuster bestsellers will thrill her fans with its combination of Greek tragedy, Romeo and Juliet–like coming-of-age story, and domestic potboiler. She re-creates in magical detail the lives of Alaska's homesteaders in both of the state's seasons (they really only have two) and is just as specific and authentic in her depiction of the spiritual wounds of post-Vietnam America.
A tour de force.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-312-57723-0
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Oct. 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2017
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.
Eleven years ago, he broke her heart. But he doesn’t know why she never forgave him.
Toggling between past and present, two love stories unfold simultaneously. In the first, Macy Sorensen meets and falls in love with the boy next door, Elliot Petropoulos, in the closet of her dad’s vacation home, where they hide out to discuss their favorite books. In the second, Macy is working as a doctor and engaged to a single father, and she hasn’t spoken to Elliot since their breakup. But a chance encounter forces her to confront the truth: what happened to make Macy stop speaking to Elliot? Ultimately, they’re separated not by time or physical remoteness but by emotional distance—Elliot and Macy always kept their relationship casual because they went to different schools. And as a teen, Macy has more to worry about than which girl Elliot is taking to the prom. After losing her mother at a young age, Macy is navigating her teenage years without a female role model, relying on the time-stamped notes her mother left in her father’s care for guidance. In the present day, Macy’s father is dead as well. She throws herself into her work and rarely comes up for air, not even to plan her upcoming wedding. Since Macy is still living with her fiance while grappling with her feelings for Elliot, the flashbacks offer steamy moments, tender revelations, and sweetly awkward confessions while Macy makes peace with her past and decides her future.
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2801-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
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