A sometimes-dark but always buoyant novel of life beyond motherhood and family.
A pleasant tale of family and one woman’s quest to live a fulfilled life.
Billie May Worthington is juggling twin toddlers on a remote island. The novel is largely concerned with how she got there. Quickly, the story jumps back in time, with Billie, the Midwest-born girl living in the U.K., about to embark on an exciting literary career following graduation. She’s Type A, a planner who doesn’t like to leave things to chance, but all that’s about to change when sexy artist-cum-architect Evan Skylark enters her life. Evan’s charm and prowess win over Billie quickly. Before she knows what hit her, she’s agreeing to move with Evan to Paris, where a dream job waits for him with Architecture Sans Limites. Life in Paris is romantic for the pair, and the circumstances they find themselves in drip with bohemian charm. While Evan puts in long hours at the office, Billie devotes herself to the written world. She’s a writer, though she feels funny calling herself that until she’s got a published book. Nevertheless, she presses on. Things seem idyllic in Paris, but before long, the fairy tale comes to a crashing halt. Billie May and Evan are forced to return to the U.K., where they spend some time tending the land and animals at a remote farm owned by Billie’s stepfather. A fortuitous job offer takes the Skylarks from one hard-to-reach island to another. The twins aren’t far behind. Motherhood, career, and literary ambitions take on a whole new character on the South Pacific island of St. Cloud. Morgan’s quaint tale offers much in the way of escapism, with hints of a darker side, particularly with Evan’s drinking. Settings are richly described, and the colorful characters offer old-world charm and rambunctious energy. Though events can sometimes take a harrowing turn, the stakes never feel particularly grave. The reader feels that, for Billie, one way or another, things will always work out for the best.
A sometimes-dark but always buoyant novel of life beyond motherhood and family.Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-473-28918-8
Page Count: 438
Publisher: Lucky Arbuckle Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
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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