An original and thoughtful entry in the contemporary romance genre.
A visit to a resort turns into a life-changing experience for an entrepreneur and the woman he loves in this novel.
All Nakia Noble wants during her vacation is peace and quiet, but her sister, Kirby, thinks she should find a man and have fun. Nakia catches the eye of Caleb Jones, a successful entrepreneur and outdoorsman. Their connection is instant, and they spend a passionate evening together. Caleb wants to turn their mutual attraction into a romance. While Nakia is drawn to him, she is reluctant to pursue a relationship because he is white and she is African-American. She believes it is easier to marry someone who “sees the world the way you do.” Several weeks later, he visits her family’s resort and discovers their link is still intense. While exploring a cave, Nakia and Caleb fall asleep and wake up in a country called Acirema in an alternative universe. In Acirema, Nakia is part of a special police unit tasked with rounding up weeds, or the oppressed. Caleb is an integral part of the Resistance. As they try to find a way back to their reality, they develop an unshakeable bond, one that is tested as they are pursued by a dangerous enemy. This latest novel from Robinson (OCAAT, 2017, etc.) is an ambitious combination of romance and speculative fiction bolstered by dynamic characters, well-drawn settings, and a propulsive narrative. Nakia and Caleb are strong protagonists whose relationship anchors the story. The author establishes their physical connection in the opening chapters through playful, flirtatious dialogue and scenes that crackle with erotic tension. Nakia’s views on race and relationships inform her vision of her ideal partner, and her reluctance to pursue a romance with Caleb is sensitively handled. They are surrounded by a well-developed cast of supporting characters, including Nakia’s eccentric Uncle Wallace and Kirby. Robinson is particularly adept at creating vivid settings. The contrast between the tranquility of Nakia’s family’s resort and the grim, ravaged Acirema is striking, and the two lovers’ journey is gripping and suspenseful.
An original and thoughtful entry in the contemporary romance genre.Pub Date: June 12, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9964389-7-1
Page Count: 340
Publisher: ARTwo Publishers
Review Posted Online: Aug. 14, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2018
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
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BOOK REVIEW
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Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of...
Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State.
Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle’s answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate’s buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, only to blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully’s latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she’s given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it’s too late?
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36408-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007
BOOK TO SCREEN
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