Sotto’s characters are flattened by the crush of history—a flaw that overshadows the cleverness of her conceit.
Though this debut has all the components of a summer treat—romantic European locales, tragedy across the centuries, a supernatural leading man—it fizzles in the telling.
After two years of marriage, young Shelley is widowed when a subway bombing kills Max. Three years later, a young man comes to her London door with unbelievable news: He is Max’s grandson Paolo. He has convincing evidence in a series of photos of himself as a child with Max, but as she, Max and Paolo are all about the same age, the truth that Max is very old, in fact, immortal, is inconceivable. Nevertheless, Paolo has found Max running a restaurant on a remote Pacific island, so Shelly and Paolo take the next plane to the Philippines to confront him. On the long ride, Shelly narrates her romance with Max and unravels the truth about his long, long past. On a whim five years ago, Shelly took a quirky tour with Max’s company, which offered an unusual perspective on Europe’s great capitals. At each out-of-the-way site, Max spun an incredible yarn for his merry little group of travelers: the tale of poor Isabelle during the 19th-century Communard Revolt, the fate of two adventurers at the French Revolution, a ghost story involving a mad mercenary in 16th-century Switzerland, a quiet conversation on aging between an old abbot and a young monk in a 13th-century Austrian monastery and so on, until Max’s tour reaches its conclusion at Herculaneum, one of the ancient cities destroyed by Vesuvius in 79 CE, an event that made Max immortal. On the tour Shelly and Max fell in love—it is only in the retelling to Paolo that Shelly realizes these stories were about Max. Surprisingly, following Max through history is rather dull. He is often not the lead player; so much of the novel is composed of vignettes of characters who simply come and go, without the weight of Max (himself a rather shadowy figure) to ground the story.
Sotto’s characters are flattened by the crush of history—a flaw that overshadows the cleverness of her conceit.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-307-71987-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2011
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.
Another reboot of Jane Austen?!? Hadlow pulls it off in a smart, heartfelt novel devoted to bookish Mary, middle of the five sisters in Pride and Prejudice.
Part 1 recaps Pride and Prejudice through Mary’s eyes, climaxing with the humiliating moment when she sings poorly at a party and older sister Elizabeth goads their father to cut her off in front of everyone. The sisters’ friend Charlotte, who marries the unctuous Mr. Collins after Elizabeth rejects him, emerges as a pivotal character; her conversations with Mary are even tougher-minded here than those with Elizabeth depicted by Austen. In Part 2, two years later, Mary observes on a visit that Charlotte is deferential but remote with her husband; she forms an intellectual friendship with the neglected and surprisingly nice Mr. Collins that leads to Charlotte’s asking Mary to leave. In Part 3, Mary finds refuge in London with her kindly aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner. Mrs. Gardiner is the second motherly woman, after Longbourn housekeeper Mrs. Hill, to try to undo the psychic damage wrought by Mary’s actual mother, shallow, status-obsessed Mrs. Bennet, by building up her confidence and buying her some nice clothes (funded by guilt-ridden Lizzy). Sure enough, two suitors appear: Tom Hayward, a poetry-loving lawyer who relishes Mary’s intellect but urges her to also express her feelings; and William Ryder, charming but feckless inheritor of a large fortune, whom naturally Mrs. Bennet loudly favors. It takes some maneuvering to orchestrate the estrangement of Mary and Tom, so clearly right for each other, but debut novelist Hadlow manages it with aplomb in a bravura passage describing a walking tour of the Lake District rife with seething complications furthered by odious Caroline Bingley. Her comeuppance at Mary’s hands marks the welcome final step in our heroine’s transformation from a self-doubting wallflower to a vibrant, self-assured woman who deserves her happy ending. Hadlow traces that progression with sensitivity, emotional clarity, and a quiet edge of social criticism Austen would have relished.
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-12941-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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