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UNYIELDING DESTINY

Name: UNYIELDING DESTINY
Author: Spiros Gratsias
ISBN: 978-1-07-068408-6

by Spiros Gratsias ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 28, 2019

A mob tale that occasionally entertains but never satisfies.

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A historical crime novel tells the story of a Mafia hit man with divided loyalties.

After the death of his father and mother, 8-year-old Frank Morris—who up to this point had lived in a tenement on the Lower East Side—is adopted by Mafia don Joseph Cabineri. Three decades later, in 1962, Frank is serving a 14-year sentence for burglary in Alcatraz. Scott Easten lives with his mother, a nurse at the nearby Presidio Army base, and accompanies her during a three-day assignment at the prison. When Frank happens to meet the boy through the prison fence, he sees the dog tags around Scott’s neck: those of his dead father, Roy Easten. Unknown to Scott, Roy is the man who saved Frank’s life during the Korean War by selflessly leaping on a grenade. “He knew this question would haunt him for the rest of his life or at least until God revealed the answer,” Frank thought at the time. “Was I saved for a reason? Or was it just chance, pure chance, an event without meaning?” Frank soon escapes from Alcatraz and resurfaces in New York, where—after cosmetic surgery to alter his appearance—he becomes a “ghost hit man” whose very existence is known only to a few. By that time, Scott has grown to manhood and been named assistant district attorney of New York. Part of his job is to rein in the city’s organized crime families, including the one that Frank serves. When push comes to shove, will Frank stay loyal to the system that raised him or pay back the sacrifice of the man who saved his life? Gratsias’ (Rootless Roots, 2016, etc.) prose is simple and direct, communicating his images with efficiency: “His now-long, dyed hair protruded from under a black New York Yankees baseball cap. Not even his best friends from the old neighborhood would recognize him. Fifteen years had passed since his metamorphosis, and aging only added to the plastic surgeon’s handicraft.” But the author displays a perplexing lack of imagination when it comes to names. There are five characters named Sam and three others called either Simpson or Simson. While Gratsias’ inclusion of the 1962 Alcatraz escape (which really did feature a man named Frank Morris) is an impressive narrative trick, it feels somewhat irrelevant to the main story of the protagonist’s dilemma. Much time is wasted in the first half of the book, both on Alcatraz and on the character of Scott, who never quite feels fully formed. While the author manages some surprising turns over the course of the book, none of them feel terribly meaningful, and his attempts to sell readers on the nobility of the Mafia and Frank in general feel romantic and disingenuous. When the great concluding moment comes, readers will have trouble feeling much at all.

A mob tale that occasionally entertains but never satisfies.

Pub Date: May 28, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-07-068408-6

Page Count: 303

Publisher: Time Tunnel Media

Review Posted Online: July 7, 2019

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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ELEANOR OLIPHANT IS COMPLETELY FINE

by Gail Honeyman ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 9, 2017

Honeyman’s endearing debut is part comic novel, part emotional thriller, and part love story.

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A very funny novel about the survivor of a childhood trauma.

At 29, Eleanor Oliphant has built an utterly solitary life that almost works. During the week, she toils in an office—don’t inquire further; in almost eight years no one has—and from Friday to Monday she makes the time go by with pizza and booze. Enlivening this spare existence is a constant inner monologue that is cranky, hilarious, deadpan, and irresistible. Eleanor Oliphant has something to say about everything. Riding the train, she comments on the automated announcements: “I wondered at whom these pearls of wisdom were aimed; some passing extraterrestrial, perhaps, or a yak herder from Ulan Bator who had trekked across the steppes, sailed the North Sea, and found himself on the Glasgow-Edinburgh service with literally no prior experience of mechanized transport to call upon.” Eleanor herself might as well be from Ulan Bator—she’s never had a manicure or a haircut, worn high heels, had anyone visit her apartment, or even had a friend. After a mysterious event in her childhood that left half her face badly scarred, she was raised in foster care, spent her college years in an abusive relationship, and is now, as the title states, perfectly fine. Her extreme social awkwardness has made her the butt of nasty jokes among her colleagues, which don’t seem to bother her much, though one notices she is stockpiling painkillers and becoming increasingly obsessed with an unrealistic crush on a local musician. Eleanor’s life begins to change when Raymond, a goofy guy from the IT department, takes her for a potential friend, not a freak of nature. As if he were luring a feral animal from its hiding place with a bit of cheese, he gradually brings Eleanor out of her shell. Then it turns out that shell was serving a purpose.

Honeyman’s endearing debut is part comic novel, part emotional thriller, and part love story.

Pub Date: May 9, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-7352-2068-3

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking

Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK TO SCREEN
‘Eleanor Oliphant’ Film Adaptation in the Works

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THE JOY LUCK CLUB

by Amy Tan ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 22, 1989

With lantern-lit tales of old China, a rich humanity, and an acute ear for bicultural tuning, a splendid first novel—one...

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An inordinately moving, electric exploration of two warring cultures fused in love, focused on the lives of four Chinese women—who emigrated, in their youth, at various times, to San Francisco—and their very American 30-ish daughters.

Tan probes the tension of love and often angry bewilderment as the older women watch their daughters "as from another shore," and the daughters struggle to free themselves from maddening threads of arcane obligation. More than the gap between generations, more than the dwindling of old ways, the Chinese mothers most fear that their own hopes and truths—the secret gardens of the spirit that they have cultivated in the very worst of times—will not take root. A Chinese mother's responsibility here is to "give [my daughter] my spirit." The Joy Luck Club, begun in 1939 San Francisco, was a re-creation of the Club founded by Suyuan Woo in a beleaguered Chinese city. There, in the stench of starvation and death, four women told their "good stories," tried their luck with mah-jongg, laughed, and "feasted" on scraps. Should we, thought Suyuan, "wait for death or choose our own happiness?" Now, the Chinese women in America tell their stories (but not to their daughters or to one another): in China, an unwilling bride uses her wits, learns that she is "strong. . .like the wind"; another witnesses the suicide of her mother; and there are tales of terror, humiliation and despair. One recognizes fate but survives. But what of the American daughters—in turn grieved, furious, exasperated, amused ("You can't ever tell a Chinese mother to shut up")? The daughters, in their confessional chapters, have attempted childhood rebellions—like the young chess champion; ever on maternal display, who learned that wiles of the chessboard did not apply when opposing Mother, who had warned her: "Strongest wind cannot be seen." Other daughters—in adulthood, in crises, and drifting or upscale life-styles—tilt with mothers, one of whom wonders: "How can she be her own person? When did I give her up?"

With lantern-lit tales of old China, a rich humanity, and an acute ear for bicultural tuning, a splendid first novel—one that matches the vigor and sensitivity of Maxine Hong Kingston (The Warrior Woman, 1976; China Men, 1980) in her tributes to the abundant heritage of Chinese-Americans.