by Steven Day ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 17, 2020
A vividly morose prophecy of an ugly, reactionary surveillance state leavened slightly by its finale.
Awards & Accolades
Our Verdict
GET IT
Day’s debut novel imagines the United States in 2099 as a dystopian, authoritarian-corporate police state, where a disgruntled, radicalized bartender explores how the dictatorship came into being.
In the near future, the nation, embroiled in constant wars with other countries, is deep into its “New Era” of totalitarianism featuring corrupt presidents, unregulated corporations, and environmental fallout from climate change. Although the state pays lip service to “freedom,” the populace is sent to compulsory Public Bible School and Patriotism Camp and is routinely terrorized by widespread surveillance and threats of torture and execution by the dreaded Internal Security Service. Propaganda, meanwhile, claims that unseen saboteurs and terrorists lurk everywhere. In Loyalty, Kansas—one of several polluted, industrial-nightmare towns erected on the Great Plains—Joe Carlton, who once harbored acting ambitions, subsists unhappily as a bartender, serving factory drones after their 12-hour shifts. An atypical patron arrives: an old man who was politically active in the distant past, as American society shifted toward scoundrels and capitalists. His talk of freedom of expression and travel is new to Joe; such things have been erased from historical records (as have books such as Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird), and the barkeep’s first impulse is betrayal. But seeds of rebellion have been planted, leading Joe into forbidden sectors of town and asking how this dystopia came to be. The author's dire extrapolation of current headlines doesn’t specifically name Republicans or Democrats, but when Day characterizes a long-ago president-villain as a “dolt” and “Intellectually incurious, corrupt, self-centered, [and] lawless,” it’s an easy reference to figure out. The book’s setting and regime often feel like the worst aspects of Cold War Albania or North Korea superimposed upon a society based on corporate greed, and an Orwellian chill wind of hopeless oppression blows through most of the plot. Day does offer a solution in the end—with a war of ideas rather than brute force—so sympatico readers may be assured that present difficult times shall pass; others may be less reassured.
A vividly morose prophecy of an ugly, reactionary surveillance state leavened slightly by its finale.Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2020
ISBN: 979-8-67-619822-0
Page Count: 324
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Share your opinion of this book
by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
Awards & Accolades
Likes
238
Our Verdict
GET IT
New York Times Bestseller
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
Share your opinion of this book
More by Kristin Hannah
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
More About This Book
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2004
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Share your opinion of this book
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.