A Civil War–era drama follows the adventures of two close-knit brothers.
Joe McSweeney is only 17 and has enjoyed a comfortable existence provided by his father’s entrepreneurialism in Tennessee, but he is still chomping at the bit to join the Confederate Army. In his eyes, the war is less a fight over slavery than a financially motivated power grab by a tyrannical North. His younger brother, Jim, decides to enlist with him, but shortly after their newly formed company heads for the Missouri border to join up with its battalion, they’re ambushed by Union soldiers. The two boys, and their only slightly older sergeant, O’Brien, are captured and sent to Camp Douglas, a detention center infamous for its gruesome conditions: “Horror stories began to circulate among the newcomers. Men were found dead every morning from frostbite, starvation, and even scurvy. The treatment of the prisoners was abhorrent at best.” The brothers, along with O’Brien, escape and make their way to Milwaukee to see their Uncle Steve. They all then travel to Dundee to purchase some property with a view to starting a tavern that is also a casino and brothel. However, Jim’s wound from his Army days and the grim remembrances of the war plague him. Also, as it becomes clear the South will lose, the brothers suffer from anti-Confederate sentiment, which threatens both their business and their lives. Debut author Nelson packs a lot of plot into this brief novella, and every page keeps it moving at an urgent pace. Also, it’s historically astute and sensitively explores dimensions of the Civil War that go beyond the contention over slavery. Much of the novel is driven by well-executed portrayals of pursuit and combat, and an appearance is made by the notorious James brothers in the book’s climactic conclusion. Some of the repetitions grow tiresome—Nelson too often refers to “the look” the brothers knowingly share. However, this is still an entertaining view of 19th-century America.
An action-packed Western brimming with historical authenticity.Pub Date: June 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-68139-450-3
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Page Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Categories: GENERAL FICTION
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The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
19
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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. 22, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
Categories: GENERAL FICTION
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
In this opener to Kennedy’s (Hot & Bothered, 2017, etc.) Briar U romance series, two likable students keep getting their signals crossed.
Twenty-one-year-old Summer Heyward-Di Laurentis is expelled from Brown University in the middle of her junior year because she was responsible for a fire at the Kappa Beta Nu sorority house. Fortunately, her father has connections, so she’s now enrolled in Briar University, a prestigious institution about an hour outside Boston. But as she’s about to move into Briar’s Kappa Beta Nu house, she’s asked to leave by the sisters, who don’t want her besmirching their reputation. Her older brother Dean, who’s a former Briar hockey star, comes to her rescue; his buddies, who are still on the hockey team, need a fourth roommate for their townhouse. Three good-looking hockey jocks and a very rich, gorgeous fashion major under the same roof—what could go wrong? Summer becomes quickly infatuated with one of her housemates: Dean’s best friend Colin “Fitzy” Fitzgerald. There’s a definite spark between them, and they exchange smoldering looks, but the tattooed Fitzy, who’s also a video game reviewer and designer, is an introvert who prefers no “drama” in his life. Summer, however, is a charming extrovert, although she has an inferiority complex about her flagging scholastic acumen. As the story goes on, the pair seem to misinterpret each other’s every move. Meanwhile, another roommate and potential suitor, Hunter Davenport, is waiting in the wings. Kennedy’s novel is full of sex, alcohol, and college-level profanity, but it never becomes formulaic. The author adroitly employs snappy dialogue, steady pacing, and humor, as in a scene at a runway fashion show featuring Briar jocks parading in Summer-designed swimwear. The book also manages to touch on some serious subjects, including learning disabilities and abusive behavior by faculty members. Summer and Fitzy’s repeated stumbles propel the plot through engaging twists and turns; the characters trade off narrating the story, which gives each of them a chance to reveal some substance.
A steamy, glitzy, and tender tale of college intrigue.Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-72482-199-7
Page Count: 372
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 28, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Categories: GENERAL FICTION
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