There are several excellent stories here—and they'd be stronger if divorced from the burden of living up to the anthology's...
An anthology of speculative fiction through the lens of mental illness—stories of people whose mental quirks make them “outcasts and underdogs,” edited by Forest (Immunity to Strange Tales, 2012) and Law (Sword and Sorceress X, 1993).
The collection walks a difficult line, as the characters ostensibly all display some form of mental illness. Ostensibly—for in stories such as “The Culling,” by Kelley Armstrong, our protagonist reads as neurotypical save for the occasional mention of "hearing voices," but these voices aren't differentiated from your average internal narrative. Similarly, the lead of Rich Larson's “Carnivores” (an excellent story, otherwise) seems perfectly mentally healthy in a world of futuristic cruelty. James Alan Gardner's charming “The Dog and the Sleepwalker” also follows a man defined by superb common sense. If there is mental illness here, it lies with the twisted societies surrounding our heroes. Perhaps that's the point? Other stories present heroes whose mental illnesses really aren’t—the fanciful things they see turn out to be actually there, as in A.M. Dellamonica's rich “Tribes” and Sherry Peters' “Troubles,” which portrays a girl who's really a druid capable of seeing the fey rather than schizophrenic. These stories dodge the issue in a disingenuous fashion: certainly it's more uplifting to be a destined hero than delusional, but is this really mental illness? However, other stories do a masterful job of knitting legitimate and painful mental illnesses to characters who still retain agency and power: two standouts are Amanda Sun's “What Harm,” a poignant exploration of autism in a fairy-tale setting, and Hayden Trenholm's “Marion's War,” examining PTSD and the mental cost of war.
There are several excellent stories here—and they'd be stronger if divorced from the burden of living up to the anthology's theme.Pub Date: Aug. 8, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-993-96964-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Laksa Media
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
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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