A well-crafted guide for bettering one’s inner life in order to better serve mankind.
Stories and lists aimed at helping readers redirect their focus and follow a path of benevolence.
Jaensch (co-author, The Lost Heart of Medicine, 2013) tells the story of a young beggar wandering aimlessly through China. He comes upon a monk who explains the path away from suffering and gives the beggar a new name: Shi Yin Fu. The beggar then separates the beans that generous people have given him into two bags—one full of yellow beans, and one of black. He hangs a third bag around his neck, and whenever he commits a crooked deed, he places a black bean in it; for every good deed, he places a yellow bean instead. This tally becomes his ledger of good and evil that trains him to choose to do good. The author traces the paths of Shi Yin Fu and other men he encounters; all stumble at first, but all find ways to fill their bags with yellow beans. Each pursues a search for his “Heart,” or metaphorical “Centre,” and when they do so with a clear conscience, untethered by the pursuit of personal gain, they find enlightenment; the goodness acts a catalyst, as others witness their deeds and strive to act as they do. Jaensch partners these instructive narratives with two lists, one of 100 “diseases” and another of 100 “medicines.” The diseases include such concepts as such as “[h]aving good intentions but then doing wrong”; however, by following the list of medicines, such as “helping the commoners with your power and position,” one can prevent them. Jaensch writes these parables in a stark manner, which leaves room for the lessons within them to shine. Each of the tales builds upon the last, forming a sort of circle that radiates outward, and the book ends on a hopeful note for humanity: “[Y]our study, observation, contemplation and inevitable cultivation creates a human being who faces the fast-flowing river at peace….Now you are free to swim!” Unfortunately, few women are mentioned at all in these stories, let alone given any focus. That said, the author does provide an informative set of lessons with tangible dedication and a deft hand.
A well-crafted guide for bettering one’s inner life in order to better serve mankind.Pub Date: Dec. 11, 2014
ISBN: 978-1941736463
Page Count: 88
Publisher: Book Venture Publishing LLC
Review Posted Online: April 17, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
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