A clever, complex tale that should pique readers’ curiosity about Genghis Khan and leave them looking forward to the...
A debut novel combines elements of archaeology, historical fiction, and geopolitical thrillers.
James Andrews’ life is busy, but he doesn’t think he has much to show for it. An archaeology professor at the University of Virginia, he’s spent years digging in Mongolia, dreaming of finding the lost tomb of Genghis Khan. But this year, he’s only recovered a few ancient roof tiles and a tiny fragment of stray human bone. Andrews tells Parker Winthrop, the Asian Historical Society’s representative in Mongolia, that the bone probably belongs to “a peasant shot by the Soviets for trespassing and left for dead.” But everything changes when DNA analysis of the bone marrow points to Genghis Khan himself. And what should be cause for celebration also yields something far darker, as forces around the world have their own agendas for Mongolia and this discovery. Even people Andrews thought he could trust—or love—are caught up in the conflict in ways he couldn’t have foreseen. At the same time, the narrative offers brief windows into the story of Temujin and Jamuka, two boys in ancient Mongolia, one of whom will become Genghis Khan. Amid betrayal, mystery, and espionage, Andrews has his work cut out for him trying to get to the most valuable thing of all: the truth. Pelkey’s insightful novel moves at a quick pace, but it’s at no loss for details, and early scenes returning from the dig site or in Andrews’ lecture hall provide an excellent sense of the historical significance of Genghis Khan. What’s more, exposition smoothly flows in the text, pointing out the geopolitical reality of Mongolia, which is on the brink of a modern-day gold rush: “ ‘What about the Mongolians?’ Andrews asked. ‘It’s their country.’ ‘Road kill,’ Parker said with a flick of his hand.” On top of that, the characters’ uncertain loyalties give the book a sense of intrigue and emotionality, and the brotherhood and struggle in the Temujin and Jamuka sections only add to this unexpected depth. Finally, the fact that Andrews has a lot of uncertainty in his life—due to his frequent travels, far-flung friends, and short-lived romantic relationships—makes him a more sympathetic and relatable protagonist than most in these genres.
A clever, complex tale that should pique readers’ curiosity about Genghis Khan and leave them looking forward to the author’s next book.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9968426-7-9
Page Count: -
Publisher: SDP Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2017
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
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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