In Pointer’s (Vivian’s Song, 2009) dramatic novel, a troubled newcomer to a small Texas town unexpectedly becomes a local hero.
In the mid-1950s, William “Rooster” Brown stands outside Mel’s Truck Stop in Merky, Texas, holding a gun. He’s waiting for a waitress who humiliated him by rejecting his offer of a date. But when two would-be robbers suddenly raid the diner, Rooster stops them from raping a girl and possibly murdering the patrons—by shooting them both dead. The Merky townsfolk are smitten with Rooster’s valiant deed, and Mel Tucker—the diner’s owner, whose daughter, Laurie, was nearly assaulted—offers him a job and a place to live. Sheriff Bill Hickey, on the other hand, is skeptical, particularly after hearing that Rooster is the grandson of notorious outlaw Devil Brown. Mel pushes Rooster to run for sheriff in the upcoming election, and Rooster eventually does so, much to the chagrin of the town’s cops. Despite all that happens in these 500-plus pages, including a romance between Rooster and Laurie, surprisingly little narrative time passes—no more than two years. This allows the plot to center on Rooster, an imperfect protagonist who commendably recognizes his flaws: He never forgets his original, dark intentions at Mel’s, which contradict his status as a hero. He’s also torn between having religious faith, like his preacher father, or falling victim to alcohol, as his criminal grandfather did. When Rooster becomes part of the Tucker family by marrying Laurie, it adds a nice dynamic, particularly when he grows weary of Mel’s controlling influence and considers an affair with Merky’s newest resident, a beautiful German woman whose officer husband is overseas. Some of the novel’s supporting characters outshine the Tuckers, such as moonshiners Cletus and Alice, who befriend Rooster; and Harvey, a sympathetic cop whom many have written off as the “town idiot” but who seems to have an eidetic memory. Some scenes are also a bit overlong, as when Rooster undergoes “debate boot camp” during his campaign, but the solid final section significantly amps up the suspense.
An appealing tale that shows that even the luckiest people have barriers to overcome.
Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2014
ISBN: 978-0615917832
Page Count: 552
Publisher: Tom Pointer
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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