by Trevor W Bartlett ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 2, 2014
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Bartlett’s debut novel centers on Bill, a 49-year-old British man, and the women in his life.
From the start, Bill shows himself to be completely devoted to the women of his family. He endures his mom’s questions when she must confirm his identity before opening the door for him; he reminisces about his dead sister; and he contemplates his love for his wife, Sandra, and his daughter, Laura. He speaks of his impending status as a middle-aged man, saying that he feels caught between the needs of his children and his mother—“[b]oth demand attention, and you’re ham-sandwiched in the middle. And personally, I feel like squashed ham between two slices of Mighty Bran.” The majority of the book dwells on these ruminations. “I realise I’ve finally reached that golden age when eighty-year-old women find me irresistible,” he says. “It’s a twilight age.” His thoughts on retirement, taking care of his quirky mother and his daughter’s first experiences with love are driving forces of the narrative as he guides readers through his largely pleasant existence and enjoyable family dynamics. With wife, daughter and cat, there are plenty of crass but sweet interactions; it’s a functioning, funny family, and it’s refreshing to spend time with them. Bartlett’s prose is clear, and Bill’s light, witty voice as narrator is enjoyable throughout, particularly in his lists of things he wished he had accomplished or the nine commandments he’s discovered so far. Both Bill and the author are first and foremost jokesters: The prologue, for instance, may leave readers expecting an appearance by the actual king of rock ’n’ roll, as referenced in the title, though they’ll have a good chuckle when Elvis’ true identity is revealed. But as Bill approaches his 50th birthday, Bartlett also follows him into darker, more troubling realities. There are painful memories of his sister, Kate, his father’s passing and an accident, as well as a surprising announcement from his wife that brings these issues into sharper focus. Fortunately, through it all, Bill remains a delight to be around.
A readable slice-of-life novel that turns the days of an ordinary man into endearing, funny episodes and observations.
Pub Date: June 2, 2014
ISBN: 978-1495449727
Page Count: 246
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Hanya Yanagihara ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 10, 2015
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
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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. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
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
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