by Trice Hickman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 29, 2013
A bold and intriguing effort that ultimately misses the mark, though some readers may enjoy the originality of the storyline.
An old woman who can see the future worries for her grandson and an as-yet-unborn great-great-granddaughter—whom she connects with through their mutual gift—who are dealing with problems in their love lives.
The latest from Washington, D.C., resident Hickman (the author's Unexpected Interruptions won the Southeastern Virginia Arts Association's 2008 Literary Award for Best New African American Voice) concerns the 90-year-old widow of a sharecropper, Allene Small. Allene has lived a long, fulfilling life, helped along by a psychic gift, a deep faith in God and a connection to an ancestor who shared the gift and showed her how to use it to help the people she loves. This weekend, she will need to bring as much wisdom and guidance as possible to her grandson John as he navigates love and deception on a trip back from Manhattan to his small Southern hometown. Allene will also make a psychic connection for the first time with Alexandria, John’s yet-to-be-born granddaughter, who is just coming into the strength of her own gift in the future. Both John and Alexandria are in the midst of romances with the wrong people, and Allene must help them get on track with the people they were meant for, who will help them follow their dreams and fulfill their destinies. Hickman’s hook and story arc are interesting, with a number of plot twists and surprises. However, it takes a few chapters to understand who is who and what takes place when since the dual narratives progress simultaneously—John’s sometime in the 1970s, Alexandria’s in the present day—and aren’t quite clear at the start. Also, despite Hickman's attempts to explain some of the characters’ choices, readers may find many of them inconsistent or unrealistic. John’s visiting girlfriend, Madeline, is ludicrously villainous, and his would-be girlfriend, Elizabeth, is too virtuous, while his womanizing is somehow supposed to reflect his virility until he finds The One. At times, Alexandria seems either dishonest or wishy-washy. And we are never quite sure why Allene worries about the present when the future she sees indicates everything has already worked out.
A bold and intriguing effort that ultimately misses the mark, though some readers may enjoy the originality of the storyline.Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7582-8723-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Dafina/Kensington
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2013
Share your opinion of this book
by Hanya Yanagihara ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 10, 2015
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Awards & Accolades
Likes
33
Our Verdict
GET IT
Kirkus Reviews'
Best Books Of 2015
Kirkus Prize
winner
National Book Award Finalist
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
Share your opinion of this book
by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
Share your opinion of this book
More by Harper Lee
BOOK REVIEW
by Harper Lee
More About This Book
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.