Run-of-the-mill romantic escapism in which the characters happen to be African-American.
In the fifth “Nappily” novel from Thomas (Nappily in Bloom, 2009, etc.), heroine Venus struggles to trust her husband, whose career throws him into the arms of a former love.
Having been together six years, Venus and husband Jake are happily ensconced in a gated community in Atlanta. Venus’s flower shop is a success and they can even afford private school for Venus’s daughter Mya (by her old beau Airic) now that ex–rap star and clothing designer Jake’s new career as an actor has taken off. But his career turns into a problem when Jake is cast in a movie back in California with his old flame, rising star Sirena. Wanting the public to think there’s genuine heat between the screen lovers, the movie’s PR people keep Venus in the background. Though resentful, she tries not to be jealous, reminding herself she can trust loyal Jake completely. But Sirena, a self-serving and conniving beauty, wants Jake back. Although Jake is tempted by her undeniable charms, he truly loves Venus and resists. But Sirena has a powerful secret up her sleeve. When she and Jake broke up nine years ago—he dumped her when he caught her in flagrante with another man—she was pregnant. The boy Christopher is now being raised by her father as if he is Sirena’s brother, but she’s ready to claim him as her and Jake’s son since she knows Jake would love a child, especially a son, of his own. Meanwhile Venus, the object of her own flirtatious attention from the father of Mya’s best friend, receives advice from both her mother, who is having her own marital issues, and Venus’s former nemesis Trevelle. Repetitiousness dulls the tension of the temptations Jake faces. Trevelle, who has become romantically involved in a genuinely sweet romance with Venus’s white employee Vince, ends up being the real scene-stealer.
Run-of-the-mill romantic escapism in which the characters happen to be African-American.Pub Date: June 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-312-55763-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2010
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
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Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of...
Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State.
Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle’s answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate’s buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, only to blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully’s latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she’s given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it’s too late?
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36408-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007
BOOK TO SCREEN
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