The action-laden plot leaves some characters in the dust but retains a high-speed tempo.
In this debut thriller, a trio of linked stories follows a bevy of characters driven by greed and vengeance, all sparked by the Irish mob’s heinous deeds.
In the first tale, “Rear View Mirror,” Francis Cranford, living a lowly life, tracks down his separated-at-birth twin, Kenneth Redman, a military man who has accumulated quite a fortune. But Irish mobster Hugo Henry has a plan: he offers Francis millions if he swaps identities with Kenneth and gets the mob access to his twin’s estate. Francis, however, has a scheme of his own, which entails keeping his brother’s riches all to himself. “Silk Road to Atlantis” picks up with Nikko Sporkas, who played a part in Francis’ swindle. Nikko seeks revenge in Ireland against the Irish mob, whom he blames for his father’s death. Hugo’s older brother Tyrone, meanwhile, arranges wife Cynthia’s abduction to demand ransom from her ambassador father and for another, far worse reason. Nikko ultimately teams up with Cynthia, as well as Kenneth’s niece and goddaughter, Jude and Kimmie, to face off against Tyrone. The final tale, “Subterfuge,” finds Nikko and Cynthia back in the U.S., where Nikko gets in the marijuana business with Berton James. Bert, however, is working for the Mafia, while Irish and Russian mobsters make matters worse, regardless of whether they’re aligned with the Italians. The three stories in this novel are distinctive but have a strong connection; protagonists vary, but the characters have clear associations and the Irish mob ties them together. Hoffman’s breakneck pace is commendable and often surprises with sudden deaths and shifting motives, like Nikko forgoing retribution for simple avarice. Breezing through the stories, however, favors the plot over characters. Camille Bisset’s first-person perspective, for example, introduces readers to Kenneth, but despite being his new girlfriend, Camille practically disappears from the story. Characters appear in the novel with Hoffman providing little development, and the author likewise doesn’t invest much in relationships, so a potentially interesting romance between Nikko and Cynthia is over before it has started. Still, the surfeit of characters is easy to follow, while the baddies— Irish, terrorists, etc.—are an unmistakable menace.
The action-laden plot leaves some characters in the dust but retains a high-speed tempo.Pub Date: Jan. 21, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-692-32567-4
Page Count: 410
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2015
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
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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