An engrossing fictionalized history that examines an ingenious and powerful Chinese ruler.
Xiong (The A to Z of Medieval China, 2010, etc.) tells the story of Chinese Emperor Taizong of Tang in this historical novel.
The China of the late Sui dynasty faces barbarian threats from outside its borders and rebellious barons within them. When Li Shimin’s father, the Duke of Tang, decides he must replace the sovereign in order to restore stability to the state, the teenager finds himself a general in command of a rebel army. His relatives become the rulers of the new Tang dynasty in 618, though their reign is just as fraught with intrigue and treachery as that of the Sui. Li Shimin turns out to be the shrewdest tactician of the family. In the July 2 coup, the crown prince “eliminated his challengers, effectively sidelined his father, and emerged as the true power-holder at court.” Forcing his father to abdicate the throne, Li Shimin becomes the Emperor of Tang. He then sets to ruling the fractured prefectures of China, adopting policies of benevolence and reconciliation and accepting critical appraisals from his court. He uses all his skills to bring his nation into a new golden age, going down in history as one of the greatest rulers China has ever known. Supplementary material includes a bibliography, chronology, and a 20-page glossary/dramatis personae that the reader should put to great use. The novel, more fictionalized history than historical fiction, essentially reads like a work of popular history, with many scenes dramatized. The book dispenses with superfluous plot elements of the sort one would expect to find in a historical novel but includes many explanatory passages that read as though they’ve been excerpted from a textbook. While this may sound stilted, it actually makes for an engaging cross-genre reading experience. It’s reminiscent of nothing so much as the pre-modern texts from which it takes its inspiration, where fact, legend, and anecdote sit comfortably side by side. The technique lends a compelling veracity to the events even if it forces Xiong to hold his characters at a greater distance from the reader.
An engrossing fictionalized history that examines an ingenious and powerful Chinese ruler.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-9-86-628666-7
Page Count: 278
Publisher: Airiti Press
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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