The hidden homosexuality proves an affecting premise, and the historical detail is well situated.
The former editor, and wife of blockbuster author Eric Van Lustbader, tries her hand at fiction with a sprawling, character-packed, emotionally spiraling historical saga joining the fates of two families in post-WWI New York.
In the army, two young men from very different families forge a lifelong friendship. Jed Gates is a wealthy mama’s boy, scion of the Gates department store family; handsome, ambitious David Warshinsky is a poor Jewish kid from the Lower East Side. When he enlists, David severs ties to his family and girlfriend, aiming toward a future that’s different from his seamstress mother’s dreams for him. With a new surname, Shaw, he begins to work his way up in the department store, gaining the admiration of patriarch Joseph Gates and the love of Jed’s headstrong, social-activist sister Lucy. Meanwhile, Jed is directed to marry a suitable girl, Abby, by his icy, controlling mother. Jed has no interest in sleeping with women; in fact, he is in love with David but unable to recognize the truth or to act on it. Their marriage is a disaster for poor, spoiled Abby, though not before Henry is born. In turn, David marries featherbrained Cissy, but their union is also wrecked, in this case by David’s refusal to impregnate his wife or to reveal his Jewish heritage. The crisis of tertiary relatives intrudes: Zoe, Jed’s equestrian aunt, is locked in an abusive marriage to villainous, alcoholic Monty, who punishes the disapproving Gates family by blackmailing Jed after spotting him with a homosexual lover. Encouraged by David’s newly single status, Lucy finally declares her love, and together they mend the rupture with his sister Sarah and his Jewish past. However, the two friends’ suppression of their respective secrets ends in a terrible tragedy.
The hidden homosexuality proves an affecting premise, and the historical detail is well situated.Pub Date: June 13, 2006
ISBN: 0-765-31556-4
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
Miller makes Homer pertinent to women facing 21st-century monsters.
A retelling of ancient Greek lore gives exhilarating voice to a witch.
“Monsters are a boon for gods. Imagine all the prayers.” So says Circe, a sly, petulant, and finally commanding voice that narrates the entirety of Miller’s dazzling second novel. The writer returns to Homer, the wellspring that led her to an Orange Prize for The Song of Achilles (2012). This time, she dips into The Odyssey for the legend of Circe, a nymph who turns Odysseus’ crew of men into pigs. The novel, with its distinctive feminist tang, starts with the sentence: “When I was born, the name for what I was did not exist.” Readers will relish following the puzzle of this unpromising daughter of the sun god Helios and his wife, Perse, who had negligible use for their child. It takes banishment to the island Aeaea for Circe to sense her calling as a sorceress: “I will not be like a bird bred in a cage, I thought, too dull to fly even when the door stands open. I stepped into those woods and my life began.” This lonely, scorned figure learns herbs and potions, surrounds herself with lions, and, in a heart-stopping chapter, outwits the monster Scylla to propel Daedalus and his boat to safety. She makes lovers of Hermes and then two mortal men. She midwifes the birth of the Minotaur on Crete and performs her own C-section. And as she grows in power, she muses that “not even Odysseus could talk his way past [her] witchcraft. He had talked his way past the witch instead.” Circe’s fascination with mortals becomes the book’s marrow and delivers its thrilling ending. All the while, the supernatural sits intriguingly alongside “the tonic of ordinary things.” A few passages coil toward melodrama, and one inelegant line after a rape seems jarringly modern, but the spell holds fast. Expect Miller’s readership to mushroom like one of Circe’s spells.
Miller makes Homer pertinent to women facing 21st-century monsters.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-55634-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
PROFILES
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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