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WORK LIKE ANY OTHER

Name: WORK LIKE ANY OTHER
Author: Virginia Reeves
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1249-2

by Virginia Reeves ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2016

Elegant to a fault. Lacking in heart.

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A tale of guilt and redemption set in 1920s Alabama.

This is the story of Roscoe T Martin and the death that transforms his life. An electrician by trade, Roscoe is frustrated by life on the failing farm his wife inherited from her father. Roscoe decides that he can save the farm—and himself—by running power lines to his family’s property and its machinery. The farm does prosper for a time, but the reader knows from the novel’s opening line that this scheme will end in tragedy: “The electrical transformers that would one day kill George Haskin sat high on a pole about ten yards off the northeast corner of the farm where Roscoe T Martin lived with his family.” Roscoe goes to prison, where he examines his life as he waits for parole. As the narrative moves back and forth in time, Roscoe and his wife, Marie, share their perspectives on the past. That their recollections and viewpoints often diverge adds depth to this novel. Both are eloquent and acutely self-aware. This makes for some prose so lovely that it strains credulity. In a moment of reflection, Marie thinks, “She was losing herself, she knew, sinking into something untenable, a deep well with madness at its bottom. The feel of it—slippery, cool, damp—hung on her like the wash she no longer helped Moa hang on the line, rung to wrinkles and still dripping.” Roscoe’s jailhouse philosophizing also beggars belief, but more troubling is his lack of regard for Wilson, the farm manager tried and convicted as an accomplice and a man who, as an African-American, faces much harder punishment than Roscoe. This makes the beneficence and forgiveness Wilson and his family extend to Roscoe almost unbearable, and the ending is hobbled by complex machinations that would have been more at home in a Greek tragedy or a Restoration comedy.

Elegant to a fault. Lacking in heart.

Pub Date: March 1, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-5011-1249-2

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Scribner

Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016

Categories:

LITERARY FICTION | HISTORICAL FICTION

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THE VENTRILOQUISTS

by E.R. Ramzipoor ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 27, 2019

A little-known story that will have special resonance for today’s resisters.

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Based on an actual incident in Nazi-occupied Belgium, Ramzipoor’s debut is a tragicomic account of fake news for a cause.

Structured like a heist movie, the novel follows several members of a conspiracy in Enghien, Belgium, who have a daring plan. The conspirators do not intend to survive this caper, only to bring some humor—and encouragement for resisters—into the grim existence of Belgians under Nazi rule. To this end, the plotters—among them Marc Aubrion, a journalist and comic; David Spiegelman, an expert forger; Lada Tarcovich, a smuggler and sex worker; and Gamin, a girl masquerading as a male street urchin—intend to...publish a newspaper. And only one issue of a newspaper, to be substituted on one night for the regular evening paper, Le Soir, which has become a mouthpiece for Nazi disinformation. Le Faux Soir, as the changeling paper is appropriately dubbed, will feature satire, doctored photographs making fun of Hitler, and wry requests for a long-overdue Allied invasion. (Target press date: Nov. 11, 1943.) To avoid immediate capture, the Faux Soir staff must act as double agents, convincing (or maybe not) the local Nazi commandant, August Wolff, that they are actually putting out an anti-Allies “propaganda bomb.” The challenge of fleshing out and differentiating so many colorful characters, combined with the sheer logistics of acquiring paper, ink, money, facilities, etc. under the Gestapo’s nose, makes for an excruciatingly slow exposé of how this sausage will be made. The banter here, reminiscent of the better Ocean’s Eleven sequels, keeps the mechanism well oiled, but it is still creaky. A few scenes amply illustrate the brutality of the Occupation, and sexual orientation works its way in: Lada is a lesbian and David, in addition to being a Jew, is gay—August Wolff’s closeted desire may be the only reason David has, so far, escaped the camps. The genuine pathos at the end of this overdetermined rainbow may be worth the wait.

A little-known story that will have special resonance for today’s resisters.

Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2019

ISBN: 978-0-7783-0815-7

Page Count: 544

Publisher: Park Row Books

Review Posted Online: May 26, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019

Categories:

LITERARY FICTION | HISTORICAL FICTION

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THE BOOK OF KOLI

by M.R. Carey ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 14, 2020

A captivating start to what promises to be an epic post-apocalyptic fable.

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The first volume in Carey’s Rampart trilogy is set centuries into a future shaped by war and climate change, where the scant remains of humankind are threatened by genetically modified trees and plants.

Teenager Koli Woodsmith lives in Mythen Rood, a village of about 200 people in a place called Ingland, which has other names such as “Briton and Albion and Yewkay.” He was raised to cultivate, and kill, the wood from the dangerous trees beyond Mythen Rood’s protective walls. Mythen Rood is governed by the Ramparts (made up entirely of members of one family—what a coincidence), who protect the village with ancient, solar-powered tech. After the Waiting, a time in which each child, upon turning 15, must decide their future, Koli takes the Rampart test: He must “awaken” a piece of old tech. After he inevitably fails, he steals a music player which houses a charming “manic pixie dream girl” AI named Monono, who reveals a universe of knowledge. Of course, a little bit of knowledge can threaten entire societies or, in Koli’s case, a village held in thrall to a family with unfettered access to powerful weapons. Koli attempts to use the device to become a Rampart, he becomes their greatest threat, and he’s exiled to the world beyond Mythen Rood. Luckily, the pragmatic Koli has his wits, Monono, and an ally in Ursala, a traveling doctor who strives to usher in a healthy new generation of babies before humanity dies out for good. Koli will need all the help he can get, especially when he’s captured by a fearsome group ruled by a mad messianic figure who claims to have psychic abilities. Narrator Koli’s inquisitive mind and kind heart make him the perfect guide to Carey’s (Someone Like Me, 2018, etc.) immersive, impeccably rendered world, and his speech and way of life are different enough to imagine the weight of what was lost but still achingly familiar, and as always, Carey leavens his often bleak scenarios with empathy and hope. Readers will be thrilled to know the next two books will be published in short order.

A captivating start to what promises to be an epic post-apocalyptic fable.