Proceeding from the premise that Fletcher Christian, leader of the 1789 mutiny that wrested control of HMS Bounty from tyrannical Captain Bligh, did not subsequently perish on Pitcairn Island, Kinsolving (The Diplomat's Daughter, 1993, etc.) offers an immensely entertaining account of a Georgian/Regency picaro's amazing adventures. Escaping his South Seas refuge by canoe (at age 30) after a native uprising in 1793, Fletcher is picked up by a Dutch merchantman that's later sunk by a French privateer in the Netherlands Antilles. Taken prisoner aboard the pirate ship, he manages to kill the depraved captain, purloin his small pouch of large gems, and save a distressed damsel named Daphne Lewis from an unhappy fate. After spending an idyllic fortnight on a conveniently deserted Caribbean isle, Daphne and Fletcher fall deeply, lustily in love. The wealthy, widowed Daphne (who was on her way from Jamaica to England to marry an impoverished duke) is soon rescued, and Fletcher (still wanted by the British Admiralty) eventually makes it home as well. Although spurned by his family, he keeps the first of many trysts with Daphne. Fletcher is sustained by his abiding passion for her—and the proceeds from sales of the jewels he took from her captor. He serves under assumed names as an able- bodied seaman on British warships in epic battles from Camperdown (in 1797) to Trafalgar (1805). Between naval engagements, he finds time to give Daphne and her impotent peer a much-wanted male heir. Consumption takes Daphne from Fletcher in 1806, and his resultant insanity gets him committed to Bedlam. Five years later, the vengeful Bligh finds him in the madhouse, but the condemned Fletcher is reprieved at the eleventh hour by his own noble son. At the close, the fiddlefooted hero turns from the life of idle ease that could be his and heads back to sea. A grand to-the-ends-of-the-earth romp that, though merry and melancholic by turn, strikes just the right stoically mock-heroic tone throughout.
Pub Date: March 7, 1996
ISBN: 0-684-81303-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
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
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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