A book that will likely hold the interest of cycling enthusiasts despite serious flaws.
In Hutchinson’s (Twisted Trails, 2015) short novel, a teenager struggles with the sullied legacy of his athlete father.
Andrew Gamble was the most successful professional cyclist the sport had ever seen, a living legend. His fame crumbled into infamy, though, when he was caught in a scandal involving performance-enhancing drugs while competing in France. Instead of facing up to his mistake, Gamble fled, abandoning his wife and 12-year-old son, Connor; he then disappeared without a trace. Connor was taken in by his uncle, Neal, the owner of a well-known bicycle shop called Modest Cycles. Five years later, Connor has taken up cycling despite the long shadow of his father’s notoriety. The sport is apparently in Connor’s blood, and he enthusiastically commits to it; he also becomes obsessed with a talented, masked rider whom he’s convinced is his father (“a masked man who wins races but never shows up for the prize”). Meanwhile, Darwin Camot, an author famous for a bestselling book about cycling, is sentenced to community service after a run-in with the law, and he tries to use this misstep as an opportunity to reform a wayward life. Hutchinson writes with a deep love and knowledge of the sport and vividly brings MacAskill, Rhode Island, to life—a fictional small town essentially founded by and for cycling devotees. But although the narrative is structured around the sport, the principal themes transcend it; in different ways, both Connor and Darwin are in search of elusive redemption. This is a very brief work—more a novella than a full-fledged novel—and the story unfolds too quickly for it to develop more than a patina of emotional authenticity. Connor’s angst rings truest, as he paradoxically tries to emulate a father whom he holds in contempt: “ ‘My dad's not innocent,’ Connor confessed. ‘He was a cheater and a drug user. The Feds think he fled to Mexico. I hope he never comes back.’ ” However, the remaining characters seem underdeveloped, and although Andrew is, in many ways, the fulcrum of the whole tale, he frustratingly remains an enigma. Overall, the book wonderfully depicts its sport, but it falls short as both mystery and emotional drama.
A book that will likely hold the interest of cycling enthusiasts despite serious flaws.Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-692-76335-3
Page Count: 134
Publisher: Twisted Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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