A gripping story brimming with psychological subtlety.
A troubled young woman is arrested and faces deportation and prison time in Burns’ novel.
Marisa Susanna Du Plessis was born in Canada, the daughter of Victor Du Plessis and Daniela Gomes Costa (a South African and a Brazilian, respectively), parents who never bothered to secure her American citizenship after they moved to the United States when she was 6 months old. However, Marisa is as American as they come—she grows up in Kansas City, Missouri, attends high school there, and even serves for four years in the Marines before receiving an honorable discharge. She leads a mischievous life, one that sometimes drifts into criminality—she is arrested for drug possession and check fraud. When the federal authorities realize she is not an American citizen, they deport her. Traumatized by her expulsion from the only place she’s ever known, Marisa defiantly returns to the U.S.; her remarkable plight is compellingly conveyed by the author. When she’s caught yet again by the authorities, she is charged with illegal entry into the country following deportation, a serious crime that could land Marisa in prison for 20 years. She’s given assistance and encouragement by Alvey, a 67-year-old musician who gives her a lift one night before she’s arrested and takes a profound interest in her case and her life (“After all that had transpired in the previous month, there was no question in Alvey’s mind but that he would attend the preliminary hearing. Of all the events of the summer of ’23 to date, [Marisa] was the undisputed champion in the arena of Alvey’s attention”). As he investigates her past, both out of a burning curiosity and a desire to help, he peels back the bewildering layers of a life as fraught with difficulty as it is filled with promise.
The heart of the story is Marisa, a memorable protagonist who is exceedingly intelligent—she has a “genius level IQ”—but also possibly mentally ill. As a child, she begins assuming an alter ego, Desiree (which would be amended to “Dessyre”), who cheered on and legitimated her rebelliousness; this identity expanded to encompass a growing defiance of the law. “Desiree was a vestment that would open doors that were otherwise locked to Marisa. Desiree was an intuitive invention that didn’t die in the third grade. She would be resurrected over the years to confront challenges for which Marisa, despite all her innate intelligence, was unsuited to cope. And Desiree would develop in her complexity as life’s circumstances grew correspondently complex.” It is simply impossible for the reader not to sympathize with Marisa—even the legal authorities prosecuting her do—but it’s also impossible not to find her relentlessly self-destructive behavior a source of culpability (and exasperating). The plot has a tendency to meander and stall—Burns simply packs too much into a novel that balloons into something unmanageably prolix. For example, readers learn far more about Marisa’s parents than is necessary to the story, and the narrative probably spends too much time on Alvey as well. Still, this is an extraordinary tale, a riveting “dramatization inspired by true events.”
A gripping story brimming with psychological subtlety.Pub Date: May 16, 2024
ISBN: 9798325798368
Page Count: 372
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.
Atwood goes back to Gilead.
The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), consistently regarded as a masterpiece of 20th-century literature, has gained new attention in recent years with the success of the Hulu series as well as fresh appreciation from readers who feel like this story has new relevance in America’s current political climate. Atwood herself has spoken about how news headlines have made her dystopian fiction seem eerily plausible, and it’s not difficult to imagine her wanting to revisit Gilead as the TV show has sped past where her narrative ended. Like the novel that preceded it, this sequel is presented as found documents—first-person accounts of life inside a misogynistic theocracy from three informants. There is Agnes Jemima, a girl who rejects the marriage her family arranges for her but still has faith in God and Gilead. There’s Daisy, who learns on her 16th birthday that her whole life has been a lie. And there's Aunt Lydia, the woman responsible for turning women into Handmaids. This approach gives readers insight into different aspects of life inside and outside Gilead, but it also leads to a book that sometimes feels overstuffed. The Handmaid’s Tale combined exquisite lyricism with a powerful sense of urgency, as if a thoughtful, perceptive woman was racing against time to give witness to her experience. That narrator hinted at more than she said; Atwood seemed to trust readers to fill in the gaps. This dynamic created an atmosphere of intimacy. However curious we might be about Gilead and the resistance operating outside that country, what we learn here is that what Atwood left unsaid in the first novel generated more horror and outrage than explicit detail can. And the more we get to know Agnes, Daisy, and Aunt Lydia, the less convincing they become. It’s hard, of course, to compete with a beloved classic, so maybe the best way to read this new book is to forget about The Handmaid’s Tale and enjoy it as an artful feminist thriller.
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-385-54378-1
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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