From mystery writer Wilson (Trouble in Transylvania, 1993, etc.), a pretentiously lyrical story of healing and recovery—one that pushes all the usual buttons as a woman recollects the long- buried losses and traumas of childhood. In her 30s, Cory Winter, a successful CPA and amateur painter, with Rosemary, a new lover, at her side, should be on top of the world. She isn't. Living in Seattle, she feels alienated, happier alone, and unable to respond to the abundant affection Rosemary offers. Cory recalls her seemingly happy childhood in southern California in the 1950's, with Polly, her mother, who created a flower-filled garden and taught Cory how to draw; West, a dependable father; and a cute little brother, Kevin. But gardens have a long history of harboring with their perfection the agents of their destruction, and the Winters' garden is no different. Polly Winter was raised as a Christian Scientist by her strict midwestern mother, and though she escaped to California, she could not free herself from either her mother or her faith. Which means that when she finds a lump in her breast, she tries to heal it with prayer, undergoing surgery, at West's insistence, only when it's too late. Intimidated by her mother's presence, Polly also failed to notice her brother Steve's abusive behavior to Cory on visits to them. When Polly became ill and died, Cory's childhood and life as part of a close-knit family ended. Her father moved them to an apartment, withdrawing into himself, and as soon as she was old enough Cory left. Years later, therapy, confessions to her brother, and a visit rich in epiphany to England enable her finally to put her past behind her and move on, with Rosemary at her side. Wilson's self-absorbed protagonist with her tiresome, politically correct lover and blighted family irritates more than she engages. Not this author's best. (Author tour)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1996
ISBN: 1-878067-83-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Seal Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1996
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
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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