An absorbing portrait of ancient Roman life and history, well written and full of suspense—even for those who know the...
A debut by a British schoolteacher depicts the childhood and early career of Julius Caesar.
In case you’ve forgotten your Suetonius, the later days of the Roman Republic were a rough time for the well connected. The fledging empire had established colonies farther and farther afield, colonies that reaped fortunes but required standing armies. The generals of these armies (who paid for the upkeep of their men out of their own pockets) all became laws unto themselves after a while; the Senate was the ultimate authority, but it was unwieldy, and rife with corruption and factions. When young Gaius, the son of a senator, was growing up, everyone expected that the Senate would soon have to appoint a Dictator—a Caesar—to reestablish order. But who? After his father is killed in a slave uprising, Gaius lives with his uncle, Marius the Consul, one of the leading contenders. Marius has just come back with his Legion from a successful campaign in Africa, but his rival Sulla has balked at allowing Marius and his troops to enter the city, lest the troops establish Marius as the Caesar. Sulla has been making a name for himself as a general and would naturally prefer that the Senate choose him. How does it end? With a civil war, naturally, in which Sulla’s forces drive Marius and his army back to North Africa, then invade Greece to put down a rebellion led by Mithridates. While Sulla is away, however, Marius, having prevailed upon the Senate to declare Sulla a traitor, reenters the city in triumph. Young Gaius—now named “Julius” after his dead father—observes all the maneuverings and learns the most important lesson a Roman statesman can master: Trust no one. It becomes his motto once he is named the Caesar himself, but he makes one exception—for a childhood friend and blood-brother named Marcus Brutus.
An absorbing portrait of ancient Roman life and history, well written and full of suspense—even for those who know the ending.Pub Date: Dec. 31, 2002
ISBN: 0-385-33660-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2002
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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
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