A novel that glosses over some aspects of Swift’s life but adroitly portrays the world in which he made his mark.
Tucker (On a Darkling Plain, 2014) presents a work of historical fiction based on the life of the legendary Anglo-Irish writer Jonathan Swift.
At the outset of the story, set around 1676, famed satirist Swift is a precocious 9-year-old who’s being flogged for acting up in school. The youngster may be talented in Latin and Greek, but he’s also quite the prankster. Swift is 16 when he goes off to Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, where his passions include poetry, flirting, and, of course, more pranks. He graduates in 1686 with the embarrassing distinction on his diploma that he did so only “by special grace.” His precocity remains when he goes on to work for the writer Sir William Temple before striking out on his own. Swift becomes an Anglican priest, and in this role, he learns much about the poverty of Ireland. He earns a doctorate in divinity in 1702 and takes his talents to London, where he becomes a thorny satirist, unafraid of ruffling feathers. After gaining notoriety in the English capital, Swift goes back to Dublin, where he does his most famous work, including penning the novel Gulliver’s Travels and harshly criticizing English-Irish relations. Throughout Swift’s journey, readers are kept abreast of his love affairs—particularly his long, complicated relationship with a woman named Hetty Johnson, whom he called “Stella.” The book also details Swift’s associations with famous figures, such as Alexander Pope. Readers come to understand how Swift’s “talent makes him powerful” and to appreciate the dichotomy of a man who loved both God and ribald humor. Tucker’s version of the Swift story sometimes unfolds rather quickly, but at others, it’s a rather slow burn. For instance, the author extensively examines Swift’s awkward romantic relationships, but he gives some other elements short shrift, including the years that Swift spent getting his doctorate, for instance. This choice will leave readers with some questions about Swift’s life, although it does allow the book to focus on how the writer was perceived by others, exposing multiple facets of his famous persona. For example, Tucker presents a man who eloquently championed the poor but also once brutally beat his servant in a fit of rage. What truly steals the show here, though, is the author’s consideration of the time period that produced the famous figure that we know today. Swift’s writing was risky, but he was able to publish it anonymously; the publishers who printed it, however, could not hide behind false names, and as a result, they were open to reprimand. Modern readers in the United States, who are used to saying just about anything they like, will find that this book offers a deep exercise, indeed, imagining a world of dire consequence for satire. Swift’s success shows the triumph of the pen over the sword, but Tucker’s text dutifully reminds readers of just how dangerous that process was.
A novel that glosses over some aspects of Swift’s life but adroitly portrays the world in which he made his mark.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-60489-220-8
Page Count: 342
Publisher: Livingston Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 5, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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