Another winner for García.
The fortunes of three vividly characterized protagonists are deftly delineated in the Cuban-born author’s fourth novel.
Its structure of juxtaposed episodes follows the pattern employed in her earlier books The Agüero Sisters (1997) and the NBA-nominated Dreaming in Cuban (1992). In a compound narrative spanning the years 1968–87, we observe the distinct paths traveled and the hopeful meetings of a young Cuban immigrant (Enrique Florit), a refugee from El Salvador’s political violence (Marta Claros) and the daughter of a prosperous Iranian family (Leila Rezvani) who’s reluctant to be trapped in a loveless arranged marriage. We first encounter nine-year-old Enrique living in Los Angeles, after he and his widowed father, Fernando (a stage show magician), have fled Cuba following the Castro revolution. Over the ensuing years, Enrique survives both grief over his mother’s death (in a freak onstage accident) and his flamboyant “Papi’s” parental deficiencies and financial irresponsibility, fending for himself when the pair move to Las Vegas and he discovers his poker-playing skills. Parallel narratives depict Marta’s victimization by her mother’s emotional inertia (after her father has left them), as well as their country’s brutal military police, from all of which she escapes to California and a safe (albeit compromised) marriage; then Leila, whose family’s peregrinations bring them to America and her into surprised, and tempting, contact with Enrique. García braids their stories together skillfully, making us accept coincidences that bring them together, however briefly, embedding serious political and familial issues in subtly presented personal relations. The amusing extravagances that crop up (e.g., Papi’s efforts to channel the energies and artistry of a legendary Chinese conjurer) never compromise their credible, endearing humanity. Best of all, the permutations of bad and good “luck” that shape their individual and shared lives are quite ingeniously compared and contrasted.
Another winner for García.Pub Date: April 12, 2007
ISBN: 0-307-26436-X
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2007
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
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