A passionate powder keg of a novel.
In 1993 Corsica, a kidnapped teen conspires with her captors to incite an uprising.
If it were up to her, 17-year-old Séverine Guimard would be spending her final semesters of lycée in Paris with her friends. Instead, the aspiring actress is enduring a lonely year at an unfamiliar school on Corsica, where her French politician father is prefect. A listless Séverine is riding her bike alone one night when men grab her, bind her, and stuff her in their vehicle’s trunk. They drive her to a secluded cottage deep in the scrublands and lock her in a closet. Séverine’s abductors—Soffiu di Libertà, a trio seeking Corsica’s independence from France—demand 5 million francs and the release of a political prisoner (their fourth member) in exchange for Séverine’s safe return. Séverine’s wealthy parents promptly pay up, but France’s interior minister, presidential hopeful Bernard Jonnart, refuses to negotiate. After a weeklong stalemate, the young men debate killing Séverine, but instead relocate her to a sparsely furnished outbuilding while they plot their next move. Out of boredom and attempted ingratiation, Séverine begins discussing political philosophy with teacher Bruno, foraging with ecology student Tittu, and cooking with chef Petru. Camaraderie develops, and—deciding she wants “stardom, her future, now”—Séverine joins Soffiu di Libertà, using her beauty, charisma, and sex appeal to garner press, while also pushing the cell in an increasingly radical direction. No rebellion comes without casualties, however. Though far from breezy, Farr’s accomplished debut deftly balances heady ruminations on colonialism and revolution with relatable human moments. Too many obstacles are too easily overcome, but vibrant prose lends texture and urgency, while the fully fleshed characters’ increasingly thorny interpersonal relationships raise the story’s stakes and give it soul.
A passionate powder keg of a novel.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9780593833247
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
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
I Who Have Never Known Men ($22.00; May 1997; 224 pp.; 1-888363-43-6): In this futuristic fantasy (which is immediately reminiscent of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale), the nameless narrator passes from her adolescent captivity among women who are kept in underground cages following some unspecified global catastrophe, to a life as, apparently, the last woman on earth. The material is stretched thin, but Harpman's eye for detail and command of tone (effectively translated from the French original) give powerful credibility to her portrayal of a human tabula rasa gradually acquiring a fragmentary comprehension of the phenomena of life and loving, and a moving plangency to her muted cri de coeur (``I am the sterile offspring of a race about which I know nothing, not even whether it has become extinct'').
Pub Date: May 1, 1997
ISBN: 1-888363-43-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1997
BOOK REVIEW
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