A sprawling collage that, though lengthy and chatty, offers memorable characters.
Schulze offers an epic, character-driven novel of love, Hollywood, and ambition that spans two decades.
In 2016, 21-year-old Jacob Andrezj is a cinema buff with a chest full of DVDs and the passion to talk about them. He studies screenwriting in Boston and has just returned stateside from study abroad in Florence, Italy, where he explored his sexuality. However, he finds the gay scene in New England, particularly during Pride Month, lacking—until he meets an older man named Stewie Hanz, who turns Jacob on to the music of the Pet Shop Boys and listens to his intense criticism of films such as Lawrence of Arabia. Meanwhile, out in California, Drew Lawrence is a 40-year-old filmmaker who, thanks to his frustrations and abuse of steroids and other drugs, is prone to destructive outbursts. When he’s not snorting cocaine, having sex with male go-go dancers, or cruising around in his Jeep (with a license plate that reads “JEEPGUY”), he’s wondering where his “magic” went, so he embarks on a quest to regain his artistry. A man known as Whale is a young intern for a famous movie producer who calls himself “the Professor,” who, despite his moniker, is hardly instructive. Whale, along with his fellow interns, is often humiliated whenever he interacts with his boss; for example, the Professor gave him his insulting nickname. To aggravate matters, Whale lives with a wealthy slacker named Alex Avery who gets his kicks from drugs and rewatching The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). It’s clear that the entertainment business isn’t what Whale bargained for.
Some portions of Schulze’s novel are written as a screenplay, others are not, but the main narratives effectively interweave as the story goes on. The work is more than 800 pages long, and with that length come a range of styles and tapestry of tones, with physical connections that range from a relatively chaste kiss of two strangers to a drug-fueled Drew working his “coarse leathery hands” over a conquest in a bathroom. The page count also allows for intriguingly nuanced characters, and as the characters’ stories grow more complex, readers will find themselves consistently curious as to how the next scene will develop. Will Drew run himself ragged or find a path of reform? Will Jacob and Stewie make things work even when the latter reveals a secret? Schulze effectively paints Jacob as someone who desperately wants to join “the industry” even though his boss physically beats him. Many strange denizens of LA make their ways across the stage, as well. The many-layered narrative heavily focuses on dialogue, which makes for a slow pace. Jacob makes numerous digressions that add little to the story, explaining everything from Hogwarts to a T-shirt from Glee to how he picks what music to play in the car with his friends. (Even Stewie complains: “You say so many things!”) As a result, readers will find that speed is always a priority. A sprawling collage that, though lengthy and chatty, offers memorable characters.Pub Date: June 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781737037859
Page Count: 822
Publisher: David Schulze Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 27, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.
Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
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