In her second novel of historical fiction, Jones (The Fatal Crown, 1990) continues her prurient tale of scandal and succession among medieval European royalty. This time, her subject is the torrid romance of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II of England. When Eleanor's mother and brother die suddenly in 1130, Eleanor becomes heir to the large and wealthy duchy of Aquitaine. Her father, William, never remarries, and at 15, Eleanor inherits his lands along with their rebellious vassals. She marries Prince Louis of France to protect herself and her beloved Aquitaine from greedy and ambitious lords, but the marriage is a disaster. Eleanor is, after all, a lusty daughter of Aquitaine, and Louis (later Saint Louis) was raised to be a monk. Eleanor is miserable in France, but it is only after she learns the pleasures of the flesh from her uncle, Raymond of Antioch, that she determines to leave Louis. Their marriage is annulled and Eleanor immediately marries Henry, Duke of Normandy, Count of Anjou, and soon-to-be King of England. Though her new marriage is again one of convenience, Eleanor finds something with Henry she never had with Louis—great sex. Their passion for each other is insatiable and Eleanor gives Henry heir after heir. They are both too willful not to clash often, however, and when Eleanor discovers the existence of Henry's longtime mistress, Bellebelle, she and Henry become estranged. Ultimately, Bellebelle gets herself to a nunnery and Eleanor triumphs, but at the same time realizes that she cannot allow herself to be dominated by Henry. The book ends as it began—with Eleanor returning to Aquitaine, the seat of her power and source of her strength. Even Jones's simplistic treatment cannot completely ruin one of history's finest love stories—a fact that elevates this book to a cut above the average dime-store romance.
Pub Date: June 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-671-87279-6
Page Count: 608
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1994
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
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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