Well-meaning soap, riddled with clichés.
A veteran paperback author returns with another earnest romance (I Know Who Tomorrow Holds, not reviewed; co-contributor, Winter Nights, 1998).
Kristen Wakefield is looking for love but not finding it, just like so many other well-educated, well-dressed, well-heeled black women in New Orleans. But she does have a fascinating career as a museum curator and a personal wardrobe that includes every expensive label known to womankind. The crystal chandeliers gleam and all the upholstery is silk in the circles she moves in, every step muffled by thick carpets, every object in sight indicating bogus sophistication (“You’ve been to Paris, of course,” says Maurice, her friend Claudette’s creepy husband, proffering a glass of Dom Perignon. “Several times,” Kristen replies, wishing he would stop touching her). If only Claudette would return and keep Maurice in line, they could get back to talking about the fabulous collection of contemporary African-American art that Kristen wants to borrow for a show at the Haywood Museum. Oh, no! Breathing heavily, Maurice comes closer . . .and closer still. It’s time to call for help. Enter our hero: brawny Rafe Crawford, who shoulders his way into the scene and punches the troublesome lecher in the nose. Rafe is a Real Man, a self-taught furniture maker determined to escape his family history of violence and abuse. But the villainous Maurice is furious that his evil designs on Kristen’s virtue have been thwarted—and later claims that she tried to seduce him and then persuaded her brutish friend to attack. Claudette will never lend the artwork now, Kristen knows—and what will her beloved mother and distinguished stepfather think? Bravely, she soldiers on, though her false friends have become her open enemies. Forced to resign, she finds that no other museum or arts organization will hire her. And how can she dare to have feelings for Rafe, when her love for him only brings him pain?
Well-meaning soap, riddled with clichés.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-312-30734-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2003
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
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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