An intriguing, sometimes effective tale about redemption and a remarkable mentor.
The lives of a dissolute sideshow sword swallower and a self-destructive young man intersect.
Debut novelist Robinson introduces this story as a fictionalized account of the sideshow performer Capt. Don Leslie’s life and the author’s own journey. The result: colorful storytelling combined with self-conscious, confessional messaging about addiction and dysfunction. The novel, spanning decades, begins in the 1960s with Robinson’s third-person narrative about a sword-swallower named Duke. The performer is in San Francisco for his Florida-based circus’ off-season, fueling his addiction to alcohol and methamphetamine and eagerness to get back to the big tent. Duke’s gritty odyssey encompasses his growing celebrity, a life-changing stint in prison, and his affection for the so-called sideshow “freaks” that became his family when he joined the circus as a 15-year-old runaway. This section is often genuinely moving, despite the choppy cadence of short, declarative sentences (“Alcoholism and religion prevailed. It was rarely peaceful at home. Duke was smoking cigarettes at thirteen”). Before a much older Duke and 35-year-old fictional Gary meet by happenstance in Chico, California, the latter picks up the narrative as a nihilistic high school graduate in the 1980s, embarking on decades of addiction and dysfunction. Gary recounts this as an exhaustive series of anecdotes, with a jarring blend of reminiscence, self-flagellation—“I am no superstar, and that is killing me”—and philosophical interjections: “The purpose of why we are here and who we are engaged with is rarely revealed until the moment has arrived.” This aspect of the book becomes increasingly forced. The impact of Gary’s redemptive journey—sparked by Duke’s mentorship and a consciousness-raising encounter with a vomiting woman named Angel—is further weakened by long passages quoting 19th-century secularist Robert G. Ingersoll and ruminations about Christianity and the morality of criminalizing drug use. The narrative flow is hampered, too, by characters who repeatedly speak “assuredly” and “excitedly.”
An intriguing, sometimes effective tale about redemption and a remarkable mentor.Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-0999469804
Page Count: 334
Publisher: Grobinbooks
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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