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A SUN FOR THE DYING

Difficult but rewarding reading that offers an unflinching look at a social problem, related through the journey of one sad...

A drifter escapes to Marseilles in this dark work from Izzo (The Lost Sailors, 2007, etc.).

When drifter Rico’s entertaining friend Titi, who recited tales from books long gone, dies of exposure in a Paris metro, Rico decides he must flee the cold city. Although leaving Paris means finally giving up on his unfaithful ex-wife and beloved son, he hopes to revive a happier relationship with the long-lost Lea, whom he left in Marseilles before betrayal, bad luck and his own rampant alcoholism drove him into the street. Along the way, he meets up with other drifters, including the dashing but dangerous Dédé and the childlike Félix. Rico quickly finds himself torn between bitter and sweet memories. These memories—of Lea, of his ill-fated marriage to the social-climbing Sophie, of fellow alcoholic Julie—reveal Rico’s history and come to seem as real as his waking adventures, particularly as the booze and a worsening respiratory illness take their toll. When he recalls Titi, Rico’s tale resembles a French Midnight Cowboy, as memories and fantasies both begin to seem equally real. Rico’s pressing needs for shelter, food and alcohol create an awful momentum, driving him toward the inevitable end. Much of this short book is relayed either in dialogue form or as Rico’s interior monologue. Only the final section, told in the first person by a teenaged urchin, disrupts the intimacy.

Difficult but rewarding reading that offers an unflinching look at a social problem, related through the journey of one sad man.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2008

ISBN: 978-1-933372-59-4

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Europa Editions

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2008

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THE TESTAMENTS

Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.

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Atwood goes back to Gilead.

The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), consistently regarded as a masterpiece of 20th-century literature, has gained new attention in recent years with the success of the Hulu series as well as fresh appreciation from readers who feel like this story has new relevance in America’s current political climate. Atwood herself has spoken about how news headlines have made her dystopian fiction seem eerily plausible, and it’s not difficult to imagine her wanting to revisit Gilead as the TV show has sped past where her narrative ended. Like the novel that preceded it, this sequel is presented as found documents—first-person accounts of life inside a misogynistic theocracy from three informants. There is Agnes Jemima, a girl who rejects the marriage her family arranges for her but still has faith in God and Gilead. There’s Daisy, who learns on her 16th birthday that her whole life has been a lie. And there's Aunt Lydia, the woman responsible for turning women into Handmaids. This approach gives readers insight into different aspects of life inside and outside Gilead, but it also leads to a book that sometimes feels overstuffed. The Handmaid’s Tale combined exquisite lyricism with a powerful sense of urgency, as if a thoughtful, perceptive woman was racing against time to give witness to her experience. That narrator hinted at more than she said; Atwood seemed to trust readers to fill in the gaps. This dynamic created an atmosphere of intimacy. However curious we might be about Gilead and the resistance operating outside that country, what we learn here is that what Atwood left unsaid in the first novel generated more horror and outrage than explicit detail can. And the more we get to know Agnes, Daisy, and Aunt Lydia, the less convincing they become. It’s hard, of course, to compete with a beloved classic, so maybe the best way to read this new book is to forget about The Handmaid’s Tale and enjoy it as an artful feminist thriller.

Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.

Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019

ISBN: 978-0-385-54378-1

Page Count: 432

Publisher: Nan A. Talese

Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019

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THINGS FALL APART

This book sings with the terrible silence of dead civilizations in which once there was valor.

Written with quiet dignity that builds to a climax of tragic force, this book about the dissolution of an African tribe, its traditions, and values, represents a welcome departure from the familiar "Me, white brother" genre.

Written by a Nigerian African trained in missionary schools, this novel tells quietly the story of a brave man, Okonkwo, whose life has absolute validity in terms of his culture, and who exercises his prerogative as a warrior, father, and husband with unflinching single mindedness. But into the complex Nigerian village filters the teachings of strangers, teachings so alien to the tribe, that resistance is impossible. One must distinguish a force to be able to oppose it, and to most, the talk of Christian salvation is no more than the babbling of incoherent children. Still, with his guns and persistence, the white man, amoeba-like, gradually absorbs the native culture and in despair, Okonkwo, unable to withstand the corrosion of what he, alone, understands to be the life force of his people, hangs himself. In the formlessness of the dying culture, it is the missionary who takes note of the event, reminding himself to give Okonkwo's gesture a line or two in his work, The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.

This book sings with the terrible silence of dead civilizations in which once there was valor.

Pub Date: Jan. 23, 1958

ISBN: 0385474547

Page Count: 207

Publisher: McDowell, Obolensky

Review Posted Online: April 23, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1958

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