Another verbose quasi-period concoction from the alarmingly prolific Oates—with little of the wit and thematic edge that made A Bloodsmoor Romance a pointed (if labored) diversion. This time, supposedly, the detective-mystery form is being tackled, parodied, and Oates-ified; in fact, however, the three long episodes here are gothics, not mysteries, with little suspense and less detection; and, while the exaggerated, ornate narration in Bloodsmoor Romance suited the genre at hand, a similar style in these "Mysteries"—circa 1890-1910—seems arbitrary and anachronistic. In "The Virgin in the Rose-Bower," Abigail Whimbrel goes mad while visiting her cousin Georgina Kilgarvan, spinster-mistress of Glen Mawr manor: Abigail's baby is found dead, much of the corpse "eaten away." Other brutal deaths occur in the neighborhood. And while the local authorities blame this mayhem on rats or vagrants, Georgina's 16-year-old cousin Xavier Kilgarvan pokes around (think Hardy Boys, not Hercule Poirot)—helping to uncover a slew of standard family/sexual secrets while falling in breathy love with Georgina's young half-sister Perdita. In the second novella, "Devil's Half-Acre," super-handsome Xavier is now 28, a famous detective who returns to Winterthurn to investigate a series of molestation-murders—which have been blamed on a Jewish factory-manager (who is eventually lynched, thanks in part to a local Klan). So Xavier, drearily noble and faceless throughout, labors to pin the crime on the real aristocrat/culprit (obvious from the start)—but only succeeds in incriminating his own, disturbed brother. (His remorse ruins his renewed romance with Perdita.) And the third episode, "The Blood-stained Bridal Gown," takes place on the eve of WW I—with Perdita's husband the central victim in an adultery-murder: Xavier broods about collective guilt and such; he's depressed by his duels with an again-obvious villain; and there's a limply contrived happy ending—though Xavier gives up detection, which he finds too spiritually burdensome. Despite several pretentious authorial musings on "Mystery," however, there's no real illumination here of the primal forces at work in the detective genre. Instead, there's a replay of familiar Oates preoccupations—erotic repression, kinky fantasies, social hypocrisy—and familiar Oates mannerisms: italics, exclamation points, compulsive parentheses, rhetorical questions. And, though Oates devotees will find her arch, rococo style on lavish display, along with some inventive local details, anyone looking for period mystery—complete with socio-cultural resonances—will do far, far better with such genuine items as Juhan Symons' The Black-heath Poisonings (1979).
Pub Date: Jan. 25, 1983
ISBN: 0865381208
Page Count: 487
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Oct. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1983
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
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The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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