A novel that makes peace with uncertainty.
In 1889, a fire in Spokane Falls, a thriving town in the territory of Washington, provides opportunities for two unscrupulous men and one ethically ambivalent woman.
On the verge of statehood—which, in the thoughts of one character, will lessen the desperation that makes a citizenry susceptible to fraud—Washington Territory is ripe for exploitation by three drifters who, in this extremely pre-regulation universe, can endlessly reinvent themselves. Barton Heydale, a banker who came to Spokane Falls to escape a dismissive father in Portland, embezzles to get even with the townsfolk, who dismiss him even more. Roslyn Beck, a prostitute Barton visits regularly, is rescued by him after the catastrophic fire which begins in the hotel where she lives and works. However, she doesn’t see it as rescue once she sobers up from the absinthelike thrall of the hooch known as “Mud Drink.” Faux fire investigator Quake Auchenbaucher (an alias earned when he masqueraded as a seismologist) engineers Barton’s downfall and also attempts, with more honorable intentions, to rescue Roslyn, who is having none of that, either. Roslyn is not so much the protagonist as the tonal center of a book whose key is unclear. She is “a certain kind of woman.” A witch? A clairvoyant? A seeker? Or just aware that she is always second-guessing herself when far less talented men are not? The author’s main preoccupation is not with people but with motifs and issues: What is consent? Can good intentions redeem? Is theft in aid of good works moral? The prose is incantatory. Locations veer from the frontier precursor of Spokane, which Krow portrays with the sure hand of a local, to Portland and San Francisco. A prologue and unrelated “interludes” underscore the novel’s themes, superfluously it seems. The characters weigh their options, internally and in dialogue—in some sections just dialogue, like a script without stage directions—but seem to care very little about outcomes. Outcomes, the reader gathers, aren’t really the point.
A novel that makes peace with uncertainty.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-59-329960-9
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
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
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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