Of the Nicks who write about young men coming to terms with their cluelessness, Laird is funnier and edgier than Hornby.
Raise a pint of Guinness to this debut novel of Northern Ireland that combines humor and heart with subversive intelligence.
The plot pivots on the relationship of two young men from opposite sides of the class divide, who forged a bond in boyhood and who reunite in London after their lives have taken them in different directions. Danny Williams is an upwardly mobile lawyer at a high-pressure firm. Geordie Wilson, Danny’s boyhood Irish schoolmate, has become an unemployed drifter who doesn’t know where to turn after he runs afoul of a gang of political hooligans. He seeks asylum with a surprised Danny, who has trouble accommodating this rough-edged reminder of his small-town past within the upscale urbanity to which he aspires. Complications ensue, as Geordie’s troubles (and those of Northern Ireland) follow him to London, while Danny’s legal research takes him back to his homeland, where he discovers how difficult it can be to disregard the consequences of his work-for-hire. Over the course of the six days detailed within the novel, Danny and Geordie find their lives further complicated by budding romances (or at least sexual dalliances), as their new girlfriends help the unlikely friends explore emotional depths they never knew they had. As Danny stumbles into bed with a woman he perhaps doesn’t deserve, Laird perfectly captures the urgency and awkwardness of intimacy between two folks who barely know each other. Having established a reputation as a prize-winning poet (and perhaps best known as the husband of novelist Zadie Smith), Laird doesn’t concern himself too much with plausibility of plot, but his keen eye for detail and ear for dialect—along with the empathy he displays for his diverse array of characters—give the writing a richness beyond the chance encounters and coincidences on which the novel relies.
Of the Nicks who write about young men coming to terms with their cluelessness, Laird is funnier and edgier than Hornby.Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-082836-6
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Perennial/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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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