Finely textured character development almost compensates for a depressing tale.
A psychological novel explores two young men whose lives intersect in Los Angeles chaotically, emotionally, sexually, and violently.
In the book’s opening section, readers meet Clyde Koba, a second-generation Japanese-American and the narrator of the first part of this tale. It is 1973, and he is about to celebrate his 11th birthday. Before the night is over, his father comes home, abusively drunk as usual. Clyde tries to hide and winds up accidentally stepping on his beloved cat, breaking the feline’s back and killing him. Eventually, Clyde begins to display a violent streak, and his issues with sexual identity grow more overt. He becomes obsessed with Marilyn Monroe’s photographs and biography, convinced her spirit has been reincarnated in his body. Then the story takes on a third-person narrator and moves to another part of town, where 16-year-old Raphael Dweck has decided he is finished with his court-mandated psychotherapy. Three years ago, Raphael, a kleptomaniac, stole the silver breastplate of the Torah he had been studying for his bar mitzvah. Born in Israel, the Orthodox, observant Raphael immigrated to Los Angeles with his family eight years ago. But now his parents and rabbi decide the teen must find salvation by returning to Israel and living with a despised aunt. Ortega-Medina’s (Jerusalem Ablaze, 2017) graphic prose is vivid, especially when describing the Israeli desert: “The orb of the sun spits out swirls of colour as it dips westward, painting the purpling sky with reds and oranges, and splashing the edges of the crater with an ever-changing palette. Raphael…sketches furiously, trying to capture something of the devolving landscape as the colours intensify, and a warm wind kicks up from the desert floor.” The author’s deft construction of this complex plot reflects his experience in creating short stories. He concentrates first on Clyde, then on Raphael. Finally, the tale jumps ahead to 1982, several years after Raphael (now Ralph) returned to California. The two men’s paths become intertwined as they form a quirky, symbiotic relationship. Ralph, still searching for God, is the more manipulative of these two psychologically fragile, fully developed characters. Clyde, now cross-dressing as Monroe, is the more explosive and physically dangerous one. Ralph tells Clyde: “We’re all messed up, in one way or another. Every one of us. Damaged goods.” That could be this dark, disturbing novel’s subtitle.
Finely textured character development almost compensates for a depressing tale.Pub Date: June 21, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-999-5873-5-2
Page Count: 475
Publisher: Cloud Lodge Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
An illuminating read for anyone interested in the inner workings of the Catholic Church; for prelate-fiction superfans, it...
Harris, creator of grand, symphonic thrillers from Fatherland (1992) to An Officer and a Spy (2014), scores with a chamber piece of a novel set in the Vatican in the days after a fictional pope dies.
Fictional, yes, but the nameless pontiff has a lot in common with our own Francis: he’s famously humble, shunning the lavish Apostolic Palace for a small apartment, and he is committed to leading a church that engages with the world and its problems. In the aftermath of his sudden death, rumors circulate about the pope’s intention to fire certain cardinals. At the center of the action is Cardinal Lomeli, Dean of the College of Cardinals, whose job it is to manage the conclave that will elect a new pope. He believes it is also his duty to uncover what the pope knew before he died because some of the cardinals in question are in the running to succeed him. “In the running” is an apt phrase because, as described by Harris, the papal conclave is the ultimate political backroom—albeit a room, the Sistine Chapel, covered with Michelangelo frescoes. Vying for the papal crown are an African cardinal whom many want to see as the first black pope, a press-savvy Canadian, an Italian arch-conservative (think Cardinal Scalia), and an Italian liberal who wants to continue the late pope’s campaign to modernize the church. The novel glories in the ancient rituals that constitute the election process while still grounding that process in the real world: the Sistine Chapel is fitted with jamming devices to thwart electronic eavesdropping, and the pressure to act quickly is increased because “rumours that the pope is dead are already trending on social media.”
An illuminating read for anyone interested in the inner workings of the Catholic Church; for prelate-fiction superfans, it is pure temptation.Pub Date: Nov. 22, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-451-49344-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 6, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2016
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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