Prepare for a verbal feast that will thoroughly entertain and satisfy, yet leave you hungering for more.
Boyagoda’s (Governor of the Northern Province, 2006) historical tale about a man who strives to avenge his past is a savory delight.
When a young boy is born into an impoverished family in British-occupied Ceylon in 1899, his parents, convinced that he’s bad luck, abandon him near a monastery. Humiliated by rejection and abused by a monk, the boy runs away, travels to Colombo and reinvents himself as Sam Kandy. There, he becomes one of the many street urchins who scrabble for survival. But Sam is fueled by more than just the need to survive. He’s embittered and driven, and he dreams of one day avenging the wrongs committed against him. He hungers for riches and recognition, certain that one day he will return to his birthplace as the most powerful man in the village. Traveling from Ceylon to Australia and Singapore and back again, he amasses and loses fortunes, but he never loses sight of his goal. Through vivid depictions of political turmoil and cultural transition during Sam’s century of life, the reader is drawn into Sam’s world by the very nature of his single-mindedness, aptly described by the author. Like him or not, Sam’s an intriguing man who’s insensitive, selfish and cowardly, and his actions—whether he’s opening a butterfly hall, leading a gang of ragamuffins, starting a shipping agency or striking a deal with Lord Mountbatten—are always calculated to give him an advantage. Sam extracts what he can from each experience as he schemes, plots and bribes his way through the early years of his life, and he ruthlessly weeds out those who threaten to get in his way, whether they are family or not. His redemptive about-face in later years adds yet another layer to a multifaceted, engrossing story.
Prepare for a verbal feast that will thoroughly entertain and satisfy, yet leave you hungering for more.Pub Date: Sept. 25, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-670-06658-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Pintail/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2012
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
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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