A compelling amalgam of ludicrous humor and sober cultural analysis.
A brilliant woman with Alzheimer’s disease and a not-too-bright conspiracy theorist become entangled in a terrorist plot in Kirk’s satirical novel.
For 20 years, Maryland resident Andy MacClean allowed his wife, Melody, to assume leadership over their lives; after all, he’s not the smartest man, and she’s a bona fide genius with multiple doctorates and a successful career as a corporate executive at a reinsurance company. However, she also suffers from early-onset Alzheimer’s, so Andy finds himself forced to assume responsibilities for which he’s deeply unprepared. He’s also become a devoted supporter of ex-president Donald Trump, and he’s convinced that his hero only lost the election because it was rigged by evil elites; in fact, Andy believes just about every bizarre conspiracy theory that Trump and his disciples espouse. Things take a strange turn when Andy—who’s nicknamed “Handcream” because he used it to treat his dyshidrotic eczema in high school—rescues 17-year-old Telly Kind from her stepfather, Lutz Delorean, the police chief of Damascus, Maryland, when the latter attempts to kidnap her. When Melody discovers that Lutz implanted a microchip into Telly’s hand, she thinks that the teen is a pawn in some sort of nefarious plot hatched by her stepdad—who has his own sordid reasons to loathe America. Over the course of this book, Kirk delivers a thoroughly farcical plot with eccentric humor; at one point, for instance, the none-too-sharp Andy is said to take “information in on a catch-and-release basis.” Along the way, he shrewdly plumbs the depths of the chaotic American political psyche, and, in particular, many of its angry citizens’ attraction to bombast: “Loud is the best answer to everything. You know that movie with all the fast action scenes that were impossible, but the speed with which they flew by suspended your skepticism? Political rally organizers took note.” Overall, it’s a delightfully strange and refreshing work that effectively combines a comedic wildness with a clear-eyed political commentary.
A compelling amalgam of ludicrous humor and sober cultural analysis.Pub Date: July 2, 2024
ISBN: 9798326563088
Page Count: 442
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.
An artwork’s value grows if you understand the stories of the people who inspired it.
Never in her wildest dreams would foster kid Louisa dream of meeting C. Jat, the famous painter of The One of the Sea, which depicts a group of young teens on a pier on a hot summer’s day. But in Backman’s latest, that’s just what happens—an unexpected (but not unbelievable) set of circumstances causes their paths to collide right before the dying 39-year-old artist’s departure from the world. One of his final acts is to bequeath that painting to Louisa, who has endured a string of violent foster homes since her mother abandoned her as a child. Selling the painting will change her life—but can she do it? Before deciding, she accompanies Ted, one of the artist’s close friends and one of the young teens captured in that celebrated painting, on a train journey to take the artist’s ashes to his hometown. She wants to know all about the painting, which launched Jat’s career at age 14, and the circle of beloved friends who inspired it. The bestselling author of A Man Called Ove (2014) and other novels, Backman gives us a heartwarming story about how these friends, set adrift by the violence and unhappiness of their homes, found each other and created a new definition of family. “You think you’re alone,” one character explains, “but there are others like you, people who stand in front of white walls and blank paper and only see magical things. One day one of them will recognize you and call out: ‘You’re one of us!’” As Ted tells stories about his friends—how Jat doubted his talents but found a champion in fiery Joar, who took on every bully to defend him; how Ali brought an excitement to their circle that was “like a blinding light, like a heart attack”—Louisa recognizes herself as a kindred soul and feels a calling to realize her own artistic gifts. What she decides to do with the painting is part of a caper worthy of the stories that Ted tells her. The novel is humorous, poignant, and always life-affirming, even when describing the bleakness of the teens’ early lives. “Art is a fragile magic, just like love,” as someone tells Louisa, “and that’s humanity’s only defense against death.”
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781982112820
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
A vibrant tale of a remarkable woman.
Who was Shakespeare?
Move over, Earl of Oxford and Francis Bacon: There’s another contender for the true author of plays attributed to the bard of Stratford—Emilia Bassano, a clever, outspoken, educated woman who takes center stage in Picoult’s spirited novel. Of Italian heritage, from a family of court musicians, Emilia was a hidden Jew and the courtesan of a much older nobleman who vetted plays to be performed for Queen Elizabeth. She was well traveled—unlike Shakespeare, she visited Italy and Denmark, where, Picoult imagines, she may have met Rosencrantz and Guildenstern—and was familiar with court intrigue and English law. “Every gap in Shakespeare’s life or knowledge that has had to be explained away by scholars, she somehow fills,” Picoult writes. Encouraged by her lover, Emilia wrote plays and poetry, but 16th-century England was not ready for a female writer. Picoult interweaves Emilia’s story with that of her descendant Melina Green, an aspiring playwright, who encounters the same sexist barriers to making herself heard that Emilia faced. In alternating chapters, Picoult follows Melina’s frustrated efforts to get a play produced—a play about Emilia, who Melina is certain sold her work to Shakespeare. Melina’s play, By Any Other Name, “wasn’t meant to be a fiction; it was meant to be the resurrection of an erasure.” Picoult creates a richly detailed portrait of daily life in Elizabethan England, from sumptuous castles to seedy hovels. Melina’s story is less vivid: Where Emilia found support from the witty Christopher Marlowe, Melina has a fashion-loving gay roommate; where Emilia faces the ravages of repeated outbreaks of plague, for Melina, Covid-19 occurs largely offstage; where Emilia has a passionate affair with the adoring Earl of Southampton, Melina’s lover is an awkward New York Times theater critic. It’s Emilia’s story, and Picoult lovingly brings her to life.
A vibrant tale of a remarkable woman.Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2024
ISBN: 9780593497210
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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