Sometimes surreal, sometimes prurient, sometimes discomfiting—and every page worth reading.
The noted Spanish director delivers a series of contes à clef, giving his merrily transgressive takes on life a good literary workout.
“This collection of stories (I call everything a story, I don’t distinguish between genres) demonstrates the intimate relationship between what I write, what I film, and what I live,” writes Almodóvar, the creator of films such as All About My Mother and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. The declaration is a touch cryptic, but what follows is often strange and sometimes shocking, as with his opening story, “The Visit,” in which the putative sister of a man molested by priests in boyhood confronts one of them; he accuses her of dressing like a prostitute, to which she retorts, “I don’t particularly like the way you dress either.” For those who know Almodóvar’s films, the surprise ending won’t come entirely as a surprise. In another story, an actor, León, desperate for a project, contemplates a top-to-bottom rewriting of the classic L’Amore, Roberto Rossellini’s adaptation of a play by Jean Cocteau, its star the luminous Anna Magnani; in León’s vision, it will become a love story between men: “The lover is bisexual....Bisexuality is the great neglected topic of the sexual revolution.” It doesn’t play out. Perhaps the most eccentric tale portrays an aristocratic vampire who comes calling on, again, a priest whose blood flows after self-flagellation; says the vampire, who could have sunk his teeth into the scenario but professes no interest in “vampirizing,” “I am like your mystics; I like to be alone, left to follow my own devices and desires.” Jesus, Barabbas, the singer Chavela, Isabella and Ferdinand, and, yes, the vampire all show up in these oddly delightful stories, no one doing quite what they’re expected to do.
Sometimes surreal, sometimes prurient, sometimes discomfiting—and every page worth reading.Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2024
ISBN: 9780063349766
Page Count: 240
Publisher: HarperVia
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
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
"Don't go into the woods" takes on unsettling new meaning in Moore's blend of domestic drama and crime novel.
Many years after her older brother, Bear, went missing, Barbara Van Laar vanishes from the same sleepaway camp he did, leading to dark, bitter truths about her wealthy family.
One morning in 1975 at Camp Emerson—an Adirondacks summer camp owned by her family—it's discovered that 13-year-old Barbara isn't in her bed. A problem case whose unhappily married parents disdain her goth appearance and "stormy" temperament, Barbara is secretly known by one bunkmate to have slipped out every night after bedtime. But no one has a clue where's she permanently disappeared to, firing speculation that she was taken by a local serial killer known as Slitter. As Jacob Sluiter, he was convicted of 11 murders in the 1960s and recently broke out of prison. He's the one, people say, who should have been prosecuted for Bear's abduction, not a gardener who was framed. Leave it to the young and unproven assistant investigator, Judy Luptack, to press forward in uncovering the truth, unswayed by her bullying father and male colleagues who question whether women are "cut out for this work." An unsavory group portrait of the Van Laars emerges in which the children's father cruelly abuses their submissive mother, who is so traumatized by the loss of Bear—and the possible role she played in it—that she has no love left for her daughter. Picking up on the themes of families in search of themselves she explored in Long Bright River (2020), Moore draws sympathy to characters who have been subjected to spousal, parental, psychological, and physical abuse. As rich in background detail and secondary mysteries as it is, this ever-expansive, intricate, emotionally engaging novel never seems overplotted. Every piece falls skillfully into place and every character, major and minor, leaves an imprint.
"Don't go into the woods" takes on unsettling new meaning in Moore's blend of domestic drama and crime novel.Pub Date: July 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780593418918
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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