A wry, sensitive portrayal of the roiling turbulence of youth in all its messiness.
In this novel, a young man muddles through tragedy and euphoria as he attempts to understand his place in the world.
It’s 1992 and Spencer Mazio has made a mess of things. As he tries to figure out how to wiggle out of his latest bout of trouble, the narrative jumps back to 1988, when he has arrived as a freshman at Yale University. Standing in line to sort out his overdue tuition payments, he meets Jonathon Vandershar III, an heir to a vast fortune who quickly takes Spencer under his wing and introduces him to drugs, booze, and the advantages of owning your own helicopter. Spencer was recruited by Yale to play on the baseball team but suffers from what he calls “the Dread,” a darkness that rears its head as either depression or uncontrollable anger: “The Dread is a shape-shifty thing made of shadow, so I never know what form it will take or what it might do to me.” After starting a brawl on the baseball field during practice, Spencer finds himself in the Yale infirmary, where he meets the idealistic and upbeat John Henry. The two become fast friends, even as Spencer starts an illegal sports gambling ring that threatens his future at Yale and his job offer at Goldman Sachs. As the chapters toggle between the past and present, readers catch a glimpse of both the quiet times and momentous shifts—along with a memorable cast of characters, including Jonathon and John Henry, who slip in and out of Spencer’s life—that help shape the protagonist. From a stay at the Widworth mental hospital and ill-fated affairs to a devastating betrayal and a tragic family history that he can’t bring himself to share, Spencer struggles to find what—and who—will bring him true happiness.
Spencer’s narration of his travails as a young man, veering between hopelessly depressing and delightfully sardonic moments, will likely remind some readers of a 1990s Holden Caulfield (complete with the occasional foul language). Spencer’s observations about those around him can be surprisingly insightful: “A few years ago Town & Country dubbed them American Royalty, but as far as I could tell, the Vandershars were all just completely unreliable.” But that kind of capacity makes it all the more frustrating in the frequent scenes in which he is unable to apply the gift to himself. Still, inability is what makes Spencer such a compelling narrator—his desperate attempt to escape childhood is one that will be familiar to many. The tale’s dialogue flows at an impressive pace, with lightning-quick conversations broken up by enough muted observations by Spencer to slow it all down: “The whole town seemed vertical, rising up from a small yacht-filled harbor into wooded hills, and the buildings were all colored like the sherbets Papa and I used to eat when I was a kid—orange Creamsicle stacked on top of pink lemonade stacked on top of pomegranate sunrise stacked on top of lemon meringue.” Lenain has crafted an emotional, well-balanced novel that ultimately reminds readers that everyone has an engaging story to tell.
A wry, sensitive portrayal of the roiling turbulence of youth in all its messiness.Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781737700074
Page Count: 328
Publisher: Christmas Lake Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
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