A captivating literary experiment, as well as a moving story.
In this work of fiction—an unconventional mélange of prose, poetry, and photography—an emotionally compromised librarian and an unhoused person narrate their daily lives.
In 2021, a bookish man named Maddux, who generally if uneasily responds to “Max,” works as a reference librarian in Berkeley, California, where he hears “the most remarkable, even deranged, questions.” After a harrowing LSD trip, he feels compelled to question the entirety of his existence in a fit of philosophical angst: “There was for me, now, no ultimate meaningfulness, I couldn’t understand why or even IF I existed, or if anyone really does exist….” Meanwhile, a nameless, unhoused person recounts his quotidian life with his dog, Cannella—one largely lived within the confines of an alley that abuts the library. Bern’s work flows between these narrative perspectives, reporting, by turns, from the alleyway and the reference desk. The resulting book is a dizzying brew of artistic expression that swings freely from blocks of prose to poems, interspersed with striking black-and-white photographic images by the author. The stories presented here have a fragmentary, impressionistic quality; they’re brief and sometimes hazy vignettes, woven into an uncertain tapestry of tales. The reader begins to get an intimation of the nameless narrator’s predicament—a violent home life growing up, a brother wounded in the Vietnam War and struggling with mental illness, and his own chronic drug use. With impressive subtlety, Bern draws arresting parallels between the two main characters, and both are impressive wordsmiths. However, Max, while sympathetic, simply can’t understand why unhoused people might not accept help from others. This is an unusual book that’s often exasperating to follow, and readers with little tolerance for stubborn uncertainty will be frustrated. However, for those who can navigate such slippery literary ground, this is a compelling hybrid of artistic forms.
A captivating literary experiment, as well as a moving story.Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2023
ISBN: 9798986724379
Page Count: 119
Publisher: UnCollected Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.
Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A fresh, funny, ambitious, and nuanced take on some of our oldest existential questions. Cannot wait for the TV series.
What would you do if you knew when you were going to die?
In the first page and a half of her latest page-turner, bestselling Australian author Moriarty introduces a large cast of fascinating characters, all seated on a flight to Sydney that’s delayed on the tarmac. There’s the “bespectacled hipster” with his arm in a cast; a very pregnant woman; a young mom with a screaming infant and a sweaty toddler; a bride and groom, still in their wedding clothes; a surly 6-year-old forced to miss a laser-tag party; a darling elderly couple; a chatty tourist pair; several others. No one even notices the woman who will later become a household name as the “Death Lady” until she hops up from her seat and begins to deliver predictions to each of them about the age they’ll be when they die and the cause of their deaths. Age 30, assault, for the hipster. Age 7, drowning, for the baby in arms. Age 43, workplace accident, for a 42-year-old civil engineer. Self-harm, age 28, for the lovely flight attendant, who is that day celebrating her 28th birthday. Over the next 126 chapters (some just a paragraph), you will get to know all these people, and their reactions to the news of their demise, very well. Best of all, you will get to know Cherry Lockwood, the Death Lady, and the life that brought her to this day. Is it true, as she repeatedly intones on the plane, that “fate won’t be fought”? Does this novel support the idea that clairvoyance is real? Does it find a means to logically dismiss the whole thing? Or is it some complex amalgam of these possibilities? Sorry, you won’t find that out here, and in fact not until you’ve turned all 500-plus pages. The story is a brilliant, charming, and invigorating illustration of its closing quote from Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (we’re not going to spill that either).
A fresh, funny, ambitious, and nuanced take on some of our oldest existential questions. Cannot wait for the TV series.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9780593798607
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
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