Cinematic settings, evolving characters, and an explosive plot support a story of love and politics.
Youthful decisions come to haunt the lives of Venezuelans living through decades of social and political upheaval.
Puyana’s debut novel launches with a propulsive, pulse-quickening prologue set during a day of massive political protest in 2002. María, a single mother and housekeeper living in the Caracas barrio, is home for the day as the city braces for demonstrations and counter-demonstrations. When, caught in gunfire, her beloved 9-year-old son is shot and seriously wounded, María’s frantic search for help and transport to medical care vividly illustrates the abysmal conditions endured by impoverished Venezuelans (even after years of revolutionary activity). Chaos in the hospital leads to a civilian assisting at Eloy’s surgery. What follows is an expansive chronicle of the interwoven lives of people who began as true believers in the Movement of the 1960s, centering on the experiences of Stanislavo Atanas, the privileged son of European émigré doctors who escaped the Holocaust. His involvement with the guerrilla forces becomes fraught but does bring him love with Emiliana Rodríguez, an Indigenous nurse secretly assisting those forces. When tactical expediencies and a poor decision on Stanislavo’s part rupture the romance, their lives proceed on separate courses. It’s only much later in life that a world-weary and less idealistic Stanislavo learns of Emiliana’s journey (and what his role in her destiny was). An action-packed narrative carries Stanislavo through those decades, and Puyana delivers graphic portraits of the seats of power and wealth as well as life in the Venezuelan barrios, jails, and jungles. Stanislavo’s later career as a journalist allows Puyana to convey the complexities of the country’s military and political situations, but ultimately the saga is one of love, loss, and opportunities for recognition and redemption.
Cinematic settings, evolving characters, and an explosive plot support a story of love and politics.Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2024
ISBN: 9780316571784
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
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 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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