An engaging, impassioned, frenzied tale of a comedian on the way up facing thorny challenges.
A raucous stand-up comedian gets his first taste of fame as he struggles with alcoholism and anxiety in this debut novel.
Twenty-five-year-old Jon Anderson has been performing in Denver comedy clubs for years, but the venues and the pay are not always great. (“The ambience of dirty feet, burnt whiskey, and sadness lingered in the air!”) As he accepts a crinkled $20 bill for his latest set—a rambling diatribe about dating, drinking, and enduring one-night-stand impotence—he stresses about his social anxiety. This keeps him drinking, which keeps him in bars, where he has a run-in with a homeless guy who claims he can get Jon gigs. Miraculously, the new contact follows through, and Jon opens for a renowned comedian at a premier club. As the gigs keep coming, the local recognition turns into national bookings, more zeroes in the bank account, and a relationship with a model named Trixy Wells. The two fall in love, but Trixy’s got a jet-setting lifestyle and a penchant for infidelity. Jon is wracked with indecision about the relationship, but Trixy swears she’s dedicated to him. Drunk, love-struck, and becoming more famous, Jon travels to Scotland to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe, where he has to decide just how much of a role Trixy can play in his life. Brown’s anxiety-riddled, alcohol-fueled story is written in a stream-of-consciousness style that is fervent, funny, and obsessed with picking apart the self-doubt and worry that drive Jon’s stand-up act. The comedy monologues themselves are written at the same fever pitch as the rest of the novel, with Jon’s brain never really quieting down. The book’s raw, irreverent energy is appealing. Acclaim and wealth come a bit too easily to Jon, but the mental issues he confronts are fierce adversaries.
An engaging, impassioned, frenzied tale of a comedian on the way up facing thorny challenges.Pub Date: Aug. 19, 2020
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Jan. 28, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
