A sprawling critique of so-called polite society.
An epic way-we-live-now social novel set in a rapidly corroding London.
Campbell Flynn, the center of O’Hagan’s multivalent satire, is a public intellectual admired for his books on fine art, writing regularly for high-toned opinion and fashion magazines. To make a quick buck, he dashes off a self-help book, Why Men Weep in Their Cars, but to avoid being seen as associated with such déclassé work, he schemes to have an actor pose as its author. From this modest bit of deceit and money-grubbing, O’Hagan spins a heady but credible tale that includes street toughs, immigrants, British aristocrats, political leaders, Russian oligarchs, human traffickers, and the worlds of media, art, and fashion. To educate himself on youth culture and the world beyond his social set, Campbell confers with one of his students, Milo Mangasha, who hacks into Campbell’s private life and unearths a host of seamy associates; various crises and tragedies ensue in the year that follows. O’Hagan’s clearest model for this high-and-low worlds-in-collision tale is Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities, and O’Hagan shares Wolfe’s gift for delivering a panoply of unique characters and clearly outlining their motives. The novel has its flaws: O’Hagan’s eagerness to tick the box of every element of contemporary life, from Bitcoin to drill music to deepfakes, demands some forced connections. (Milo’s girlfriend’s brother is connected to a human trafficking scheme; Campbell’s friend is married to a firebrand columnist, and their son is a shrill environmental activist.) The comeuppances are generally predictable, and while Wolfe’s manic style highlighted how greedy and hubristic his characters were, O’Hagan’s approach is more sober and at times drowsier. Still, there’s no doubting the scope of his ambition; when future generations seek to understand post-pandemic Britain, this will be one of the first places they look.
A sprawling critique of so-called polite society.Pub Date: June 18, 2024
ISBN: 9781324074878
Page Count: 608
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
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
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
© Copyright 2025 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.
