With this so-so historical novel, Chase-Riboud (Echo of Lions, 1988, etc.) returns to the scene of her first work, Sally Hemings (not reviewed), to pick up the story of Harriet Hemings, the daughter of slave Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson promised Sally Hemings that their children, who were slaves at Monticello, would be allowed to ``stroll'' at 21—that is, their running away would be ignored but they would not officially be freed. When she reaches that age in 1822, Harriet Hemings is escorted to Philadelphia by an old friend of Jefferson's, changes her name to Harriet Petit, and begins passing as a white woman. The juicy premise delivers some insights into the nature and definition of race, but Chase-Riboud's clumsy use of history gives some sections the feeling of a virtual-reality game- -now you are watching Sojourner Truth give her famous ``Ain't I a Woman'' speech; now you are witnessing discussions about the Dred Scott case. Broader historical information is less intrusive, like Petit's close friendship with Charlotte Waverly, which eventually becomes a sexual relationship of the type that was common among middle-class women at the time. Although Petit narrates most of the time, she is interrupted intermittently by other characters- -including Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln—whose sections end with preachy proclamations. It is unclear exactly what these are meant to accomplish, since they use formal language to announce facts that certainly would not have been made public at the time. In any case, these voices are all less effective than Petit's. A scene in which she returns to Monticello after Jefferson's death and spies a list of slaves to be auctioned off—including her own mother entered at 50 dollars—is particularly chilling. Lacking literary finesse, but still powerful enough to tarnish the reputation of yet another dead white man.
Pub Date: Oct. 19, 1994
ISBN: 0-517-59861-2
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1994
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
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