A rote exercise in blockbuster-building.
Bloated beginning of a new Bradford saga about English tycoons.
Departing from the Harte series, which rode so profitably upon the coattails of A Woman of Substance (1979), this launch is strictly for Bradford devotees. The story opens in 1904 at Ravenscar, ancestral manor of Edward Deravenel, scion of an aristocratic Yorkshire family that lost control of Deravenels, a trading company dating from the Norman Conquest with worldwide outposts in mining, exporting, agriculture—and soon, oil. For 60-odd years, the Deravenel Grants, the Lancashire branch of the family, have dominated the firm, where Edward’s father, Richard, toils as an undercompensated executive. When Richard and his brother-in-law Rick, along with Edward’s brother and cousin, perish in a mysterious fire near Deravenels Tuscan marble quarry, Edward and his cousin Neville investigate, convinced the Grants had their relatives killed. The Tuscan murders can’t be traced to the Grants, nor can power-behind-the-throne Margot, wife of demented Chairman Henry Grant, be implicated in the ensuing mayhem. Edward is beset by thugs as he leaves his mistress Lily’s house in London, and Lily dies after a rampaging stallion upsets her carriage. Since Edward’s faction never lacks the wherewithal to topple the Grants, needing only to marshal the evidence of mismanagement, embezzlement and Henry’s mental incapacity, the murders—including a poisoning committed at Edward’s behest—seem beside the point, as do the perfunctory sex scenes between irresistible Edward and his ladyloves, and spitfire French temptress Margot and her company stooges. Dogged attention to detail of the dress, décor and grazing habits of the well-to-do make for a ponderous pace. Despite umpteen novels (Just Rewards, Jan. 2006, etc.), Bradford lacks finesse at getting her characters in and out of rooms.
A rote exercise in blockbuster-building.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-312-35460-6
Page Count: 496
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2006
IN THE NEWS
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
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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