A novel with articulate, well-paced, and thoughtful social commentary—and a few surprises along the way.
In this debut legal drama, a Vermont attorney defends the First Amendment in two cases, one of which involves the heartbreaking death of a high schooler.
The body of 17-year-old Kerry Pearson is discovered in Montpelier’s Mahady Park at the base of a sheer granite outcrop. The cause of death was a fall from the top of the cliff. There’s no sign of foul play, and after a note is found in her purse (“I can’t go on anymore. I’m sorry”), the tragedy is ruled a suicide. But Kerry’s mother finds a private Facebook message from Kerry’s friend Ricky Stillwell, a born-again Christian, telling her that being gay is a sin and that perhaps it would be best if she were outed at school. The school board decides that Ricky should be expelled even though his missive never appeared publicly and was written from his home computer. First Amendment advocate Sam Jacobson takes Ricky on as a client in his lawsuit against the school despite his horror at Ricky’s behavior. Sam is also representing Lucy Cross, who’s suing the town of Jefferson over its inclusion of an opening prayer at its annual town meeting; the case is scheduled to be heard by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City. Lambek has been a lawyer in Vermont for the past quarter-century, which allows him to bring a fine sense of authenticity to this tale. It’s a deftly nuanced, multilayered narrative that’s as much about the complex relationships among its many supporting characters as it is about courtroom maneuvers. For example, Sam’s law partner, Alicia Santana, is married to Barb Laval, who, in turn, is the assistant to high school principal Gayle Peters, who asks the firm to represent her in a lawsuit against the school board. He depicts Sam as someone who usually sees the glass as half-empty, and his mix of self-doubt and relentless devotion to family, friends, and principles is endearing. The courtroom preparations and arguments, laced with references to real-life cases, are satisfying and engaging, as well.
A novel with articulate, well-paced, and thoughtful social commentary—and a few surprises along the way.Pub Date: May 25, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-57869-006-0
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Rootstock Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 8, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
© 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.
