For the setting and era alone, this ripping adventure yarn offers sufficient rewards.
Set in 19th-century Hawaii, a historical novel stars a handsome young hero.
The story begins in 1867, when 17-year-old John Tana, an orphan, is thrown off his land by the evil sugar baron Robert Grant. John finds himself on the run, not only from Grant’s henchmen, but also from the vengeful Capt. Julius Shaw and the murderous crew of the whaler Jeremiah. But friends and relatives abound, including his beautiful cousin Leinani (who in fact is not his cousin; it’s complicated). He escapes to Maui with Shaw in hot but futile pursuit. When things get too dangerous, John and company eventually flee to Honolulu (Oahu). Along the way, readers meet John’s Aunt Malia, his cousin David, Ah Sam (John’s close Chinese friend), and many, many others. This is all against a social backdrop that has the Caucasians (Americans) at the top of the heap, then the native Hawaiians, then the Chinese. (The Hawaiians themselves are divided between those of supposed royal blood and commoners like John.) The story chronicles a hatefully racist time and place, in which the Chinese, especially, live in fear of the next mob to bubble up. And don’t forget missionary Christianity versus the native religion. John is adept at the ancient Hawaiian martial art of lua, which stands him in good stead as combat has become a crucial part of his daily survival. Fernandez (Cult of Ku, a Hawaiian Murder Mystery, 2016, etc.), a native Hawaiian, is an authentic voice for John and the Pacific archipelago’s turbulent history. Plot twists come thick and fast, and there is always the seductive undercurrent of John’s love for Leinani, a romance that at times seems doomed. The author expertly moves the plot along (through short chapters), and the vivid and intriguing details of Hawaiian daily life in the 19th century ring true. At times, John’s virtue and especially his fighting prowess test the reader’s credulity, but the striking ending is not tidy, a plus.
For the setting and era alone, this ripping adventure yarn offers sufficient rewards.Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5393-1500-1
Page Count: 290
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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