A startling and eerie second novel by Benderson (Pretending to Say No, 1991, etc.) provides an unvarnished glimpse into a netherworld of drug dealers, transvestites, transsexuals, and prostitutes. When Apollo, a male stripper and hustler who has been doing large quantities of drugs, attacks Casio, the ex-con junkie turned bouncer at the porn theater in which Apollo works, it sends out ripples that reverberate throughout the sleazy world of strip joints and rip-off joints that both men inhabit. Pargero, a cop with a more than sentimental attachment to the transvestite strippers of that milieu and a familial tie to Mrs. Huxton, its unseen empress, begins looking for Apollo. Baby Pop, Casio's 14- year-old son, a math genius who lives in the Port Authority bus terminal, vows revenge. Apollo goes in search of a hiding place, ending up with his only real friend, a nameless white middle-class gay man with AIDS. Swirling around the action are a strange cast of hustlers, lowlifes, and no-hopers—crack addicts, sex addicts, transsexual junkies, and would-be beauticians—held together in a sinister dance of sex, money, drugs, and need. Benderson depicts this sphere in a merciless light, without judgment but unflinchingly, in a prose that is hypnotically descriptive and powerfully rhythmic. He moves easily between the voices of his protagonists, from the sullen suspiciousness of Apollo to the wry self-knowledge of the nameless man with AIDS. The result is a book that echoes the universe of Hubert Selby (who is invoked in one passage) and the teeming sexuality of John Rechy. An impressive book, but one that many readers will find relentlessly unpleasant. Benderson has a tremendous talent and a real feel for the night-world of New York; the question is how much readers can take.
Pub Date: Aug. 15, 1994
ISBN: 0-525-93722-6
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1994
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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