Reality bites in these odd portraits of people unmoored by their own sense of how things work.
A disastrous film festival paired with an all-encompassing virtual reality game offers more philosophical gymnastics from Aira.
This slim volume by the ever-prolific Aira collects two novellas, distinct in style and character, that lean into the author’s dark humor a little more than usual. The opener, Festival, is an uncomfortably cringe-laden comedy of errors. It concerns an independent film festival in an unnamed country, focused on its guest of honor and the mundane chaos introduced by his decidedly unwelcome guest. Readers are meant to think the Belgian film director Alec Steryx is Aira’s main subject—he’s come by invitation to chair the contest’s Grand Jury, premiere his latest esoteric science fiction film, and celebrate his body of work. But Aira cleverly slips in two wrenches: the first and most divisive is the director’s elderly, half-blind, and bad-tempered mother, who proceeds to turn the carefully curated event into a rolling logistical disaster; the second is where the story lives, in the head of Perla Sobietsky, the festival’s fiercely competitive organizer and author of a book about Steryx. While the dichotomy between Perla’s snobbishness and her charge’s unapologetically bad behavior is jarring, it’s also a funny and unpredictable way for Aira to talk about fame and perception. Meanwhile, in Game of the Worlds, a different kind of alienation comes via a virtual reality game in which children vaporize intelligent civilizations on a daily basis. Aira claims with a straight face that these are real worlds, in the manner of Ender’s Game, facing down “a gaggle of brats—whose prey surely didn’t suspect as much—with nothing better or more constructive to do with their afternoons.” Parenthood and generational angst often catalyze cliches, but here they enable Aira to talk about technology and disconnection in a way that’s both biting yet somehow full of affection for our confusing, complicated world.
Reality bites in these odd portraits of people unmoored by their own sense of how things work.Pub Date: June 11, 2024
ISBN: 9780811237307
Page Count: 192
Publisher: New Directions
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2024
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.
Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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