by Charles Porter ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A
An undeniably unique metaphysical adventure.
Awards & Accolades
Our Verdict
GET IT
Kirkus Reviews'
Best Books Of 2023
The latest installment in Porter’s series continues the adventures of a schizophrenic man who, along with a group of misfit friends, embarks on missions of environmental activism.
In Florida, 2002, Aubrey Shallcross and company have scuttled an old tugboat in front of the St. Lucie Locks, making the lock system temporarily inoperable to prevent the “dirty water” from Lake Okeechobee from contaminating pristine estuaries. Fearing capture after their daring deed, the 58-year-old Shallcross takes his family and friends—some of whom are “voice hearers” like himself—to the coast of Massachusetts for the summer to stay at an old friend’s farm. The eclectic group includes a wild array of characters: Yuchee, a teenage Seminole boy whose mother has recently died; two giant alligators and their “slippers” (spirits of the dead that can inhabit the brains of animals and humans); Aubrey’s 14-year-old son, Drayton; Half Track, an autistic man; Speedy, a motorcycle stuntman, and his wife, Roberta, “the Woman With No Legs,” who charms snakes; and A. M. Sermon, a former land developer turned eco-warrior, who travels with his best friend, a giant chimpanzee named Kong. Once there, the group becomes entangled in another looming environmental crisis: Criminals plan to steal a recently orphaned baby humpback whale with albinism in an attempt to sell it on the black market. This fast-paced and intricately plotted storyline, involving the crooked captain of a Russian fishing fleet named Sean Iponovitch, is where the author really shows his storytelling chops. As Iponovitch schemes between alcoholic binges, Porter weaves Moby Dick references throughout to add a literary thread to the narrative tapestry. This literary aspect is strengthened by the almost Kerouacian travelogue passages following the characters’ travels up and down the East Coast: “They crossed the southeast Georgia tidal rivers with green-brown wire grass islands out in the middle, until it was over the Savannah River into the state of South Carolina.”
Themes from Kerouac’s On the Road are evident throughout, including the search for meaning in life, the glorious pursuit of freedom, and finding profound significance in the connections between people and places. The author leavens the road novel experience with humor in places; Aubrey calls food purchased from gas stations and roadside convenience stores “shit cakes” (but after his son buys an assortment of junk food, Aubrey says, “Give me one a those Moon Pies, Drayton.” While the cast of over-the-top characters is well-developed and the storyline involving the white whale is certainly entertaining (especially the stand-up-and-applaud plot twist at novel’s end), it’s the way in which the author explores living with schizophrenia (specifically hearing voices) that makes this story unique. The perception of schizophrenia as an affliction is turned on its head: “…that’s what makes you different than a lot of other people, Aubrey. You can look at and hear your subconscious, you are a bloody schizophrenic; a beautifully perfected schizophrenic.” The narrative is complemented by dozens of illustrations throughout that exemplify the strange and wondrous tone of the story perfectly.
An undeniably unique metaphysical adventure.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 2, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Share your opinion of this book
More About This Book
by Elin Hilderbrand ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 11, 2024
Though Hilderbrand threatens to kill all our darlings with this last laugh, her acknowledgments say it’s just “for now.”
A stranger comes to town, and a beloved storyteller plays this creative-writing standby for all it’s worth.
Hilderbrand fans, a vast and devoted legion, will remember Blond Sharon, the notorious island gossip. In what is purportedly the last of the Nantucket novels, Blond Sharon decides to pursue her lifelong dream of fiction writing. In the collective opinion of the island—aka the “cobblestone telegraph”—she’s qualified. “Well, we think, she’s certainly demonstrated her keen interest in other people’s stories, the seedier and more salacious, the better.” Blond Sharon’s first assignment in her online creative writing class is to create a two-person character study, and Hilderbrand has her write up the two who arrive on the ferry in an opening scene of the book, using the same descriptors Hilderbrand has. Amusingly, the class is totally unimpressed. “‘I found it predictable,’ Willow said. ‘Like maybe Sharon used ChatGPT with the prompt “Write a character study about two women getting off the ferry, one prep and one punk.”’” Blond Sharon abandons these characters, but Hilderbrand thankfully does not. They are Kacy Kapenash, daughter of retiring police chief Ed Kapenash (the other swan song referred to by the title), and her new friend Coco Coyle, who has given up her bartending job in the Virgin Islands to become a “personal concierge” for the other strangers-who-have-come-to-town. These are the Richardsons, Bull and Leslee, a wild and wealthy couple who have purchased a $22 million beachfront property and plan to take Nantucket by storm. As the book opens, their house has burned down during an end-of-summer party on their yacht, and Coco is missing, feared both responsible for the fire and dead. Though it’s the last weekend of his tenure, Chief Ed refuses to let the incoming chief, Zara Washington, take this one over. The investigation goes forward in parallel with a review of the summer’s intrigues, love affairs, and festivities. Whatever else you can say about Leslee Richardson, she knows how to throw a party, and Hilderbrand is just the writer to design her invitations, menus, themes, playlists, and outfits. And that hot tub!
Though Hilderbrand threatens to kill all our darlings with this last laugh, her acknowledgments say it’s just “for now.”Pub Date: June 11, 2024
ISBN: 9780316258876
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
Share your opinion of this book
More by Elin Hilderbrand
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
More About This Book
PERSPECTIVES
by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
Awards & Accolades
Likes
159
Our Verdict
GET IT
New York Times Bestseller
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
Share your opinion of this book
More by Kristin Hannah
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
More About This Book
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
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
Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.