by Christopher Bartley ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 18, 2014
Another solid, entertaining noir thriller from Bartley.
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In Bartley’s (A Bullet to Dream of, 2014, etc.) latest historical novel, a 1930s gangster with a conscience finds himself tangled up in big small-town mysteries involving murder, drugs and—most dangerous of all—young love.
In the book’s very first paragraph, Ross Duncan drinks Old Overholt rye, checks his pistol and reads his Bible, which provides a succinct snapshot of his character: a man with a hard past who’s willing to do hard things but who’s also looking for a redemptive path through life. Unfortunately for Ross, his path out West, after a couple of flat tires, leaves him stranded in Gentryville, a small California town that’s a hotbed of noir suspense. There’s a young, up-and-coming boxer whose trainer uses some unorthodox methods, including narcotics; a blowsy drunk with a hard-luck tale of an embezzling husband; and a good-time mayor with the muscle to enforce his special rules who’s facing an imminent election against his old mentor. As a bartender tells Ross, “There are a lot of things about this town you wouldn’t guess.” Ross, who stands up to bullies, becomes drawn to the tragedy of the boxer and his girlfriend; finally, he ends up working for the shady Mayor Vargas. The mayor has a blurry past, a mysterious wife and a plan for a big score. The mysteries of Gentryville soon stretch to San Francisco, with its scandal-ridden Hetch Hetchy plan to bring water from Yosemite, and to Detroit, with a tale of missing drugs and a missing wife. Bartley’s writing is confident throughout, moving smoothly from the clean prose of action scenes (“I shot him once in the chest”) to poetic asides on small-town sin; Gentryville, for example, is described as “a confined space that allowed the whispers to echo.” Ross, in particular, is a curious character: a bank robber who talks about physicists, evolution and psychiatry (“In prison I’d read some writings by a guy named Freud: ‘No mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his finger-tips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore’ ”). Although he sometimes seems overly informed, he’s an intriguing guide for a redemptive tale that’s also a meditation on love.
Another solid, entertaining noir thriller from Bartley.Pub Date: Dec. 18, 2014
ISBN: 978-1780362601
Page Count: 278
Publisher: Peach Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 31, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Hanya Yanagihara ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 10, 2015
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
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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
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2008
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of...
Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State.
Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle’s answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate’s buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, only to blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully’s latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she’s given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it’s too late?
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36408-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007
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