Lawrence does a masterful job of drawing readers into his fully realized, morally complex vision of the future.
Lawrence’s debut balances adventure, mystery, science, religion and morality.
Mark Lawson discovered time travel in order to save the human race, but he recognizes that his techniques could also be used to manipulate history. Nearly half a century later, that’s exactly what temporal terrorists are doing—and the Guardians exist to make sure they’re not successful. But it would help immensely if the Guardians knew exactly who they were fighting. Their story offers readers a complicated romp through time, with scenes spanning the centuries. For the most part, Lawrence handles the changing times with a deftness that is unexpected in a first-time novelist, though his short treatises on Greek history may make some readers feel like they’re sitting in an obscure history class. However, it’s the characters and the choices they make that matter the most, and that’s what will draw in readers. While the story is what most would call science fiction, it may not be what fans of the genre would expect. Science exists and, indeed, remains central to the story, but doesn’t drive every aspect of the plot. Much of that depends on history, characters, religious faith and more. The characters are not only trying to understand and deal with technological advances, but are asking what it means to be human and how the new technology fits into their lives and culture. Lawrence’s story manages to be exciting enough to make those who crave adventure happy, while also examining the metaphysical and moral implications that time travel could have on individuals, groups and cultures. This is a compelling, detailed read, and one that offers its audience something solid to chew on.
Lawrence does a masterful job of drawing readers into his fully realized, morally complex vision of the future.Pub Date: March 21, 2011
ISBN: 978-0983172123
Page Count: 489
Publisher: Pentelicus Press
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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
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