A highly personal view of Dickinson’s words and spirit that will find an appreciative audience among the poet’s kindred...
A series of linked passions runs through the famed poet’s life in this fictionalized biography.
Initially, this book seems to be far stranger than it really is: The title suggests a persona and possibly even a locale far outside how readers usually perceive the Belle of Amherst, and the opening chapters include supernatural meetings between the narrator and members of the Dickinson family. But before too long, the book settles down into a readable, though not revolutionary, portrait of the artist’s life and loves. As such, it may appeal particularly to fans of her poetry (some of which is about volcanoes) but perhaps not to readers looking for a weighty biography interwoven with heavily academic analysis of her work. Dickinson was a writer’s writer. She worked, famously, in isolation and uncompromisingly safeguarded the integrity of her words; she reportedly turned down offers of publication, justifiably fearing that her unorthodox form and punctuation would be altered. For her part, Lala-Crist (Nostos, 2001) literally inserts herself as narrator into the action of her novel. It’s clear with every line that she profoundly reveres Dickinson and feels a connection with her that transcends space and time—an intriguing idea, but there’s too little of Lala-Crist’s own personal history to make this a meaningful exploration. In the end, the most significant contribution here is the splicing together of Dickinson’s poetry and her biography, an approach missing, for instance, in Jerome Charyn’s The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson (2011). Readers, especially those already entrenched in Dickinson studies, may not embrace every parallel Lala-Crist makes, but many connections are essential to an understanding of the poet and the person. Lala-Crist also deftly deals with Dickinson’s retreat from society in midlife; she stayed mostly in her own room and saw almost no one but her immediate family. Thanks to Lala-Crist’s empathetic portrayal, the presentation of this odd decision as gradual and organic—as opposed to a fit of passion precipitated by a dramatic event—rings true.
A highly personal view of Dickinson’s words and spirit that will find an appreciative audience among the poet’s kindred spirits.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2013
ISBN: 978-1470147099
Page Count: 462
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 29, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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