An often good read, particularly for Civil War enthusiasts.
Political intrigue in Britain threatens to scupper Trenton Grey’s plans to continue as a Confederate blockade runner in Wonnell’s (‘290’: Volume I: Blockade Runner, 2015) sequel.
Grey is in Liverpool, England, supervising the construction of a new ship to replace his, which was commandeered by the Confederate navy, as well as another, called 290, whose owner intends to use it to disrupt Union shipping. Grey is lonely and longs for his cousin Joanna, who is waiting for him in the Bahamas. To circumvent a law against “equipping and arming” ships in England to use against countries with which Britain is not at war, the shipyard is relying on a legal opinion that distinguishes “equipping and arming” from basic construction. The U.S. Consul in Liverpool, Thomas Dudley, gets wind of this, and the American minister in London, Charles Adams, convinces the authorities to adopt a more expansive reading of the law. Despite the sharpest maneuverings of the British system by Confederate sympathizer Austen Layard, undersecretary to the British Foreign Minister, an official order to seize the 290 slowly wends its way through the British legal system. Layard connives to warn Grey, but will the 290 be able to flee Liverpool before the American steamship Tuscarora arrives to shut it down? As with the previous volume, this novel is rife with authentic detail and period language. Wonnell’s knowledge of the British governmental structure rivals his impressive knowledge of sailing ships and Civil War history. The result, again, is a book of impressive authenticity with a compelling plot and diverse characters. It starts off a bit slowly, but once the intrigue starts, it’s gripping. However, the author might have given more depth to the female characters and expanded on the social activity in Liverpool and New Providence, which is important to the plot but given short shrift. The romance between Trent and Joanna is also a bit melodramatic, and a few action scenes early on could have made some of the extensive background information on British law and politics a bit easier to digest.
An often good read, particularly for Civil War enthusiasts.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-692-42260-1
Page Count: 386
Publisher: Brail Books LLC
Review Posted Online: Sept. 2, 2015
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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