A complex and intriguing novel told in stories.
In Luetkemeyer’s novel, a struggling writer imagines the histories of the people he encounters at a local coffee shop.
Adrian Lomachenko gives up a profitable career as a banker to become a writer, moves to the small town of Jacksonville, Oregon, and decides to spend a year writing one story each month inspired by the people he encounters at the Good Bean Café—specifically, stories about “unlikely and inexplicable” events in each person’s life. Guided by his “muse,” Miranda (a stuffed monkey), Lomachenko often speaks directly to the reader, addressing them by the name Sam as he tells the often implausible, frequently impossible, and always fascinating tales of his neighbors. He recounts the bizarre history of the cafe’s cook, the heir to a fictional kingdom who fled after encountering his doppelgänger; he describes one man’s cross-country journey to buy drugs that turns out to be a drug trip itself; he imagines a conversation with a woman after finding her headstone in the local graveyard; and he shares a horrific tale of spousal murder. The stories are each complete narratives capable of standing alone, but they are also full of connections, with characters, locations, and themes recurring throughout the novel, creating a single unified piece of fiction. The author’s prose is considered and often clever (concluding the cook’s story, Lomachenko acknowledges that “the heir apparent to the Kingdom of Sandu makes a mean breakfast burrito”), though it can occasionally grow ponderous, particularly as the more art-minded characters discuss their interests. The book is dialogue-heavy and omits quotation marks, which may not be to all readers’ taste, but the stories are fundamentally compelling, with solid pacing and coherent plots that keep the reader engaged throughout. The stories paint a vivid picture of Lomachenko’s community, and the framing device is generally effective. The book concludes with Lomachenko’s own story, an outcome that brings together elements of the earlier chapters in often surprising ways, providing a satisfying resolution.
A complex and intriguing novel told in stories.Pub Date: May 1, 2023
ISBN: 9798218186616
Page Count: 230
Publisher: Laughing Buddha Books
Review Posted Online: May 25, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.
Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
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
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
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