Never delivers the juicy satisfaction of its precursor.
In this sequel to The Nanny Diaries (2002), Nan Hutchinson moves back to Manhattan and finds herself once more ensnared in the dysfunctional, über-rich world of her former charge.
Ten years older and happily nesting in a Harlem fixer-upper with “Harvard Hottie” hubby Ryan, Nan thinks she’s left behind those surreal days of catering to the offspring of the wealthy. Now she’s occupied with building her fledging management-consulting business and struggling with the idea of starting a family of her own. But late one night, who should arrive at her door but little Grayer X, all grown up into a strapping—and drunk—16-year-old. He’s still smarting over what he saw as her abandonment back when he was only four, he reveals; Nan is stunned and feels a little guilty, even though Grayer is unaware of the extenuating circumstances. Despite being sophisticated beyond his years, the boy is not dealing well with the fact that his long-absent Dad, hedge-fund titan Mr. X, has finally moved out altogether to be with a movie-star mistress. In response, self-absorbed Mrs. X has taken to her bed in a haze of prescription drugs, leaving Grayer responsible for the care of his seven-year-old brother Stilton. Being who she is, Nan cannot help but step in to help the adorable Stilton get into boarding school. This prompts the unnerving gratitude of Mrs. X, who confides that she is suffering from breast cancer. Yikes. In addition to the X family drama, Nan takes a too-good-to-be true gig at a fancy private school full of entitled brats and obsequious staffers somehow involved with the increasingly shady Mr. X’s business. It all winds up with a weekend in the Hamptons, where Nan acts as de facto guardian of both boys, wondering if she really has what it takes to bring kids into the world.
Never delivers the juicy satisfaction of its precursor.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4165-8567-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2009
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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