Hard-core Dickey fans will be entertained by this sexy, fast-paced romp. Others should check out his earlier work.
Out-of-work actors, small-time crooks, and desperate men are on the grift in this mediocre new outing from the prolific (and usually better) African-American Dickey.
In a prologue we see 15-year-old Dante trying to protect his mother from his abusive father and ending up in a juvenile facility. Now, ten years later and finally living the straight life in Los Angeles, Dante finds himself a victim of post–September 11 aerospace layoffs. While joblessness may be a problem, it hardly compares to the predicament of getting Pam, an older waitress whose table he’s been frequenting, to notice him. As a favor to his old mentor Jackson (who, erroneously being sued for child support, needs some quick cash), Dante agrees to work a cold job (an easy con) for grifter kingpin Scamz. He finally gets Pam’s attention by offering her a quick thousand (a struggling actor, she’s saving up for plastic surgery) for her help in the real estate swindle Scamz has lined up. Spanning three days, the story travels up and down LA, from the barrio to Scamz’s mansion, from deals gone bad to the steamy night Dante spends with Pam. Character his strong suit, Dickey unfolds a tableau of hungry people willing to compromise for a chance to get out of the hole life has put them in. But, still, with a long tradition of great hard-boiled LA novels to live up to, this one hits off-center: not quite dangerous or stylish enough for the villainy, not quite complex enough to stand as a character study. At the close, beaten and on the run, Dante has some tough decisions to make about Scamz, who took him under his wing long ago; Jackson, the best friend who double-crosses him; and beautiful Pam, older but certainly not wiser.
Hard-core Dickey fans will be entertained by this sexy, fast-paced romp. Others should check out his earlier work.Pub Date: May 13, 2002
ISBN: 0-525-94663-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2002
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
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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