An often compelling historical overview but an uneven drama.
Reynolds offers a novel set during the final decade of the battle for women’s suffrage in the United States.
One morning in May 1912, in the small town of Sycamore Falls, Kansas, Kathryn Wolfe is opening the Main Street Bookshop, which she co-owns with her friend Mary Dodd. Their book-display table features a new arrival: Women’s Suffrage: A Short History of a Great Movement. Kathryn and Mary are both dedicated suffragists, and they’re working with other women in town to organize an event in support of the Equal Suffrage Amendment to the state constitution, scheduled for a November vote. They meet under the guise of a women’s club dedicated to discussion of more “appropriate” subjects, such as “education, child labor, and library creation.” However, men in town form their own club to fight the amendment, and the community atmosphere becomes confrontational, especially during a July parade in which suffragists are met by hecklers. After Kansas voters approve the amendment, Kathryn, Mary, and her growing group of suffragists turn their attention to Washington, D.C., joining the March 1913 walk for voting rights during Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration. Reynolds parallels his primary narrative with Kathryn’s personal struggle: She was injured in a fall several years ago, which left her with a limp, and she’s determined to one day reach the summit of Sugar Loaf Hill. The author also effectively provides additional drama in a disturbing side plot about the marriage of one of Kathryn’s friends, which is scarred by infidelity and domestic violence. The overall character development is minimal, however, and the pace ambles a bit too casually. The most engaging section covers Kathryn’s yearlong participation in the picket line outside the White House fence, beginning in February 1917. Here, Reynolds’ prose becomes more impassioned as he describes the increasing violence the women faced; in November 1917, for instance, Kathryn is sentenced to two months in the Occoquan Workhouse, a hellhole where she is dragged, beaten, and handcuffed to a bar above her head: “Cries and moans echoed through the corridors into the night.”
An often compelling historical overview but an uneven drama.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73-509383-3
Page Count: 268
Publisher: Hadley Rille Books
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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