First-class horror novel and third volume in a malignant- entity series begun with The Keep (1981) and Reborn (1990). The Keep (Nazis versus vampires) faded into clichÇ after the first half, but Reborn (a clone of Rosemary's Baby) held together for a brilliantly ghoulish climax. In Reborn, the son of clone Jim Hanley, at the moment of the son's conception, became the host of the evil entity living in Jim. Jim died but mother Carol now finds herself raising an incredibly intelligent freak, a baby who devours newspapers, books, and TV journalism as soon as he can sit up. At age five the boy takes over family finances and by age fifteen has run a nest egg up to $60 million. Then, with forged papers making him an adult, he goes off to do undergraduate work in psychology at Darnell University in North Carolina—although why a supermillionaire needs a degree in psychology is not clear. This fascinating story is, unfortunately, treated almost as a subplot while the novel's true subplot gets major space. But the secondary story has a fabulous payoff, in which a seven-year-old orphan—adopted by a financially upscale, physically hollow zombie who looks like Teddy Roosevelt—is crucified to the bedroom wall and remains alive (though completely drained of blood) and in fact is still alive when buried at night by a lapsed Catholic priest and dug up again five years later. Meanwhile, the entity, now known as Rafe Losmara, has seduced overweight math teacher Lisl Whitman into his orbit as a way of getting at the lapsed Catholic priest, whom Rafe sees as his (un)natural enemy, and the tie between Lisl and Rafe, as he leads her into moral decay (shoplifting without guilt), gives us the novel's richest pages, with the reader wondering if perhaps Rafe isn't onto something with his supraman swill.... The conventional climax is only a springboard for Rafe's big ploy in the next novel. Wilson's most gripping yet, with his strongest characterizations.
Pub Date: Sept. 15, 1991
ISBN: 0-913165-59-X
Page Count: 350
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1991
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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