A likable, if unevenly executed, coming-of-age story that sets grim history against carefree childhood days.
Sullivan’s debut novel tells the story of four school friends’ summer adventure investigating a long-buried mystery.
In 1942, Nazi soldiers on patrol in Egypt uncover what they call a “Red Ruby”—code for an artifact of supernatural power—which officers commandeer. They task their prisoner, a Jewish comic-book artist named Herman Katzenstein—who studied under an Egyptologist—with translating the object’s hieroglyphs. If he can do so, his life will be spared and he’ll be reunited with his daughter. Fast-forward to 1979, and 13-year-old Will McMurphy and his best friends, Isaac and Dez, are gearing up for a summer of idling. All three boys have troubles at home, but in their treehouse, they’re able to relax, read comics, and listen to music. Their holidays take an adventurous turn when 13-year-old Amy Howard joins their group and they come into possession of a comic book from 1939—written by Katzenstein. But soon, the four friends find that a scary Russian woman in a black Mercedes is following them. What dangerous secrets does the comic book hold? And what happened to Katzenstein and his daughter? Sullivan writes in a workmanlike, unpolished manner, describing events in a fashion that feels more like a movie than a novel. This, combined with the book’s lengthy historical opening, makes for a slow beginning. After Will and his friends enter the story, though, the text comes alive, as the teens bring urgency and a bubbling liveliness to the proceedings; the appealing tone feels like a cross between Enid Blyton’s work and Stranger Things. With Amy’s inclusion, the others behave in a more mature manner. Ultimately, various narrative elements tie together to make the Katzenstein Kids’ first adventure a page-turner. (A smattering of black-and-white illustrations by debut artist Suarez add texture, but they’re too infrequent to do the book justice.)
A likable, if unevenly executed, coming-of-age story that sets grim history against carefree childhood days.Pub Date: Nov. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-73424-431-1
Page Count: 296
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Feb. 6, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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