A bracing start to a new series about naval warfare.
A work of speculative fiction focuses on World War II.
This volume, the first in Weatherly’s (Sheppard of the Argonne, 2014) new Allies and Enemies series, follows in the wake of his previous novel. It’s military fiction with a twist, as he explores what naval warfare would have look like during World War II if the 1922 Five-Power Treaty limiting shipbuilding hadn’t happened. In his author’s note, he explains, “I chose to accelerate some technology development such as ship building, metallurgy, ordinance, and radar, while keeping others such as aircraft close to the actual timelines since that development was not restricted by treaty.” As this tale opens, Capt. Sheppard McCloud is a reluctant national hero after the Allies’ victory in the Battle of Cape Vilan. Instead of celebrating, Sheppard remains haunted by the many sailors who died: “Oceanic swells left no tombstones, no markers for young lives snuffed short at his order.” Although Sheppard enjoys his days with his soul mate and wife, Evelyn, he’s soon temporarily distracted from his nightmares by new orders. He and his Argonne crew must sneak Adm. John Hamblen across the Atlantic to persuade the French navy not to turn over their ships to the Axis. But it’s hard to hide a massive battle cruiser such as the Argonne, and before long, Sheppard is entangled in a conflict that he is unlikely to win with the Italians and Germans. Weatherly has a sterling protagonist in the tormented Sheppard, who is highly skilled as a leader but who tends to dwell on his losses rather than his wins. The author’s detailed descriptions of the battles give the reader a real “you-are-there” feeling. The flip side is that the minutiae he provides can be overwhelming at times. Do readers really need a two-page, step-by-step description of how shells are fired? Still, Weatherly makes it possible to hear the crash of the guns and the rending of steel as a shell hits. Readers don’t have to understand everything the author supplies to realize how much must go right for a ship to survive rather than sink. That’s why his books work.
A bracing start to a new series about naval warfare.Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-63393-362-0
Page Count: -
Publisher: Koehler Books
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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