An engrossing and philosophically challenging meditation on what it means to be a living being worthy of moral respect.
A predatory leopard plagues a woman’s cattle farm in Africa as she struggles to devise a response with the help of a scientifically minded gorilla.
In this novel, Jane Porter lives on a cattle farm in Kenya with her husband, John Greystoke, an Englishman of notable descent. They suffer regular attacks by a leopard they call Sheeta, and as the losses mount, they try to devise a plan to thwart him. But Sheeta turns out to be a cunning hunter and only grows bolder over time, even taunting their futile efforts to capture him. Meanwhile, the couple meet Chulk, a 400-pound gorilla endowed with astonishingly precocious intelligence, capable of speech and rational inference. As a result of Chulk’s preoccupation with abstract, intellectual concerns, he’s “rebuffed by his clan.” Under Jane’s patient tutelage, Chulk becomes extraordinarily well-versed in the intricacies of scientific investigation and helps Jane brainstorm a way to defend her family’s land against Sheeta’s costly assaults. After John dies trying to stop Sheeta, Jane is left in charge of the farm, though she finds herself at loggerheads with her son, Jack, who has old-fashioned ideas about gender roles and pretensions about the “Greystoke destiny.” Chulk, a “magnificent scientific discovery,” deepens his reflections to include not just science, but also the whole of life, displaying the “avid curiosity of a social anthropologist.” His ruminations extend to philosophical and theological matters as well, and he engages in profound exchanges with Jane, a devout Quaker, about the nature of the universe, conversations intelligently depicted by Barnes (The Beauty Queen of Bonthe and Other Stories of West Africa, 2018, etc.). The plot is a remarkably inventive one, and the author raises provocative questions about the relationships between different species—John at one point is deeply attracted to a female gorilla. In addition, Barnes sensitively tackles the issue of the societal constraints placed on Jane both as a woman and a senior citizen—she is forced to squarely confront what she calls the “handicaps of my age and (particularly) my gender.” This is a peculiar but captivating tale that readers will not soon forget.
An engrossing and philosophically challenging meditation on what it means to be a living being worthy of moral respect.Pub Date: Oct. 9, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-974301-86-7
Page Count: 242
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019
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
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
