New England residents and lovers of the region’s history should find a treasure trove in this collection.
A reissued debut book presents a set of vignettes on life in rural Massachusetts.
“Most of the stories are true. Many, I experienced. Others are ones passed on by friends, neighbors and relatives,” writes Brown in the Preface of his collection, first published in 1982. (The author, born in 1907, died at 102.) These are folk tales in the truest sense of the word; they tell the reader not only funny or intriguing happenings, but also the everyday events of bygone years: how people went about their business and why. The stories range in time from the early Colonial days of the mid-1600s to the early 1900s, sketching out the evolution of the close-knit community of what became Fullertown, Massachusetts. The opener, “Wolf Rock,” tells of the first recorded settler of the area, John Tomson, and his perilous trip through a wild forest. “Luke Short” is the sketch of a remarkable early settler who “lived through the reign of eight British monarchs,” served in Britain’s colonial army in India, sailed across the ocean, and eventually made his way to the New World. The relationship between the native population and the settlers is explored in “The Indian Watchman,” and an influx of Acadian immigrants brings some changes to the community in “Halifax French Gardens.” On the lighter side are fishing tales like “Uncle Gus Loses His Fish,” which delivers a pretty surprising twist, and an entertaining yarn about early dentistry—“Farmer Brown Goes to the Dentist.” “Fresh Meadow Hay” and “The Gypsy Moth Hunters” aren’t so much stories as reports on how hay was harvested or the way the town dealt with moth infestations. And there are tales of communal joy, such as “The Day the Gypsies Came to Town.” A matter-of-fact storyteller, Brown pays special attention to the details and minutiae of daily life, making these vignettes uncommonly informative and in-depth even if they barely run over one or two pages. Many of the offerings display a deft comedic touch, and ironic endings abound. The effect is something like talking to an old relative about the past and listening to someone who is instantly familiar and extensively knowledgeable.
New England residents and lovers of the region’s history should find a treasure trove in this collection.Pub Date: March 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4948-5080-7
Page Count: 82
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2017
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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