A shaggy, oddly engrossing Caribbean epic powered by a vivacious cast of frenetic islanders.
A tropical island hosts a plethora of colorful characters in this first installment of Rogers’ Caribbean Trilogy.
Set in the lush fictional Caribbean island of Canuba in the early 1980s, a time when “ethnic, appearance, and gender sensitivity had not even reached today’s low standard,” the novel introduces Chiara Trigona, an outspoken yet bookish semiretired journalist. Considered lovely by the local islanders (with her “pink epidermis and ‘good hair’”), Chiara is originally from Sicily and is an ex-New Yorker. She is taken with the island’s rich colonial history, the bronze statue of Sir Francis Drake in the center of town, and the spacious house and circular belvedere tower she rents. Infrequent writing jags whisk her away from the island, populated by Canubans who speak in a “springy, expressive” hybrid of Spanish, pidgin English, and French and are a polite if quirky community of artists, families, recurring tourists, and mavericks. The Canubans’ island is a sensual wonderland where “time is elastic” and the streets are filled with historical monuments and peopled by kooky locals. Complicating matters for Chiara is the turbulent love-hate dynamic she shares with Amado, a young, hunky, insatiably amorous man who, despite being married to Reina, keeps Chiara as his secondary lover. (The arrogant, womanizing Amado also unapologetically courts a coterie of girlfriends on the side.) Though Amado, Chiara, and Reina casually intermingle, Reina becomes furious when she finds out about his other affairs and violent fights ensue, attracting the attention of Amado’s brother-in-law, Sigfrido, who’s a cop. Chiara’s hyperactive friend, Lamia; her spiritual housekeeper, Luz Divina; local Voodoo priestess Diana; and Catulo, another of Chiara’s part-time, pansexual lovers also populate Rogers’ imaginative, overstuffed saga. Amado’s confession of a love affair outside of Chiara’s and Reina’s orbit escalates the novel’s climax into a frenzy of suspicion, disastrous melodrama, and sorcerous revenge.
The author confides that the inspiration for his novel was drawn from notebooks he’d received from a Sicilian journalist who was preparing to permanently withdraw and disappear into “an unnamed country in Asia” in 2016. The sparsely plotted story he concocted from this starting point derives its greatest appeal from the characters and their gritty dialect as well as the amount of intricate detail Rogers stuffs into these pages. The author excels at depictions of the lush, atmospheric island features, Chiara’s sexual conquests, and her daily dress-code decision-making process. Rogers is also masterful at building and elaborating upon a community of salty islanders, suspicious wives, lusty lovers, and recreational acquaintances all set in melodramatic motion or caught in moments of erotic impulsivity. The narrative benefits greatly from multiple narrators who offer vibrant perspectives on the misadventures and mishaps surrounding these tropical misfits—though at times, the flashy pageantry of Rogers’ vigorous and frequently rambling prose does become wearying. By the time the rollicking conclusion arrives, it’s evident there are many more tales to tell of this island; Canuba becomes a character in and of itself. Rogers employs satire, sex, and drama in wondrous ways. A shaggy, oddly engrossing Caribbean epic powered by a vivacious cast of frenetic islanders.Pub Date: Dec. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781959556589
Page Count: 414
Publisher: Spuyten Duyvil Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
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