First printing of a novella-sized outtake from Michener's behemoth Texas (1985): the story of the revolution of 1836, which severed Texas from Mexico, and of the duel between firebrand Sam Houston's insurgent Texicans and a punitive Mexican army led by glory-mongering scoundrel Santa Anna. In a lengthy introduction, Michener explains the publishing history of this novel and of the sunburst of writing that produced ten books from him between 1986 and 1990. As an adventurous adolescent, the 6'2" Houston would escape from his family's Tennessee farm and go live with the Cherokee Indians, take on their ways and learn their language. Santa Anna meanwhile was born a Creole, soon became idled with dreams of military glory, joined the Mexican infantry, quickly rose to command in the cavalry and led his troops in rapacious attacks against Indians and revolutionaries who questioned the authority of the Spanish army. When rebels arose in the northern province of Tejas, Santa Anna crossed the Rio Grande to slay them. Earlier, Houston had become a teacher, a lawyer, fought beside General Andrew Jackson, represented the Cherokee in Washington for their treaty, and rose to major-general in the Tennessee Militia because of his commanding presence and oratorical gifts. With Mexico breaking away from Spain and crowning its own emperor, Santa Anna went through a sea-change, became an ardent republican and by 1836 had been four times President of Mexico. With Texas seceding, he marched 5,000 troops noah to confront Davy Crockett, Sam Bowie and their 184 Anglo invaders awaiting the Mexicans at the Alamo in San Antonio. After that slaughter, Houston's outnumbered men attacked Santa Anna at San Jacinto, slaying 600 Mexicans in 18 minutes. Exiled four times, Santa Anna went on to be Mexico's president 11 times, ceded incredible areas of Mexico to the States, and died a pauper but no hero. Rapid semifiction done in bold strokes, though not densely imagined.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1990
ISBN: 074931415X
Page Count: 192
Publisher: State House Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1990
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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