Mackin (Dreams of Empire, 1996, etc.) offers a deft combination of historical fiction and ghost story, as well as a...
A journalist researching the story of a real-life 19th-century spiritualist, Maggie Fox, may have to contend with the ghost of her old lover.
Living alone in a rambling old house in upstate New York, Helen West is mourning in almost Victorian fashion the death of her lover Jude. When she is asked to write a long biographical article on Maggie Fox, she accepts, since the subject of spiritualism, and the Fox sisters in particular, was a favorite of Jude's. At first appalled at Maggie's duplicity, she slowly begins to crave for herself a connection with the dead. The story flips between Helen's narrative and the life of Maggie Fox—a fascinating piece of history in itself. Farm children amusing themselves on a winter night, Maggie and Leah Fox created an international craze, and what some at the time termed a new religion. By dexterously cracking their toe joints to produce mysterious rappings, they claimed to speak with the dead, and soon people were willing to pay to hear those conversations. Under the guidance of her evil older sister, Maggie set up shop in New York, where she soon became rich and famous (her clients included Horace Greeley and Mary Todd Lincoln). But she was also a prisoner of Leah's domination and of the laudanum she was given to keep her in line. As Helen becomes more sympathetic to Maggie, strange doings make her wonder whether the ghost of Jude has come to her—a welcome apparition, although poorly timed: Helen is now attempting a new relationship after three lonely years mourning Jude, who, she discovers, was not the man he seemed.
Mackin (Dreams of Empire, 1996, etc.) offers a deft combination of historical fiction and ghost story, as well as a compelling meditation on the power of the past to alter the present.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-312-26997-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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