The author's thorough, affectionate knowledge of both the original book and the historical period grounds this fantasy in...
In his playful first novel, playwright Pielmeier (best known for Agnes of God, 1979) allows Peter Pan’s Captain Hook a chance to tell the story from his point of view.
It’s not that of J.M. Barrie, that “sad little Scotsman,” as Hook (nee James Cook) refers to him. This James is something of a lost boy himself, sent away to be bullied at Eton, orphaned early, and shanghaied onto a British ship that gets lost in a temporal loop somewhere in midocean. There he meets the rotund Smee and the other future pirates he'll command after a trip to England sends him spinning into the future. But not before he finds his way, accompanied by his beloved pet crocodile, Daisy, into the real “Never-Isle,” which is populated by mermaids with “whiskers. Of the walrus variety” as well as an erratic Peter Pan, whose memory stretches back only as far as yesterday and whose “Darker Nature” makes him inclined to sprinkle unsuspecting comrades with fake fairy dust for the pleasure of watching them fall off cliffs. Hook’s long months at sea grow tedious for the reader, but Pielmeier’s revisionist version of the Enchanted Isles is vividly sensuous, and the novel offers the particular pleasure of explaining the key points of the original in new ways. Cameo appearances by Sherlock Holmes and possibly the real Jack the Ripper, as well as various characters from Treasure Island, the world of which oddly intersects with that of Hook and his comrades, add texture to the tale. While the author’s meditations on the costs and benefits of mortality don’t break any new ground and some of his references are obscure enough that only Victorian scholars will catch them, anyone who would like another trip to Barrie’s enchanted world should be pleased with the opportunity the novel offers to see it anew.
The author's thorough, affectionate knowledge of both the original book and the historical period grounds this fantasy in rich detail.Pub Date: July 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5011-6105-6
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: May 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
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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