A vivid but messy adventure surrounding a young impressionist.
A debut historical novel summons the art world of 19th-century Paris.
Who could have guessed that René Bernard, the son of an oysterman, would become one of the most legendary painters of the impressionist era? A childhood illness provides the opportunity to escape the family business and instead attend art school in Lyon. From there, René goes to Paris, like all the painters of his generation, to make a name for himself amid the squalor and brilliance of the city’s bohemian arts community. It is in Paris that he first lays eyes on the Flower Girl, a woman of beauty and intrigue who immediately steals his heart: “This young girl had hair of long beautiful brown curls that fell from her head and surrounded her shoulders. Her skin was as clear and unblemished as a newborn baby.” René sets out to court the Flower Girl—whose true identity is unknown—and make her his muse, though in this he is challenged by the Critic, a bane to artists everywhere who is also shrouded in mystery. Soldiers, ladies, and a trained lion round out the cast of characters of René’s colorful milieu. In a time when art can make a man famous or destroy his life, this budding painter must determine what cost he is willing to pay for immortality. MacDougall writes in a stylistic prose that brings René’s Paris to life with gritty detail: “She had a bit of a purse but dressed in rags. Tongues had come to Paris to blend in and make a life for herself, whatever that might mean. She took a room in the least expensive district, living with an alcoholic woman, and her lover, another alcoholic woman.” René’s paintings (actually created by the author, an artist) possess a certain folksy charm, but they don’t look like anything that would have been executed by a renowned impressionist. In addition, MacDougall unfortunately invests in the intricacies of his plot rather than the development of his characters: Numerous pseudonyms and hidden backstories obscure these figures, and the eventual reveals are not particularly satisfying. Ambitious and occasionally inventive, this sprawling novel never quite achieves the level of intrigue it seeks.
A vivid but messy adventure surrounding a young impressionist.Pub Date: Nov. 27, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5470-7139-5
Page Count: 358
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 12, 2018
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
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BOOK REVIEW
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Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of...
Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State.
Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle’s answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate’s buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, only to blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully’s latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she’s given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it’s too late?
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36408-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007
BOOK TO SCREEN
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