by Jude Berman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 15, 2024
A compelling story about life and art with vivid characters and an engaging setting.
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Berman’s historical novel, on the triumphs and trials of a female artist, paints a picture of bohemian life while discussing deeper questions about the creative process.
In 1760s Venice, Angelica Kauffman struggles to make her mark as a painter while supporting herself and her father. Although she makes a living painting reproductions, she wishes to pursue artwork about historical subjects, which brings in less money. She catches a lucky break when a British noblewoman spots her talent and takes her to London to seek her fortune. Angelica becomes a great success, thanks to constant commissions for portraits and paintings of historical subjects. She eventually meets and befriends other artists, including the celebrated portraitist Sir Joshua Reynolds. Despite Angelica’s determination to never marry, she becomes preoccupied with a mysterious Swedish count, and their relationship takes an expected turn. Later, Angelica and her family return to Italy, where she falls in with a community of artists and intellectuals in Rome. She’s intrigued by a man who turns out to be the celebrated author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; they feel an instant connection. Their friendship, intense but platonic, deepens quickly as they share similar philosophies on art, nature, and love. As she contemplates her future, Angelica must figure out what kind of love she wants, and how a woman in a sexist society can enjoy her freedom. Berman’s story of Angelica’s adventures among the nobility and other bohemian artists paints an illuminating yet subtly drawn picture of 18th-century society and the art world, in particular. Angelica’s commitment to independence is steely and determined, and in scenes where she’s at her easel, it’s easy to grasp how inspiration strikes and a painting comes together: “I paint the faint suggestion of an angelic face into the clouds. No one else will likely ever notice it, but my eye goes directly to the departed soul.” Those looking for steamy romance will be disappointed, but Angelica’s absolute commitment to living her own life is intense and refreshing.
A compelling story about life and art with vivid characters and an engaging setting.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781647427887
Page Count: 368
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Feb. 21, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Jude Berman
by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
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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
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by Alison Espach ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 30, 2024
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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