Not stylish, but fast-moving and richly colored.
Deftly time-shuffled debut historical set in 13th-century Spain.
For his own safety, 26-year-old Francisco de Montaldo, who returned from the Crusades mute and seemingly possessed, has been chained in a dungeon at the Cistercian monastery of Santes Creus, where he now wastes away. His fabulously wealthy family boasts great fame and honor in the Church; by their gifts to the spiritual glory of Christ’s kingdom, the Montaldos have bought special privilege in heaven. Francisco has been at Santes Creus for ten years, initially sent there to recover from spells of deep melancholy seemingly prompted by the drowning of his older brother Sergio on a Crusade. Now Brother Lucas strives to exorcise the devil while Francisco piecemeal reveals his trials on the Crusade that has left him rotting mentally. Are Francisco’s crooked smile and his demons connected to his brother’s death, or to the fact that Francisco castrated and killed the abbot of Santes Creus, who had himself raped and caused the death of the servant girl Noelle? Why did Francisco take up the Cross and go on King Jaime’s Crusade against the infidel? A dream of the drowned Sergio pointed his brother toward the Holy City, but was it Satan’s finger? What happened at the great fortress of Krak des Chevaliers, to which the infidels laid siege and which Francisco helped defend with his beloved huge cousin Andres? When Francisco saves Andres’ sister Isabel after she falls through ice and nearly drowns, he finds himself deeply in love with the bright, outspoken 16-year-old. The slaughter of his mates at the battle of Toron wakens Francisco to horror before ungrasped. But the true horror begins at the besieged Krak, where Francisco and Andres are betrayed and given to the Muslims as prisoners at the Citadel in Aleppo.
Not stylish, but fast-moving and richly colored.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-385-50281-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2001
There are unforgettable beauties in this very sexy story.
Passion, friendship, heartbreak, and forgiveness ring true in Lovering's debut, the tale of a young woman's obsession with a man who's "good at being charming."
Long Island native Lucy Albright, starts her freshman year at Baird College in Southern California, intending to study English and journalism and become a travel writer. Stephen DeMarco, an upperclassman, is a political science major who plans to become a lawyer. Soon after they meet, Lucy tells Stephen an intensely personal story about the Unforgivable Thing, a betrayal that turned Lucy against her mother. Stephen pretends to listen to Lucy's painful disclosure, but all his thoughts are about her exposed black bra strap and her nipples pressing against her thin cotton T-shirt. It doesn't take Lucy long to realize Stephen's a "manipulative jerk" and she is "beyond pathetic" in her desire for him, but their lives are now intertwined. Their story takes seven years to unfold, but it's a fast-paced ride through hookups, breakups, and infidelities fueled by alcohol and cocaine and with oodles of sizzling sexual tension. "Lucy was an itch, a song stuck in your head or a movie you need to rewatch or a food you suddenly crave," Stephen says in one of his point-of-view chapters, which alternate with Lucy's. The ending is perfect, as Lucy figures out the dark secret Stephen has kept hidden and learns the difference between lustful addiction and mature love.
There are unforgettable beauties in this very sexy story.Pub Date: June 12, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-6964-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
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
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