A werewolf novel with teeth, from the author of Nightlight and Sleepwalker (both 1990). Never has the transformation of man into wolf been portrayed with such psychospiritual intensity as in the narration of Benjamin Byrd, a meek San Francisco psychologist who describes his evolution into a vibrant force of nature. Byrd, an avid ``collector,'' begins his new life when his car clips the dog of the alluring Johanna Fisher. Grateful for his concern, Johanna introduces Byrd to someone who sells him a bizarre set of fangs set in silver. Under their influence, Byrd nightly begins to changeat first unwittingly, then consciouslyinto a werewolf, ``running in the night.'' So enamored is he of his new freedom, power, and sensations, and of his infatuation with Johannasoon revealed as a fellow werewolf, also transformed by the fangsthat Byrd accepts the accompanying bloodlust, including his killing and eating of two people. However, when his wife leaves him for another man whom he vengefully devours, Byrd tastes remorsewhich, along with police pursuit of the ``Night Beast'' terrorizing the city, forces him and Johanna to flee to the Canadian wilderness. There, in a hard but exhilarating plunge into raw nature, Byrd lopes with wolves, fights a wildcat, and eludes hunters; at the same time, he finds himself growing in compassion for all living things, even for the renegade FBI agent who tracks him down and whom he kills. This compassion compels him to return to S.F. to confess his crimes and to destroy the fangs; but, as Johanna warns, ``Our lives are rich with surprise''including a cathartic bloodbath and a final dash for freedom. Overlong, overcomplicated, and shamelessly melodramatic, with cliffhanging chapters and much emoting; but Cadnum's swollen style and poetic prose well suit his hero's Byronic status, helping to make this the most romantic and thoughtful of werewolf novels.
Pub Date: June 3, 1991
ISBN: 0-88184-728-3
Page Count: 272
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1991
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
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PERSPECTIVES
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