A boisterous, stylish novel about fathers, sons, and the messiness of American life.
In Casey’s debut novel, a powerful city council member and his offspring separately attempt to atone for past mistakes.
Dan Hurley is a seasoned Chicago pol, educated at the foot of Ed O’Brien, the city’s long-serving Irish mayor, and his powerful friends in government. As a member of the city council, Dan became notorious for his work on behalf of the Democratic political machine, but as he reaches the end of his career, a dispute over a warehouse arises between the new mayor and a Westside minister. The situation presents Dan with an opportunity to possibly undo some of the cynical maneuvers that characterized his time in office. Meanwhile, Dan’s estranged son, Billy, is living a life of frustrated potential above a tavern in a small Wisconsin town, where he rents canoes to tourists. As he prepares for a new custody trial—with an aim to get back the children he lost due to his drug and alcohol abuse—Dan’s sudden death allows Billy to reevaluate his father and perhaps help to change the man’s legacy. Over the course of the novel, Casey proves himself to be intimately familiar with the ins and outs of Chicago politics. The first chapter, narrated by Dan, offers a particularly wonderful warts-and-all portrait of lawmaking: “So I’m in my chair, front and center, ringmaster in the Council chambers, the mayor presides, his minions atwitter, my aldermanic brethren lounge around and about me, in cushy red chairs with the city seal, cameras, red lights on, along the wall.” The prose is similarly, and remarkably, energetic throughout the remainder of the work. However, the plot loses some steam after it becomes Billy’s own story, and a length of 500-plus pages seems unnecessary. Even so, the novel, which is set in the mid-1980s, feels very much like an engaging artifact of that era, and after discovering it, readers will look forward to whatever future projects Casey has up his sleeve.
A boisterous, stylish novel about fathers, sons, and the messiness of American life.Pub Date: July 30, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-09-835623-1
Page Count: 476
Publisher: BookBaby
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
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
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.
Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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