A sweeping, densely plotted epic that will likely appeal to fans of historical fiction or George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice...
A knight faces brutal challenges at home and abroad in de Rothschild’s historical-fiction debut.
Set in 1338, the novel centers on Sir Roger de Bohun, King Edward III’s one-time whipping boy, who’s now the “King’s Friend.” Roger has been handsomely rewarded for his years of loyalty: The king gave him a beautiful wife—Lady Alice, Queen Philippa’s lady-in-waiting—with whom he has two children, Harry and Isabel. He’s building an extravagant castle at Ipers Manor and has received a promotion to the prestigious rank of banneret. Roger’s successes, however, come during troubling times, as Edward makes a claim for the throne of France, complicating a number of political and religious intrigues. Closer to home, Lady Alice catches the eye of Sir Eustace de Frage, a man who will stop at nothing to claim her for himself. As tensions mount, Roger finds himself fighting for his king and his family. The author succeeds in creating a richly detailed setting and memorable characters. His descriptions of daily life in France and England, including the grand architecture of churches and castles, create a vivid picture of life during that era. Roger is a dynamic protagonist: a man of faith who’s loyal to his king, church and family but not immune to the charms of beautiful women. He’s met his match in Lady Alice, a passionate young woman who capably maintains the castle while he’s away. Eustace is a cunning villain whose ruthless desire for revenge drives some of the novel’s most effectively chilling scenes. The author’s vision is ambitious; as a result, the multitude of characters and subplots occasionally obscures the main protagonist’s story. The battle scenes are quite brutal, but de Rothschild reins them in before they become too gratuitous.
A sweeping, densely plotted epic that will likely appeal to fans of historical fiction or George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series.Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-1499293661
Page Count: 490
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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