Ivan is a hardworking protagonist, but the single-minded outward focus that makes him a natural businessman also makes him a...
From Tyree (The Last Street Novel, 2007, etc.), a Horatio Alger update with bling.
For 28-year-old Ivan David, the eureka moment occurs after he is relegated to the “nobody” line at a crowded nightclub. Suddenly realizing that his well-regarded work for a respected San Diego accounting firm will never land him the kind of money and cachet he craves, he decides to go into business for himself as a party promoter. He first tastes small-scale success holding African-American networking mixers at a local soul-food restaurant. Then he catches the eye of fellow promoter Lucina Gallo, an Italian/Brazilian beauty with the class and connections that Ivan lacks, who admires his ambition. The physical attraction is mutual, but they resist acting on it, settling for a remarkably lucrative partnership. Under Lucina’s influence Ivan’s life changes in every way, right down to the diamond earring she attaches as part of the sexy makeover she gives him. Quickly branching out into high-profile, celebrity-studded parties, Ivan also dabbles in real estate and the Web. He manages to negotiate a salary from his former firm by bringing them big-money athletes as clients. In no time, it seems, he becomes a major player in the local scene, attracting his share of golddiggers and envy. But apart from a weakness for some of the young ladies in Lucina’s party-girl entourage, methodical Ivan is all work, all the time. His rise from pencil pusher to Bentley-driving VIP is so dizzying, if somewhat implausible, that even sophisticated Lucina begins to question his motives. In fact, his hubris causes them to grow apart, prompting Ivan to ponder which matters more: Love or money? Or can he possibly have both?
Ivan is a hardworking protagonist, but the single-minded outward focus that makes him a natural businessman also makes him a less-than-compelling hero.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-4165-4193-6
Page Count: 498
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2008
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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