An uneven but entertaining story of war and exile, its shaggy-dog whimsy redeemed by strong writing.
A young gay man and his faithful dog weather harrowing violence in El Salvador and a long trek to America in Ortega-Medina’s hallucinatory novel.
Isaac Perez, a teenager living San Salvador in 1978, dreams of becoming an astronaut. Isaac starts an affair with Gerónimo, a handsome, politically engaged altar boy, but his deepest bond is with Ahbhu, an injured Australian Cattle Dog pup that he nurses back to health. The promiscuous Gerónimo never fully requites Isaac’s love, but Ahbhu is supremely faithful to him; indeed, their communion is so intense that Ahbhu is able to hold telepathic conversations with Isaac. This comes in handy as El Salvador’s civil war, pitting left-wing guerillas against the army and right-wing death squads, escalates in the 1980s. When a bus carrying Isaac and a group of left-wing activists is stopped by soldiers, Ahbhu guides him to safety as a massacre begins in which Isaac’s brother Arturo is killed. Framed for the murder of a soldier, Isaac flees north toward the United States, assisted by Suchi, a no-nonsense lesbian who belongs to an underground railroad for migrating gay people. In Mexico City, Isaac meets dreamboat Diego and his father, Don Federico, an indigenous seer who can also converse with Ahbhu. This magical-realist yarn suffers from weak main characters: Ahbhu is heroic but one-dimensional, and Isaac comes off as passive; he’s dependent on everyone and his dog to steer him. Fortunately, the supporting characters are vibrant and sharply etched—the hard-bitten Suchi flintily surmounts all challenges but is helpless prey to a leggy con woman—and Ortega-Medina’s prose is evocative and punchy (“Before we had even a chance to react, Cano dragged the driver off the bus, shoved him onto the ground, and put a bullet in his head, the sound of the single gunshot ricocheting off the hills”). The fantasy elements are a bit goofy, but the storytelling is vigorous and gripping.
An uneven but entertaining story of war and exile, its shaggy-dog whimsy redeemed by strong writing.Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9781612943022
Page Count: 300
Publisher: Amble Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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