Finely textured character development almost compensates for a depressing tale.
A psychological novel explores two young men whose lives intersect in Los Angeles chaotically, emotionally, sexually, and violently.
In the book’s opening section, readers meet Clyde Koba, a second-generation Japanese-American and the narrator of the first part of this tale. It is 1973, and he is about to celebrate his 11th birthday. Before the night is over, his father comes home, abusively drunk as usual. Clyde tries to hide and winds up accidentally stepping on his beloved cat, breaking the feline’s back and killing him. Eventually, Clyde begins to display a violent streak, and his issues with sexual identity grow more overt. He becomes obsessed with Marilyn Monroe’s photographs and biography, convinced her spirit has been reincarnated in his body. Then the story takes on a third-person narrator and moves to another part of town, where 16-year-old Raphael Dweck has decided he is finished with his court-mandated psychotherapy. Three years ago, Raphael, a kleptomaniac, stole the silver breastplate of the Torah he had been studying for his bar mitzvah. Born in Israel, the Orthodox, observant Raphael immigrated to Los Angeles with his family eight years ago. But now his parents and rabbi decide the teen must find salvation by returning to Israel and living with a despised aunt. Ortega-Medina’s (Jerusalem Ablaze, 2017) graphic prose is vivid, especially when describing the Israeli desert: “The orb of the sun spits out swirls of colour as it dips westward, painting the purpling sky with reds and oranges, and splashing the edges of the crater with an ever-changing palette. Raphael…sketches furiously, trying to capture something of the devolving landscape as the colours intensify, and a warm wind kicks up from the desert floor.” The author’s deft construction of this complex plot reflects his experience in creating short stories. He concentrates first on Clyde, then on Raphael. Finally, the tale jumps ahead to 1982, several years after Raphael (now Ralph) returned to California. The two men’s paths become intertwined as they form a quirky, symbiotic relationship. Ralph, still searching for God, is the more manipulative of these two psychologically fragile, fully developed characters. Clyde, now cross-dressing as Monroe, is the more explosive and physically dangerous one. Ralph tells Clyde: “We’re all messed up, in one way or another. Every one of us. Damaged goods.” That could be this dark, disturbing novel’s subtitle.
Finely textured character development almost compensates for a depressing tale.Pub Date: June 21, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-999-5873-5-2
Page Count: 475
Publisher: Cloud Lodge Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Deep schmaltz in the Bible Belt.
Christian-fiction writer Martin (The Dead Don’t Dance, not reviewed) chronicles the personal tragedy of a Georgia heart surgeon.
Five years ago in Atlanta, Reese could not save his beloved wife Emma from heart failure, even though the Harvard-trained surgeon became a physician so that he could find a way to fix his childhood sweetheart’s congenitally faulty ticker. He renounced practicing medicine after her death and now lives in quiet anonymity as a boat mechanic on Lake Burton. Across the lake is Emma’s brother Charlie, who was rendered blind on the same desperate night that Reese fought to revive his wife on their kitchen floor. When Reese helps save the life of a seven-year-old local girl named Annie, who turns out to have irreparable heart damage, he is compassionately drawn into her case. He also grows close to Annie’s attractive Aunt Cindy and gradually comes to recognize that the family needs his expertise as a transplant surgeon. Martin displays some impressive knowledge about medical practice and the workings of the heart, but his Christian message is not exactly subtle. “If anything in this universe reflects the fingerprint of God, it is the human heart,” Reese notes of his medical studies. Emma’s letters (kept in a bank vault) quote Bible verse; Charlie elucidates stories of Jesus’ miracles for young Annie; even the napkins at the local bar, The Well, carry passages from the Gospel of John for the benefit of the biker clientele. Moreover, Martin relentlessly hammers home his sentimentality with nature-specific metaphors involving mating cardinals and crying crickets. (Annie sells crickets as well as lemonade to raise money for her heart surgery.) Reese’s habitual muttering of worldly slogans from Milton and Shakespeare (“I am ashes where once I was fire”) doesn’t much cut the cloying piety, and an over-the-top surgical save leaves the reader feeling positively bruised.
Deep schmaltz in the Bible Belt.Pub Date: April 4, 2006
ISBN: 1-5955-4054-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: WestBow/Thomas Nelson
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2006
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
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