A life-affirming, if fragmented, page-turner written in a refreshingly offbeat style.
The lives of two strangers interconnect in unexpected ways in Anderson’s debut novel.
Chris is a Milwaukee-based tech whiz who, along with his friends, is in the process of developing an app that helps arborists find work. At the opening of the novel he’s pale, addicted to “things that made them feel alive or dead, depending on the need.” Jo is a divorced woman who owns a flower store in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, cares deeply for her community, and is tentative about getting involved in a romantic relationship. Chris’ app is an instant success, making him a multimillionaire. However, his new wealth leads him to become more introverted, and he turns to painting as an outlet. After his mother presents him with a paintbrush that belonged to his deceased father, his creations perplex him, and he begins to find himself in situations that exactly match his imagined paintings. Meanwhile, Jo wrestles with her feelings for Grant, a friend and employee, but is shocked by his xenophobic response when she hires a woman named Paj. Restless, Jo takes an impromptu trip to Zurich, where she meets the enigmatic Micha, a garden designer. They have an unforgettable evening together and then part ways. The novel follows Chris’ and Jo’s seemingly independent lives over the course of a year. Readers will be kept guessing how, if ever, the two strangers’ lives will connect.
This is an intriguing work of subtle magical realism and unconventional romance. Anderson shows off a delightful descriptive style that’s beautifully simple yet effortlessly evocative: “Every year she noticed the same old man walk past daily and pause, noticing new buds pop wide as if from a magician’s hand.” The author creates psychologically believable characters that develop as the novel progresses. It’s particularly interesting to observe how Chris matures from the “video games, porn, and the occasional programming language” aficionado of his graduate years to a man fully immersed in the creative process. There are moments when Anderson shares wise advice through minor characters; after Chris’ mother suffers a stroke, for example, he’s advised by his mother’s nurse: “Try to give yourself as few of those regrets as you possibly can. You might think you can’t climb this mountain. But you can.” On other occasions, the author effectively wields humor; while describing a visit to a nudist club, he writes, “Jo didn’t know if naked was the right word, since the man was wearing a cowboy hat.” The novel has notably short chapters, moving back and forth between Chris and Jo. It’s a notably disjointed approach, but it often quickens the pace of an already compelling work. Anderson’s characters sometimes impulsively partake in unexpected activities, such as Jo’s overseas trip, but this adds a further element of surprise to a plot that has many diverting twists and turns. Overall, Anderson’s debut is an intelligent celebration of life, love, and creative endeavor and often proves a joy to read.
A life-affirming, if fragmented, page-turner written in a refreshingly offbeat style.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2023
ISBN: 9798988749301
Page Count: 610
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
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
SEEN & HEARD
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