The 27-year-old author's second novel (following Coyote, 1990) delights with its tale of a profitable encounter between the habituÇs of a postmodern N.Y.C. coffee shop and a powerful trickster spirit from the ancient past. Handsome, well-educated, and reasonably likable, Eric Auden appears to be wasting his youth as he struggles against a lingering case of late-20s ennui. Divorced from a successful TV journalist, unable to decide on a career of his own, Eric wanders into the Metropolitan Museum of Art one wintry morning, little realizing that there he'll find the woman who can alter his fate. Noting that the Greek Antiquities section, closed for renovation, has been left unguarded, Eric impulsively slips inside, comes across a palm-sized Cycladic stone idol in an unlocked case, and, uncharacteristically, gives in to the urge to grab her and smuggle her away. Stunned by his own audacity, Eric believes as he retreats to his downtown loft that he alone is responsible for the fix in which he now finds himself. But, as Eric soon begins to suspect—along with neighbor Matthew, an aspiring artist to whom Eric confesses his crime, and other eccentric regulars in the Mystery Roast coffee shop on the first floor—their spurious plans to make a fortune by turning the ``Goddess of Desire'' into the latest Pet Rock-type fad prove successful only because mass proliferation happens to be on the agenda of the Goddess herself. In the end, the satisfied spirit- -once again worshipped by thousands who hope she will answer their prayers, graciously rewards her clumsy acolytes—providing Eric with a new love, Matthew with artistic fame, and greater wisdom and happiness for all. Gadol's characters' unique mix of youthful wonder with a lighthearted disregard for traditional authority makes for wry, sharp urban humor: a witty, entertaining New York tale.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-517-57656-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1992
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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