Well-intentioned, sometimes compelling, but far too agenda-driven.
Sequel to The Harris Men (1999), offering emotional punch if little else as it revisits an African-American family.
Some quick exposition brings readers up to speed. Five years earlier, diagnosed with terminal cancer, Julius Harris tried to come back into the lives of the grown sons he abandoned long ago, but the oldest, Austin, in the middle of a divorce, had no time for family reunions; middle son Marcus was too angry; and Caleb, the baby in the family, had just gone to the slammer. While incarcerated, Caleb tentatively reconnected with Julius; finally released, he journeys to Los Angeles to be with his father, now cancer-free. As the two cautiously rebuild a relationship, Austin and Marcus are at loggerheads back home in Chicago. Since their divorce, Austin’s ex-wife, Trace, has been making it increasingly difficult for him to see their two children, using them as pawns in her anger. One would think that divorce attorney Austin would have some experience in resolving disputes over visitation rights; instead, he plays games to teach Trace a lesson. Marcus doesn't help by taking on big brother’s paternal responsibilities, virtually alienating Austin from his own children. Things aren't much better in Los Angeles. Caleb finally locates girlfriend Sonya and their son Jahlil, who disappeared while he was in prison. They now live with a drug dealer who proves, in an ironic twist, to be the only dedicated father in the story, doting on Jahlil as well as Sonya. To make matters worse, the cancer has returned, and sweet Julius has little time left. If Johnson's point is that fatherless sons make poor decisions, he's right-on target. Much of the drama here stems from the bad situations the brothers foolishly put themselves into. Relief and forgiveness finally come into play—and not a moment too soon.
Well-intentioned, sometimes compelling, but far too agenda-driven.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7432-1600-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2001
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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
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
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