A complex but uneven novel of art and mental illness.
An amnesiac returns to Australia to confront her past in Skilbeck’s debut novel.
Ruby Rivers is in Newcastle Jail in New South Wales for a murder that she doesn’t remember committing. Back in London, she was the owner of a posh gallery known for exhibiting “antipodean” art (works from Australia and New Zealand). Ruby and her wealthy husband, acclaimed philosopher Sir Hugo Rivers, made a trip to her native Australia on a search for new artworks. However, she has no memory of living in Australia, as she was somehow struck with amnesia shortly after her arrival in England, where she started a new life several years ago. Ruby only has vague notions of a dark romantic affair and a vision of a woman playing the violin—but once she’s back in Sydney, the pieces of her past start to fall into place. There, a musician and an artist have a shared history with the woman Ruby once was. Their reunion ends in blood, but the identity of the guilty party isn’t so clear-cut. Skilbeck’s prose is as measured as poetry, and the way the narration shifts between different characters provides an almost cubist view of people and events. For example, in Hugo’s memory of the first time he saw Ruby, she was wearing a fur coat: “In an age of hunt saboteurs, animal rights, she stood out like Wanda in Venus in Furs”; later in their relationship, she notes its cost: “Only ten pounds can you believe and twice as much for old raincoats that looked as if they’d come straight off a flasher’s back.” The chapters are intercut with excerpts that address the concept of the fugue state, which lend Ruby’s condition a bit of context. For all its style, however, the story at the center of the novel simply doesn’t feel quite as emotionally stirring as it could be. Skilbeck creates some memorable characters as she whets the reader’s appetite for mystery, but the plot that unfolds never becomes fully engrossing.
A complex but uneven novel of art and mental illness.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-99-227792-5
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Postmistress Press
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.
Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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