A fascinating and wonderfully evocative first novel about life on Alcatraz—seen through the eyes of a little girl growing up on the Rock in the 1950s. Though not widely known, it was not only America's most wanted who called Alcatraz home: The prison guards and their families also resided on the island, living in quaint cottages, the children taking the San Francisco ferry to school, and the families managing a modest social life. Here, the story of one such family unfolds under the looming shadow of the prison. Olivia is born the year her parents move to Alcatraz, and the disintegration of her family is told mostly through her innocent perspective. Chapters of her observations on her mother's diminishing mental state and her siblings' ironic delinquency are intermingled with riveting sections on the history of Alcatraz, prison policy, and famous escape attempts, along with a flashback narrative of Olivia's parents as newlyweds. Vivian, the brilliant daughter of radicals, is sent back east for college, where she meets Arthur, a handsome and authoritative law student. When they suddenly marry, the contours of their relationship begin to shift—the fiercely independent Vivian becomes passive and accommodating to please Arthur, while he quits school so that he can support his wife like a ``man.'' Years later, isolated on the island, with three children, a rigid husband, and broken dreams, Vivian begins the sad decline Olivia is witness to. Aptly, the prison and a prison guard husband become a metaphor for the stultifying life offered women in the '50s, while the failed attempts at escape symbolize the futile struggle to break cemented domestic patterns. Olivia grows into a rather lonely, friendless young woman, enduring the physical and mental alienation the island creates. Only when she finally escapes the island does she discover a sense of identity and triumph. A compelling story, richly evoking a time and place.
Pub Date: April 24, 1997
ISBN: 0-571-19910-1
Page Count: 266
Publisher: Faber & Faber/Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1997
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
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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