A satirical and surrealistic novel from Britain about the end of history, by a noted former Sixties activist and associate of Danny the Red, that promises a radical if tongue-in-cheek solution for disillusioned revolutionaries. On the eve of the last decade of the 20th century, with Eastern Europe on the brink of freedom, and reformers in the ascendancy in the Soviet Union, a veteran leader of the international Trotsky movement, Ezra Einstein, has a moment of epiphany. He finds himself typing an invitation to all Trotskyites to attend a congress in the New Year in Paris, where he will reveal his ideas for saving the movement despite the great changes taking place. Ezra, who ``combined some of the qualities of an Old Testament prophet with the defects of a New Testament apostle, whose task was to interpret the words of the saviors in changing conditions,'' is also married to the much younger and stunningly beautiful Maya. Maya is pregnant, and many in the movement feel she is vitiating Ezra's commitment. Groups such as the Hoodlums, whose dead leader directs his successor from his coffin; the Burrowers from Britain, headed by Jed who is infatuated with a Thatcher minister; and the American PISPAW, controlled by Jim Noble, who has erotic dreams of Castro—all agree to attend but also plot to expel Ezra. Ezra, however—who mid-congress not only becomes a father but is able to suckle his precocious daughter—outwits them all with his brilliant if unorthodox solution for their political future- -they will infiltrate the world's major religions and ``fight to establish a connection between Heaven and Earth.'' Lots of insider politics, satire, and surrealistic goings-on from a writer with impeccable revolutionary credentials and considerable affection—if not for the ideas, at least for some of the players. Good fun for political groupies.
Pub Date: Dec. 15, 1991
ISBN: 0-7011-3394-5
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Chatto & Windus/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1991
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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