An intriguing tale involving reality show alliances that lacks a strong plot.
Clover imagines the combative contestants of a future reality show in this debut novel.
The year is 2056. Shots Fired in the Melting Pot is meant to be standard, 3-D hologram reality show fare, placing six unlikely roommates together in a New York penthouse to “illustrate ideological differences between passionate people.” The contestants include Litz Rack, a liberal and lascivious plumber with a checkered past; Richard Orton, the editor of Feature Films for Families and a token Republican; Jazzy Auburn Michelle, an extroverted yet insecure comedian; Fassim Johnson, a ruthless paparazzo with little concern for the privacy of others; Cody “CKB” Black, a career criminal with a knack for social media; and Stoney Akuda, a New York cop looking for a reason to deploy deadly force. They are competing for a cash prize, though each also conceals a personal agenda. Things start off with the expected barrage of trash talk and flirtation, but the situation quickly escalates as the producers throw new elements into the series in an attempt to raise the stakes even higher. With the increased spotlight, the personal histories of the contestants are drawn more and more into the mix, complicating their lives both on and off camera. It’s only a matter of time until real shots are fired and the inhabitants of the melting pot are forced to decide which of their rivals might prove most useful as partners. While the premise and futuristic setting offer the promise of satire and heightened high jinks, the novel is rather flat in its execution. Clover routinely overloads his sentences with description and exposition: “Litz noticed an intimate longing creeping across Richard’s adorable Scottish-American face as she finished listening to her voice mail with the stoicism of a true vixen.” The resulting prose is cumbersome and never fully immersive. The dialogue is not nearly as witty as the author wants it to be, and the plot developments feel more contrived as the story proceeds. A late twist doesn’t quite land, leaving the reader with a lingering sense of missed opportunity.
An intriguing tale involving reality show alliances that lacks a strong plot.Pub Date: Feb. 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-692-50725-4
Page Count: 340
Publisher: No Apologies Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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