In a cautionary tale with a familiar moral, the arresting prose and complex characters shine.
A couple purchases a dilapidated estate and moves to a remote region of Colombia in this short novel, originally published in 1983 and González's first to be translated into English.
The story opens with a fitting image: J. and Elena’s luggage is on the roof of a bus, surrounded by tropical commodities—“bunches of plantains, sacks of rice, blocks of unrefined sugar cane wrapped in dried banana leaves.” They have come to the finca seeking an escape from the pressure and pretensions of city life. At first, they are busy and relatively happy in their new home. Elena, who enjoys cleaning, begins the task of clearing the house while J. takes inventory of their material needs with the help of his overseer. In a short time, however, J. and Elena find themselves fighting dire financial straits , unrelenting winter rains and mounting tensions in their relationship. As that opening image reveals, they’ve carried all their baggage along with them. J. joins the lumber business, hiring men to destroy the forests he had found so beautiful. Ironically, the timber is often too poorly cut to yield a profit. Seeing this, J. believes the failed endeavor has “plunged him into an absurd vortex of senselessness and death.” Elena, for her part, is less troubled by the hypocrisy of their position. She frequently expresses contempt for the locals and has a barbed wire fence built around their property. As the story progresses, J. and Elena continue to frustrate their own dreams, heading toward certain catastrophe. The vivid language yields slightly to the heavy foreshadowing and ominous tone that dominate the end. Yet despite the unsurprising conclusion, the novel leaves its mark.
In a cautionary tale with a familiar moral, the arresting prose and complex characters shine.Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-78227-041-6
Page Count: 34
Publisher: Pushkin Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
There are unforgettable beauties in this very sexy story.
Passion, friendship, heartbreak, and forgiveness ring true in Lovering's debut, the tale of a young woman's obsession with a man who's "good at being charming."
Long Island native Lucy Albright, starts her freshman year at Baird College in Southern California, intending to study English and journalism and become a travel writer. Stephen DeMarco, an upperclassman, is a political science major who plans to become a lawyer. Soon after they meet, Lucy tells Stephen an intensely personal story about the Unforgivable Thing, a betrayal that turned Lucy against her mother. Stephen pretends to listen to Lucy's painful disclosure, but all his thoughts are about her exposed black bra strap and her nipples pressing against her thin cotton T-shirt. It doesn't take Lucy long to realize Stephen's a "manipulative jerk" and she is "beyond pathetic" in her desire for him, but their lives are now intertwined. Their story takes seven years to unfold, but it's a fast-paced ride through hookups, breakups, and infidelities fueled by alcohol and cocaine and with oodles of sizzling sexual tension. "Lucy was an itch, a song stuck in your head or a movie you need to rewatch or a food you suddenly crave," Stephen says in one of his point-of-view chapters, which alternate with Lucy's. The ending is perfect, as Lucy figures out the dark secret Stephen has kept hidden and learns the difference between lustful addiction and mature love.
There are unforgettable beauties in this very sexy story.Pub Date: June 12, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-6964-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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