This the tenth- and the author expresses his hope, the last —of the Lanny Budd series, brings the adventures of the presidential agent through the war crimes trials, the conflict- diplomatically speaking- with the Soviet, and finds him at the end in a position of trust with the new administration, sent to Moscow as Trumen's personal representative. The first half of the book is, as in previous volumes, set against a background of reality, with Lanny serving in a very special relation with Monuments, — sent into all parts of Europe as the occupation troops take over, to interrogate Germans who might help locate art treasures, accompanying some of the important survey expeditions, using his previous contacts as a bona fide art expert and advisor to the German leaders to worm facts from these very leaders as prisoners. He was caught in Bastogne; did signal service there and in Nancy and Luxembourg, in Munich and Nuremberg. From Europe to America and back- now at the summons of Roosevelt, now of the army. His intimate relations are, presumably, established by use of such nicknames as "Georgie" (Patton), a habit rather irritating to this reader! Lanny Budd addicts will welcome tying up loose threads as lost personalities are found- old friends reintroduced, — Monck, Hansi and Bess, Freddi Robin, Marceline, Rick (now a baronet, but still set on world betterment) and Nina his wife. Emily Chatterton has died, willing a million to Lanny in trust for world peace. And the development of this idea, with various ramifications (radio, syndicate, newspaper, authors' agency, etc.) provides the fictional last half of the story. There are bits here and there linked closely to history. Lanny is present at Los Alamos, for the important text. But in the main, his story shifts from men of action to men of ideas, so this is considerably less melodramatic in the personal sense than its predecessors. Will that decrease its market? I doubt it, for the Lanny Budd fan will go through with him to the end.
Pub Date: July 22, 1949
ISBN: 1931313105
Page Count: 330
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1949
BOOK REVIEW
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
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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