An often compelling but uneven view of life in Mauritius.
This coming-of-age story set mostly on the island of Mauritius touches on political, religious, racial, and family tensions.
On a visit to Mauritius after years living overseas, narrator Vishnu Gopal recalls his boyhood and adolescence in the time leading to the island’s independence in 1968 and his move abroad to attend university. Life was defined by the immediate family and the larger clan and by the frictions that arose from disagreements over Hindu rituals or property. The boy’s roots go back to Indians who came to Mauritius in the 19th century as indentured labor; the island is also marked by French and British colonial rulers and African influences. His clan has moved on from the sugar-cane fields to better trades. Vishnu’s schoolteacher father wants his academically gifted son to go even further and win a university scholarship, and an overlong episode concerns a “bureaucratic foul-up” that costs the young man a chance to study in France. Busjeet, who left the island to finish his education and has worked for the World Bank and International Finance Corporation, has no doubt mined his own youth for this debut novel. The strongest scenes trace the pressures of family life and clan feuds amid the larger strains of the island’s multiracial society. Busjeet’s prose is workmanlike though sometimes stilted (“He’d tried to initiate me to yoga, but I was recalcitrant to any form of physical exertion”). Details of local life—young Vishnu sees Grandma carrying sugar-cane leaves on her head to feed her two cows—reflect a culture far removed from IFC corridors. Within the Hindu clan, it’s a heavily male culture, and the novel has few strong women.
An often compelling but uneven view of life in Mauritius.Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-385-54702-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.
Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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