A deeply satisfying novel; Huneven’s best work to date.
After a tragedy, the fortunes of a California family unfold in unexpected ways.
It’s the mid-1970s when the curtain rises on architect Phil Samuelson, his schoolteacher wife, Sibyl, and their three children, Ellis, Katie, and Sally. Ellis, who will turn 18 that summer before college, heads off with a couple of friends for a week-long road trip but does not return on schedule, sending his parents only a few brief letters assuring them that he’s fine and begging them not to track him down. As it turns out, Ellis dies so early in the book it seems no spoiler to say it, and his death will be quickly followed by another shock: He left behind a pregnant girlfriend. With a structure reminiscent of Ann Patchett’s Commonwealth (2016), Huneven moves among her characters and over the next four decades to set up and spring all the surprises she has in store, occasionally leaving California to trace developments in spots as far-flung as Saudi Arabia and Oaxaca, and eventually requiring the services of 23andMe and the legalization of same-sex marriage to make all the many pieces fall into place. As someone aptly describes the central couple, “Oh, Phil’s lovely. His wife, though, is a prickly thing. But isn’t that always the case: the easygoing marry the prickles because who else would have them?” Yes, Phil is easier to love than Sibyl, and daughter Sally is quite a bit more appealing than her older sister, Katie, but Huneven is good at unlikable characters, making them fully three-dimensional while stopping far short of sappy redemption. Another of her signature elements, alcoholism, is in the mix as well, appearing via a deep green tumbler of “Hawaiian Punch” clutched in the hand of a major character and two cases of beer drunk daily by a pair of minor ones, retired civil servants and would-be swingers who run a donut shop in the middle of nowhere. Gotta love that.
A deeply satisfying novel; Huneven’s best work to date.Pub Date: June 17, 2025
ISBN: 9780593834879
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Penguin Press
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.
Atwood goes back to Gilead.
The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), consistently regarded as a masterpiece of 20th-century literature, has gained new attention in recent years with the success of the Hulu series as well as fresh appreciation from readers who feel like this story has new relevance in America’s current political climate. Atwood herself has spoken about how news headlines have made her dystopian fiction seem eerily plausible, and it’s not difficult to imagine her wanting to revisit Gilead as the TV show has sped past where her narrative ended. Like the novel that preceded it, this sequel is presented as found documents—first-person accounts of life inside a misogynistic theocracy from three informants. There is Agnes Jemima, a girl who rejects the marriage her family arranges for her but still has faith in God and Gilead. There’s Daisy, who learns on her 16th birthday that her whole life has been a lie. And there's Aunt Lydia, the woman responsible for turning women into Handmaids. This approach gives readers insight into different aspects of life inside and outside Gilead, but it also leads to a book that sometimes feels overstuffed. The Handmaid’s Tale combined exquisite lyricism with a powerful sense of urgency, as if a thoughtful, perceptive woman was racing against time to give witness to her experience. That narrator hinted at more than she said; Atwood seemed to trust readers to fill in the gaps. This dynamic created an atmosphere of intimacy. However curious we might be about Gilead and the resistance operating outside that country, what we learn here is that what Atwood left unsaid in the first novel generated more horror and outrage than explicit detail can. And the more we get to know Agnes, Daisy, and Aunt Lydia, the less convincing they become. It’s hard, of course, to compete with a beloved classic, so maybe the best way to read this new book is to forget about The Handmaid’s Tale and enjoy it as an artful feminist thriller.
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-385-54378-1
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
