An ambitious and engrossing portrayal of a black family under siege in white America, by the accomplished young author of the short-story sequence Aquaboogie (1990) and the novel I Been in Sorrow's Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots (1992). The story is set, as are Straight's earlier books, in a racially divided California city: This time, it's (fictional) Rio Seco, where hardworking Hosea Thompson's relative security (he owns an auto salvage and repair business) is threatened when a burning car with two dead white women in it is found on his property and Hosea, protesting police accusations, is shot and wounded, then jailed. The story branches out quickly, and in several fruitful directions. Straight explores the reactions of Hosea's aggrieved and mystified family; his memories of the (historical) race riots of some 60 years earlier in Tulsa, Oklahoma, when his family was terrorized and his father killed; the enlistment of his youngest son Marcus (a high-school history teacher, whom his rough-edged older siblings nickname ``Sissyfly'') to help prove Hosea's innocence; and Marcus's own complicated memories of growing up knowing he wanted a different life, struggling to keep his distance from his family without succumbing to condescension. Straight stumbles only when detailing Marcus's attempts to jog his sullen students' consciences during Black History month; here, and only here, the novel briefly shrinks to the dimensions of a sociology lesson. Otherwise, its power to involve us in the lives of a sprawling clan whose members are all vividly differentiated remains undiminished over more than 400 pages. Nor should it be forgotten that Straight has contrived a fascinating mystery, whose credible and satisfying solution contains a stunning climactic irony. Both dramatic and melodramatic in the best possible senses: another impassioned and powerful performance by one of the best writers to have emerged in this decade. (Author tour)
Pub Date: June 27, 1996
ISBN: 0-7868-6086-3
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1996
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
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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