A sharp-witted young widow’s progress through post—Civil War Washington’s power-centers dominates this breezy and entertaining historical caper from the popular author of Henry and Clara (1994) and Dewey Defeats Truman (1997). Thirtyish Cynthia May, a math prodigy, exchanges her unfulfilling job as a secretary at the Department of the interior for a career as a human“computer” working in tandem with astronomers at the US Naval Observatory. Assigned to perform calculations related to the phenomenon of the transit of Venus, Cynthia finds a body of somewhat more interest in handsome young scientist Hugh Allison, who more than returns her interest. But Hugh is a visionary who, inspired by the comparatively new science of photography, dreams of transmitting visual images through space and time and Cynthia finds herself drawn into his romantic orbit. This promising situation is seasoned agreeably by the influential presences of Mary Costello, a lowborn fortune-teller determined to protect her own prophetic interests (“You scientific fellas are takin’ all the mystery out of the heavens”), and of the real-life New York Republican Senator Roscoe Conkling, a wily political animal who means to bend new President “Rutherfraud” B. Hayes to his will and add the fetching Mrs. May (a counterplotter as adapt as he) to his list of amorous conquests. Mallon recounts his characters— respective machinations with good-humored energy in an essentially well-paced narrative whose momentum is unfortunately undercut by heavy loads of background information attached to each successive character. Conversely, though, he composes unfailingly graceful sentences, makes transitions expertly, and communicates nicely both his characters’ and his own pure pleasure in the spectacle of a vigorous country newly at peace and pleased to kick up its political and sexual heels. Gore Vidal still does this kind of novel better than anybody, but Two Moons is a pretty fair incursion into his territory.
Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2000
ISBN: 0-375-40025-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Pantheon
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1999
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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