A delightful romp with memorable characters.
In the early 20th century, the citizens of a former gold rush town concoct a scheme to save their homes in Mayfield’s novel.
The once-thriving gold mining town of Paradise, Idaho now has a diminishing population and a big problem: the approaching 1920 census. The combination of the gold rush cooling, the Spanish Flu, and a raging war in Europe has reduced the town’s population to fewer than 125 total residents—the official threshold for town incorporation, as millionaire politician Gerald Dredd is keen to remind them. Under the threat of losing their homes, the town council members band together to bring new people in. Led by former madam Maude Dollarhyde, her mixed-race granddaughter, Bountiful (a brilliant teacher recently returned from Washington, DC), former prospector “Goldstrike,” and the local saloon owner, Arnold Chang, they come up with the brilliant idea of selling four of the town’s abandoned mansions for a penny each to prospective buyers who will agree to restore them—and, more importantly, stay in town, at least until the census is taken. After going through many applications, the town welcomes the arrival of a theatrical family troupe, a household of excommunicated Mormons, an electrical engineer, and a handy lawyer with his wife and child (in case they need to fight their case in court). Little do they know, at least one of those newcomers is a mole sent by Dredd to sabotage their plan. What follows in Mayfield’s brilliant, well-rounded, fun novel is a twisty mix of murder, comedy, romance, and history. With plenty of humor (“folks will come up here to escape the hustle and bustle of city life. We’ll be like Switzerland. Once rich folks have made their nut, they always want to live in Switzerland”)and a narrative that follows a cast of endearing characters as they fight for the life of their beloved town, the story has a true sense of community, making it impossible not to root for its quirky heroes and against the dastardly villains.
A delightful romp with memorable characters.Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781646034000
Page Count: 322
Publisher: Regal House Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 14, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
© Copyright 2023 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.
bookshelf
