A novel, told through relationships, about navigating life as a young gay man in Korea.
In a series of long vignettes, the narrator, an unnamed man referred to occasionally as “Mr. Young” and “Mr. Park,” recounts his relationships: with other men; with his ailing, acidic, evangelical Christian mother; with his best friend. He meets Jaehee when she catches him kissing a man in a hotel parking lot. The two of them, both 20 years old and French majors in college, quickly become confidants, sleeping around with men and swapping stories about their escapades; eventually, they move in together. Now in his 30s, the narrator attends Jaehee’s wedding and feels a pang of loss. In another section, the narrator, now 25, is in the midst of an intense relationship with a man 12 years his senior while juggling caretaking duties for his mother, who is confined to the hospital with uterine cancer. Five years later, after a wounding and sudden breakup, the man gets back in touch with the narrator—raising the possibility that he might finally introduce his mother (whose cancer has returned) to his old flame. The bulk of the book, though, is dedicated to Gyu-ho, the bartender with whom he has a long-term relationship complicated by the narrator’s HIV-positive status. The novel skips freely around in time, lending it a sense of propulsion and instability that feels entirely intentional. It’s anchored, however, by the narrator’s irresistible voice, which alternates between earnest, heartfelt emotion and likable wryness: He names his virus Kylie, after Kylie Minogue, and sees, at a park, “a middle-aged couple so tightly arm in arm that one seemed to have placed the other under arrest.” The prose is dense with fine-grained characterization: Of one boyfriend, the narrator says, “Conversations with him at his house sometimes gave me the feeling that he was reciting lines from a Greek tragedy or an absurdist play, or even an eighties movie.” Despite an ending that drags just a bit, this book will sweep readers up in its sheer longing.
An addictive, profound novel.Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-8021-5878-9
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Grove
Review Posted Online: Aug. 18, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
Categories: LITERARY FICTION | GENERAL FICTION
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Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
19
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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 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
Categories: ROMANCE | CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE | GENERAL ROMANCE | GENERAL FICTION
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A more adorable plea for rationalism and gender equality would be hard to find.
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Two chemists with major chemistry, a dog with a big vocabulary, and a popular cooking show are among the elements of this unusual compound.
At the dawn of the 1960s, Elizabeth Zott finds herself in an unexpected position. She's the star of a television program called Supper at Six that has taken American housewives by storm, but it's certainly not what the crass station head envisions: “ 'Meaningful?' Phil snapped. 'What are you? Amish? As for nutritious: no. You’re killing the show before it even gets started. Look, Walter, it’s easy. Tight dresses, suggestive movements...then there’s the cocktail she mixes at the end of every show.' ” Elizabeth is a chemist, recently forced to leave the lab where she was doing important research due to an out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Now she's reduced to explaining things like when to put the steak in the pan. "Be sure and wait until the butter foams. Foam indicates that the butter’s water content has boiled away. This is critical. Because now the steak can cook in lipids rather than absorb H2O.” If ever a woman was capable of running her own life, it's Elizabeth. But because it's the 1950s, then the '60s, men have their sweaty paws all over both her successes and failures. On the plus side, there's Calvin Evans, world-famous chemist, love of her life, and father of her child; also Walter Pine, her friend who works in television; and a journalist who at least tries to do the right thing. At the other pole is a writhing pile of sexists, liars, rapists, dopes, and arrogant assholes. This is the kind of book that has a long-buried secret at a corrupt orphanage with a mysterious benefactor as well as an extremely intelligent dog named Six-Thirty, recently retired from the military. ("Not only could he never seem to sniff out the bomb in time, but he also had to endure the praise heaped upon the smug German shepherds who always did.") Garmus' energetic debut also features an invigorating subplot about rowing.
A more adorable plea for rationalism and gender equality would be hard to find.Pub Date: April 5, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-385-54734-5
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2022
Categories: LITERARY FICTION | GENERAL FICTION
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SEEN & HEARD
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