![]() Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest ( Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State. The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel. 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. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. 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. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. 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. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. 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. More importantly, the primary message of the breezy narrative-to urge the adoption of rescue dogs-is solidly communicated without sounding too preachy.Ī clever concept delivered in a quick beach read plenty of amusing canine antics for those who love dogs and their slightly quirky humans.įour 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. And it’s fun to watch the team devise unique, dog-friendly recipes for biscuits, pupcakes, and muffins. Stylistically, Gilman’s ( Mollie’s Tail, 2013) prose is casual and too often cutesy-the shops of Houndsville have annoyingly alliterative names (Julie’s Jewels Frannie’s Flowers Bridget’s Bookstop), and Millie is always in need of one of Carl’s “squishy hugs.” Character development is minimal, but with the exception of Annabel, the cast-both human and furry-makes for pleasant company. When Millie is not spending time running the bakery-including throwing a birthday party for Luke, complete with a dog-safe cake-she is busy playing matchmaker for her customers and friends and organizing an emergency fundraising ball to cover medical costs for 87 shelties rescued from a backyard breeder. But Annabel Larson continues to try to sabotage the enterprise, including reporting supposed violations to the health department. After almost losing the space to the owner of Miss Annabel’s Tea and Coffee Emporium, Millie finally opens the bakery. Carolyn will help with management, and MaryEllen (the live-in girlfriend of Millie’s older brother, Bradley) will do the baking. ![]() Fortunately, she has hometown friends to call on. Now she just needs her husband, Carl, to buy the old farmhouse-plus she must assemble a team to work with her. It is the perfect location for Millie to fulfill her dream of opening a dog bakery. Millie Whitfield is walking her two rescue shelties, Luke and Annie, when she sees that Cristopher’s Ice Cream and Cookie Shoppe in Houndsville has suddenly closed and the building is up for sale. A young woman decides to open a bakery where humans can sip coffee while their dogs indulge in the specialty of the day.
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