March 4, 1996
The third work (after Special Victims and Mr. X) in the pseudonymous series from Chicago crime writer Eugene Izzi features all the raw talent that makes Izzi/Gaitano downright irresistible, plus the nagging idiosyncrasies and overwrought mannerisms that hinder this author's ascent into the top rank of crime-fiction writers. The pacing is, as always, bruising, as Chicago Special Victims police officer Jake Phillips goes deep undercover. Jake is taking payoffs from crooked cops. He's also assigned the deathwatch as thief Jimmy Duette spends his last few seconds of life fingering the cops who beat him senseless in the basement of the precinct station. Jake thus garners the goods, but in the process looks dirty to the rest of his colleagues, his estranged wife and a crusading woman journalist. Jimmy's beating and an incidental court scene are two marvelous virtuoso sections. Yet the story is overloaded with similar characters awash in psychological ticks who spout the same self-help platitudes. A slew of criminals live and scheme and die on the narrative margins, and a final trick near the end of the tale is clumsy. Gaitano remains a ferocious and original talent, but he doesn't seem in charge of this pulsating and morally ambiguous novel.
January 1, 2024
The daughter of immigrant parents, stuck with a Starbucks name (something many children of immigrants can claim), Jade has worked hard to succeed at her London law firm. Now, with no memory of getting home from a work gala, she's worried that she's blown it all. London-based Lee's parents emigrated from South Korea and Turkey. Prepub Alert.
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January 15, 2024
Lee’s promising debut probes what happens when a British woman’s carefully constructed persona shatters after she’s sexually assaulted. The daughter of a Turkish father and a South Korean mother, Jade Kaya was born Ceyda Kayaoğ
lu. At 25, Jade has assimilated into upper-class English society, immersed in her high-powered job practicing corporate law and involved with a wealthy white boyfriend, Kit. Everything about her life is practiced and studied—down to the name Jade, which began as her “Starbucks name.” After she’s sexually assaulted by a colleague, however, she reconsiders her relationships and aspirations. Kit’s performative support for marginalized people doesn’t extend to sticking up for Jade against his friends’ casual racism, and her two best female friends disagree on whether she should file a formal workplace complaint. At times, these characters can feel more like straw men than real people. Lee is better, though, at untangling the complicated emotions wrapped up in Jade’s evolving relationship with her parents, who fear she will lose hold of her material successes and grieve their home countries. Though somewhat lacking in nuance, this is carried along by flashes of genuine rage and connection.
February 15, 2024
Debut novelist Lee deconstructs the aftermath of sexual assault in this lucid coming-of-age novel. At 25, Jade has already made an impressive life for herself. A successful lawyer with a caring, well-off, long-term boyfriend, Kit, Jade has fulfilled her Turkish father's and Korean mother's dreams for her after they immigrated to England. At a work party, after a senior partner plies Jade with alcohol, a coworker helps her home, only to rape her. Jade remembers little at first, but when her bruises, vaginal pain, and terrorizing flashbacks all start to come into focus, she finds little support and lots of victim blaming. Her seemingly perfect life begins to crumble as Kit shows his true colors and her two close friends disagree about reporting the perpetrator. Even Jade's mother urges her to just put it behind her and move on. All of this is told through Jade's lens as a woman of color navigating primarily white spaces. Jaded is a painful story with hefty emotion and is sure to spark conversations about consent, race, and success.
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February 15, 2024
The life of a young London lawyer falls apart when she becomes the victim of acquaintance rape. This debut novel's tone of angry earnestness is set by Jade, its narrator, whose name is the Anglicized version of her actual name, Ceyda. The child of immigrants, a Korean mother and a Turkish father, Jade is both an obedient, loving daughter and a careerist happy to assimilate into the British upper classes. She relishes the security she's found in her relationship with her posh British boyfriend, Kit Campbell, and in her increasingly responsible position at a prestigious law firm. Then one night at a work party, Jade is plied with liquor by a senior partner only to wake up the next morning in her bed, naked and hungover, her pubic area sore. Although deeply unsettled, she is unable (or unwilling) to remember what happened until increasing physical pain and flashes of terrifying memory force her to face the knowledge that she was raped. Suddenly, all the security she's assumed proves ephemeral. The career she's worked so hard at becomes uncertain. Her relationship with her parents suffers, and Jade recognizes that Kit is an entitled twit. Through Jade's trauma, novelist Lee portrays the double whammy faced by women of color, who not only suffer the misogyny and abuse of powerful predatory men, but also endure the long-term effects of racism, classism, and anti-immigrant prejudice. While Lee drives home her points successfully and Jade's reactions are complicated, other characters and their interactions too often seem intended as talking points. Jade's pragmatic, don't-rock-the-boat friend is balanced by her impassioned, wants-to-rock-the-boat friend, while no male characters except Jade's saintly father are trustworthy, and almost all are sexual predators. Lee's novel reads like a strong case study of societal evils but misses coming to life as fiction.
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