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Bradstreet Gate
A tour de force debut about a campus murder for readers of Donna Tartt, Meg Wolitzer, and Jeffrey Eugenides
Georgia, Charlie and Alice each arrive at Harvard with hopeful visions of what the future will hold. But when, just before graduation, a classmate is found murdered on campus, they find themselves facing a cruel and unanticipated new reality. Moreover, a charismatic professor who has loomed large in their lives is suspected of the crime. Though his guilt or innocence remains uncertain, the unsettling questions raised by the case force the three friends to take a deeper look at their tangled relationship. Their bond has been defined by the secrets they’ve kept from one another—Charlie’s love and Alice’s envy, Georgia’s mysterious affair—and over the course of the next decade, as they grapple with the challenges of adulthood and witness the unraveling of a teacher's once-charmed life, they must reckon with their own deceits and shortcomings, each desperately in search of answers and the chance to be forgiven.
A relentless, incisive, and keenly intelligent novel about promise, disappointment, and the often tenuous bonds of friendship, Bradstreet Gate is the auspicious debut of a tremendously talented new writer.
Georgia, Charlie and Alice each arrive at Harvard with hopeful visions of what the future will hold. But when, just before graduation, a classmate is found murdered on campus, they find themselves facing a cruel and unanticipated new reality. Moreover, a charismatic professor who has loomed large in their lives is suspected of the crime. Though his guilt or innocence remains uncertain, the unsettling questions raised by the case force the three friends to take a deeper look at their tangled relationship. Their bond has been defined by the secrets they’ve kept from one another—Charlie’s love and Alice’s envy, Georgia’s mysterious affair—and over the course of the next decade, as they grapple with the challenges of adulthood and witness the unraveling of a teacher's once-charmed life, they must reckon with their own deceits and shortcomings, each desperately in search of answers and the chance to be forgiven.
A relentless, incisive, and keenly intelligent novel about promise, disappointment, and the often tenuous bonds of friendship, Bradstreet Gate is the auspicious debut of a tremendously talented new writer.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published July 7, 2015
66 people are currently reading
2681 people want to read
About the author
Robin Kirman
5 books70 followersROBIN KIRMAN studied philosophy at Yale before receiving her MFA in writing from Columbia, where she also taught for several years. Her curiosity about human psychology has led her to combine work in psychoanalysis with writing fiction. Her first novel, Bradstreet Gate, was published by Crown in 2015, and her television series The Love Wave is currently in development.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 374 reviews
October 1, 2019
comparisons between this book and The Secret History can only be made by a person who missed the whole point of The Secret History. while squinting in a blackout. and probably drunk.
it does involve a murder on a campus, a professor character, and a yearning by characters outside the moneyed class to fit in and rub shoulders with those who have wealth and power.
but having some of the elements of a thing does not make it equal to that thing
it's a decent book, but like the platypus, it's not sure what it's meant to be. it's bound to lose the mystery audience when it fails to deliver the momentum and pacing of a mystery, . unfortunately, that's one of the few genres where having a number of central characters who are all unlikeable isn't a detriment to the story. unlikeable characters are in no way a dealbreaker for me, but i think for people not going into this for a mystery novel, but as a regular litfic book about college friends and their various trajectories into adulthood, it might just become an unpleasant lump of unpleasant situations. although that schtick seems to work for bret easton ellis. (note to fans of ellis - this is an altogether different brand of unpleasantness - "self-preoccupied and reckless" instead of coked-up sociopaths.)
it opens ten years after the murder of a young girl on the harvard campus, a murder for which a professor was accused, but never convicted. the narrative weaves through the lives of three students and the accused professor, both then and "now," detailing a tangle of obsessions, secrets, and carelessness that muddied the waters and shaped their futures. it's more about these relationships than about events leading up to the murrrrderrr; its focus is doubt and fallen idols, guilt, covetousness, nostalgia, and forgiveness.
rufus storrow is the suave professor: aristocratic upbringing, romantically shady background, the fussy and pompous yet charismatic expresser of unpopular opinions that caused friction on campus, particularly with julie patel, the murdered girl.
he falls into bed, and a rigorously maintained secret relationship with georgia, a student whose father is a famous photographer with his own whiffs of scandal about him, and who becomes the novel's central focus of love, lust, obsession, and envy.
charlie is the working-class boy infatuated with both georgia and storrow, adopting mannerisms and sartorial details and determined to reinvent himself and become the embodiment of the american dream.
alice is by far the best character; the daughter of serbian immigrants, screwed out of her inheritance, pissed off and ready to take on the world. i loved her rage and her calculating drive, and she's the only character i found sympathetic.
oh, and the murder victim? that was someone else entirely. who she is as a character is not really important, nor does she have any real connection to our key players. she operates as pure symbol - a victim.
i said i found alice to be the most sympathetic, and i do, but it's not just her but her whole story that is beautiful and haunting (in my brand of "beautiful," which has splinters). it reminded me a little of Everything I Never Told You, where a child is torn between the diametrically-opposed good intentions of their parents. alice's parents made the culture-shock move from belgrade to wisconsin, and while her beloved father radovan embraced america and its opportunities and wanted to unleash alice into this brave new world, her mother senka wanted to preserve their culture; to surround them with the familiar comforts of food and language of their homeland. naturally, alice is daddy's girl - america's girl - but her mother is a heartbreaker of a character:
it's passages like this that make me wish this book had been stronger overall, more focused on a single character instead of darting back and forth
in other words, i wish it had just been about alice. 'cuz she's a firecracker. i love her bold commitment to being a selfish pessimistic realist, all the way through:
COME ON! how do you not love that? i mean, she's highly unstable and generally horrible, but in a way that's fun to watch.
another part worth calling out involves charlie, and his family's appearance at graduation. charlie's father has that working-class disdain for the entitled; for what charlie is struggling to fashion himself into, and he is not shy about showing it. the restaurant scene is priceless, down to his brother pocketing the tip. she writes charlie's distancing himself from his past beautifully - his strained relationship with his brother and father, his love for his long-suffering mother, and his determination to make his own path through life.
For once, he didn't feel like pretending he demanded less from life than he was able to take from it, and he didn't care if his family viewed this as a reproach, as one more reminder of the distance their son had moved beyond them.
while charlie's dogged resolve makes him a pretty cold fish of a character, he does have a few moments of shine and insightfulness:
What was nobility, really? It wasn't behaving as if the whole world belonged to you: it was a demonstration of proper conduct and restraint, of not taking more than one was due.
there are beautiful moments throughout - georgia's sad present-day situation and all the ickiness she found in india etc, but as a novel, it didn't come together for me the way i'd hoped. but "rocky debut" isn't a dealbreaker for me, either, and on the strength of some of the writing, i would definitely give her next book a shot.
come to my blog!
it does involve a murder on a campus, a professor character, and a yearning by characters outside the moneyed class to fit in and rub shoulders with those who have wealth and power.
but having some of the elements of a thing does not make it equal to that thing
it's a decent book, but like the platypus, it's not sure what it's meant to be. it's bound to lose the mystery audience when it fails to deliver the momentum and pacing of a mystery, . unfortunately, that's one of the few genres where having a number of central characters who are all unlikeable isn't a detriment to the story. unlikeable characters are in no way a dealbreaker for me, but i think for people not going into this for a mystery novel, but as a regular litfic book about college friends and their various trajectories into adulthood, it might just become an unpleasant lump of unpleasant situations. although that schtick seems to work for bret easton ellis. (note to fans of ellis - this is an altogether different brand of unpleasantness - "self-preoccupied and reckless" instead of coked-up sociopaths.)
it opens ten years after the murder of a young girl on the harvard campus, a murder for which a professor was accused, but never convicted. the narrative weaves through the lives of three students and the accused professor, both then and "now," detailing a tangle of obsessions, secrets, and carelessness that muddied the waters and shaped their futures. it's more about these relationships than about events leading up to the murrrrderrr; its focus is doubt and fallen idols, guilt, covetousness, nostalgia, and forgiveness.
rufus storrow is the suave professor: aristocratic upbringing, romantically shady background, the fussy and pompous yet charismatic expresser of unpopular opinions that caused friction on campus, particularly with julie patel, the murdered girl.
he falls into bed, and a rigorously maintained secret relationship with georgia, a student whose father is a famous photographer with his own whiffs of scandal about him, and who becomes the novel's central focus of love, lust, obsession, and envy.
charlie is the working-class boy infatuated with both georgia and storrow, adopting mannerisms and sartorial details and determined to reinvent himself and become the embodiment of the american dream.
alice is by far the best character; the daughter of serbian immigrants, screwed out of her inheritance, pissed off and ready to take on the world. i loved her rage and her calculating drive, and she's the only character i found sympathetic.
oh, and the murder victim? that was someone else entirely. who she is as a character is not really important, nor does she have any real connection to our key players. she operates as pure symbol - a victim.
i said i found alice to be the most sympathetic, and i do, but it's not just her but her whole story that is beautiful and haunting (in my brand of "beautiful," which has splinters). it reminded me a little of Everything I Never Told You, where a child is torn between the diametrically-opposed good intentions of their parents. alice's parents made the culture-shock move from belgrade to wisconsin, and while her beloved father radovan embraced america and its opportunities and wanted to unleash alice into this brave new world, her mother senka wanted to preserve their culture; to surround them with the familiar comforts of food and language of their homeland. naturally, alice is daddy's girl - america's girl - but her mother is a heartbreaker of a character:
Unlike her husband, she hadn't chosen to study English in school and so, while Radovan settled into his American life easily, following American news, chatting with his American colleagues, she spent her first years in isolation, daunted by her surroundings and kept at home with two small children. Once the children were of school age, Senka's situation only worsened; she watched her little girl and boy grow more and more independent and incomprehensible; they no longer needed her, and her own poor English barred her from pursuing any meaningful career. In Serbia she'd been an articulate student, as ambitious as her husband, but here she felt trapped, confined to menial housework, to stuttering stiff formulations, robbed of humor and grace. Only those who knew her in her native language knew her at all, she insisted; and if she must live in a nation of strangers, at least her own children should be made to understand her.
it's passages like this that make me wish this book had been stronger overall, more focused on a single character instead of darting back and forth
in other words, i wish it had just been about alice. 'cuz she's a firecracker. i love her bold commitment to being a selfish pessimistic realist, all the way through:
…she was her father's daughter, finally, and meant to live as he'd intended her to: American and free. Americans didn't abandon their lives to care for aging parents. They didn't yield their twenties, that precious, most selfish decade, that brief time in which her ambitious countrymen must accomplish so much: build a career, attract a successful and stimulating yet reliable spouse and, in the meantime, rack up experiences sufficient to console them through the next several decades of at least relative monogamy, part-time parental obligation, and whatever professional and personal stagnation would inevitably assault their impossibly high expectations. A satisfactory twenties was an inoculation against mid-life crisis, and if Uncle Vasily had the first clue about the particular perils of affluent, modern, Western life, he'd have understood that her years of immersion in superficiality were in fact the most responsible course of action she could take.
COME ON! how do you not love that? i mean, she's highly unstable and generally horrible, but in a way that's fun to watch.
another part worth calling out involves charlie, and his family's appearance at graduation. charlie's father has that working-class disdain for the entitled; for what charlie is struggling to fashion himself into, and he is not shy about showing it. the restaurant scene is priceless, down to his brother pocketing the tip. she writes charlie's distancing himself from his past beautifully - his strained relationship with his brother and father, his love for his long-suffering mother, and his determination to make his own path through life.
For once, he didn't feel like pretending he demanded less from life than he was able to take from it, and he didn't care if his family viewed this as a reproach, as one more reminder of the distance their son had moved beyond them.
while charlie's dogged resolve makes him a pretty cold fish of a character, he does have a few moments of shine and insightfulness:
What was nobility, really? It wasn't behaving as if the whole world belonged to you: it was a demonstration of proper conduct and restraint, of not taking more than one was due.
there are beautiful moments throughout - georgia's sad present-day situation and all the ickiness she found in india etc, but as a novel, it didn't come together for me the way i'd hoped. but "rocky debut" isn't a dealbreaker for me, either, and on the strength of some of the writing, i would definitely give her next book a shot.
come to my blog!
January 18, 2021
I do like stories about people, their personal lives. I don’t see what’s wrong with that. You understand, a writer like you, how fascinating a peek into others’ lives can be.
A lot has been made of the similarity to ‘The Secret History’ by Donna Tartt, but I think it is more accurate to consider that both books partake of the same genre. This avoids the automatic assumption that ‘Bradstreet Gate’ is Tartt ‘lite’. Needless to say, if you enjoyed ‘The Secret History’, you will find a lot to enjoy in this elegant and coolly-depraved account of Harvard shenanigans and their long-term repercussions. I gave Robin Kirman an extra star for simply having the balls not to be too perturbed to solve the murder mystery at the heart of the plot, or even to show the nefarious deed itself. Yes, we do have a likely suspect, but no clear resolution, even right up to the end. Does this serve to further dehumanise the victim, Julie Patel? Well, the three main characters are quite narcissistic and self-absorbed, so this approach does make sense. I do wonder at Storrow’s involvement with Julie though, which is perhaps the weakest part of the book, and simply so because Kirman is not really that interested in this aspect. The writing is wonderfully deft and evocative, and you get a real sense of how these characters age and mature, and slowly become consumed by regret and doubt and the slowly-accumulating debris of messy lives as they unravel over time.
A lot has been made of the similarity to ‘The Secret History’ by Donna Tartt, but I think it is more accurate to consider that both books partake of the same genre. This avoids the automatic assumption that ‘Bradstreet Gate’ is Tartt ‘lite’. Needless to say, if you enjoyed ‘The Secret History’, you will find a lot to enjoy in this elegant and coolly-depraved account of Harvard shenanigans and their long-term repercussions. I gave Robin Kirman an extra star for simply having the balls not to be too perturbed to solve the murder mystery at the heart of the plot, or even to show the nefarious deed itself. Yes, we do have a likely suspect, but no clear resolution, even right up to the end. Does this serve to further dehumanise the victim, Julie Patel? Well, the three main characters are quite narcissistic and self-absorbed, so this approach does make sense. I do wonder at Storrow’s involvement with Julie though, which is perhaps the weakest part of the book, and simply so because Kirman is not really that interested in this aspect. The writing is wonderfully deft and evocative, and you get a real sense of how these characters age and mature, and slowly become consumed by regret and doubt and the slowly-accumulating debris of messy lives as they unravel over time.
July 16, 2015
Bradstreet Gate is an incredibly bad book. I can't even count all the ways this collection of incidents fails. If I could give it a zero, I would.
For my records, I will just say that it's about three Harvard students; a troubled Serbian girl, a troubled working class boy, and the troubled daughter of a famous photographer. They meet and develop unhealthy attachments to one another. The boy and the artist's daughter are both co-dependently involved with a trouble professor from a family of Virginia aristocrats who maintains racist views and suggests a mysterious past that might involve interrogations and spying in the Middle East. The working class boy also has a crush on the artist's daughter and when her troubled Serbian best friend follows her and discovers the affair, she tells the boy and all the relationships fall apart entirely.
Then there is a murder on campus, and it happens that the girl killed was a student of the nutty professor, a student who had filed a complaint about him and was meeting him in his office on the night she was killed on the other side of campus. She was seen there by the artist's daughter, who was happy to leave her with the professor so she could escape his threats and unwanted attentions. Later that night, the professor, looking for the artist's daughter, found the Serbian girl instead and had a quick liaison with her. The professor was not charged in the murder, but his reputation was ruined. Unbeknownst to the kids, he moved to India.
Ten years pass. Kiran tells us what befalls each of the students, then sends the artist's daughter to India, where she wants to work in an orphanage. While she is there, much to her dismay, she is contacted by the professor. He claims to be working at the US Embassy. He meets with her to vaguely imply he could mess her life up if he wanted. She flees to Africa and meets her husband, a doctor. The professor, it turns out, has also contacted the other two students, and all find him too knowledgable about their lives as well as deliberately menacing. But his reappearance causes them to finally reestablish contact with one another.
They work on a project together; they establish a scholarship in the name of the murdered girl, and award the first grant on the ten-year anniversary of her death. OK Interesting. Why do they feel responsible for this girl? What are they going to do about the professor's reappearance and menacing behavior? Who murdered the girl, anyway? Who knows. The book stops at this point. I would ask for a refund, but I read it all.
For my records, I will just say that it's about three Harvard students; a troubled Serbian girl, a troubled working class boy, and the troubled daughter of a famous photographer. They meet and develop unhealthy attachments to one another. The boy and the artist's daughter are both co-dependently involved with a trouble professor from a family of Virginia aristocrats who maintains racist views and suggests a mysterious past that might involve interrogations and spying in the Middle East. The working class boy also has a crush on the artist's daughter and when her troubled Serbian best friend follows her and discovers the affair, she tells the boy and all the relationships fall apart entirely.
Then there is a murder on campus, and it happens that the girl killed was a student of the nutty professor, a student who had filed a complaint about him and was meeting him in his office on the night she was killed on the other side of campus. She was seen there by the artist's daughter, who was happy to leave her with the professor so she could escape his threats and unwanted attentions. Later that night, the professor, looking for the artist's daughter, found the Serbian girl instead and had a quick liaison with her. The professor was not charged in the murder, but his reputation was ruined. Unbeknownst to the kids, he moved to India.
Ten years pass. Kiran tells us what befalls each of the students, then sends the artist's daughter to India, where she wants to work in an orphanage. While she is there, much to her dismay, she is contacted by the professor. He claims to be working at the US Embassy. He meets with her to vaguely imply he could mess her life up if he wanted. She flees to Africa and meets her husband, a doctor. The professor, it turns out, has also contacted the other two students, and all find him too knowledgable about their lives as well as deliberately menacing. But his reappearance causes them to finally reestablish contact with one another.
They work on a project together; they establish a scholarship in the name of the murdered girl, and award the first grant on the ten-year anniversary of her death. OK Interesting. Why do they feel responsible for this girl? What are they going to do about the professor's reappearance and menacing behavior? Who murdered the girl, anyway? Who knows. The book stops at this point. I would ask for a refund, but I read it all.
March 31, 2015
ARC for review.
The cover blurb makes comparisons to both The Secret History and The Interestings, but other than the fact they involve friends and a college environment there's not much similarity....in fact, there's not much of anything.
Charlie, Georgia and Alice are all Harvard students and are friends...for awhile at least. The plot here is that one of their professors, the bon vivant Rufus Storrow might have been involved in the death of another Harvard student, Julie Patel. Really, though that's not the plot at all - I think the book is meant to be an examination of the relationships between Storrow, Charlie, Georgia and Alice, but I just didn't get it. There's no sense of depth of these relationships, and what little might be present certainly has no reason to extend beyond college graduation (none are speaking to each other when they leave the campus). Therefore every interaction that comes after college feels unlikely and forced. The non-ending didn't help. The book is decently written, but nice words do not make a good book. Disappointing.
The cover blurb makes comparisons to both The Secret History and The Interestings, but other than the fact they involve friends and a college environment there's not much similarity....in fact, there's not much of anything.
Charlie, Georgia and Alice are all Harvard students and are friends...for awhile at least. The plot here is that one of their professors, the bon vivant Rufus Storrow might have been involved in the death of another Harvard student, Julie Patel. Really, though that's not the plot at all - I think the book is meant to be an examination of the relationships between Storrow, Charlie, Georgia and Alice, but I just didn't get it. There's no sense of depth of these relationships, and what little might be present certainly has no reason to extend beyond college graduation (none are speaking to each other when they leave the campus). Therefore every interaction that comes after college feels unlikely and forced. The non-ending didn't help. The book is decently written, but nice words do not make a good book. Disappointing.
July 14, 2015
Bradstreet Gate is about three Harvard students, Georgia, Charlie and Alice; a professor, Rufus Storrow; and a murdered girl, Julie Patel. It opens ten years after Julie's death, with a journalist doorstepping Georgia and telling her there have been new developments in the (still unsolved) case. We then flash back to the beginning of all this, to the immediate aftermath of the murder, and chapters devoted to each character explore what led them to Harvard. About half the book dwells on what happened there, and the rest of it follows the three main characters through the next ten years, tracing the various ways their relationships with each other and their involvement with Storrow have affected the trajectories of their lives.
Bradstreet Gate reminded me very much of Rebecca Scherm's Unbecoming, another debut from this year, because of the cold, clinical way both books render their characters. Looking back on my review of Unbecoming, I can see many similarities in my reactions to the two - I found them both to have an empty, depressing feel, yet felt I needed to see the stories through to the end, and read them relatively quickly despite neither seeming, on the surface, especially compelling. While I found Bradstreet Gate better-crafted than Unbecoming - the characterisation is fairly consistent, at least - I felt both shared an elegant style that, while admirable in a way, would be much improved by the addition of some emotional messiness and some actual humanity to the characters. (I feel admirable is very much the right word for it; it's like something in a glass case; you might look at it and appreciate it, but it is held at a distance from you and lacks movement, excitement.)
Something that frustrated me about this book was the way it kept hinting at fascinating subplots/ideas which weren't explored any further. Some of these were: the issues of potential racism brought up by Storrow's style of teaching and the way the students reacted to this (I was interested in how similar this seemed to the attitudes now seen so often online, particularly over the past couple of years, and curious to know whether this was an accurate representation of the way things were going in a university like Harvard in the 1990s - is the Tumblr culture that constantly rips into the potential 'problematic' actually way behind the curve? Or is the author writing very up-to-date attitudes into scenes set 20 years ago?); the hints of sexual tension between Georgia and Alice; the substance of Georgia's affair with Storrow, which I never fully understood; . I constantly felt like the most interesting things were happening in some parallel story. (Meanwhile, some of the actual subplots - Charlie's internet security business, for example - made me want to fall asleep.)
This is on the Secret-History-esque shelf because it involves students at an elite university (one of whom is an 'outsider', from a relatively poor background), a charismatic professor, and a murder. In terms of style, however, it couldn't be more different from TSH, and from that starting point, the story has a broader scope. It isn't a coming-of-age/university story - instead, it strives for the feel of a saga, and in doing so it loses all the advantages of using a prestigious university as a (partial) setting in the first place. Not once did I get any sense of the atmosphere of Harvard. This style - I don't know what I would call it - sophisticated, emotionless - might be technically good, and some might find it brilliant, but it's a turn-off for me. This may well be a very accomplished debut; I just couldn't forge the sort of connection with the story that would be necessary to lift it above three stars.
Bradstreet Gate reminded me very much of Rebecca Scherm's Unbecoming, another debut from this year, because of the cold, clinical way both books render their characters. Looking back on my review of Unbecoming, I can see many similarities in my reactions to the two - I found them both to have an empty, depressing feel, yet felt I needed to see the stories through to the end, and read them relatively quickly despite neither seeming, on the surface, especially compelling. While I found Bradstreet Gate better-crafted than Unbecoming - the characterisation is fairly consistent, at least - I felt both shared an elegant style that, while admirable in a way, would be much improved by the addition of some emotional messiness and some actual humanity to the characters. (I feel admirable is very much the right word for it; it's like something in a glass case; you might look at it and appreciate it, but it is held at a distance from you and lacks movement, excitement.)
Something that frustrated me about this book was the way it kept hinting at fascinating subplots/ideas which weren't explored any further. Some of these were: the issues of potential racism brought up by Storrow's style of teaching and the way the students reacted to this (I was interested in how similar this seemed to the attitudes now seen so often online, particularly over the past couple of years, and curious to know whether this was an accurate representation of the way things were going in a university like Harvard in the 1990s - is the Tumblr culture that constantly rips into the potential 'problematic' actually way behind the curve? Or is the author writing very up-to-date attitudes into scenes set 20 years ago?); the hints of sexual tension between Georgia and Alice; the substance of Georgia's affair with Storrow, which I never fully understood; . I constantly felt like the most interesting things were happening in some parallel story. (Meanwhile, some of the actual subplots - Charlie's internet security business, for example - made me want to fall asleep.)
This is on the Secret-History-esque shelf because it involves students at an elite university (one of whom is an 'outsider', from a relatively poor background), a charismatic professor, and a murder. In terms of style, however, it couldn't be more different from TSH, and from that starting point, the story has a broader scope. It isn't a coming-of-age/university story - instead, it strives for the feel of a saga, and in doing so it loses all the advantages of using a prestigious university as a (partial) setting in the first place. Not once did I get any sense of the atmosphere of Harvard. This style - I don't know what I would call it - sophisticated, emotionless - might be technically good, and some might find it brilliant, but it's a turn-off for me. This may well be a very accomplished debut; I just couldn't forge the sort of connection with the story that would be necessary to lift it above three stars.
July 8, 2015
I am plodding through this plodder. It's uninterestingly written with absolutely no sense of pacing. Dull as dishwater. "He did this. Then she did that." Ugh. I bought it - for half price, fortunately - because I had been chomping at the bit ever since several reviews compared it to my favorite book, The Secret History by Donna Tartt. This is nothing - NOTHING - like The Secret History. I get no sense of the characters. I get no sense of tension building. Halfway through, the character who is supposed to be such a big hairy deal (Julie Patel) shows up and we have no idea why there's so much fear and loathing surrounding her. A few sentences describe a classroom altercation, and a few more shallow references are made later. That's it? I don't even think I'm going to finish it.
July 5, 2015
After reading the overview description of this book I was so excited to read this love triangle, murder mystery. Once I started reading, I was disappointed. The book was boring and I skimmed most of book. I felt indifference for the characters and was bored with the storyline. There is not much action or mystery. The book is mostly about the lives of 3 teenagers that grow up and get older. There wasn't even much talk of the murder or the victim. By the end of the book, I just wanted it to be over so I could move on to a more exciting book.
April 22, 2015
The reviews on this are all over the place but I enjoyed it. I don't agree with the comparison to A Secret History but it kept me reading.
Bradstreet Gate explores the lives of three friends and a professor who are all tied to the murder of a Harvard student. It looks at the dark side of ambition and hero worship. The characters are all dysfunctional but managing somehow to function until the 10 year anniversary of the murder when things start to unravel for all of them. The character development is outstanding. They aren't very likeable characters but they are very real and believable. This is one is hard to put down.
ARC from publisher
Bradstreet Gate explores the lives of three friends and a professor who are all tied to the murder of a Harvard student. It looks at the dark side of ambition and hero worship. The characters are all dysfunctional but managing somehow to function until the 10 year anniversary of the murder when things start to unravel for all of them. The character development is outstanding. They aren't very likeable characters but they are very real and believable. This is one is hard to put down.
ARC from publisher
December 9, 2015
(3.5) This debut novel has a 2.77 average rating here on Goodreads. What went wrong? If you ask most people, it’s because the book’s supposed similarity to Donna Tartt’s The Secret History set them up to have their sky-high expectations disappointed. Now, I like Donna Tartt as much as the next person: I’ve read her first two novels and have been saving up The Goldfinch for my Christmas read this year. But I don’t idolize her like some do, so I quite enjoyed Bradstreet Gate. You can certainly see why the Secret History connections were made during the marketing process: both novels concern a New England campus murder and the complicated relationships between the various characters involved.
The crime takes place at Harvard in 1997, but the novel opens 10 years later with Georgia Calvin Reece. When she’s approached by a student reporter who wants to write a piece about the ten-year anniversary of Julie Patel’s murder, Georgia is so burnt out with caring for a new baby and a husband who’s dying of cancer that she can’t take the time to engage with her memories. Yet she can’t ignore them either.
In college her closest friends were Charles Flournoy and Alice Kovac, both of whom had crushes on her. She knew Julie only peripherally through a volunteer organization, but she knew the man who was presumed but never proven to have killed her – an ex-military professor and dorm master named Rufus Storrow – all too well. They were having a top-secret affair at the time that Julie was found strangled near Harvard’s Bradstreet Gate.
I enjoyed how Kirman dives into the past to look at the history of the central trio. Georgia was raised by a photographer father who took nude portraits of her. Growing up in New Jersey, Charles felt weak compared to his aggressive father and brother. Alice’s family traded Belgrade for Wisconsin. The novel also zeroes in on a point about four years after the characters’ graduation, when Georgia is traveling in India, Charlie has a high-flying job in New York City, and Alice – perhaps the most interesting character – is in a mental hospital.
We never learn quite as much about Storrow as about the other characters, and that’s deliberate. He’s an almost mythical figure, cleverly described as being like Jay Gatsby:
I hope I won’t disappoint you if I say the book doesn’t reveal who the real murderer is. It’s not that kind of mystery. With its focus on the aftermath of tragedy, this reminded me of Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng or Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg. Kirman’s writing is also slightly reminiscent of Jeffrey Eugenides’s or A.M. Homes’s. I’d definitely read another novel from her. Let’s hope that next time the marketing does it justice.
With thanks to Blogging for Books for the free e-copy.
(Originally published at my blog, Bookish Beck.)
The crime takes place at Harvard in 1997, but the novel opens 10 years later with Georgia Calvin Reece. When she’s approached by a student reporter who wants to write a piece about the ten-year anniversary of Julie Patel’s murder, Georgia is so burnt out with caring for a new baby and a husband who’s dying of cancer that she can’t take the time to engage with her memories. Yet she can’t ignore them either.
In college her closest friends were Charles Flournoy and Alice Kovac, both of whom had crushes on her. She knew Julie only peripherally through a volunteer organization, but she knew the man who was presumed but never proven to have killed her – an ex-military professor and dorm master named Rufus Storrow – all too well. They were having a top-secret affair at the time that Julie was found strangled near Harvard’s Bradstreet Gate.
I enjoyed how Kirman dives into the past to look at the history of the central trio. Georgia was raised by a photographer father who took nude portraits of her. Growing up in New Jersey, Charles felt weak compared to his aggressive father and brother. Alice’s family traded Belgrade for Wisconsin. The novel also zeroes in on a point about four years after the characters’ graduation, when Georgia is traveling in India, Charlie has a high-flying job in New York City, and Alice – perhaps the most interesting character – is in a mental hospital.
We never learn quite as much about Storrow as about the other characters, and that’s deliberate. He’s an almost mythical figure, cleverly described as being like Jay Gatsby:
Storrow had been too perfect a target, after all: too well dressed and too well spoken, with a high Virginia drawl and the sort of fair, delicate good looks that called to mind outdated notions like breeding.
Whatever his faults, Storrow was a good man, Charles believed. He might even turn out to be a great man … There was a tragic element to the man: in his outmoded brand of dignity.
A man like Storrow, so devoted to the perfection of his image; he wouldn’t allow himself to be remembered as a villain, or to be forgotten either.
I hope I won’t disappoint you if I say the book doesn’t reveal who the real murderer is. It’s not that kind of mystery. With its focus on the aftermath of tragedy, this reminded me of Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng or Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg. Kirman’s writing is also slightly reminiscent of Jeffrey Eugenides’s or A.M. Homes’s. I’d definitely read another novel from her. Let’s hope that next time the marketing does it justice.
With thanks to Blogging for Books for the free e-copy.
(Originally published at my blog, Bookish Beck.)
July 22, 2015
4.25-stars
This was a very good book--the best literary fiction I've read all year. I didn't think so at first, but the more I read the better it got. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else, but for readers who are big on literary fiction this is one you don't wanna miss. Undoubtedly it will be on the best books lists of 2015.
This was a very good book--the best literary fiction I've read all year. I didn't think so at first, but the more I read the better it got. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else, but for readers who are big on literary fiction this is one you don't wanna miss. Undoubtedly it will be on the best books lists of 2015.
September 5, 2015
First of all Bradstreet Gate WILL suffer because of the insistence on the connection to The Secret History - I would strongly advise putting that comparison out of your mind before going into this one because for me, it just doesn't hold water. Its that thing that because this novel deals with a group dynamic within a University setting and there is a murder, that it must necessarily be Secret History like. It isn't. I don't think it's even TRYING to be. So there's that.
So Bradstreet Gate then, taken on it's own merits, for me was a pretty good story, beautifully written and follows along with a group of University students and their interpersonal relationships. Not only between themselves but with the wider community and specifically one particular Tutor who is later accused,but never charged, with murder.
I really enjoyed the novel but there are several issues. Storrow, as a man accused and as a character is a bit wishy washy so the whole part where everyone was fascinated by him fell flat. Despite my best efforts I could not find a reason why all these people were falling over themselves about him. He was annoying. And obviously egotistical to the point of being, well, just annoying.
Having said that the wider cast I found intriguing and I got very caught up in their stuff - especially the dynamic between Georgia and Charlie, and Alice on her own who, for me, literally kept the book on it's feet. Alice seems to be the one that the author has invested some real emotion into, she is troubled, sharp cornered and endlessly compelling. If the book had been about HER with all the rest circling around her rather than around the rather pale Storrow, this might have been a 5* read for me.
I found it addictive. I wanted to find out the resolution (yeah shame about that one really) and I wanted to mostly know where Alice would end up (better but still hmm not quite satisfied)
I didn't like the end. If you are going to write an ending like that you need to have engaged the reader beyond the point that they are reading solely to find OUT the ending - which I'm not sure the author achieved here. Yes sometimes you can pull off a non ending ending when the reader is then compelled to think things through, wonder, come back to it in their head. In the case of Bradstreet Gate, I read the end, shrugged and moved on.
So its a good read while you are in it. I love this kind of story, and for the record I'm not a HUGE fan of The Secret History or of Donna Tartt generally, way too wordy and rarely ends up actually getting anywhere for me - so in some ways I preferred this and would refer you to my first comments.
A fun, often intriguing, kills an afternoon mystery character drama. Give it a go. It's not over involved it's free flowing and a nice little read.
Happy Reading Folks!
So Bradstreet Gate then, taken on it's own merits, for me was a pretty good story, beautifully written and follows along with a group of University students and their interpersonal relationships. Not only between themselves but with the wider community and specifically one particular Tutor who is later accused,but never charged, with murder.
I really enjoyed the novel but there are several issues. Storrow, as a man accused and as a character is a bit wishy washy so the whole part where everyone was fascinated by him fell flat. Despite my best efforts I could not find a reason why all these people were falling over themselves about him. He was annoying. And obviously egotistical to the point of being, well, just annoying.
Having said that the wider cast I found intriguing and I got very caught up in their stuff - especially the dynamic between Georgia and Charlie, and Alice on her own who, for me, literally kept the book on it's feet. Alice seems to be the one that the author has invested some real emotion into, she is troubled, sharp cornered and endlessly compelling. If the book had been about HER with all the rest circling around her rather than around the rather pale Storrow, this might have been a 5* read for me.
I found it addictive. I wanted to find out the resolution (yeah shame about that one really) and I wanted to mostly know where Alice would end up (better but still hmm not quite satisfied)
I didn't like the end. If you are going to write an ending like that you need to have engaged the reader beyond the point that they are reading solely to find OUT the ending - which I'm not sure the author achieved here. Yes sometimes you can pull off a non ending ending when the reader is then compelled to think things through, wonder, come back to it in their head. In the case of Bradstreet Gate, I read the end, shrugged and moved on.
So its a good read while you are in it. I love this kind of story, and for the record I'm not a HUGE fan of The Secret History or of Donna Tartt generally, way too wordy and rarely ends up actually getting anywhere for me - so in some ways I preferred this and would refer you to my first comments.
A fun, often intriguing, kills an afternoon mystery character drama. Give it a go. It's not over involved it's free flowing and a nice little read.
Happy Reading Folks!
August 9, 2015
This book started out interesting, but quickly went downhill. The characters and relationships b/w them were very poorly developed. The story was all over the place and very poorly executed. The author did a terrible job of connecting everyone and everything together and it just wasn't a cohesive story. The campus murder was practically glossed over. I'll be staying away from her future novels.
October 9, 2015
I liked this book. It was strange in many ways. The three characters that seemed to come together during their years at Harvard were not three characters that I would think would naturally meld together. Actually, they are not three characters I could see melding with anyone. And, then for them to still be in touch with each other ten years later is definitely strange.
The fact that the author does not come out and tell you who murdered Julia Patel is also a strange one. You can basically surmise who did it, but in your mind, are you sure?
This was definitely a strange book.
It got off to a slow start at the very beginning as Georgia was portrayed as just not a little ditzy, but a lot. But what you didn't know what that she just had a baby and her husband has cancer. Then the book takes you back to the college days when everyone is just meeting each other. I had to go back and read the beginning again myself as there were a couple of days that I didn't read it and couldn't remember how it started.
I basically enjoyed reading this book as it kept me interested as I think all three of the main characters were a little quirky and strange. The teacher was creepy and the way he just kept showing up at places was even creepier.
If your into creepy and kind of like a Twilight Zoneish kind of story, then this one is for you.
Huge thanks to Crown Publishing and Net Galley for a free e-galley in exchange for an honest review.
The fact that the author does not come out and tell you who murdered Julia Patel is also a strange one. You can basically surmise who did it, but in your mind, are you sure?
This was definitely a strange book.
It got off to a slow start at the very beginning as Georgia was portrayed as just not a little ditzy, but a lot. But what you didn't know what that she just had a baby and her husband has cancer. Then the book takes you back to the college days when everyone is just meeting each other. I had to go back and read the beginning again myself as there were a couple of days that I didn't read it and couldn't remember how it started.
I basically enjoyed reading this book as it kept me interested as I think all three of the main characters were a little quirky and strange. The teacher was creepy and the way he just kept showing up at places was even creepier.
If your into creepy and kind of like a Twilight Zoneish kind of story, then this one is for you.
Huge thanks to Crown Publishing and Net Galley for a free e-galley in exchange for an honest review.
September 1, 2015
I probably should have gone with my gut when, about halfway through, I felt my attention waning & I had to stop myself from putting Ex Machina on again (because good grief that's the best movie I've seen in a long time). I just had no interest in these people. Why was Georgia attracted to Storrow? Why was anyone? Charlie supposedly thought he was so cool that he started wearing gingham shirts & copying his mannerisms & turns of phrase, but all I ever got off of the professor was out-of-touch, physically intimidating racist - with red hair of course - his red hair was mentioned ad nauseam & was basically his only feature besides the ability to say really patronizing, colonialist stuff to his class about Indians. It was unclear to me why any of the characters were friends or the reasoning behind any of their actions. Charlie wanting to be with Georgia, Alice's motivation for the newspaper article she wrote - things happened, characters felt a certain way, but I got no clear reasons why for any of it. It's possible that the reader learns who the killer was, but since I skimmed the last thirty pages of this just so I could get be done with it, I couldn't tell you with any certainty if that happens or not.
January 2, 2020
I hated this book.
Bradstreet Gate follows three students who become friends at Harvard University, when one of their classmates is brutally murdered. The story then explores their time at Harvard and how the murder affected their lives afterward.
*Read as part of a thriller experiment with Maddie*
Bradstreet Gate follows three students who become friends at Harvard University, when one of their classmates is brutally murdered. The story then explores their time at Harvard and how the murder affected their lives afterward.
*Read as part of a thriller experiment with Maddie*
June 8, 2015
I don't know... It is one of those very well written stories that -for me- fails to deliver. In 1998, we meet 3 Harvard students and a professor, or want-to-be professor. The students are not friends, their relationships are somehow random or just ill fated. Charlie is in love with Georgia; Georgia had an affair with the attractive professor, Alice is jealous and envious of everybody and more or less insane. Georgia is asked o watch Alice, because of her mental instability and their forced closeness will give Alice more information to hurt the others as soon as she can.
When another student, Julie Patel is murdered, a veil of suspicion falls over the college. Alice will use the opportunity to divulge all what she knows. Storrow, the professor is the principal suspect, for reasons unknown.
Their lives will be changed by this event, inspired by real facts: a girl was murdered in Harvard in 1998 and a member of the faculty suspected. The murder was never solved. The book follows reality and we don't know who did what.
What is described is mostly a psychological analysis of the main characters, none of them very pleasant or interesting. Sure, Georgia and Charlie are good, normal, decent human beings, but finally we don't know much about them. Charlie will get into the dot.com bubble with success, Georgia starts with some art job funding events but switches to ONGs without explanations.
We know Alice's mind much better, She is bi-polar, craving for attention, full of hate against the whole world. When Alice hurts her ex's new girlfriend, she will pay for it for 10 years. I'm still trying to understand how she managed to pay around $400,000 in such a short time, but logic is not this book forte. Still bitter, she works for tabloids or celebrities magazines. She does not know what she wants -maybe someone to love but she uses the worst possible way to get it.
Storrow is half broken by the murder and he suspicion cast on him. He leaves the US, goes to India where he had been before, and gets a new life -or does he?
Ten years later, they meet again, without any revelations about the past, and the book leaves us with an open end.
Of course, you think of Donna Tart when reading it, but I was lacking directions all along. What did the author want to say? I still don't know.
When another student, Julie Patel is murdered, a veil of suspicion falls over the college. Alice will use the opportunity to divulge all what she knows. Storrow, the professor is the principal suspect, for reasons unknown.
Their lives will be changed by this event, inspired by real facts: a girl was murdered in Harvard in 1998 and a member of the faculty suspected. The murder was never solved. The book follows reality and we don't know who did what.
What is described is mostly a psychological analysis of the main characters, none of them very pleasant or interesting. Sure, Georgia and Charlie are good, normal, decent human beings, but finally we don't know much about them. Charlie will get into the dot.com bubble with success, Georgia starts with some art job funding events but switches to ONGs without explanations.
We know Alice's mind much better, She is bi-polar, craving for attention, full of hate against the whole world. When Alice hurts her ex's new girlfriend, she will pay for it for 10 years. I'm still trying to understand how she managed to pay around $400,000 in such a short time, but logic is not this book forte. Still bitter, she works for tabloids or celebrities magazines. She does not know what she wants -maybe someone to love but she uses the worst possible way to get it.
Storrow is half broken by the murder and he suspicion cast on him. He leaves the US, goes to India where he had been before, and gets a new life -or does he?
Ten years later, they meet again, without any revelations about the past, and the book leaves us with an open end.
Of course, you think of Donna Tart when reading it, but I was lacking directions all along. What did the author want to say? I still don't know.
June 25, 2015
I received an ARC of Bradstreet Gate for review (hey, look at that! I'm reading something recently published, for once!).
Bradstreet Gate is the story of three people, transitioning into adulthood and dealing with disappointed expectations and the resonance of a tragedy that affects their life in unforeseen ways. There's a murder, but the focus of the tale is definitely more on the "coming into adulthood" fiction side than on the mystery.
Given that, I found it well-written and engaging, with fully realized characters who represented very realistic foibles. Charlie was my favorite, mostly because even though he's perpetually stuck, he's a generous and hopeful guy (whose morality slips now and then). Alice and Georgia I both loved and hated (for their blithe destruction of others and self, through impulsive selfishness and manipulation). But they all felt very real.
The author did an excellent job of playing the murder mystery close to her chest. There was much more devoted to the aftereffects, even a decade later, or the murder than any investigation into who committed it.
And that brings me to my own issue with the book: the ending.
Specifically, the complete and utter lack of resolution regarding the murder.
It was very realistic, in that there was no closure for anyone. But I felt like it would have really hit the sweet spot to confirm the identity of the killer, even just a little bit. Or the motive. Or something.
I was left wanting more in that vein, even though I was satisfied with the ending of the main characters (which was also very open-ended, but on a healing note).
If you read Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl and threw the book across the room after the last page, this book may frustrate you. Otherwise, I recommend it for fans of fiction that explore the reality of grief, metaphorically groping your way into adulthood, and the lives of damaged but relatable people. Also those who like contemporary, realistic portrayals of people, character-driven stories and being kept guessing about the true nature of secondary characters.
Bradstreet Gate is the story of three people, transitioning into adulthood and dealing with disappointed expectations and the resonance of a tragedy that affects their life in unforeseen ways. There's a murder, but the focus of the tale is definitely more on the "coming into adulthood" fiction side than on the mystery.
Given that, I found it well-written and engaging, with fully realized characters who represented very realistic foibles. Charlie was my favorite, mostly because even though he's perpetually stuck, he's a generous and hopeful guy (whose morality slips now and then). Alice and Georgia I both loved and hated (for their blithe destruction of others and self, through impulsive selfishness and manipulation). But they all felt very real.
The author did an excellent job of playing the murder mystery close to her chest. There was much more devoted to the aftereffects, even a decade later, or the murder than any investigation into who committed it.
And that brings me to my own issue with the book: the ending.
Specifically, the complete and utter lack of resolution regarding the murder.
It was very realistic, in that there was no closure for anyone. But I felt like it would have really hit the sweet spot to confirm the identity of the killer, even just a little bit. Or the motive. Or something.
I was left wanting more in that vein, even though I was satisfied with the ending of the main characters (which was also very open-ended, but on a healing note).
If you read Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl and threw the book across the room after the last page, this book may frustrate you. Otherwise, I recommend it for fans of fiction that explore the reality of grief, metaphorically groping your way into adulthood, and the lives of damaged but relatable people. Also those who like contemporary, realistic portrayals of people, character-driven stories and being kept guessing about the true nature of secondary characters.
March 5, 2016
You know those cheesy, guilty pleasure murder mysteries you pick up at a yard sale for a quarter? The ones that are essentially the same book over and over again, but are fun and a nice reprieve from everyday life? Bradstreet Gate by Robin Kirman had all the qualities of those books, yet it lacked one key element: intrigue. It was so mind-blowingly dull that you weren’t flying through the pages because you wanted to solve the mystery – you kept reading because you just wanted it to end.
Bradstreet Gate follows three Harvard freshman as they arrive on campus, eager to begin their collegiate careers. Right before graduation, a fellow classmate is found murdered, and a charming professor is strongly suspected of the crime.
Sound vaguely familiar? The plot is eerily similar to Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, only not as beautifully written or suspenseful. I wasn’t even the greatest fan of The Secret History (I gave it three out of five stars, I believe), but I can still recognize a good book when I read it. Bradstreet Gate was definitely not one of those books.
I’m a reader who actually likes novels with characters that I don’t particularly like (Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk about Kevin, is a good example,) but I at least have to be moderately interested in them. The three main characters in Bradstreet Gate (Georgia, Charlie, and Alice) were mere caricatures – cliché characters with little to no depth.
Certain themes in this novel appeared to be thrown in just for the heck of it: unrequited love, a steamy love affair between a student and a professor, and snooty rich kids. Under the right author’s guidance, these elements can work well in a story. They just didn’t work here.
Overall, I gave Bradstreet Gate one star – primarily because for the entirety of the novel, I was bored to tears. Guess I’ll be sticking to my standard murder mysteries for the time being.
**I was sent this book by Blogging For Books for an honest review.**
Bradstreet Gate follows three Harvard freshman as they arrive on campus, eager to begin their collegiate careers. Right before graduation, a fellow classmate is found murdered, and a charming professor is strongly suspected of the crime.
Sound vaguely familiar? The plot is eerily similar to Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, only not as beautifully written or suspenseful. I wasn’t even the greatest fan of The Secret History (I gave it three out of five stars, I believe), but I can still recognize a good book when I read it. Bradstreet Gate was definitely not one of those books.
I’m a reader who actually likes novels with characters that I don’t particularly like (Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk about Kevin, is a good example,) but I at least have to be moderately interested in them. The three main characters in Bradstreet Gate (Georgia, Charlie, and Alice) were mere caricatures – cliché characters with little to no depth.
Certain themes in this novel appeared to be thrown in just for the heck of it: unrequited love, a steamy love affair between a student and a professor, and snooty rich kids. Under the right author’s guidance, these elements can work well in a story. They just didn’t work here.
Overall, I gave Bradstreet Gate one star – primarily because for the entirety of the novel, I was bored to tears. Guess I’ll be sticking to my standard murder mysteries for the time being.
**I was sent this book by Blogging For Books for an honest review.**
May 21, 2015
While there's truly beautiful prose here I felt overall disappointment. I wanted to "really like" it but I can only give this a nominal "like". This is the second book I've read this week with characters who are supposed to be friends but seem more like frienemies at the apex of their relationships. I oddly thought that the classmate murder mentioned in the book blurb would be a major factor in the plot but it was not and further did not really even seem central to what transpires between the main characters. I kept hoping until the last that it would at least be revealed who killed her and it was wasted hope. The ending was fairly abrupt but I'll admit that if I'd got the answer to the murder, I could have accepted it much more. I didn't at all mind that the characters weren't likable but I did have issue with the fact that I didn't find them all so compelling so as to make me really care to know more about them. Only two really were and the remainder, tedious. I'm not sure any of them really had enough actual character to sustain an entire book well. With that said, I'd likely read another by the author because some of the passages herein are the sort that will remain with me for a bit.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via LibraryThing in exchange for my honest review.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via LibraryThing in exchange for my honest review.
January 30, 2019
Contrary to popular belief on Goodreads, Bradstreet Gate was nothing like The Secret History, and I'm so glad! This novel stands on its own as a well-crafted and sympathetic examination of friendship, appearances, institutional security, and the making and unmaking of one's personal heroes.
Though Bradstreet Gate does involve a campus murder, the novel's psychology and the slow undoing of everyone involved was completely unique to that of Donna Tartt's, which I also loved, but for different reasons.
Bradstreet Gate is a slow-burn, and I'm entirely sure I missed many important and telling details throughout, because they were delivered so subtlety. This is definitely a novel that would improve with a second read. Though I wouldn't categorize Bradstreet Gate as a thriller, the reading experience for me was certainly thrilling.
Though Bradstreet Gate does involve a campus murder, the novel's psychology and the slow undoing of everyone involved was completely unique to that of Donna Tartt's, which I also loved, but for different reasons.
Bradstreet Gate is a slow-burn, and I'm entirely sure I missed many important and telling details throughout, because they were delivered so subtlety. This is definitely a novel that would improve with a second read. Though I wouldn't categorize Bradstreet Gate as a thriller, the reading experience for me was certainly thrilling.
August 15, 2015
I've never experienced the feeling I had with this book before. You meet the characters who's lives intertwine with each other while attending Harvard. The story continues after the murder of a fellow student and the characters go in different directions with life but still theirs paths crisscross. All of that was interesting. Then came the ending!! There was no ending!! The book just stops. There is no resolution among the characters when they gather for a memorial service. I was very frustrated. I let out a moan and slammed the book shut. Why would an author just stop the story?
September 5, 2015
I struggled reading this book for well over a month because I have such a problem quitting a boring story. "What if it gets great?" I always ask myself. So, I struggled through it. This was more the story of Harvard classmates Georgia, Charlie, and Alice-in college and long afterwards, than it was any type of mystery. The book was al over the place and rambled thru odd subplots that I can't fathom anyone really caring about. Not sure the point of this book was, really, but I'm glad it's over.
July 14, 2025
Compelling until the end, then...oddly unsatisfying? I didn't like the ending but the rest of it was good enough that I think 3 stars (2.5 really) is a fitting compromise.
This book is so obsessed with the power of older men. Each character must find a way to stand on their own. This is a good thing. But the book never really reckons with damage done the older men in Alice and Georgia's past - at least, the ones who aren't related to them. Ex. Georgia deals with her father's mistreatment of her by being a better parent to her daughter, but sleeping with her friend's father as a teenager is something that can totally be pushed under the rug, I guess? And don't even get me started on Alice. I loved Alice. Nothing she did was realistic, except maybe pushing that girl into a bus. But honestly, if you were looking to get even with your all-American best friend, would your first instinct be to start up a secret affair with your married homosexual professor? I think not.
This book is so obsessed with the power of older men. Each character must find a way to stand on their own. This is a good thing. But the book never really reckons with damage done the older men in Alice and Georgia's past - at least, the ones who aren't related to them. Ex. Georgia deals with her father's mistreatment of her by being a better parent to her daughter, but sleeping with her friend's father as a teenager is something that can totally be pushed under the rug, I guess? And don't even get me started on Alice. I loved Alice. Nothing she did was realistic, except maybe pushing that girl into a bus. But honestly, if you were looking to get even with your all-American best friend, would your first instinct be to start up a secret affair with your married homosexual professor? I think not.
November 12, 2020
The novel’s title, “Bradstreet Gate,” refers to a Harvard Yard gate that commemorates the Puritan poet Anne Bradstreet and the 25th anniversary of women living in the Yard.
In 1997 Julie Patel, a Harvard student, is murdered. "Bradstreet Gate" is about how this murder affects the lives of three of her fellow students and one of the Harvard professors.
Georgia Calvin is the blonde and beautiful daughter of a renowned photographer. Everyone lusts after her. Professor Storrow, Charlie, and even Alice.
Alice Kovac - Statuesque and striking looking but socially inept, Alice is the daughter of Serbian immigrants and Georgia's best friend.
Charlie Flournoy - The youngest son of two boys, he is fond of poetry and things academic which is directly at odds with his father and elder brother who have more 'manly' pursuits. When he arrives at Harvard, Charlie tries to emulate Storrow in manner and attitude. Besotted with Georgia, he settles for being just her friend...
Professor Rufus Storrow comes across as a bit of a 'prig'. A fastidious dresser, he is a result of his military West Point education. His reputation is his highest priority, Highly admired by the faculty and students, he entertains some of his favored students at dinner parties in his home.
When he begins an affair with the lovely Georgia, he insists that their relationship remain a secret so as not to jeopardize his career and cause a scandal at the prestigious university.
When Julia Patel is murdered, the murder seemed to have less impact on the three main characters than it should have. There seemed to be a disconnect. Also, we as readers don't ever get to know Julie, so as a result we care less about what happened to her...
For a brief period at the beginning of the book we meet Georgia on the tenth anniversary of Julie's murder. The grown-up Georgia was a much more interesting character than her younger university student self. Now she has a young baby and a husband who is dying of cancer. When she is interviewed by a university journalist about the anniversary of Julie's death, it seems like a huge imposition on her time and her psyche.
The main characters in this novel are all carrying heavy baggage of one sort or another. They make the most unlikely friends. Although we get to know each of them, we don't REALLY know them. It is a superficial acquaintance.
Many other readers have compared this novel to Donna Tartt's "The Secret History". I cannot compare them because I haven't read "The Secret History", but I must say that I hope Tartt's novel has a more satisfying ending than this one. Many genres lend themselves to an open-ending, but a novel touted as a murder mystery should at least allude to 'whodunit'. Sadly, the murderer in this story was never divulged which left me feeling puzzled and manipulated. Don't misunderstand me, this novel is quite well-written - but however elegant the prose, the story must have some sort of cohesion for me to enjoy it. "Bradstreet Gate" did not - which made it quite a disappointing read for me.
Readers who are looking for a college story and a character study will be pleased by this novel, all others should probably pick up another book.
Thanks to Crown Publishing who provided me with a free digital copy of this novel at my request via NetGalley.
In 1997 Julie Patel, a Harvard student, is murdered. "Bradstreet Gate" is about how this murder affects the lives of three of her fellow students and one of the Harvard professors.
Georgia Calvin is the blonde and beautiful daughter of a renowned photographer. Everyone lusts after her. Professor Storrow, Charlie, and even Alice.
Alice Kovac - Statuesque and striking looking but socially inept, Alice is the daughter of Serbian immigrants and Georgia's best friend.
Charlie Flournoy - The youngest son of two boys, he is fond of poetry and things academic which is directly at odds with his father and elder brother who have more 'manly' pursuits. When he arrives at Harvard, Charlie tries to emulate Storrow in manner and attitude. Besotted with Georgia, he settles for being just her friend...
Professor Rufus Storrow comes across as a bit of a 'prig'. A fastidious dresser, he is a result of his military West Point education. His reputation is his highest priority, Highly admired by the faculty and students, he entertains some of his favored students at dinner parties in his home.
When he begins an affair with the lovely Georgia, he insists that their relationship remain a secret so as not to jeopardize his career and cause a scandal at the prestigious university.
When Julia Patel is murdered, the murder seemed to have less impact on the three main characters than it should have. There seemed to be a disconnect. Also, we as readers don't ever get to know Julie, so as a result we care less about what happened to her...
For a brief period at the beginning of the book we meet Georgia on the tenth anniversary of Julie's murder. The grown-up Georgia was a much more interesting character than her younger university student self. Now she has a young baby and a husband who is dying of cancer. When she is interviewed by a university journalist about the anniversary of Julie's death, it seems like a huge imposition on her time and her psyche.
The main characters in this novel are all carrying heavy baggage of one sort or another. They make the most unlikely friends. Although we get to know each of them, we don't REALLY know them. It is a superficial acquaintance.
Many other readers have compared this novel to Donna Tartt's "The Secret History". I cannot compare them because I haven't read "The Secret History", but I must say that I hope Tartt's novel has a more satisfying ending than this one. Many genres lend themselves to an open-ending, but a novel touted as a murder mystery should at least allude to 'whodunit'. Sadly, the murderer in this story was never divulged which left me feeling puzzled and manipulated. Don't misunderstand me, this novel is quite well-written - but however elegant the prose, the story must have some sort of cohesion for me to enjoy it. "Bradstreet Gate" did not - which made it quite a disappointing read for me.
Readers who are looking for a college story and a character study will be pleased by this novel, all others should probably pick up another book.
Thanks to Crown Publishing who provided me with a free digital copy of this novel at my request via NetGalley.
May 3, 2015
An impressive debut that tells the stories of three people Charlie, Georgia, and Alice, who meet as undergrads at Harvard and become entangled with professor Rufus Storrow, who, in their senior year, is suspected of murder.
The impressive thing about this book is the incredibly rich descriptions of the three main characters. Their childhoods, relationships, thoughts, and motivations are laid bare for the reader over the course of the story that spans their first 31 years. Kirman has a gift for revealing much about her characters with detailed vignettes. I feel like I knew these complex people incredibly well.
At times I felt great sympathy for them for they all came from circumstances and families not suited to success or even security or comfort. Georgia's parents separate and she spends most of her childhood with an eccentric artist father who moves her constantly and builds part of his fame from nude photos of his own daughter. Alice, daughter of Serbian immigrants, loses her beloved father to an early death and she is unloved by her fearful mother and overbearing, wealthy uncle. Charlie feels he must escape his working class background, his drive and intelligence resented by his angry father and brother.
The relationships among the three are odd, at turns supportive then manipulative. I wouldn't call them necessarily fond of one another but they pop up and offer support throughout their lives. They do their best with what they are given from life and are relatable in their struggles but I can't say I exactly liked or admired them.
The plot surrounds the murder of a Harvard classmate, Julie Patel, supposedly at the hands of an awkward and pompous professor, Rufus Storrow. For a man who has had academic and career success he seems to have no ability to form healthy relationships and is easily threatened by the students, some of whom at first greatly admire him but others find him insensitive, vain and controlling. He has affairs with Alice and Georgia and will cling to Charlie as Cahrlie becomes the man Storrow thought he once was. He becomes more unhinged throughout the story. Storrow's life is ruined, it would seem deservedly, by the unproven allegations of that he strangled Julie.
As a reader I expected the murder mystery to be resolved but it never is. Storrow pops up throughout the book as a vague menace but then simply disappears in the end. The stories of the three main characters also end unsatisfactorily. They are survivors but are full of regrets and are all too aware of their compromises and equivocations.
The writing and character studies make this worthy of three stars but the plot is too thin.
The impressive thing about this book is the incredibly rich descriptions of the three main characters. Their childhoods, relationships, thoughts, and motivations are laid bare for the reader over the course of the story that spans their first 31 years. Kirman has a gift for revealing much about her characters with detailed vignettes. I feel like I knew these complex people incredibly well.
At times I felt great sympathy for them for they all came from circumstances and families not suited to success or even security or comfort. Georgia's parents separate and she spends most of her childhood with an eccentric artist father who moves her constantly and builds part of his fame from nude photos of his own daughter. Alice, daughter of Serbian immigrants, loses her beloved father to an early death and she is unloved by her fearful mother and overbearing, wealthy uncle. Charlie feels he must escape his working class background, his drive and intelligence resented by his angry father and brother.
The relationships among the three are odd, at turns supportive then manipulative. I wouldn't call them necessarily fond of one another but they pop up and offer support throughout their lives. They do their best with what they are given from life and are relatable in their struggles but I can't say I exactly liked or admired them.
The plot surrounds the murder of a Harvard classmate, Julie Patel, supposedly at the hands of an awkward and pompous professor, Rufus Storrow. For a man who has had academic and career success he seems to have no ability to form healthy relationships and is easily threatened by the students, some of whom at first greatly admire him but others find him insensitive, vain and controlling. He has affairs with Alice and Georgia and will cling to Charlie as Cahrlie becomes the man Storrow thought he once was. He becomes more unhinged throughout the story. Storrow's life is ruined, it would seem deservedly, by the unproven allegations of that he strangled Julie.
As a reader I expected the murder mystery to be resolved but it never is. Storrow pops up throughout the book as a vague menace but then simply disappears in the end. The stories of the three main characters also end unsatisfactorily. They are survivors but are full of regrets and are all too aware of their compromises and equivocations.
The writing and character studies make this worthy of three stars but the plot is too thin.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 12, 2015
I really wanted to like this book. I received a preview copy and read it in less than a day. That said, unfortunately, I cannot say it was a great crime mystery.
What worked really well in this novel is the back stories of each character. While the chapters switched perspectives and told the story from various viewpoints, I felt that they were believable in their interactions with each other and the world. It was not hard to follow.
The murder mystery was a bit cloudy. The murder victim, Julie, was secondary and I didn't feel she had a deep connection to any of the main characters. I think the author tried to give her more depth later in the story, but by then, I didn't really care.
Rufus Storrow seemed stalkerish to me from the start, caring only about making himself look impressive to others. I think there needed to be a bit more development of his character for me to feel that I understood him and his actions- more inside his head, like the other characters.
Charlie's worship of Storrow, an image he seems to want to emulate, certainly makes him relatable as does the later fading fascination as time passes as Storrow's character flaws emerge. Charlie's lack of bonding with his own father, and yearning to have a connection to the upper class world, make him the most likable character.
The story of beautiful Georgia and her complex relationship with her artistic father, seems to have been told in another plot in another book. I felt like I had read her back story before. It didn't make me not like her, it just seemed familiar.
I felt like Alice, with her darker thoughts, was a more interesting main female character. Her immigration background was easier to understand. Sometimes she felt pretty and desirable, sometimes ugly and jealous. I think most women can relate to those feelings.
The ending just sort of happened and I am still trying to process it. I felt the story ending was unclear and I hate that.
What worked really well in this novel is the back stories of each character. While the chapters switched perspectives and told the story from various viewpoints, I felt that they were believable in their interactions with each other and the world. It was not hard to follow.
The murder mystery was a bit cloudy. The murder victim, Julie, was secondary and I didn't feel she had a deep connection to any of the main characters. I think the author tried to give her more depth later in the story, but by then, I didn't really care.
Rufus Storrow seemed stalkerish to me from the start, caring only about making himself look impressive to others. I think there needed to be a bit more development of his character for me to feel that I understood him and his actions- more inside his head, like the other characters.
Charlie's worship of Storrow, an image he seems to want to emulate, certainly makes him relatable as does the later fading fascination as time passes as Storrow's character flaws emerge. Charlie's lack of bonding with his own father, and yearning to have a connection to the upper class world, make him the most likable character.
The story of beautiful Georgia and her complex relationship with her artistic father, seems to have been told in another plot in another book. I felt like I had read her back story before. It didn't make me not like her, it just seemed familiar.
I felt like Alice, with her darker thoughts, was a more interesting main female character. Her immigration background was easier to understand. Sometimes she felt pretty and desirable, sometimes ugly and jealous. I think most women can relate to those feelings.
The ending just sort of happened and I am still trying to process it. I felt the story ending was unclear and I hate that.
March 22, 2015
3.5 stars
What worked really well in this novel is the probing into each character. They were believable in their interactions with each other and the world. The murder mystery frustrated me to no end, I am still wondering why the murder happened, but sort of- because I can imagine why but... nevermind. Rufus Storrow stank of sociopathic tendenacies to me from the start, caring only about coming out smelling good and free of stains. Charlie's worship of the image Storrow presents, a life open only to the pressed and shiny worldly men, certainly rings true as does the fading adulation as time passes and Storrow's weak character emerges. Charlie's own father's prejudiced thoughts of the white collar world reminds me of the divide that exists between the hardworking and the elite. Rather than being enamored of the beautiful Georgia and her complicated relationship with her self-centered artistic father I was hooked by the darker, far more interesting character Alice. Alice is a mess, and her musings are easier to relate to.
I wanted more out of Alice in the later years, the ending just sort of happened and I am still dizzy in my head feeling the story never reached clarity for me and I hate that. Based on that, the best thing about this story is being in the heads of the characters.
March 31, 2016
I received this book as an ARC from Edelweiss. IT was promoted in a review as a Donna Tartt like book. While it does take place at Harvard and concerns conflicts between students and a professor there, that is where the resemblance ends. A resolution of the central mystery, a murder, would have gone a long way toward redeeming this book. One character, who was a student reporter at the time of the murder, and published an inflammatory and probably completely unrelated professor/student scandal, later inserts herself into the victims family under a false name -- another unresolved story line. Another student suffered an unrequited love for the campus "golden girl" who has the affair with the professor and later becomes a multimillionaire through his programming capabilities. He meets the golden girl again and may have kindled a new love with her -- possibly -- but once again unresolved. The professor has apparently defrauded a business partner in India and spread a false story that he is married and living a stable life there. He is probably trying to set up another fraudulent scheme.
There is much material here, but nothing is resolved or explored sufficiently.
There is much material here, but nothing is resolved or explored sufficiently.
July 21, 2015
Bradstreet Gate was a difficult book to read. There was plenty of stuff happening, and the writing is excellent. The non-linear storytelling was nothing new, and this reading didn’t offer any new insights to the craft or of storytelling.
At times, the story seemed to drift aimlessly. The book really isn’t about the murder of Julie Patel, but a chronicling of several affluent Harvard graduates and how they deal with privilege and the many ways to squander their lives in only ten years.
The ending of the book left me wanting, and none of the many subplots were resolved. Now that I write about it, this entire book is all about various subplots.
Although the characters are well thought out, and implemented in a way that allows us to see them as real people, the story itself is uninteresting. Not enough for me to not finish, but enough for me to be glad the book has concluded.
I’d still give it three stars, as the characterization is worth the read. I received a copy from blogging for books in exchange for this review.
At times, the story seemed to drift aimlessly. The book really isn’t about the murder of Julie Patel, but a chronicling of several affluent Harvard graduates and how they deal with privilege and the many ways to squander their lives in only ten years.
The ending of the book left me wanting, and none of the many subplots were resolved. Now that I write about it, this entire book is all about various subplots.
Although the characters are well thought out, and implemented in a way that allows us to see them as real people, the story itself is uninteresting. Not enough for me to not finish, but enough for me to be glad the book has concluded.
I’d still give it three stars, as the characterization is worth the read. I received a copy from blogging for books in exchange for this review.
October 7, 2015
Three extraordinarily pretentious kids go to Harvard and do pretentious things like wear bow ties and peasant blouses and have tragic love affairs with impotent men. Then they all in one way or another develop a relationship with the most pretentious person of them all who is so absolutely horrible it defies any kind of earth logic that anyone would even converse with him let alone fall passionately in love/become a disciple of the guy depending on the character. Then there's a murder. But that doesn't really have anything to do with anything despite what the book jacket and basic story telling rules would imply. To put the cherry on the top of this vainglorius sundae the entire novel simply tapers off on the last page with no resolution to any of the story lines. I am so, so glad I wasted two days reading this!!!!
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