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Review Date: 9/2/2021
Remembering America ``great again"... the early 1960's... the country was wholesome and innocent, it was a time of Camelot -- peace and love filled the air. Father knew best, we made room for daddy, and while Hazel tidied the house Ozzie was searching for Tutti-Frutti ice cream for little Ricky and David.
This was the facade. This was not Mayberry.
In James Lee Burke's "Another Kind of Eden" Aaron Holland Broussard is an aspiring writer wandering across the great wide western states, hopping trains and working on farms, just trying to make an honest living. Beneath Eden's surface things are not so perfect, not always as they appear. Those in power use brute force to maintain control over the disadvantaged. Any mention of the word "union" is an incitement for violence. The respected beacons of the community, the people Aaron looks up to, harbor dark corrupt secrets. Even the dawn of the hippie flower child culture feels the contamination of narcotics.
A hidden undercurrent runs through Aaron, too. An overwhelming force compels him to stop the wrongs he sees behind the facade, all while he wrestles with demons and flashbacks from his Korean war trauma. In the aftermath of these blackouts he is left to wonder what violence he summoned to answer the evil.
There is a reference to Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" in the prologue. That story, set in the time of Salem's witch trials, concludes with the world turning upside down for the main character. He travels a nightmarish journey culminating in the revelation that the people he counted on are aligned with the devil. Aaron has the same experience. His blackouts, time-tripping, and hallucinations meet with the supernatural in a showdown smashing his reality like a wrecking ball.
James Lee Burke's previous novel, "A Private Cathedral'', also introduced a supernatural vein into his work. His protagonist in that book (and in dozens of others), Dave Robicheaux, is also a moral but flawed man driven to violence when confronted with pure evil. In these works the villainy is manifesting itself stronger than ever and is dealt with accordingly.
Â
With 5 stars I highly recommend this book as I would all James Lee Burke's work.
This was the facade. This was not Mayberry.
In James Lee Burke's "Another Kind of Eden" Aaron Holland Broussard is an aspiring writer wandering across the great wide western states, hopping trains and working on farms, just trying to make an honest living. Beneath Eden's surface things are not so perfect, not always as they appear. Those in power use brute force to maintain control over the disadvantaged. Any mention of the word "union" is an incitement for violence. The respected beacons of the community, the people Aaron looks up to, harbor dark corrupt secrets. Even the dawn of the hippie flower child culture feels the contamination of narcotics.
A hidden undercurrent runs through Aaron, too. An overwhelming force compels him to stop the wrongs he sees behind the facade, all while he wrestles with demons and flashbacks from his Korean war trauma. In the aftermath of these blackouts he is left to wonder what violence he summoned to answer the evil.
There is a reference to Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" in the prologue. That story, set in the time of Salem's witch trials, concludes with the world turning upside down for the main character. He travels a nightmarish journey culminating in the revelation that the people he counted on are aligned with the devil. Aaron has the same experience. His blackouts, time-tripping, and hallucinations meet with the supernatural in a showdown smashing his reality like a wrecking ball.
James Lee Burke's previous novel, "A Private Cathedral'', also introduced a supernatural vein into his work. His protagonist in that book (and in dozens of others), Dave Robicheaux, is also a moral but flawed man driven to violence when confronted with pure evil. In these works the villainy is manifesting itself stronger than ever and is dealt with accordingly.
Â
With 5 stars I highly recommend this book as I would all James Lee Burke's work.
Review Date: 8/18/2022
The Neglected and Unloved
Identity crisis? Midlife crisis? Hannah Jarrett has found herself adrift without gravity to pull her in any direction. She is 39 years old, married to a successful business man who no longer seems to feel one way or the other about her, with two young children who seem more dependent on the housekeeper than on her. Hannah tumbles from depression to paranoia to ecstasy without the pretense she is in control.
The ecstasy comes from a dubious source. A mysterious man has entered the picture during a time she is at her most vulnerable. With a seductive confidence he approaches her and tells her to meet at his room for a rendezvous. Hannah finds herself driving to his hotel, takes the room key from the front desk, rides the long ride up the elevator, and takes the long walk down the aisle to confront a hanging "Do Not Disturb" sign. Joyce Carol Oates has made this more than a journey from point A to point-- we are privy to every doubt in Hannah's mind. Is this the right thing to do? No, of course this is wrong and could lead to disaster... but it can not be wrong to want to be desired. Sex does not even seem to be the point-- it is the affection she is crying out for.
The Babysitter is the name coined for a serial killer who is victimizing young children in the area. As a mother herself, Hannah has the normal expected concerns for her children, but the killer has not been preying on families in well-to-do properties such as hers. She tells herself the Babysitter takes only the neglected and unloved. The plotlines do mesh, of course, as cruel and suspicious characters emerge to further the mystery.
There is a brutal streak in this book, necessary but appalling-- particularly the sexual savagery and the abuse to the children. We are dealing with monsters here. This is just a heads-up, expounding would circle the spoiler area.
"The Babysitter" runs a little deliberate at times, especially given the "thriller" tag, but Oates has meticulously portrayed real flesh and blood characters. Hannah is sympathetic, if not very admirable, in her helplessness. At one point she is told a string of pearls has lost most of its value after being neglected and unloved for too long-- and that is pretty much the way she sees herself. Her flaw is in having learned to validate her worth through the eyes of others, men particularly.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Identity crisis? Midlife crisis? Hannah Jarrett has found herself adrift without gravity to pull her in any direction. She is 39 years old, married to a successful business man who no longer seems to feel one way or the other about her, with two young children who seem more dependent on the housekeeper than on her. Hannah tumbles from depression to paranoia to ecstasy without the pretense she is in control.
The ecstasy comes from a dubious source. A mysterious man has entered the picture during a time she is at her most vulnerable. With a seductive confidence he approaches her and tells her to meet at his room for a rendezvous. Hannah finds herself driving to his hotel, takes the room key from the front desk, rides the long ride up the elevator, and takes the long walk down the aisle to confront a hanging "Do Not Disturb" sign. Joyce Carol Oates has made this more than a journey from point A to point-- we are privy to every doubt in Hannah's mind. Is this the right thing to do? No, of course this is wrong and could lead to disaster... but it can not be wrong to want to be desired. Sex does not even seem to be the point-- it is the affection she is crying out for.
The Babysitter is the name coined for a serial killer who is victimizing young children in the area. As a mother herself, Hannah has the normal expected concerns for her children, but the killer has not been preying on families in well-to-do properties such as hers. She tells herself the Babysitter takes only the neglected and unloved. The plotlines do mesh, of course, as cruel and suspicious characters emerge to further the mystery.
There is a brutal streak in this book, necessary but appalling-- particularly the sexual savagery and the abuse to the children. We are dealing with monsters here. This is just a heads-up, expounding would circle the spoiler area.
"The Babysitter" runs a little deliberate at times, especially given the "thriller" tag, but Oates has meticulously portrayed real flesh and blood characters. Hannah is sympathetic, if not very admirable, in her helplessness. At one point she is told a string of pearls has lost most of its value after being neglected and unloved for too long-- and that is pretty much the way she sees herself. Her flaw is in having learned to validate her worth through the eyes of others, men particularly.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Review Date: 6/21/2022
In the spirit here, I ask that if you are currently deceased, it is imperative that you resume living at once and begin reading â (very loosely taken from part of the digital galley).
New Orleans. There is no place like it, except in âThe Ballad of Perilous Graves.â Alex Jennings fires up the torches to show the real Nola. Music always felt like the heartbeat here, we just never realized it is the heartbeat. Evil is out to kill nine essential songs holding this world together. Take away the songs, songs manifesting themselves as spirits, and the city collapses against a collection of all the storms ever visited on the area.
A chosen few are tasked with using magic to fend off the attack. Three are children who will face off against the likes of legendary song villain Stagger Lee and a gruesome ghoul he reports to. The fourth defender is Casey, an ex-tagger who abandoned his art when he saw his creations coming to life on their own. Graffiti can float on the air now and people passing through the graffiti become disoriented, one person vomiting flower petals after going through a tag. These episodes have been coined âColor Rushes.â
Musical spirits and ghosts are not unusual in Nola, but we bridge other oddities not found on your travel agent's brochure. Zombies are commonplace walking the streets and when you look up you see the sky trolleys. Parades of P-bodies pass by, dazzled souls who spent a little too much time under the effect of the paint of the graffiti tags. Now things are getting grave and even the air pulses with the oncoming stormâ a destruction promised.
A good deal of the book is spent preparing our unlikely heroes for their battle against the dark forces. Casey is a trans male coming to grips with the death of his cousin and the magic they both created which now runs rampant in the city. Perry, just out of fifth grade, and his younger sister Brendy are thrust into their roles as warriors by a fate reinforced by family. Then there is Peaches⦠a mysterious and astonishing girl who seems to live alone and is really the leader the other kids look up to. She could really be the focus of another book all herself.
Wait⦠am I following all this⦠I am not lost here am I?
With all the POV changes and strange events you find yourself taking a leap of faith that the tide is flowing forward. It is a journey and demands some patience getting to where it is goingâ there will be people who will not finish it. I found the payoff well worth the effort, though. âThe Ballad of Perilous Gravesâ is super-charged with imagination, filthy rich in characters I have not even mentioned, and captures a Nola feel so well you can hear the music playing and capture the images moving as you go.
Now I am going to tape a coin to my record player needle and put my scratchy Dr. John âGris-Grisâ record on. #CocoRobichaux
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
New Orleans. There is no place like it, except in âThe Ballad of Perilous Graves.â Alex Jennings fires up the torches to show the real Nola. Music always felt like the heartbeat here, we just never realized it is the heartbeat. Evil is out to kill nine essential songs holding this world together. Take away the songs, songs manifesting themselves as spirits, and the city collapses against a collection of all the storms ever visited on the area.
A chosen few are tasked with using magic to fend off the attack. Three are children who will face off against the likes of legendary song villain Stagger Lee and a gruesome ghoul he reports to. The fourth defender is Casey, an ex-tagger who abandoned his art when he saw his creations coming to life on their own. Graffiti can float on the air now and people passing through the graffiti become disoriented, one person vomiting flower petals after going through a tag. These episodes have been coined âColor Rushes.â
Musical spirits and ghosts are not unusual in Nola, but we bridge other oddities not found on your travel agent's brochure. Zombies are commonplace walking the streets and when you look up you see the sky trolleys. Parades of P-bodies pass by, dazzled souls who spent a little too much time under the effect of the paint of the graffiti tags. Now things are getting grave and even the air pulses with the oncoming stormâ a destruction promised.
A good deal of the book is spent preparing our unlikely heroes for their battle against the dark forces. Casey is a trans male coming to grips with the death of his cousin and the magic they both created which now runs rampant in the city. Perry, just out of fifth grade, and his younger sister Brendy are thrust into their roles as warriors by a fate reinforced by family. Then there is Peaches⦠a mysterious and astonishing girl who seems to live alone and is really the leader the other kids look up to. She could really be the focus of another book all herself.
Wait⦠am I following all this⦠I am not lost here am I?
With all the POV changes and strange events you find yourself taking a leap of faith that the tide is flowing forward. It is a journey and demands some patience getting to where it is goingâ there will be people who will not finish it. I found the payoff well worth the effort, though. âThe Ballad of Perilous Gravesâ is super-charged with imagination, filthy rich in characters I have not even mentioned, and captures a Nola feel so well you can hear the music playing and capture the images moving as you go.
Now I am going to tape a coin to my record player needle and put my scratchy Dr. John âGris-Grisâ record on. #CocoRobichaux
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Review Date: 10/11/2022
Helpful Score: 1
"I have never fully understood my anger. In fact, sometimes I am frightened by it. It is more of a hate than an anger."
Leonard Cohen left us a treasure of stunning recordings created after he made his mark as an author. "A Ballet of Lepers: A Novel and Stories" is composed of earlier unpublished writings. Often when a recording artist dies there is a rush to release any salvageable unfinished work, regardless of whether it is worthwhile or merely a cash grab. This novel, these stories-- do they give us any insight into the author... or should they have remained buried in some dusty trunk?
Those only superficially aware of his music may be surprised at the tone here. We will not find Judy Collins singing these verses. With streaks of sadism and violence, this version of Leonard is not one you may want to nudge up to. The voices here belong to loners for the most part and you can see why. The violence is explosive and brutal.
In the opening novella, "A Ballet of Lepers," we see a cop get beaten, we see women get beaten, the protagonist even punches out his grandfather. At one point he concentrates his focus on a side character, a baggage handler he describes as "stupid and ugly and frightened." This man evokes a "sharp sensation of hate" surging through his body. We are told this is the first real sensation he has felt in a while, but we are witnessing a man who seems to thrive on extremes. What follows is bullying, harassment, and humiliation all to fulfill a thirst for emotional stimuli.
Fear of intimacy is another prominent theme in these stories. Sex is good, but please, God, don't ruin things by talking about relationships. After sex he finds it intolerable that his partner analyzes the relationship, performing an autopsy on where things stand. Her physical presence is what he wants-- it serves to keep the threat of loneliness at bay. This is a far cry from the "ladies man" mystique which grew around him in his later years (a notion he laughed at).
The recordings of Leonard Cohen took us through nearly fifty years of thought provoking lyrics covering everything from beauty and romance to ugliness and hate. The works in this book tap into passionate hot spots, but are also powerful glimpses into the man working things out in his youth. These are rich, if not always sunny dispatches.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Leonard Cohen left us a treasure of stunning recordings created after he made his mark as an author. "A Ballet of Lepers: A Novel and Stories" is composed of earlier unpublished writings. Often when a recording artist dies there is a rush to release any salvageable unfinished work, regardless of whether it is worthwhile or merely a cash grab. This novel, these stories-- do they give us any insight into the author... or should they have remained buried in some dusty trunk?
Those only superficially aware of his music may be surprised at the tone here. We will not find Judy Collins singing these verses. With streaks of sadism and violence, this version of Leonard is not one you may want to nudge up to. The voices here belong to loners for the most part and you can see why. The violence is explosive and brutal.
In the opening novella, "A Ballet of Lepers," we see a cop get beaten, we see women get beaten, the protagonist even punches out his grandfather. At one point he concentrates his focus on a side character, a baggage handler he describes as "stupid and ugly and frightened." This man evokes a "sharp sensation of hate" surging through his body. We are told this is the first real sensation he has felt in a while, but we are witnessing a man who seems to thrive on extremes. What follows is bullying, harassment, and humiliation all to fulfill a thirst for emotional stimuli.
Fear of intimacy is another prominent theme in these stories. Sex is good, but please, God, don't ruin things by talking about relationships. After sex he finds it intolerable that his partner analyzes the relationship, performing an autopsy on where things stand. Her physical presence is what he wants-- it serves to keep the threat of loneliness at bay. This is a far cry from the "ladies man" mystique which grew around him in his later years (a notion he laughed at).
The recordings of Leonard Cohen took us through nearly fifty years of thought provoking lyrics covering everything from beauty and romance to ugliness and hate. The works in this book tap into passionate hot spots, but are also powerful glimpses into the man working things out in his youth. These are rich, if not always sunny dispatches.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Review Date: 8/11/2023
Death, Not Yours
A few years ago, I picked up a copy of "The Sportswriter" by Richard Ford and before I read it, I ordered a copy of his Pulitzer Prize winning "Independence Day." Once I got into "The Sportswriter," though, I realized it did not interest me at all. The ramblings of a middle-aged man stumbling through his mid-life crisis seemed to have been done better by John Updike's Rabbit books. The prose was good, the journey... bleh (to me at the time). With more attractive suitors on my TBR list I never did get around to "Independence Day."
Recently an advance copy of Mr. Ford's new book, "Be Mine," was available and I thought I would give it a shot. I felt I must have missed something, had the wrong attitude. At the same time, I had an extra Audible credit available, and I thought maybe a different format might be the thing to align me with his pacing.
The central character running throughout this series is Frank Bascombe, now 74 and focused on mortality and the puzzle of life. His son, Paul, is 47 and has been diagnosed with ALS, the "Lou Gehrig" disease for which there is still no cure. It is one thing to be playing out your days trying to come to grips with life's eventual fade, it is quite a bit more challenging to be the one guiding your son to his finale.
Frank drives Paul out to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota where he will be analyzed and studied, not cured. Paul's condition is rapidly deteriorating, and Frank finds himself in the role of caretaker, assisting his son increasingly more often in performing his basic functions. The two men are constantly sparring with one another, with a sarcasm and gallows humor both witty and morbid.
A trip is planned-- rent a dilapidated RV and make the trek up to the glorious Mount Rushmore with the goal of helping the guys bond while shaking off a painfully claustrophobic walk of death. Father and son look to break down some of the walls neglect has fostered over the years. The question looms... why this destination? What huge significance can a commercial tourist trap like Mount Rushmore be in the comprehension of a life?
Earlier in the novel, Frank details a relationship he has with Betty, a Vietnamese American massage therapist who he considers marrying and who may or may not seriously consider him as anything more than a reliable client. This may have some point in a five-novel portrait of Frank Bascombe, but in a stand-alone story it really serves little purpose.
Advancing age brings with it the examination of what life is all about. Frank had his own concerns, but they are framed much differently when it is his son's story he is defining. Death has become the undeniable reality and its progress is being measured by Paul's decline, something Frank cannot ignore.
So, yes... this can be seen as a depressing subject and there is very little in the way of plot movement. I have to endorse the Audible edition by Harper Audio, which I used alternating with the kindle download. Richard Ford's prose is always witty and clever, but the audible helped to keep things moving. While this was not an easy journey, the questions posed made it a rewarding one.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
A few years ago, I picked up a copy of "The Sportswriter" by Richard Ford and before I read it, I ordered a copy of his Pulitzer Prize winning "Independence Day." Once I got into "The Sportswriter," though, I realized it did not interest me at all. The ramblings of a middle-aged man stumbling through his mid-life crisis seemed to have been done better by John Updike's Rabbit books. The prose was good, the journey... bleh (to me at the time). With more attractive suitors on my TBR list I never did get around to "Independence Day."
Recently an advance copy of Mr. Ford's new book, "Be Mine," was available and I thought I would give it a shot. I felt I must have missed something, had the wrong attitude. At the same time, I had an extra Audible credit available, and I thought maybe a different format might be the thing to align me with his pacing.
The central character running throughout this series is Frank Bascombe, now 74 and focused on mortality and the puzzle of life. His son, Paul, is 47 and has been diagnosed with ALS, the "Lou Gehrig" disease for which there is still no cure. It is one thing to be playing out your days trying to come to grips with life's eventual fade, it is quite a bit more challenging to be the one guiding your son to his finale.
Frank drives Paul out to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota where he will be analyzed and studied, not cured. Paul's condition is rapidly deteriorating, and Frank finds himself in the role of caretaker, assisting his son increasingly more often in performing his basic functions. The two men are constantly sparring with one another, with a sarcasm and gallows humor both witty and morbid.
A trip is planned-- rent a dilapidated RV and make the trek up to the glorious Mount Rushmore with the goal of helping the guys bond while shaking off a painfully claustrophobic walk of death. Father and son look to break down some of the walls neglect has fostered over the years. The question looms... why this destination? What huge significance can a commercial tourist trap like Mount Rushmore be in the comprehension of a life?
Earlier in the novel, Frank details a relationship he has with Betty, a Vietnamese American massage therapist who he considers marrying and who may or may not seriously consider him as anything more than a reliable client. This may have some point in a five-novel portrait of Frank Bascombe, but in a stand-alone story it really serves little purpose.
Advancing age brings with it the examination of what life is all about. Frank had his own concerns, but they are framed much differently when it is his son's story he is defining. Death has become the undeniable reality and its progress is being measured by Paul's decline, something Frank cannot ignore.
So, yes... this can be seen as a depressing subject and there is very little in the way of plot movement. I have to endorse the Audible edition by Harper Audio, which I used alternating with the kindle download. Richard Ford's prose is always witty and clever, but the audible helped to keep things moving. While this was not an easy journey, the questions posed made it a rewarding one.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Review Date: 8/30/2023
Helpful Score: 1
"The Bee Sting" by Paul Murray-- a celebrated Irish author, longlisted for this year's Booker prize-- of course I had to read it! Then, being 656 pages, I had to wonder what I had committed to.
This is a family saga, told from the point of view of four of the household members (at least, initially). The Barnes family is reeling from the economic crash following Ireland's Celtic Tiger boom. The father, Dickie, runs the family's car dealership and things are bleak. His wife, Imelda, is introduced as a fashionable beauty who is appalled at her husband's recent business failures and does not let him forget it. She has resorted to selling off the family's goods on Ebay. Not only are the finances plummeting -- maybe just as importantly-- so is their standing in the community. Ever since the days when Dickie's father, Maurice, succeeded building the business, townsfolk have viewed the family as a bit high and mighty. People are now savoring the fall from grace as the family seems to disintegrate.
The first two sections are told from the children's viewpoint. We meet Cass, in high school and making her plans to run off to Trinity College in Dublin. Her brother, PJ, is in grade school and is plotting his own runaway escape. While there is great care taken to draw out these characters, the portrayal of the parents, especially the father, seems flat through the children's eyes.
Once we get to the parents, however, the world starts opening up. Prior to this, the parents seem no more dimensional than a 1950's television sitcom family. We get the background on Imeldaâ brought up in a rough childhood and uneducated, she had her heart set on a fairytale future where she was going to be rescued by a Prince Charming. This section of the book is told in a stream-of-consciousness manner, almost completely void of punctuation, in a manner reflecting her lack of education. This might seem annoying at first, but this device effectively relays her moods and emotions.
Up until this point, Dickie scans as a rather bland and ineffectual father figure... boring! His background is quite a bit different than his children are aware of. It seemed he embraced the role of husband, father, and dull businessman while completely abandoning the path his life wanted to run. Daddy has a past. Daddy has secrets.
The characters are wonderful, believable, and easy to sympathize with. As each one tells the story we get details the others are not aware of, much like a "Rashomon." As the story returns to events we are enlightened-- it dawns on us why characters have been acting as they have, in part due to these black holes in the family's understanding of each other.
There is a fifth section, told in second person. Here we rapidly switch from character to character with Cass now in college, PJ struggling to keep his parents together, Imelda feeling conflicted over an attempted seduction, while Dickie has thrown himself whole-heartedly into converting a family shed into a survivalist / end-of-days shelter for a future catastrophe. A real confrontation builds when a shadowy villain steps forward to force a crucial, life-changing call to action.
Again, a very long book. It moved along quickly for me as the revelations fleshed out the characters and kept my interest. I am conflicted about the final section of the book. I did not like it at firstâ and I have seen some reviewers openly hostile to the way it was handled. On second reflection, I see what Paul Murray was doing... it was just a little jarring after the careful pinpoint layering upon layering in the bulk of the telling. Still, an excellent read... the character building was brilliant.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
This is a family saga, told from the point of view of four of the household members (at least, initially). The Barnes family is reeling from the economic crash following Ireland's Celtic Tiger boom. The father, Dickie, runs the family's car dealership and things are bleak. His wife, Imelda, is introduced as a fashionable beauty who is appalled at her husband's recent business failures and does not let him forget it. She has resorted to selling off the family's goods on Ebay. Not only are the finances plummeting -- maybe just as importantly-- so is their standing in the community. Ever since the days when Dickie's father, Maurice, succeeded building the business, townsfolk have viewed the family as a bit high and mighty. People are now savoring the fall from grace as the family seems to disintegrate.
The first two sections are told from the children's viewpoint. We meet Cass, in high school and making her plans to run off to Trinity College in Dublin. Her brother, PJ, is in grade school and is plotting his own runaway escape. While there is great care taken to draw out these characters, the portrayal of the parents, especially the father, seems flat through the children's eyes.
Once we get to the parents, however, the world starts opening up. Prior to this, the parents seem no more dimensional than a 1950's television sitcom family. We get the background on Imeldaâ brought up in a rough childhood and uneducated, she had her heart set on a fairytale future where she was going to be rescued by a Prince Charming. This section of the book is told in a stream-of-consciousness manner, almost completely void of punctuation, in a manner reflecting her lack of education. This might seem annoying at first, but this device effectively relays her moods and emotions.
Up until this point, Dickie scans as a rather bland and ineffectual father figure... boring! His background is quite a bit different than his children are aware of. It seemed he embraced the role of husband, father, and dull businessman while completely abandoning the path his life wanted to run. Daddy has a past. Daddy has secrets.
The characters are wonderful, believable, and easy to sympathize with. As each one tells the story we get details the others are not aware of, much like a "Rashomon." As the story returns to events we are enlightened-- it dawns on us why characters have been acting as they have, in part due to these black holes in the family's understanding of each other.
There is a fifth section, told in second person. Here we rapidly switch from character to character with Cass now in college, PJ struggling to keep his parents together, Imelda feeling conflicted over an attempted seduction, while Dickie has thrown himself whole-heartedly into converting a family shed into a survivalist / end-of-days shelter for a future catastrophe. A real confrontation builds when a shadowy villain steps forward to force a crucial, life-changing call to action.
Again, a very long book. It moved along quickly for me as the revelations fleshed out the characters and kept my interest. I am conflicted about the final section of the book. I did not like it at firstâ and I have seen some reviewers openly hostile to the way it was handled. On second reflection, I see what Paul Murray was doing... it was just a little jarring after the careful pinpoint layering upon layering in the bulk of the telling. Still, an excellent read... the character building was brilliant.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Review Date: 5/24/2023
Now You See It...
Thomas Mullen astonished me with his moving Darktown trilogy of books. Set starting in the 1940's, these brought to light what life was like for the first black police officers in Jim Crow Atlanta. Read "Darktown," it is an important and fascinating historical fiction.
Mullen's new novel, "Blind Spots," covers a whole different arena, now in the science fiction realm. An epidemic had caused the world's population to go blind. After a chaotic initial period, The Blinding," technology responded with an apparatus, a "vidder,"attached to the temples, enabling the brain to "see" images.
There is major concern over how this new vision is controlled. The very poor cannot afford this device while some groups of people reject the mechanism altogether. As mistrustful as people are about simple vaccinations, paranoia runs rampant over the government controlling people's perceptions of reality.
"We haven't voted on whether or not we should combine the human with the machine, but they're doing it anyway!"
In this setting, we have Mark Owens, a cop still devasted by his wife's suicide in the aftermath of The Blinding. Back on active duty, he is investigating a murder that seems crazy. A scientist was killed, and the witness claimed she only saw a dark form, "...like he'd been blotted out..." To the police this sounded like a weak alibi. "The vidder must have malfunctioned" was an excuse resorted to often.
Things change, though, when the witness is murdered, and this time Mark is the one who sees a cloaked image of the suspect getting away. Was this a malfunction? Why did his experience match the one his witness testified to? Is this a technical issue or are there dark forces controlling from behind the curtain?
"Blind Spots" branches out into a number of social issues, conspiracies, and plot twists-- all the time keeping the action brisk and intriguing. I did not expect a sci-fi novel from the author, but it was very well done.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Thomas Mullen astonished me with his moving Darktown trilogy of books. Set starting in the 1940's, these brought to light what life was like for the first black police officers in Jim Crow Atlanta. Read "Darktown," it is an important and fascinating historical fiction.
Mullen's new novel, "Blind Spots," covers a whole different arena, now in the science fiction realm. An epidemic had caused the world's population to go blind. After a chaotic initial period, The Blinding," technology responded with an apparatus, a "vidder,"attached to the temples, enabling the brain to "see" images.
There is major concern over how this new vision is controlled. The very poor cannot afford this device while some groups of people reject the mechanism altogether. As mistrustful as people are about simple vaccinations, paranoia runs rampant over the government controlling people's perceptions of reality.
"We haven't voted on whether or not we should combine the human with the machine, but they're doing it anyway!"
In this setting, we have Mark Owens, a cop still devasted by his wife's suicide in the aftermath of The Blinding. Back on active duty, he is investigating a murder that seems crazy. A scientist was killed, and the witness claimed she only saw a dark form, "...like he'd been blotted out..." To the police this sounded like a weak alibi. "The vidder must have malfunctioned" was an excuse resorted to often.
Things change, though, when the witness is murdered, and this time Mark is the one who sees a cloaked image of the suspect getting away. Was this a malfunction? Why did his experience match the one his witness testified to? Is this a technical issue or are there dark forces controlling from behind the curtain?
"Blind Spots" branches out into a number of social issues, conspiracies, and plot twists-- all the time keeping the action brisk and intriguing. I did not expect a sci-fi novel from the author, but it was very well done.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Review Date: 10/31/2023
Helpful Score: 1
Listening for the Voices
We are blind. We are deaf. Thousands of Missing or Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls call out and those voices are lost in the wind. Genocide is being perpetrated and we are oblivious. Make the victim one close to your heart and the issue would burn.
Syd Walker is a Cherokee archeologist working for the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Rhode Island. While studying the remains of a murder victim, she is called back to her home in Pincer, Oklahoma, where a skull has been discovered containing an old ID tag of hers. Someone is sending her a message and it has to do with a traumatic episode in her past in which five people died... including her friend, Luna, and one of the "devils' Syd shot and killed. Her sister, Emma Lou, survived the attack but was never the same, spiraling into drug addiction. Syd remains haunted by survivor's guilt and the ever-present spirit of Luna.
When Syd arrives back home, she discovers Emma Lou has disappeared. Pincer is now beset with major drug dealings, multiple body discoveries, shady land grabs, and an environment poisoned in the aftermath of mining. She is driven to find her sister, unwilling to allow her to be lumped into the thousands of missing Native women. After a few stumbles, the action picks up, there is a shocking twist revealed, and distractions are pushed aside as you make time to rush to the conclusion.
The character of Syd Walker possesses the potential to lead an important series. An independent Cherokee archeologist - investigator who is also lesbianâ you just do not hear that voice much in literature. Fighting to change the culture of the BIA, "...created to control and, in many cases, eliminate Native peoples' relationship with the land," she is looked down upon by many of her own as working for the enemy.
This is a promising time for Native voices. Tony Hillerman's Navajo novels have been retooled by Native artists in "Dark Winds." The FX series, "Reservation Dogs" has also produced some incredible work, screening realistic, three-dimensional people. On the literary front, authors such as Morgan Talty, Tommy Orange, and Mona Susan Power are just a few recently breaking down preconceived notions and increasing awareness of past and present realities.
A very enjoyable read, as Vanessa Lillie succeeds in delivering an engrossing mystery, bringing out important issues without preaching a heavy-handed sermon. I hope to see the world through Syd Walker lens in the near future.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
We are blind. We are deaf. Thousands of Missing or Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls call out and those voices are lost in the wind. Genocide is being perpetrated and we are oblivious. Make the victim one close to your heart and the issue would burn.
Syd Walker is a Cherokee archeologist working for the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Rhode Island. While studying the remains of a murder victim, she is called back to her home in Pincer, Oklahoma, where a skull has been discovered containing an old ID tag of hers. Someone is sending her a message and it has to do with a traumatic episode in her past in which five people died... including her friend, Luna, and one of the "devils' Syd shot and killed. Her sister, Emma Lou, survived the attack but was never the same, spiraling into drug addiction. Syd remains haunted by survivor's guilt and the ever-present spirit of Luna.
When Syd arrives back home, she discovers Emma Lou has disappeared. Pincer is now beset with major drug dealings, multiple body discoveries, shady land grabs, and an environment poisoned in the aftermath of mining. She is driven to find her sister, unwilling to allow her to be lumped into the thousands of missing Native women. After a few stumbles, the action picks up, there is a shocking twist revealed, and distractions are pushed aside as you make time to rush to the conclusion.
The character of Syd Walker possesses the potential to lead an important series. An independent Cherokee archeologist - investigator who is also lesbianâ you just do not hear that voice much in literature. Fighting to change the culture of the BIA, "...created to control and, in many cases, eliminate Native peoples' relationship with the land," she is looked down upon by many of her own as working for the enemy.
This is a promising time for Native voices. Tony Hillerman's Navajo novels have been retooled by Native artists in "Dark Winds." The FX series, "Reservation Dogs" has also produced some incredible work, screening realistic, three-dimensional people. On the literary front, authors such as Morgan Talty, Tommy Orange, and Mona Susan Power are just a few recently breaking down preconceived notions and increasing awareness of past and present realities.
A very enjoyable read, as Vanessa Lillie succeeds in delivering an engrossing mystery, bringing out important issues without preaching a heavy-handed sermon. I hope to see the world through Syd Walker lens in the near future.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Review Date: 1/3/2023
Trying to Keep Your Hands Clean in War
There is a civil war going on in Sri Lanka in 1981- and sixteen-year-old Sashi reveals what it means to be swept up in the violence and confusion. The good guys are ruthless, people she loves take incredibly cruel actions, and Sashi finds that even following her conscience has regrettable consequences. Author V. V. Ganeshananthan cast us as witnesses alongside Sashi to the scorched earth unfolding in the wake of the fight.
Here there is no righteous way to fight a pure fight for justice. Sashi loses her brothers and friends to the Tamil Tigers, the revolutionary group rising up in response to the oppression forced upon them by the Sinhalese majority. As a medical student she is recruited to help but discovers the leaders stooping to tactics no better than the enemies they are fighting.
It is not new to see lives obliterated by war. In "Brotherless Night" this pain is strikingly brought to life through the eyes of Sashi, a beautifully realized character who reminds us horror is often suffered by humanity in places not necessarily illuminated by our newsfeed or social media trends.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
There is a civil war going on in Sri Lanka in 1981- and sixteen-year-old Sashi reveals what it means to be swept up in the violence and confusion. The good guys are ruthless, people she loves take incredibly cruel actions, and Sashi finds that even following her conscience has regrettable consequences. Author V. V. Ganeshananthan cast us as witnesses alongside Sashi to the scorched earth unfolding in the wake of the fight.
Here there is no righteous way to fight a pure fight for justice. Sashi loses her brothers and friends to the Tamil Tigers, the revolutionary group rising up in response to the oppression forced upon them by the Sinhalese majority. As a medical student she is recruited to help but discovers the leaders stooping to tactics no better than the enemies they are fighting.
It is not new to see lives obliterated by war. In "Brotherless Night" this pain is strikingly brought to life through the eyes of Sashi, a beautifully realized character who reminds us horror is often suffered by humanity in places not necessarily illuminated by our newsfeed or social media trends.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Review Date: 1/29/2024
Working Magic in the West
"A dazzling magical realism western in the vein of Cormac McCarthy meets Gabriel Garcia Marquez..." Talk about setting some lofty expectations... Fortunately, I was seduced by the publisher's tantalizing blurb.
"The Bullet Swallower" covers generations of a Mexican family, starting with a heartless and barbaric mine owner in the early 1800's, continuing with his fearsome bandido son, and winding up with a 1960's box office star, Jaime Sonoro. The family's venomous history is revealed in a manuscript delivered to Jaime, who now struggles with his accountability. This is complicated by the arrival of a shadowy figure, Remedios, apparently present to extract justice from the family.
Antonio Sonoro, Jaime's grandfather and the son of the mine owner, is a major focus here. He was the outlaw known as El Tragabalas, The Bullet Swallower. A good deal of the book follows the explosive action as he executes a plot to rob a train-- a doomed adventure which costs him everything he holds dear and forges a quest for revenge. Eventually we witness this thirst for retribution transformed into a burning desire for redemption. The final puzzle is of how Jaime can atone for the sins of generations.
Author Elizabeth Gonzalez James has masterfully melded themes of the Old West, border life, racism, magical realism, and the balancing of personal identity versus inherited accountability. She loosely based some of the characters on some family history... and wrote in a note worthy of the Coen brothers, "Everything in this book is true except for the stuff I made up." This is an entertaining read and lived up to the hype.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
"A dazzling magical realism western in the vein of Cormac McCarthy meets Gabriel Garcia Marquez..." Talk about setting some lofty expectations... Fortunately, I was seduced by the publisher's tantalizing blurb.
"The Bullet Swallower" covers generations of a Mexican family, starting with a heartless and barbaric mine owner in the early 1800's, continuing with his fearsome bandido son, and winding up with a 1960's box office star, Jaime Sonoro. The family's venomous history is revealed in a manuscript delivered to Jaime, who now struggles with his accountability. This is complicated by the arrival of a shadowy figure, Remedios, apparently present to extract justice from the family.
Antonio Sonoro, Jaime's grandfather and the son of the mine owner, is a major focus here. He was the outlaw known as El Tragabalas, The Bullet Swallower. A good deal of the book follows the explosive action as he executes a plot to rob a train-- a doomed adventure which costs him everything he holds dear and forges a quest for revenge. Eventually we witness this thirst for retribution transformed into a burning desire for redemption. The final puzzle is of how Jaime can atone for the sins of generations.
Author Elizabeth Gonzalez James has masterfully melded themes of the Old West, border life, racism, magical realism, and the balancing of personal identity versus inherited accountability. She loosely based some of the characters on some family history... and wrote in a note worthy of the Coen brothers, "Everything in this book is true except for the stuff I made up." This is an entertaining read and lived up to the hype.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Review Date: 10/27/2021
Step right up and you can take one giant leap into the future right now by mastering the past. Not only your past, but the past and memories of everyone else invested in our community.
In "The Candy House" Jennifer Egan introduces technology to rock the world. "Own Your Unconscious" is tech giant Mandala's new program to revisit and share memories, granting access to the recorded thoughts and memories of anyone participating in this souped-up digital share. Circle back to the highlights of your life. Clear up any hazy recollections. Explore what others were really thinking during crucial life turning points. As Mandala points out, crimes are being solved, missing persons found, and the repercussions of both Alzheimer's and dementia are tempered. This is progress delivering a win-win for everyone.
This win does come with a cost. Gone are the carefree days when you only worried about online digital footprints. Whole organizations emerge to resist this threat to privacy. "Eluders" do whatever they can to remain off the grid. Paranoia is rampant in a world determined to monitor your every movement and thought.
Jennifer Egan populates this book with a sometimes dizzying montage of individuals, some reappearing from her previous novel "A Visit from the Goon Squad". It is a challenge to see who is guiding us through each chapter as the narrators switch. I confess I took notes early on to keep track of the players and their relations to others. Perhaps my memory could use an upgrade.
"The Candy House" is a brilliantly constructed voyage into a future of mixed blessings. Once again Jennifer Egan delivers a funny, engaging and thought provoking performance. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
"Memory is the treasury and guardian of all things."
Marcus Tullius Cicero
"When I was younger I could remember anything, whether it happened or not."
Mark Twain
In "The Candy House" Jennifer Egan introduces technology to rock the world. "Own Your Unconscious" is tech giant Mandala's new program to revisit and share memories, granting access to the recorded thoughts and memories of anyone participating in this souped-up digital share. Circle back to the highlights of your life. Clear up any hazy recollections. Explore what others were really thinking during crucial life turning points. As Mandala points out, crimes are being solved, missing persons found, and the repercussions of both Alzheimer's and dementia are tempered. This is progress delivering a win-win for everyone.
This win does come with a cost. Gone are the carefree days when you only worried about online digital footprints. Whole organizations emerge to resist this threat to privacy. "Eluders" do whatever they can to remain off the grid. Paranoia is rampant in a world determined to monitor your every movement and thought.
Jennifer Egan populates this book with a sometimes dizzying montage of individuals, some reappearing from her previous novel "A Visit from the Goon Squad". It is a challenge to see who is guiding us through each chapter as the narrators switch. I confess I took notes early on to keep track of the players and their relations to others. Perhaps my memory could use an upgrade.
"The Candy House" is a brilliantly constructed voyage into a future of mixed blessings. Once again Jennifer Egan delivers a funny, engaging and thought provoking performance. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
"Memory is the treasury and guardian of all things."
Marcus Tullius Cicero
"When I was younger I could remember anything, whether it happened or not."
Mark Twain
Review Date: 11/4/2022
Graeme Macrae Burnet has delivered an oddly fascinating book in "Case Study" which will have you trying to keep things balanced as you strive to lock down what is real. This is a book of fiction... probably. The characters are fabrications... probably. The narrators are reliable--well, not really. And so it goes.
"GMB" has contemplated writing a biography of Collins Braithwaite, a flakey, flamboyant psychoanalyst who was once the toast of 1960's London. Braithwaite could boast celebrity clients and anti-psychiatric best selling books with titles of "Untherapy" and "Kill Your Self." One day GMB is presented with journals of an unnamed woman whose mission was to prove Braithwaite's direct responsibility for the suicide of her sister, Veronica. This woman's strategy was to become a patient under an assumed name, Rebecca Whyte, with a completely different identity-- this so she could avoid any connection to her late sister.
We see Braithwaite for the cad he is. He is cruel to women, dangerous and manipulative with the lives of those who put their trust in him. Meanwhile we see the created character of Rebecca, who began merely as a cloaking device, evolving into a "self" fulfilling needs her original personality craves and has never allowed herself to indulge.
"Case Study" poses a number of questions regarding psychiatry and the search for one's true "self," but keeps you off-guard with unreliable sources throughout. Its humor and utterly original characters earned it a spot on the Longlist for the 2022 Booker Prize. Highly recommended.
"'But what's the point in being someone you're not?' I said. "'What's the point in being whoever it is you think you are?'"-- Unnamed... or, was that Rebecca?
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
"GMB" has contemplated writing a biography of Collins Braithwaite, a flakey, flamboyant psychoanalyst who was once the toast of 1960's London. Braithwaite could boast celebrity clients and anti-psychiatric best selling books with titles of "Untherapy" and "Kill Your Self." One day GMB is presented with journals of an unnamed woman whose mission was to prove Braithwaite's direct responsibility for the suicide of her sister, Veronica. This woman's strategy was to become a patient under an assumed name, Rebecca Whyte, with a completely different identity-- this so she could avoid any connection to her late sister.
We see Braithwaite for the cad he is. He is cruel to women, dangerous and manipulative with the lives of those who put their trust in him. Meanwhile we see the created character of Rebecca, who began merely as a cloaking device, evolving into a "self" fulfilling needs her original personality craves and has never allowed herself to indulge.
"Case Study" poses a number of questions regarding psychiatry and the search for one's true "self," but keeps you off-guard with unreliable sources throughout. Its humor and utterly original characters earned it a spot on the Longlist for the 2022 Booker Prize. Highly recommended.
"'But what's the point in being someone you're not?' I said. "'What's the point in being whoever it is you think you are?'"-- Unnamed... or, was that Rebecca?
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Cheated: The Inside Story of the Astros Scandal and a Colorful History of Sign Stealing
Author:
Book Type: Hardcover
1
Author:
Book Type: Hardcover
1
Review Date: 7/3/2021
There were rumors that the Dodgers were robbed of their 2017 World Series, that the Clayton Kershaw and Yu Darvish humiliations were results of being bushwhacked by electronic cheating. My Dodgers lost that series and I resisted looking for excuses to deny my team lost to a better opponent. In the football world, as a Patriots fan I constantly heard whining about New England only winning by playing dirty football and reacted with "yeah, yeah." With this in mind I was skeptical and hesitant to jump on the fantastical Astro-cheater bandwagon. Â
Those S.O.B.'s did it! In Andy Martino's "Cheated" the entire case is fleshed out. We get the whole history of sign stealing from the 1890's until now. This scandal played out daily in the newspapers and radio talk shows but "Cheated" is not just a stretched-out magazine article, it breaks down how baseball got here and what has and has not been proven. It does not toss up one dimensional evil villains, it shows men who start off only trying to get a competitive edge, progress believing "everybody else is doing it," Â and finding themselves trying to defend themselves against a sports world booing them mercilessly. Whatever the initial intentions, games and championships were compromised and opponents suffered.
This is definitely a must-read for any baseball fan outside the Houston area. Cue James Earl Jones sermonizing on the innocence of baseball. Dissolve that picture and the screen is broken down into 1000 second per frame codebreaker technology... where, as Andy Martino says, the computer monitor tells us we can no longer trust what we are watching.
I thank Doubleday Books, NetGalley, and Andy Martino for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review. #Cheated #NetGalley #Doubleday
Those S.O.B.'s did it! In Andy Martino's "Cheated" the entire case is fleshed out. We get the whole history of sign stealing from the 1890's until now. This scandal played out daily in the newspapers and radio talk shows but "Cheated" is not just a stretched-out magazine article, it breaks down how baseball got here and what has and has not been proven. It does not toss up one dimensional evil villains, it shows men who start off only trying to get a competitive edge, progress believing "everybody else is doing it," Â and finding themselves trying to defend themselves against a sports world booing them mercilessly. Whatever the initial intentions, games and championships were compromised and opponents suffered.
This is definitely a must-read for any baseball fan outside the Houston area. Cue James Earl Jones sermonizing on the innocence of baseball. Dissolve that picture and the screen is broken down into 1000 second per frame codebreaker technology... where, as Andy Martino says, the computer monitor tells us we can no longer trust what we are watching.
I thank Doubleday Books, NetGalley, and Andy Martino for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review. #Cheated #NetGalley #Doubleday
Review Date: 6/15/2023
Filming the Fire
"City of Dreams" is Don Winslow's follow-up to "City on Fire," two books in his City trilogy following Danny Ryan of the Irish mob from Providence, Rhode Island. In this sequel we open with Danny fleeing the East Coast with his ailing father and his young son. His wife has just died, and he cannot even attend her funeral as he has enraged the Italian faction of the mob and is being hunted by the FBI, suspected of having murdered one of their (dirty) agents.
Danny smooths things over with the Feds, carrying out a mutually beneficial solid for them. The pressure from the mob is easing up as well-- as long as he keeps a low profile in his new Southern California home. Hollywood is the city of dreams and Danny is drawn to a financial investment in a movie property, shades of "Get Shorty." He also finds himself emotionally tangled up with a troubled starlet, a passion landing him smack dab on the cover of every tabloid in the country. So much for the low profile... everybody is after Danny Ryan again.
"City on Fire" was a compelling book and this one only gets better. The characters are stronger-- particularly the women-- and readers are going to hunger to see the Vegas finale of this saga in the next one, "City in Ruins."
As a side note, actor Austin Butler ("Elvis") has been cast as Ryan in an upcoming treatment of "City of Fire," the "soon to be a major motion picture" thing.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
"City of Dreams" is Don Winslow's follow-up to "City on Fire," two books in his City trilogy following Danny Ryan of the Irish mob from Providence, Rhode Island. In this sequel we open with Danny fleeing the East Coast with his ailing father and his young son. His wife has just died, and he cannot even attend her funeral as he has enraged the Italian faction of the mob and is being hunted by the FBI, suspected of having murdered one of their (dirty) agents.
Danny smooths things over with the Feds, carrying out a mutually beneficial solid for them. The pressure from the mob is easing up as well-- as long as he keeps a low profile in his new Southern California home. Hollywood is the city of dreams and Danny is drawn to a financial investment in a movie property, shades of "Get Shorty." He also finds himself emotionally tangled up with a troubled starlet, a passion landing him smack dab on the cover of every tabloid in the country. So much for the low profile... everybody is after Danny Ryan again.
"City on Fire" was a compelling book and this one only gets better. The characters are stronger-- particularly the women-- and readers are going to hunger to see the Vegas finale of this saga in the next one, "City in Ruins."
As a side note, actor Austin Butler ("Elvis") has been cast as Ryan in an upcoming treatment of "City of Fire," the "soon to be a major motion picture" thing.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Review Date: 4/26/2022
Helpful Score: 1
It's time to go to the mattresses.
"City of Fire" stays true to its crime family roots and delivers what it advertises. With a nod to the Illiad's Helen of Troy, a gang war is sparked when a beautiful "goddess" walks out of the sea and all hell breaks loose between the Irish and Italians controlling Providence, Rhode Island⦠Dogtown. Danny Ryan first appears as a forgotten member of the Irish mob, an afterthought pretty much in place because his old man used to run things. As things get hotter and the casualties mount, he reluctantly finds himself asserting more control and leadership. While the outline seems like pretty standard gangster fare, the story never stops taking interesting twists and turns. Just when you think one side has quashed the other, everything flips. Don Winslow is a master and knows how to keep the action going.
While an exciting ride, this is not for everyone. There is some racist and homophobic content-- this is the criminal underworld, after all. Also, once Pam walks out of the sea there is not much more any female really contributes, other than playing spouses or victims. "City of Fire '' is apparently the first part of a trilogy and hopefully we will see the women play more integral roles.
Overall, this is great storytelling and I will be looking forward to where things go from here. I mean, you had to see Godfather II as well, right? I received an advance review copy for free (an offer I could not refuse), and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
"City of Fire" stays true to its crime family roots and delivers what it advertises. With a nod to the Illiad's Helen of Troy, a gang war is sparked when a beautiful "goddess" walks out of the sea and all hell breaks loose between the Irish and Italians controlling Providence, Rhode Island⦠Dogtown. Danny Ryan first appears as a forgotten member of the Irish mob, an afterthought pretty much in place because his old man used to run things. As things get hotter and the casualties mount, he reluctantly finds himself asserting more control and leadership. While the outline seems like pretty standard gangster fare, the story never stops taking interesting twists and turns. Just when you think one side has quashed the other, everything flips. Don Winslow is a master and knows how to keep the action going.
While an exciting ride, this is not for everyone. There is some racist and homophobic content-- this is the criminal underworld, after all. Also, once Pam walks out of the sea there is not much more any female really contributes, other than playing spouses or victims. "City of Fire '' is apparently the first part of a trilogy and hopefully we will see the women play more integral roles.
Overall, this is great storytelling and I will be looking forward to where things go from here. I mean, you had to see Godfather II as well, right? I received an advance review copy for free (an offer I could not refuse), and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Review Date: 7/2/2023
I was blown away by this novel, a telling of a young man's struggle to redirect the path his life has taken. Sean forged his way through school in Belfast, journeyed to Liverpool to get his degree in English Lit, and returned home only to find himself tangled up in a world without opportunity. Things get worse when he finds himself on trial for assaulting a guy at a party, his first brush with the law. The setting is Belfast after The Troubles, an era that was supposed to hold so much promise.
What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free-- Donald Fagen
Sean is having difficulty keeping even the most menial job, faces eviction from his dilapidated flat, and is having a hard time imagining a future beyond the vodka-and-cocaine-filled nightly parties. His best friend Ryan is urging Sean to escape with him to Australia. His love interest, Mairead, may be seeing someone else and is planning her own escape--to Berlin. Everyone's option is escaping-- traditionally the only alternative in Irish culture.
Recently, in reviewing plotlines of Irish works such as this one, or Donal Ryan's "Queen of Dirt Island," or Colin Barrett's "Homesickness," I realize they may sound bleak and filled with desperation. Each of these books, however, are fueled with tremendous humor and hope. "Close to Home" presents us with a young man determined to take accountability for his actions and formulate his own future.
Thank you to Michael Magee, in his first novel, for giving a portrayal of post-Troubles Belfast.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free-- Donald Fagen
Sean is having difficulty keeping even the most menial job, faces eviction from his dilapidated flat, and is having a hard time imagining a future beyond the vodka-and-cocaine-filled nightly parties. His best friend Ryan is urging Sean to escape with him to Australia. His love interest, Mairead, may be seeing someone else and is planning her own escape--to Berlin. Everyone's option is escaping-- traditionally the only alternative in Irish culture.
Recently, in reviewing plotlines of Irish works such as this one, or Donal Ryan's "Queen of Dirt Island," or Colin Barrett's "Homesickness," I realize they may sound bleak and filled with desperation. Each of these books, however, are fueled with tremendous humor and hope. "Close to Home" presents us with a young man determined to take accountability for his actions and formulate his own future.
Thank you to Michael Magee, in his first novel, for giving a portrayal of post-Troubles Belfast.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Review Date: 8/7/2023
Little Witnesses
"Council of Dolls" gives personality to the inhumanity suffered by three generations of Yanktonai Dakota women at the hands of "civilized" America. They were victims of the Indian boarding school re-education travesty which sought to strip them of any trace of their culture. This fiasco resulted in irreparable damage to the psyches of these children.
Cora, Lillian, and Sissy are the girls we followâ but Winona, Mae, and Ethel are their companions, dolls who speak as confidants and protectors. These dolls have been witness to massacres and tragedies and their mission is to do what they can to heal the ones they love. Are they magic? Can they really speak? Author Mona Susan Power leaves just enough leeway for the possibility these dolls are mechanisms allowing the girls to deal with life.
When Cora first arrived at Carlisle Indian Industrial School in the early 1900's, her group was herded together to be photographed in their native attire with the few precious belongings they had brought along. Then they were stripped down, had their hair cut, had their things seized, and were forced to watch as their past lives were burned in a bonfire. Among the casualties was Winona, Cora's doll. It was not the last of Winona, though, it was just another hardship to overcome.
No one is ignorant enough to deny the atrocities committed here. It is hard to accept the lengths that people will go to in order to "convert" people considered inferior. The behavior of a nun in the story would be unbelievable if accounts like these were not relayed over and over again. It is not just an American quality, one only needs to see the parallels in the Magdalen Laundries in Ireland, where unmarked graves hold echoes of the voices of souls punished for not measuring up. It makes you question where this evil comes from.
"Council of Dolls" is not always an easy read. Not only is the brutality hard to witness, we also see the repercussions in these lives. Lillian is a wonderful and charming girl who watches an awful death and today call it PTSD, her personality changes so violently we hardly recognize her later in life. So, no, not always easy to read... but important for us to bear witness to.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
"Council of Dolls" gives personality to the inhumanity suffered by three generations of Yanktonai Dakota women at the hands of "civilized" America. They were victims of the Indian boarding school re-education travesty which sought to strip them of any trace of their culture. This fiasco resulted in irreparable damage to the psyches of these children.
Cora, Lillian, and Sissy are the girls we followâ but Winona, Mae, and Ethel are their companions, dolls who speak as confidants and protectors. These dolls have been witness to massacres and tragedies and their mission is to do what they can to heal the ones they love. Are they magic? Can they really speak? Author Mona Susan Power leaves just enough leeway for the possibility these dolls are mechanisms allowing the girls to deal with life.
When Cora first arrived at Carlisle Indian Industrial School in the early 1900's, her group was herded together to be photographed in their native attire with the few precious belongings they had brought along. Then they were stripped down, had their hair cut, had their things seized, and were forced to watch as their past lives were burned in a bonfire. Among the casualties was Winona, Cora's doll. It was not the last of Winona, though, it was just another hardship to overcome.
No one is ignorant enough to deny the atrocities committed here. It is hard to accept the lengths that people will go to in order to "convert" people considered inferior. The behavior of a nun in the story would be unbelievable if accounts like these were not relayed over and over again. It is not just an American quality, one only needs to see the parallels in the Magdalen Laundries in Ireland, where unmarked graves hold echoes of the voices of souls punished for not measuring up. It makes you question where this evil comes from.
"Council of Dolls" is not always an easy read. Not only is the brutality hard to witness, we also see the repercussions in these lives. Lillian is a wonderful and charming girl who watches an awful death and today call it PTSD, her personality changes so violently we hardly recognize her later in life. So, no, not always easy to read... but important for us to bear witness to.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Review Date: 9/2/2021
Helpful Score: 1
Cold cases do not come much colder than one involving a corpse discovered in a glacier after thirty years. Not only was the victim murdered, there may have been a subsequent murder committed to facilitate a cover-up. Inspector Konrád is recalled from retirement to deal with the prime suspect, a man Konrád is beginning to think innocent. He must now untangle decades of lies and false alibis in order to get to the truth.
"The Darkness Knows" by Arnaldur Indriðason is set in Iceland. I was never aware that "Nordic Noir" was a niche but the pace and the landscape sustain a suspenseful tension throughout. After finishing this I see where some reviewers are put off or bored by Indriðason's writing style-- which puzzles me. Do not pick this up if you are looking for "The Fast and the Furious". A good mystery is always fun, but it really is a treat when you come across one by an author who is a master at what he is doing. 5 stars.
"The Darkness Knows" by Arnaldur Indriðason is set in Iceland. I was never aware that "Nordic Noir" was a niche but the pace and the landscape sustain a suspenseful tension throughout. After finishing this I see where some reviewers are put off or bored by Indriðason's writing style-- which puzzles me. Do not pick this up if you are looking for "The Fast and the Furious". A good mystery is always fun, but it really is a treat when you come across one by an author who is a master at what he is doing. 5 stars.
Review Date: 7/19/2022
Shaking Up the Island
Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a wizard... or just an incredibly gifted writer unrestrained by literary genre. Her most well known novel, "Mexican Gothic," strikes its note in the horror genre, "Velvet Was the Night" is historic fiction and noir, while "The Daughter of Doctor Moreau" has taken the science fiction outline of H. G. Wells' "The Island of Doctor Moreau" and retools it with a fusion of modern themes.
During the 1870's in a remote spot in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, Doctor Moreau and his beautiful daughter Carlota run a secret sanitarium. The patients are unusual, creations of the doctor himself, they are part human, part animal hybrids. This operation is funded by a wealthy landowner, Hernando Lizalde, whose primary interest is finding a source of cheap labor. Traditional slavery is gone, the indigenous population is rebellious, and importing Chinese or European labor has become costly. Doctor Moreau's labor force will be Lizalde's to own, unconditionally.
The Doctor takes great pride in his early results, fantasizing about accolades awaiting him during a fanciful European tour. He has given the world life forms which have never existed. He also has a controlling power over these hybrids. They are dependent on him for life-sustaining injections containing a formula he keeps secret.
Carlota is the dominant voice of this story. A devoted daughter, she feels herself being pulled apart as she perceives her father's callousness to the creatures he has produced. It dawns on her that he has been needlessly cruel:
'He shaped pain into flesh." She feels a responsibility to assume control at the same time she is being pressured into a future she has no control over.
The third main character, Montgomery Laughton, is recruited to oversee the operation of the residence, the post of mayordomo. He is a disillusioned wanderer, burned by love and fueled at this point by alcohol. After an initial shock he befriends the hybrids and finds himself adjusting well to his position and the relative anonymity it provides. He is significantly older than Carlota and strong protective feelings emerge-- as well as a physical attraction he understands would be doomed by the age difference.
This paradise starts to unravel as Doctor Moreau's results are not paying off satisfactorily for his investor. Then, as now, the world demands support from the cheapest labor pool. Business demands results. Morality and ethical questions are insignificant when faced with the bottom line.
"The Daughter of Doctor Moreau" is an intoxicating read, transporting us to another time and place in history. The various movie treatments of the H. G. Wells original bring expectations of ridiculous-looking special effect creatures. Here the written word mixes with the imagination to provide stronger images and to enhance the enjoyment rather than spoiling it.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a wizard... or just an incredibly gifted writer unrestrained by literary genre. Her most well known novel, "Mexican Gothic," strikes its note in the horror genre, "Velvet Was the Night" is historic fiction and noir, while "The Daughter of Doctor Moreau" has taken the science fiction outline of H. G. Wells' "The Island of Doctor Moreau" and retools it with a fusion of modern themes.
During the 1870's in a remote spot in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, Doctor Moreau and his beautiful daughter Carlota run a secret sanitarium. The patients are unusual, creations of the doctor himself, they are part human, part animal hybrids. This operation is funded by a wealthy landowner, Hernando Lizalde, whose primary interest is finding a source of cheap labor. Traditional slavery is gone, the indigenous population is rebellious, and importing Chinese or European labor has become costly. Doctor Moreau's labor force will be Lizalde's to own, unconditionally.
The Doctor takes great pride in his early results, fantasizing about accolades awaiting him during a fanciful European tour. He has given the world life forms which have never existed. He also has a controlling power over these hybrids. They are dependent on him for life-sustaining injections containing a formula he keeps secret.
Carlota is the dominant voice of this story. A devoted daughter, she feels herself being pulled apart as she perceives her father's callousness to the creatures he has produced. It dawns on her that he has been needlessly cruel:
'He shaped pain into flesh." She feels a responsibility to assume control at the same time she is being pressured into a future she has no control over.
The third main character, Montgomery Laughton, is recruited to oversee the operation of the residence, the post of mayordomo. He is a disillusioned wanderer, burned by love and fueled at this point by alcohol. After an initial shock he befriends the hybrids and finds himself adjusting well to his position and the relative anonymity it provides. He is significantly older than Carlota and strong protective feelings emerge-- as well as a physical attraction he understands would be doomed by the age difference.
This paradise starts to unravel as Doctor Moreau's results are not paying off satisfactorily for his investor. Then, as now, the world demands support from the cheapest labor pool. Business demands results. Morality and ethical questions are insignificant when faced with the bottom line.
"The Daughter of Doctor Moreau" is an intoxicating read, transporting us to another time and place in history. The various movie treatments of the H. G. Wells original bring expectations of ridiculous-looking special effect creatures. Here the written word mixes with the imagination to provide stronger images and to enhance the enjoyment rather than spoiling it.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Review Date: 2/14/2023
All our times have come
Here, but now they're gone
Stephen Graham Jones started off the Indian Lake Trilogy in 2022 with the wicked and witty "My Heart is a Chainsaw." Referencing a whole slew of slasher movie plots and featuring an unforgettable Jade Daniels character, the book was exciting, original, and of course, blood soaked. This year brings us "Don't Fear the Reaper," the second installment.
Jade returns to the scene of Chainsaw's carnage, her hometown of Proofrock. She now goes under the name of Jennifer Daniels, it was clear that she couldn't go on being associated with the bloodbath of the past. An escaped serial killer, Dark Mill South, has also arrived in town with a bloodlust fueled by, among other motivations, the execution of thirty-six Dakota men signed off by Abraham Lincoln. Tomorrow is Friday the Thirteenth and the table is set.
I enjoyed Chainsaw, particularly the Jade Daniels portrayal. This one seemed labored, however. There were too many POV's, too many bleh characters, and not enough buy in by Jade / Jennifer. Looking at other reviews I see many readers loved this one more than the first, so maybe I just did not catch the fever. I will be looking forward to the finale of this trilogy, hoping it captures some of the spark of Chainsaw.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Here, but now they're gone
Stephen Graham Jones started off the Indian Lake Trilogy in 2022 with the wicked and witty "My Heart is a Chainsaw." Referencing a whole slew of slasher movie plots and featuring an unforgettable Jade Daniels character, the book was exciting, original, and of course, blood soaked. This year brings us "Don't Fear the Reaper," the second installment.
Jade returns to the scene of Chainsaw's carnage, her hometown of Proofrock. She now goes under the name of Jennifer Daniels, it was clear that she couldn't go on being associated with the bloodbath of the past. An escaped serial killer, Dark Mill South, has also arrived in town with a bloodlust fueled by, among other motivations, the execution of thirty-six Dakota men signed off by Abraham Lincoln. Tomorrow is Friday the Thirteenth and the table is set.
I enjoyed Chainsaw, particularly the Jade Daniels portrayal. This one seemed labored, however. There were too many POV's, too many bleh characters, and not enough buy in by Jade / Jennifer. Looking at other reviews I see many readers loved this one more than the first, so maybe I just did not catch the fever. I will be looking forward to the finale of this trilogy, hoping it captures some of the spark of Chainsaw.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
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