Book Review: Her Every Fear by Peter Swanson

Her Every Fear

Author: Peter Swanson

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Date of Publication: January 10, 2017

Pages: 352

     Peter Swanson is rapidly climbing my favorite author list.  He's not quite up there with Michael Connelley but he's getting there!  I first read The Girl with a Clock for a Heart about a year ago,then devoured The Kind Worth Killing and now Her Every Fear.  Each of these books shares common traits.  All three have intricate, twisting and unpredictable plots.  The author was educated in Mssachusetts and now lives in Somerset.  Each of these stories is mainly set in Boston, a town the author obviously knows very well..  The characters in all of the novels are flawed "everymen and everywomen" who can be identified with.They each have a different but very unique premise.  This book has the most despicable villains.  Another cool feature is that the author pays homage to previous thriller and mystery writers by having his characters read time-honored novels.  Peter Swanson also has a great respect for all things Alfred Hitchcock.  Her Every Fear pays tribute to Hitchcock's classic "Rear Window".

    Kate Priddy is a young British woman recovering from a trauma inflicted by an ex-boyfriend  After months of therapy she agrees to trade apartments for six months with a distant male cousin from Boston whom she has never met.  The day Kate moves into his Beacon Hill apartment a dead woman named Audrey Marshall is found in the adjacent apartment.  The ensemble cast of characters includes a creepy man who has been stalking the now dead woman, some quite eccentric older apartment residents and the cousin who may have been involved romantically with the murdered neighbor.  The cousin's former college roommate surfaces from time to time as well.  The murky plot moves along at a slow but steady pace and has plenty of unanticipated twists and turns.  Just when you think you have everything figured out something unravels and you have to rethink things.  So, who killed Audrey Marshall?  You have to read the whole book to find out!

     Go get a book by Peter Swanson and read it.  It doesn't matter which one.  They are totally independent stories (albeit with some common structural features) and they are all equally good.

The Stanford Freshman Required Reading List (2018)

      Stanford University annually assigns three books to be read by their incoming freshman class.  Last year the topics included poverty, race and climate change.  This years single topic is immigration.  Wanting to be as well read as these eighteen and nineteen year olds I decided to read them as well.  Here are my thoughts regarding these three books, all of which were superb.

    The three books this year are: Brother, I'm Dying by Edwidge Danticat,  Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee and Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera (translated from Spanish by Lisa Dillman).  

     Signs Preceding the End of the World is interesting on several fronts.  It is a very short novel translated from its original Spanish.  This book paints a memorable picture of an illegal border crossing.  This is the story of Makina, a young Mexican woman sent across the border by her mother to deliver a message to her brother.  First, she must find her brother.  The author describes the border crossing in terse, descriptive writing:

"Rucksacks.  What do people whose life stops here take with them?  Makina could see their rucksacks crammed with time.  Amulets, letters, sometimes a huapango violin, sometimes a jaranera harp.  Jackets.  People who left took jackets because they'd been told that if there was one thing they could be sure of over there, it was the freezing cold, even if it was desert all the way.  They hid what little money they had in their underwear and stuck a knife in their back pocket.  Photos, photos, photos.  They carried photos like promises but by the time they came back they were in tatters."

     Once Makina crosses the border the quest to find her brother reminded me of Paulo Cueho's The Alchemist.  It becomes an epic journey of growth and understanding aided by gangsters and fellow illegals.  There is an interesting addendum by the translator describing her difficulty in maintaining the author's intent.  She notes the research she did to make sure the idioms and inflections of speech written by the author in Spanish are preserved in the translation.  This is a very valuable book for helping to understand the view from the other side of the border.

     Chang-Rae Lee is a Korean-American and teaches creative writing at Stanford.  Native Speaker, published in 1995, was his first novel.  The novel tells the story of Henry Park, a son of Korean immigrants who works as an industrial spy.  The whole theme of this book centers on Henry's constant attempt at assimilation -  the social process of absorbing one cultural group into harmony with another.   Henry reflects back on his upbringing by immigrant parents trying to preserve their native culture  and constantly compares that to his current life.  Henry is married to a white woman and their marital struggles mirror his larger cultural dilemmas.  As part of his job, Henry infiltrates the campaign of a Korean-American politician in New York.  This politician's success is due in large part to his ability to bridge the divides between the ethnic and cultural groups who must coexist in his city.  It is hard to believe that this book is over twenty years old.  The culture clashes described are very contemporary and one scene was reminiscent of the violence in Charlottesville last August.  Native Speaker is important because it redefines the old "Melting Pot" analogy of America we all learned in  grade school.  There is no one "American" culture to which all immigrants must eventually be part of.  Instead, we are a cauldron of differences, all of which need to be celebrated, but the parts of which need to learn to peacefully coexist.  Henry Park notes the problems with this "assimilation" thinking when describing his wishes for his own son:

"And despite Lelia's insistence that he go to Korean school on the weekends, I knew our son would never learn the old language, this was never in question, and my hope was that he would grow up with a singular sense of his world, a life univocal, which might have offered him the authority and confidence that his broad half-yellow face could not.  Of course, this is assimilist sentiment, part of my own ugly and half-blind romance with the land."

     Later, he describes the scene outside of a crowded Chinese take-out in Brooklyn:

"I know I'm American because I order too much when I eat Chinese.  We stand outside with everyone else, the crowd mixed, Jews and Hispanics, Asians and blacks.  Everyone gets along.  There's cross-talking and joking.  Easy laughs.  It's something enough, I suppose, when you know you will soon eat the same food."

     Edwidge Danticat is a very talented author and native of Haiti.  She has  written numerous outstanding novels including Breath, Eyes, Memory which was an Oprah book club selection.  She has been a National Book Award Finalist and Brother, I'm Dying won a National Book Critics Circle Award Winner for autobiography.   She has been quoted as saying: “Writing has been the primary way I have tried to make sense of my losses.”  In this book she tells the stories of her father who successfully emigrated to New York and her uncle Joseph who cared for her in Haiti when first her father and then her mother left.

    The author is master of description, both of her native Haiti and her adopted home in New York:

"After my parents were married, they moved into a small house in an increasingly packed section of Bel Air.  The cement floor of their two-room rental was the same drab color as the walls.  There were no windows or jalousies, just some diamond-shaped openings in the concrete, which let in some air and also plenty of water when it rained.  My mother decorated the best she could, draping the walls with wide ruffled curtains she made herself."

    She also has the ability to convey the deep emotions of a situation without being maudlin.  Her depiction of her years separated from her parents and siblings is particularly relevant to today's immigration headlines.  She very adeptly explains the political struggles in Haiti, both before and after her emigration.  Her uncles role in the continued upheaval defines the difficulty this family had balancing life in its new country versus concern for events and loved ones in its former country.

     Each of these books is valuable in its own way to help the reader understand some of the issues surrounding the current immigration debate.  Signs Preceding the End of the World very vividly depicts the danger and anxiety of an illegal border crossing.  Native Speaker illustrates the difficulties even legal immigrants face when trying to adjust to and  blend into a completely alien culture and society.  Brother, I'm Dying shows how difficult it is to completely extricate oneself from one's native country, especially when loved ones are left behind in a tumultuous situation.  

     These books as a group also have an enormous importance.  You can take any hot button social issue (think gay marriage, capital punishment, gun control, etc...)  and debate it in the abstract. When you add a human dimension to the debate, people become more empathetic and often the thinking becomes a bit softened.  These three outstanding books add that human dimension to the immigration debate and hopefully would soften the harsh rhetoric we are currently hearing.  I enjoyed reading all three and would recommend them all.  

Book Review: Idaho by Emily Ruskovich

Idaho

Author: Emily Ruskovich

Publisher: Gale Group

Date of Publication: November 7, 2017

Pages: 336

  I am honestly not completely sure how I feel about this book.  I read it because it was nominated for the Best First Novel by an American Author Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America (it eventually lost that honor to She Rides Shotgun by Jordan Harper).  Also, one of the main characters suffers from hereditary pre-senile dementia.  My mother died of complications of Alzheimer's disease, so memory loss and literary depictions of it interest me.  Then, reading little bits of this I realized that Emily Ruskovich is a very talented writer and her lyrical writing style drew me in.  So, it was with great anticipation that I began reading Idaho.

   For starters, the writing does not disappoint.  The author maintains a very high level of interesting and eloquent descriptions, especially of the harsh life in the Montana mountains.  Her characters are complex and intriguing, even mysterious at times.  The main two characters, Wade (who spirals downward with dementia) and his second wife Ann, are unforgettable.  The author deftly reveals tragedy after tragedy in each of their lives.  It is obvious early on that something horrible happened between Wade and his first wife Jenny.  The central theme is Ann trying to decipher exactly what happened and how.  The cause of death of one of Wade and Jenny's daughters and the disappearance of the other are the central mysteries of Idaho.

     The book succeeds magnificently in its depiction of dementia, not only in how the sufferer feels and copes but in how the disease devastates the lives of those who care about them.  The angst Wade feels as he realizes he is losing his grip on reality and the terror Ann experiences as Wade becomes violent and dangerous are gripping.

     My only gripe about Idaho, but it is a major one, is that there is a very open ending to the story.  Maybe the author is leaving room for a sequel or maybe she wants us to use our own imagination to finish the story.  I was a bit angry at the end that there were so many loose ends.  But maybe that's just me.  This book is very valuable in its depiction of a desperate dementia patient and the devastating impact on his family and community.  For those who have not lived with this first-hand, Idaho gives very empathetic insights into what is becoming a very common crisis.

Book Review: The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston

The Lost City of the Monkey God

Author: Douglas Preston

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Date of Publication: September 5, 2017

Pages: 407

     Douglas Preston is a multi-faceted and accomplished writer.  He has written articles for "National Geographic" and "The New Yorker" as well as non-fiction best sellers (The Monster of Florence).  He is also the co-author with Lincoln Child of a best-selling detective series.  He uses all of the tools in his toolbox for The Lost City of the Monkey God.  It has all of the detail and science contained in a serious periodical piece, the pace and style of the best fiction, and it tells a truly fascinating (and true) story to boot.

     The Lost City chronicles an expedition to find the legendary "White City" in Honduras.  For five hundred years people have speculated on the existence of a huge lost city in the rain forest which had been the home of a vanished culture.  Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes reported hearing of a vast community with great wealth and from this the legend grew.  Over the ensuing centuries various researchers, archeologists and explorers hypothesized on the location.  Interest in this lost city increased in the 1990s and several attempts were made to find it in the early 2000s.  It wasn't until the advent of lidar technology (lidar is an acronym for light imaging, detection and ranging) that a credible location for the White City could be defined.  The author adroitly explains this space age technology and how it has been used to find historical sites buried in sand in the Middle East.  Science readers will appreciate this chapter.   Preston goes on to describe how lidar was used in the Honduran rain forest and how it helped pinpoint a possible location for further exploration.  It was film maker Steve Elkins, fascinated by the legend of the lost White City, who proposed using lidar to try to locate it.  It was Elkins who finally got this expedition together once the possible location was discovered with lidar.

   Once the planning and funding of the expedition was arranged, Preston was invited to join the team as a journalist.  Permission from the Honduran government was finally obtained (politics is politics, regardless of what country) and the expedition was on.  What follows is a vivid portrayal of a wild experience worthy of an Indiana Jones movie!  Dilapidated helicopters delivered a motley group of scientists and academics deep into an impenetrable jungle.  Camp sites were protected by incompetent and corrupt members of the Honduran armed forces.  Danger was around every tree.  Here is how Preston describes what happened on his first night in the jungle:  "Eager to record some of the stories being told, I hurried back to my hammock on the other side of camp to fetch my notebook.  My new headlamp was defective, so Juan Carlos loaned me a crank flashlight."  Needless to say, Preston got disoriented in the dark, lost the trail but finally found his way back to the campsite.  "Thrilled to be safely back in camp, I circled the hammock, probing the wall of forest with my light for the path that would take me to where the rest of the group was chatting.  On my second circle of the hammock, I froze as my beam passed over a huge snake."  It was a fer-de-lance, one of the largest and deadliest of the venomous snakes indigenous to the area.  "It was staring at me, in striking position, its head swaying back and forth, its tongue flicking in and out.  I had walked right past it - twice."  An unbelievable two page description of bringing the six foot snake down follows.  This description is more frightening than anything every written by Stephen King, Edgar Allan Poe or anybody else for that matter!

     There is a lot here for history buffs as well.  Preston educates the reader about "Pre-Columbian" and "Post-Columbian" eras in Central America and also about Mayan and other native cultures.  Many artifacts were discovered in the areas pin-pointed by the lidar scans and knowledge of the history and culture of the area was critical when trying to elucidate their origins and time period.

     The story doesn't end with the expedition.  For months after everyone returned, more and more of the explorers became sick with fevers, muscle aches, cramps and skin lesions.  This included Douglas Preston who came down with the illness while on a holiday with his wife in Switzerland and France.  Several chapters follow which discuss various tropical and infectious diseases.  Eventually the National Institute of Health became involved and the responsible parasite was finally identified and proper treatment prescribed. 

     In summary, this book was exciting, fascinating, educational and scary.  Often all at the same time.  I can't recommend it highly enough. 

Book Review: The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson

The Kind Worth Killing

Author: Peter Swanson

Publisher: HarperCollins

Date of Publication: February 2, 2015

Pages: 416

     I enjoyed Peter Swanson's first effort, The Girl with A Clock for a Heart so much that I purchased his second book and devoured it as well.  I was thrilled that The Kind Worth Killing is even better!  The author uses a multiple viewpoint format for a super twist on the story line of Patricia Highsmith's Strangers on a Train.

     The narrative starts slowly and innocently enough with a conversation between two strangers which starts in an airport lounge in London and continues on a trans-Atlantic flight to Boston.  Ted Severson's tongue becomes a little loose after a few martinis and he tells Lilly Kitner about his wife's affair with a contractor building their summer home in Maine.  Talk turns to murder and Lilly almost jokingly agrees to help with the deed.  This strange association continues in the weeks after with clandestine meetings between the pair.

     The story line moves from flashbacks to Ted and his wife Miranda's courtship and marriage and Lilly's college romances and their subsequent tragic endings to the present day infidelity, subterfuge and murderous intent.  There are also chapters told from Miranda's viewpoint which really turn this story on its head.  What separates this novel from the cliche of a plot to murder an unfaithful spouse are the twists and turns in the plot which are masterful.  The story caroms at high speed and with truly unanticipated shocking turns, creating an arabesque plot which is as entertaining as it is
truly surprising.

    I found the writing to be excellent.  The characters are all terribly flawed but extremely well developed.  The most captivating character is, not surprisingly, Lilly, who utters this memorable line:

"Truthfully, I don't think murder is necessarily as bad as people make it out to be. Everyone dies. What difference does it make if a few bad apples get pushed along a little sooner than God intended? And your wife, for example, seems like the kind worth killing."

     The structure of the of the book is similar to the successful technique used in The Girl with a Clock for a Heart.  Instead of being formulaic, however, the author uses and refines the technique (flashbacks/multiple viewpoints) and creates an even better novel than his first.  Both are exceptional in my view and I recommend both highly.  Hopefully, the inevitable movie versions of these two stories live up to the quality of the novels.

Book Review: Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell

Dreamers of the Day

Author: Mary Doria Russell

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group

Date of Publication: December 16, 2008

Pages: 288

     If you are not familiar with Mary Doria Russell, she is a very versatile author who has published science fiction, westerns and historical fiction.  All of her books are well written and are character driven.  She is also very entertaining to follow on Facebook.  Dreamers of the Day was published in 2008 and is a historical novel set in the early 20th century.  

     The main character is Agnes Shanklin, a spinster who lives in Cleveland, Ohio.  The first section of the book describes her early life with a domineering, belittling mother and her family's battle with the Great Influenza of 1918.  Agnes is her family's sole survivor.  In the final two thirds of the book Agnes takes control of her life, decides to travel and arrives in Egypt during the Cairo conference in 1921. There she is caught up in a fantastic cast of historical characters including T. E. Lawrence, Winston Churchill, his wife Clementine and Lady Gertrude Bell.  Agnes finds herself embroiled in conversations regarding rule of the Middle East following World War I.  Arab self-rule comes in conflict with British, French, Jewish, Palestinian and German interests in the area.   The Cairo Conference of 1921 was held from March 12-30 and was convened by the British to sort out conflicting policies regarding the Middle East.  The outcome of this conference defined British and French jurisdictions and created the country of Iraq.  It has been said that you cannot understand the modern conflict in the Middle East without first understanding the politics and the aftermath of World War I and this book helps shed light on that subject.  

     An amusing secondary "character" is Agnes' noisy and fussy pet daschund Rosie.  Agnes goes everywhere with Rosie, including the Middle East.  The problems of traveling with this dog not only allows Agnes to meet some of the famous characters but provides several comic episodes as well.  Agnes and Rosie's excursion on the Nile in a fishing boat is a highlight of the entire book.

     Another hallmark of this author's books is her incredible attention to detail, a result of tireless research.  She has obviously done her homework here, presenting a mesmerizing tour of many famous sites, including the pyramids of Gaza and the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem.  Agnes becomes very perplexed by the commercialism and crowded, tourist trap nature of the holy sites in Jerusalem (and this was in 1921!).  This is part of her description of visiting the Holy Sepulchre:

"The farther into the shrine we moved, the staler the air became.  Around the periphery of the shrine, the morning processions were assembling, and at least two kinds of incense began to waft toward us.  The cloying scents mixed with the sort of crowd odor that silently proclaims a variable devotion to the principles of good hygiene.  Arab workmen were taking a break from their morning's task, smoking hashish near a side altar.  Eating and joking, they contributed woozy laughter to echoing wails, a rumble of muttered commentary, and the occasional shocking guffaw.  Chants, chimes, and clanking metal chains added to a growing cacophony.  Prayers and conversations grew louder in response."

     Dreamers of the Day was entertaining and educational at the same time.  I enjoyed it quite a bit and would recommend it (and any other of this author's books) highly.