Book Review: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

The Girl on the Train

Author: Paula Hawkins

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

Date of Publication: January 13, 2015

Pages: 336

     This story is a really good one.  It is told from alternating perspectives of three female narrators.  The first is Rachel Watson, the titular girl on the train, who is also an alcoholic wallowing in the misery of a recent divorce from her husband Tom.  The second is Anna, Tom's new wife who was also "the other woman" in the end-game of Tom and Rachel's marriage.  The third is Megan Hipwell who lives four doors down from Tom and Anna.  Rachel's daily commute to London on the train passes her old row house, now occupied by her former husband and his new wife.  While staring at her former home she becomes fixated by Megan Hipwell.  Rachel imagines an idyllic fantasy life for Megan, even making up names for her and her husband.   Megan's husband is absent quite a bit and one day Rachel thinks she sees Megan on her deck with a paramour.

     The novel goes into high gear when Megan disappears.  Rachel thinks she knows the key to her disappearance and involves herself in the police investigation as well as intrudes on the private lives of the other characters.

     Conflict is everywhere in this story which heightens the suspense and tension.  Rachel has obvious problems with Tom and his wife and develops even more issues with Megan's husband, the police and others.  The author uses the three narrators to tell key events from different points of view, each ratcheting up the mystery and strain between the main characters.  Rachel's alcoholism poses difficulties at every turn, but her blackouts provide a convenient reason for holes in the story and gaps in the reader's knowledge. 

     Most readers will see the resolution chapters before it occurs, but the story is so well written and clever that it is an exceptionally good read.  It has been compared to Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl but I think The Girl on the Train is a much better novel.  The characters are not nearly so stereotypical, none of the characters are particularly unlikable (at least until the very end) and this novel's setting in and around London is much more interesting.  To me, this story is reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock's classic movie "Rear Window" and that is indeed a good thing.  I have read a lot of mysteries and thrillers and this is one of the most fun ones I have read in a long time.

Book Review: A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler

A Spool of Blue Thread

Author: Anne Tyler

Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Date of Publication: February 10, 2015

Pages: 368 (NOOK Edition)

    There is a short list of authors whom I feel compelled to read every time they publish a new work.   Anne Tyler is on top of that list.  Her books have entertained and amazed me for many years.  All of her books are exquisitely written and cleverly plotted.  Each contains a cast of recognizable characters drawn from everyday life who are often thrown into some extraordinary circumstance.   This book is no different.  

     A Spool of Blue Thread is the story of the Whitshank family of Baltimore.  Red Whitshank is an old-school general contractor who fusses over details and lives in a rambling old home with a huge front porch which was originally built by his father.  He and his wife Abby raise four children: two daughters, a biological and an adopted son.   The two girls, Amanda and Jeannie take circuitous routes to adulthood, eventually settling into happy marriages.  Stem, the adopted son, is the steady one who eventually takes over Red's construction business.  Denny is the worrisome, prodigal son.  He disappears for long stretches, is easily alienated by his seemingly well-meaning parents and is the main source of conflict between and among family members.

      Even though much of the book focuses on developing the characters of the Whitshank children, this is really Red and Abby's story.  The book even takes a serious detour about three quarters of the way in to refocus on how Red and Abby met in North Carolina, became separated and eventually reunited in Baltimore.  All of the Whitshank back story is really preparing the reader for the main issue: how everyone reacts to Red's physical decline and Abby's dementia.  This is a poignant description of a family in crisis as it deals with the inevitability of aging.  Anne Tyler treats this issue with her usual grace and sensitivity.

     This book is filled with dexterous writing.   One night  Denny arrives home unexpectedly and the family gathers around the next morning to see how he is:

"He was wearing pain-stained khakis and a String Cheese Incident T-shirt, and his hair was very shaggy, fringing the tops of his ears.  (As a rule the men in the family were fanatic about keeping their hair short.)  He seemed healthy, though, and cheerful."

     Anne Tyler is also a master at scene creation, making settings come alive.  Here she describes the Whitshank home:

"Every ground-floor room but the kitchen had double pocket doors, and above each door was a fretwork transom for the air to circulate in the summer.  The windows were fitted so tightly that not even the fiercest winter storm could cause them to rattle.  The second-floor hall had a chamfered railing that pivoted neatly at the stairs before descending to the entrance hall.  All the floors were aged chestnut.  All the hardware was solid brass - doorknobs, cabinet knobs, even the two-pronged hooks meant to anchor the cords of the navy-blue linen window shades that were brought down from the attic every spring.  A ceiling fan with wooden blades hung in each room upstairs and down, and out on the porch there were three.  The fan above the entrance hall had a six-and-a-half-foot wingspan."

     Some reviewers have criticized this book for having "typical" and predictable Anne Tyler characters.  Others have claimed that she has recycled tired themes from her previous books (most particularly from Breathing Lessons and An Amateur Marriage).  While some of this criticism is valid, an Anne Tyler book is still a cut above the competition.  Read this for the quality of the writing and the delightful (if maybe hackneyed) characters.  You will be glad that you did.

"I Thirst"

"I Thirst"

(A Meditation on John 19:28-29)

"After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), 'I am thirsty.'  A jar full of sour wine was standing there.  So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth."

    This fourth statement from the Cross is different from all of the other statements.  It is the first signal of physical distress from Jesus in the Passion Narrative.  It is only mentioned in the Gospel of John, possibly because John was positioned closest to the Cross and may have been the only apostle to hear this desperate, probably whispered plea.

     Some writers say that this statement is intentionally included in John's Gospel in order to announce fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy:  In Psalm 69, for instance, the Suffering Servant states "They gave me vinegar for my thirst."   This intentional statement from Jesus would fit John's portrait of Jesus as in total control of events. 

     Some feel this plea is inlcuded to demonstrate Jesus' human-ness - that he suffered a human, physical pain on the Cross.

     I wonder if Jesus wasn't giving us a clue as to where to find Him once His physical human being was no longer with us.

     We would find Him in people who are in need:  People who suffer an actual thirst like our brothers and sisters in Malawi whom missionaries from our church have helped build wells.

     We would find Him in people who are in need:  People who have a spiritual thirst for knowledge  of our Lord and Savior, a thirst for the Good News of our Salvation which was given to us by God through the exquisite sacrifice of his Son.

     The more I thought about "I Thirst", however, the more I was struck by Jesus' human-ness.  Growing up, my image of Jesus was from a Renaissance painting: halo, radiant garments, walking on water.  I can't help but dwell on the human Jesus.   Yes, He was and IS God, but the miracle is that He was also a very real and knowable man - a human who had feelings and experienced physical pain...   JUST LIKE YOU AND ME.

John also tells us that Jesus grew tired after a long journey...  JUST LIKE YOU AND I WOULD.

Matthew tells yus of Jesus' hunger after His forty day fast...  JUST LIKE YOU AND I WOULD BE.

Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus, His good friend who died before Jesus could see him one last time alive...JUST LIKE YOU OR I WOULD.

Jesus was thirsty after hours of torture and trauma, and relied on the help of strangers to help Him in his hour of need...  JUST LIKE YOU AND ME.

Jesus is God, but he was also very human...  JUST LIKE YOU AND ME.

He sacrificed his human life in a horribly painful and humiliating way...  FOR YOU AND ME.

AMEN

(This Mediation was delivered as part of a Tenebrae Service at Fist Presbyterian Church, Lynchburg, Virginia on Good Friday, April 3, 2015)

Book Review: Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee

Disgrace

Author: J. M. Coetzee

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

Date of Publication: October 31. 2000

Pages: 220 (Trade Paperback Edition)

       Disgrace diminishes the disgraced.  J. M. Coetzee hammers this theme home in this brilliant study of a despicable college professor who loses his job after his tawdry affair with one of his students comes to light.  Twice divorced, Professor David Lurie retreats to the South African countryside to stay with his daughter during the aftermath of his fall from grace.  What happens during this sojourn is pure karma.  Does the professor get what he deserves or has the world gone mad?  

     Every word (including the diminutive "Disgrace" on the cover) is pitch perfect.  The author has masterfully created a totally unlikeable main character.  It is impossible, really, to like or feel sorry for David Lurie.  His arrogance is displayed often and early:

 "He continues to teach because it provides him with a livelihood;  also because it teaches him humility, brings it home to him who he is in the world.  The irony does not escape him: that the one who comes to teach learns the keenest of lessons, while those who come to learn learn nothing."

Later, even as he accepts humble jobs cleaning in a veterinary clinic he still manages to irritate the reader through his constant use and abuse of vulnerable women.    As evil befalls both him and those around him you feel he is reaping what he has sown. 

     This is a book about power and the abuse of power.  Professor Lurie abuses the trust placed in him by the University and the parents who send their children for education. The consequences of his actions on some levels seem unfair, in that the collateral damage affects innocents around the shameful academic.

     This book succeeds on many levels.  First, it is an expertly crafted work of literature.  The settings and tone are expertly conveyed.  It also succeeds as an in-depth character study, mainly of Professor Lurie.  The reader is repelled by this man's constant rationalization of his aberrant behaviors but, at the same time, gains tremendous insight into his psyche and lack of moral integrity.  This book was not a "fun" read, but a very thought provoking and intense one.  

Book Review: The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber

The Book of Strange New Things

Author: Michel Faber

Publisher: Crown Publishing Group

Date of Publication: October 28, 2014

Pages: 500 (Hardcover Edition)

     This book is itself somewhat of a strange new thing.  The main character, Peter Leigh, is an Englishman, a recovered alcoholic, drug addict and petty criminal.  He reinvented himself as  a Christian minister after being befriended by a nurse during a convalescence.  This nurse becomes his wife and partner in his ministry until he is selected to go alone to another planet to spread the Word of Jesus to aliens on a recently colonized planet called Oasis.  The colonization project is run by a nebulous company identified only as USIC

     It takes a while for Peter to become acclimated to his new planet and even longer to meet and begin his work with his new parishioners.  The author does a masterful job of describing this new world, including details of agriculture, climate, topography and the native inhabitants, called "Oasans" by Peter.  Peter is able to communicate with his wife, Bea, via an inter-stellar e-mail.  Just as Peter's ministry begins to flourish, troubles at home strain his relationship with Bea.  As he desperately tries to reconcile his missionary success with his personal failures, suspicion regarding the motives of USIC muddy the waters.  

     One can't help but be reminded of Mary Doria Russel's The Sparrow.  In The Sparrow the missionary is a Jesuit priest and the theology espoused is most definitely Ignatian.  In The Books of Strange New Things Peter's denomination is never characterized other than "Christian" and the religious concerns bounce around from issues of faith, suffering, redemption and salvation and even predestination.  There is not a particular theology presented, although the Bible is thoroughly explored as Peter translates Jesus' parables and teachings (Oasans prefer the New Testament).   

     The Book of Strange New Things is a marvelous exploration into faith and sharing.  It raises serious issues of being so concerned with others that you lose track of what's going on to those right next to you and trying to find that balance of saving the world but being true to your own relationships. 

Book Review: Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes

Broken Monsters

Author: Lauren Beukes

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Date of Publication: September 16, 2014

Pages: 448

     If Thomas Harris and William Peter Blatty got together and wrote a book, it would be Lauren Beukes' Broken Monsters.  Most of this well-paced thriller is the story of a particularly twisted serial killer preying on diverse victims in Detroit.  The ending changes the tone of the book into a hallucinogenic, paranormal freak show.  

     Set in contemporary Detroit, Detective Gabriella Versado investigates a series of horrific murders involving seemingly arbitrary victims.  The crime scenes are particularly gruesome because the killer engages in post-mortem mutilation of the bodies.  Versado searches for connections or similarities in the victims while also single parenting her teenage daughter Layla.  Distracted on both the professional and domestic fronts, the detective can't seem to get a handle on either role.  Layla's story is one of an unsupervised teen who, left to her own devices, finds all kinds of trouble on her own while trolling internet chat sites.

     The author is a native of South Africa but nonetheless paints a terrific portrait of a decaying and troubled American city.  The violence is disturbing but so is the despair and gloom of an abandoned urban landscape.  The author seems to be making a statement that the blighted environment played a major role in the development of this particularly sick criminal.  There is an eventual link to the art scene in Detroit and the author includes interesting depictions of contemporary urban art and culture.  

   
     Broken Monsters also makes a valid statement regarding the media and its ability to be part of the story instead of a detached, unbiased information source.  One of the main characters is an attention seeking video blogger who feeds into the killer's need for publicity which incites the criminal and hinders the police investigation.

     This author's writing is very vivid and Broken Monsters is fast-paced, entertaining and thought provoking.  It's not for everybody, however, as the crime scene descriptions leave little to the imagination and are horrific.  The strengths of the book are the depictions of urban chaos and the Detroit art scene and the overall quality of the writing.  Layla's story is an interesting diversion and a cautionary tale for parents of teens.  The ending  was for me, well, weird, but did wrap up all of the subplots into a satisfying conclusion.  Broken Monsters is a very good contemporary crime novel and is well worth the effort to read.  

Book Review: The End of Power by Moises Naim

The End of Power

Author: Moises Naim

Publisher: Basic Books

Date of Publication: March 5, 2013

Pages: 320

     This book is the first selection in Mark Zuckerberg's 2015 "Year of Books" Challenge.  It is a thought provoking and intriguing read.  The author has served as editor-in-chief of "Foreign Policy," trade minister for Venezuela and as executive director of the World Bank.  He has a grasp of how things work, or, as is more likely these days, how they don't work.

    The End of Power is like a Malcolm Gladwell book on steroids.  Naim takes a contrarian view of current power structures and backs this view up with charts, data and informed opinion.  The author feels that it is urgent for us to change the way we think and talk about power.

     He spends a great deal of time explaining what he calls the "More, Mobility and Mentality" revolution going on world wide.  First, there is more of everything: more people, more interest groups, more factions and more wealth.  Everyone is also more mobile.  He cites immigration statistics for multiple peoples and it does appear that populations are on the move at an unprecedented rate.  This is rapidly changing the demographics of communities and entire nations.   There is also an over-all more educated international populace which is acutely aware of trends, lifestyles and discrepancies.  All of this leads to more "players" in every power dynamic, be it the business world, education, politics or any other social system.  We live in a world where small start-up companies can challenge and usurp industry leaders in a very short time.  An educated and enraged group, spurred on by such recent technology such as social media,  can topple governments in the "Arab Spring."  Fraction groups such as the Tea Party can control an established political party.  This creates an atmosphere where power dissipates and no one has control.  Naim uses the term "vetocracy" to describe the gridlock in the United States and other nations where nothing gets done because power is so dissipated.

     The author does propose some solutions to this seeming conundrum of government paralysis.  The main way to restore order, he says, it to restore trust in government and our leaders.  He concludes:

"Restoring trust, reinventing political parties, finding new ways in which average citizens can meaningfully participate in the political process, creating new mechanisms of effective governance, limiting the worst impacts of checks and balances while averting  excessive concentrations of unaccountable power, and enhancing the capacity of nation-states to work together should be the central political goals of our time."

The End of Power is a challenging and frightening book.  It helps the reader understand some of the chaos we now live in and, by proposing some reasonable solutions gives at least some hope that we may arrive at a compromise between totalitarian control and anarchy.