Book Review: Lucky Us by Amy Bloom

Lucky Us

Author: Amy Bloom

Publisher: Random House

Date of Publication: July 29, 2014

Pages: 256

     This is a mixed up Rubik's cube of a book.  There are many constantly moving pieces which  fit together but somehow always fail to line up.  It is the literary equivalent of a Robert Altman movie: an ensemble cast in a wide sweeping arc of a story which never has an opportunity to pick up steam.  It is a story of abandonment and love, trust and betrayal, prejudice and hope.  Somehow, though, this mish-mash of a novel works.  It entertains and surprises.  It definitely keeps you guessing as to what in the world will happen next.

     The skeletal framework of the story revolves around two half-sisters and their individual bizarre attempts to cope with life in World War II America.   Strange characters emerge and re-emerge in sometimes startling circumstances.  These characters  include the girls' father, a Hollowood makeup artist, a gaggle of hairdressers and a deported German national. The reader quickly learns that turning the page to a new chapter leads to a totally unexpected turn of events. While keeping the story unpredictable, these twists and turns make for somewhat of a disjointed story.

     All in all, this was an enjoyable and entertaining read, one which explores character more than plot.  I would recommend it to readers who like authors who also write character driven novels such those written by Anne Tyler.   

Book Review: Land of Love and Drowning by Tiphanie Yanique

Land of Love and Drowning

Author: Tiphanie Yanique

Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)

Date of Publication: July 10, 2014

Pages: 368

     Land of Love and Drowning is unique in many ways.  First, the book is set in the Virgin Islands during the early twentieth century as island ownership is transferred from Denmark to the United States.  There is ambivalence about this transition among the islanders.   Secondly the complex story line is narrated by multiple characters, including one whole chapter told from the point of view of an unborn fetus.  Thirdly, the author, a native of St. Thomas, uses local dialects for some of the dialogue.  All of this adds up to an intriguing, interesting and entertaining read.

     The plot is complex.  The two main characters are sisters: Anette and Eeona Bradshaw.  They are also daughters of a sea captain who drowns in a storm, suddenly leaving the family destitute.  The two girls travel divergent but intersecting paths.  Their small and, at the time, isolated island lends itself to a complicated relationships.  In Land of Love and Drowning there are mistresses, incest and compromises.  None of the characters escape awkward entanglements.  These stories within the main story are juxtaposed with and illuminate the history of St. Thomas in the twentieth century.    

     The writing is descriptive and enticing.  Yanique's descriptions of the tropical locales make the reader want to book a flight to the Caribbean pronto:

"He thought of Anette and the ocean;  he thought of them as the same frightening, enticing thing.  Behind him was an army of coconut trees.  There was the thump every now and then of a coconut hitting the ground.  He didn't turn away from the waves for that noise.  He would only turn for the hushed movement of the sand.  For the swish of a leaf.  He wanted her to come up on him."

     This was a book I almost stopped at about fifty pages in because of revelations regarding the relationship of Captain Bradshaw with his eldest daughter.  However, as the story unfolded and the repercussions of misjudgments and misdeeds are revealed, the story became easier to read.  The writing is what kept me reading and it is well worth it.  This is an author with tremendous authenticity as well as ability to make the reader see and feel the locale,  I enjoyed this book very much, a lot more than I thought I would after the first few chapters.  

Book Review: The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell

The Wordy Shipmates

Author: Sarah Vowell

Publisher: Penguin Group (USA), Incorporated

Date of Publication: October 7, 2008

Pages: 272 

     Sarah Vowell takes a very intriguing and often humorous look at the Puritans in The Wordy Shipmates.  She explores the social and political climate in England which prompted the Puritans to embark on a treacherous voyage aboard the Arbella to the New World to found a "city on the hill" in Massachusetts.  She does a very good job of relating this early colonial history to current events and politics.  The views espoused by John Winthrop, Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson echo through the centuries and appear in modern speeches by Mario Cuomo, George W. Bush, John Kerry and others.  This is a fascinating look at colonial Massachusetts and sheds light on contemporary issues.

     The author illustrates her points with less well known historical vignettes.  For instance, the story of the mass murder of the Pequot Indians by colonists in a fit of self-righteous zealotry shows that using the banner of religion to further a cause and justify violence is nothing new and wasn't invented by radical Islam.  The story of Anne Hutchinson and the denial of her rights to use her God given abilities because of her gender is used as a  frustrating example of the Puritans narrow-mindedness.  

     The author ends the book by examining John Kennedy's Presidential campaign.  Kennedy's speeches liberally quote from John Winthrop's sermons, in particular his "city on the hill" metaphor and his notation that "the eyes of the world are upon us."  The vision of a 17th century Protestant colonist preacher inspiring and informing a 20th century Catholic politician campaigning for the highest elected office in the land is ironic at the least.  

     This is an excellent book, winding themes from the 1600s and showing how these same questions and thoughts prevail in today's world.  These stories are told with great doses of humor and the author has a tremendous eye for the sardonic and unexpected.  I recommend this book highly to anyone interested in religion, politics or early American history.

Ten Books That "Stuck"

Ten Books That Stuck

     There has been a recent Facebook thread in which people post the titles of ten books which "stuck with them" - resonated with them to the point that they think about these books weeks, months, even years later.  These books don't have to be great works of literature or part of any canon, just books that meant a lot to those who read them.  These posters then went on to challenge friends to do the same by "tagging" them in the post.  Alas, no one has tagged me in any of their posts, but I decided to post my own list anyway.  So, here, in no particular order, are ten books which have resonated with me, some for close to fifty years!

An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser 

    I read this as an adolescent.  I grew up in a very middle class home in a very middle class neighborhood in a very middle class suburb of Washington, D.C.  This book opened my eyes to the fact that there are other classes of folks out there and, try as we might, transcending class in America is close to impossible.

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

     I have never lived anywhere but the Commonwealth of Virginia and have always considered myself a Southerner.  This book defined for me what that is.  I read this one as an adolescent as well and growing up in a basically segregated world racism and the horrors of slavery were lost on me then.

Siddartha by Herman Hesse

     I read this book every summer for a number of years.  The story of Siddartha trying to make sense out of his life experiences was and still is meaningful to me.  This helped me start to understand the "bigger picture" of the totality of experience and the impact of one person's actions on others.

Body and Soul by Frank Conroy

     This is quite possibly my favorite book of all time.  I was far from a piano prodigy as a child, but hours of piano practice made me identify with this book's main character.  Frank Conroy's writing is so crystalline and pitch-perfect that you wonder why anyone else even tries to write.  Now that I think about it, this book is going back on my to-reread list immediately.

  

The Devil's Alternative by Frederick Forsythe (close second The Man From St. Petersburg by Ken Follett)

     I love thrillers and mysteries.  As a teen I read a lot of Poe and each year I try to read a couple of these types of novels for pure entertainment.  I remember finishing The Devil's Alternative while moonlighting at a community hospital in Richmond.  I was in a call room all by myself when I finished the book at about 2 AM and was totally blown away by the twist of plot on the very last page which changed the whole story.  I'm a big Ken Follett fan as well.  He is a consummate storyteller and The Man from St. Petersburg is my favorite of his thrillers.

 Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes

     The Viet Nam War was very much a part of my growing up and the beginnngs of my political consciousness.   I was in the very last group of men subject to the draft lottery and was very fortunate that I received a high three digit number.  I have read many books about this war, all of which are excellent.  I could have substituted Tim O'Brien's The Things The Carried or, even better, In The Lake of the Woods, but Matterhorn, for me, came as close as any book can to making me almost understand the horror of that war.  After reading this book you want to embrace every Viet Nam war veteran.

The Phenomenon of Man by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

     This book was part of Father Thomas King's freshman Theology class at Georgetown.   I was so intrigued with this author that I took Fr. King's upper level class on Teilhard as a senior elective.  Pierre Teilhard was a scientist (a paleontologist) and a Jesuit priest who spent his writing life trying to reconcile his theology with his scientific knowledge.  His books were banned by The Varican during his lifetime.  In The Phenomenon of Man Teilhard writes about evolution and how that scientific theory fits into theology (some would argue that it doesn't).  I greatly admire Teilhard's efforts and have adopted many of his concepts (including his vision of heaven) into my own personal theology.  Thank you Father King, who passed away just a few years ago.  If I were to pick a novel which has helped me the most to reconcile science with religion it would be Contact by Carl Sagan.

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

     I love great stories and Ken Follett writes great stories.  This one I remember like I read it yesterday.  Follett has a passion for medieval cathedrals and that passion shines through in this brilliant saga of 12th Century England.  I still remember some of the vivid scenes which this author created even though I read this 25 years ago!   While the central story is the construction of a massive Gothic cathedral, Follett blends in multiple story lines of romance, royalty, violence and life in the Middle Ages.  The characters here are all wonderful and seem like family members by the end of this lengthy novel.

A Saint on Death Row by Thomas Cahill  

    I am firmly opposed to the Death Penalty for many reasons.  I have read many fiction and non-fiction books about Capital Punishment, written from both sides of the argument.  This book encapsulates all that is wrong with the death penalty.

The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe

     I was told to read this while a surgical resident.  The man who told me to read it was and English major in college and practiced, of all things, Orthopedic Surgery.  This is Tom Wolfe's amazing telling of the story of the Mercury astronauts and the race to the moon.  The surgeon who told me to read this exclaimed "It's about astronauts but it's really about surgical residency!"  What it is about is what it takes to succeed at anything worth doing:  the right stuff.  

So, nobody asked for it, but there it is.  My list of ten books which have "stuck" with me years and years after reading them.  I could probably come up with another ten (and probably will) but that's enough for now.  I would welcome any comments about these particular books or your own personal ten meaningful books.  Thanks for reading! 

Book Review: Queenpin by Megan Abbott

Queenpin

Author: Megan Abbott

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Date of Publication: June 5, 2007

Pages: 196

     This is a stellar crime novel by multi-faceted author Megan Abbott.  This is classic crime noir with a familiar "good girl gone bad" plot.  What sets this book apart is that the central characters are both women.  It is told in the first person by an unnamed young woman longing to escape her meager background.  She is recruited by Gloria Denton, a notorious mobster who acts as a mentor of all things corrupt.  The young woman's educations is moving right along as she transports cash, betting slips and information between race tracks, betting parlors and offices.  She makes a critical error by falling for Vic Riordan, a slick lady's man and perpetual loser.  Major complications ensue as Vic uses our femme fatale for his own nefarious purpose.  

  

  This book is written in a compact, no words wasted style which evokes the best of James M Cain and Mickey Spillnae.  There is graphic violence here as well as a constant undertone of sexual tension.  The writing itself is spectacular, conjuring the styles and fashions of the times.  An example from an early exchange between Gloria and her protege:

     

    "She looked at me in that icy way of hers.  Then in a flash of the hand, she tugged open her crepe de chine jacket, buttons poppping.  There, on her pale, filmy skin, skeined over with thready wrinkles, I saw the burn marks, long, jagged, slipping behind her bra clasp, slithering down her sternum."  

     This is writing strong enough to earn this author a Best Paperback Original Edgar Award in 2008.  Megan Abbott has also been nominated for the Steel Dagger, The L.A. Times Book Award and The Pushcart Prize.  The lady can write.  If you are a crime fiction fan, especially the classics, you will surely enjoy Queenpin.

Book Reviews: Jonoathon Tropper's The Book of Joe and Ron McLarty's The Memory of Running

The Book of Joe 

Author: Jonathan Tropper

The Memory of Running

Author: Ron McLarty

(Blogger Note:  These reviews were previously published in "The LAMLight," the physician newsletter published monthly by The Lynchburg Academy of Medicine.)

“An identity would seem to be arrived at by the way in which the person faces and uses his experience.” – James Baldwin

“It is always the same:  once you are liberated, you are forced to ask who you are.” – Jean Baudrillard

It is purely by happenstance that I read these two books back-to-back.  They both deal with basically the same theme of self-discovery and do so in the setting of similar life-changing circumstances.  The main characters and sub-plots are radically different, however, making these two very dissimilar novels dealing with similar themes.  Both authors have an entertaining style and infuse a good bit of humor into what could have been very maudlin stories.

The main character in Ron McLarty’s The Memory of Running is Smithson “Smithy” Ide, an obese, alcoholic, chain smoking, single Viet Nam war veteran.  He works as a quality control inspector in a toy factory in Rhode Island making sure that action figures are assembled correctly.  As the story begins both of Smithy’s parents are killed in a freak car accident.  While going through his parents’ mail after their funeral he discovers that his only sibling, a mentally ill older sister, has died and her body remains to be claimed in a morgue in Los Angeles.  After a drunken binge Smithy impulsively decides to ride his old red Raleigh bicycle to L.A. to claim his sister’s body.  The story is told by Smithy in the first person and the chapters alternate between his mis-adventurous cross-country bike ride and his turbulent adolescence dealing with his sister’s bizarre behavior.  The sub-plot of major significance involves Smithy’s childhood neighbor Norma, a girl four years his junior who had a persistent crush on him.  Smithy always rebuffed her, especially after an accident left her paraplegic.  Smithy stays in contact with Norma throughout his bike ride and his discussions with her reveal his own self-discovery.  During his trip Smithy is run over by a dying HIV patient, threatened at gunpoint by the son of a Viet Nam war buddy in a ghetto in East St. Louis and is swept into a cross-mountain bike race in California.  Each encounter teaches Smithy something valuable about himself.  The final chapter is exceptional.  Smithy finally accepts himself for who he is, understands the wonder of unconditional love and exorcises the demons guilt and self-recrimination which resulted from his dysfunctional adolescence.

Joe Goffman is the main character in Jonathan Tropper’s The Book of Joe.  Joe is the antithesis of Smithy Ide.  While Smithy is reminiscent of the classic comic character Ignatious Reilly from John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces, Joe would seem more in the mold of Sherman McCoy, Tom Wolfe’s “Master of the Universe” from Bonfire of the Vanities.  Joe is in his early thirties and is a successful novelist living in a posh Manhattan apartment.  His first book was an autobiographical novel based on his own adolescence in the small town of Bush Falls, Connecticut.  Because of many revealing and embarrassing details regarding the residents of his hometown he has not returned for seventeen years and has remained estranged from his family.  Joe’s father suffers a severe stroke which prompts Joe to return to Bush Falls and confront all of the unresolved issues from his past.  This is another first person narrative, and Joe alternates between stories and anecdotes from his current visit home and the story of his senior year in high school which was the basis for his sensational novel.  The subplots involve Joe’s high school girlfriend and one true love Carly, and two male best friends.  The two best friends had a homosexual relationship as high school seniors, the reactions to and bitterness arising from which is the centerpiece of Joe’s novel.  Joe’s journey of self-discovery is more of an inward one compared to Smithy’s bike ride, but it is difficult and yet rewarding all the same.  The resolution of all of the subplots is not as satisfying as in The Memory of Running, but Joe does discover a lot about himself over the course of this book and there is hope for the future (and a probable sequel). 

Both of these books are well written: fast paced with excellent dialogue and imagery.  There is a generous dose of humor in both, The Book of Joe containing the more ribald kind.  I enjoyed them both immensely.

Book Review: The Gods of Guilt by Michael Connelly

The Gods of Guilt

Author: Michael Connelly

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Date of Publication:  December 2, 2013

Pages: 400 

     Michael Connelly has produced another intriguing legal thriller featuring Mickey Haller, "The Lincoln Lawyer".   This one reprises characters from the first book in the series (this is #5).  The strengths of all of Connelly's novels are in evidence here.  First the plot is intricate and complicated but not to the point of being improbable.  The characters are well drawn and there are plenty of conflicts to keep them in a stew.  The pace is fast and driven by crisp dialogue, especially when the story hits the courtroom.  You would think that his novels would become formulaic, but they don't.  

   In this story Haller defends a despicable but innocent man in a murder trial.  The defendant incriminated himself during the investigation and Haller has to circumvent that and establish an alternate theory for the murder.  His team of investigators (now including his driver, Earl) and a new partner stay one step ahead of the prosecutors and the police as evidence is developed pre-trial.  Haller uses courtroom maneuverings and theatrics to convince the jury ("The Gods of Guilt") of his version of the crime.

     One of the methods that Connelly uses to keep his series fresh is to introduce new characters.  This has happened several times in the long running Harry Bosch series (The Concrete Blonde, Trunk Music, The Black Box, etc...) and in The Gods of Guilt he introduces Jennifer Aronson, a young attorney Mickey hired to manage his foreclosure practice.  Jennifer wants to become more involved in criminal defense work and in this book she does.  It will be interesting to see where the author takes this new character in subsequent novels.  The core supporting characters are all here including Lorna, Mickey's ex-wife who answers his phones and arranges his schedule, Cisco Wojciechowski, Lorna's current husband and Mickey's new investigator and Earl, who drives Mickey's Lincoln Town Car.  Harry Bosch (who we learned several books ago is Mickey's half-brother) makes a cameo appearance as well.  There are humorous allusions to The Lincoln Lawyer movie and Mickey Haller copy cats in Los Angeles.  At one point Mickey leaves court in a hurry and hops in the wrong Town Car.

     The star of this and every book in "The Lincoln Lawyer" series continues to be Mickey Haller.  In this installment Mickey is a more sympathetic character.  He anguishes over his current estrangement from his sixteen year old daughter and has multiple pangs of conscience.  He still has his slick tactics and unorthodox approaches, but all of this seems more well intended this time around.

    

     This is an entertaining, fast-paced and well written novel.  As the Mickey Haller character evolves during this series the stories become better and better.  I can't wait for the next one.