Peter Heller’s The Last Ranger doesn’t have a surplus of mystery for a mystery novel. The characters are fairly mundane such as lupologist Hilly, who Peter Heller’s The Last Ranger doesn’t have a surplus of mystery for a mystery novel. The characters are fairly mundane such as lupologist Hilly, who spends her time being angry and drinking tea except when she’s involved with wolves or in a slightly audacious sex scene with ranger Ren. Along the way we dip into the current divisive society we have constructed. The descriptions of Yellowstone and environs, both flora and fauna, is spot on....more
David Grann’s The Wager uses first class research, useful maps, important portraits, scintillating etymology. All of my reading friends recommended itDavid Grann’s The Wager uses first class research, useful maps, important portraits, scintillating etymology. All of my reading friends recommended it: I am perplexed....more
I kept waiting for something, anything to happen in Hilary Sarah’s “Black Thorn.” I am still waiting. Set it up. There’s a new housing section on the I kept waiting for something, anything to happen in Hilary Sarah’s “Black Thorn.” I am still waiting. Set it up. There’s a new housing section on the Cornish coast and everything is going to hell. We have a troubled youth, an autistic home returner, adolescent sex, a transgender person of color, a strong woman. Have I missed anything? Two people killed. What is absent in most of this work was the sense of place. The Cornish coast is one of the most striking places in the UK. This novel could’ve taken place in Bakersfield or Bowling Green: Sarah tells us the place but does not involve the place in her fiction. The biggest flaw in the novel, however, is a useless –ans annoying--shuffling of time events, a memento mori of the movie Memento. ...more
Patrick McGrath’s Last Days in Cleaver Square is a sumptuous book, highly stylized, deeply nuanced. It sublimely presents the first major theme of an Patrick McGrath’s Last Days in Cleaver Square is a sumptuous book, highly stylized, deeply nuanced. It sublimely presents the first major theme of an old man on the verge of senility who has seen a ghost, an apparition that brings back ugly memories of his service in the Spanish Civil War some 40 years ago.
In deeper layers lie refined humor, sadness, and some brutal truths. I particularly enjoyed the poetical allusions by the main character, a minor romantic poet. And indeed he reconstructs the whole of Fascism in Spain that remained following Franco’s victories.
On the side we have filial devotion, historical truth, political naivety, acceptance, and a wonderful sense of life. The novel should be sipped as the character McNulty does with his sherry, carefully and in deep appreciation. ...more
Idra Novey, Take What You Need does have some good points. She balances two stories, that of a stepmother who left a ten-year-old girl and the girl asIdra Novey, Take What You Need does have some good points. She balances two stories, that of a stepmother who left a ten-year-old girl and the girl as an adult. In between you have a fair accounting of living in the rust belt of the stepmother Jean and the wokeness of the girl Leah. Jean is pushed into art by something, and we are not sure what. She also has a March-December crush on a neighbor ‘s druggie --soon to be homeless. Novey is flawless in her dual time narration. Novey draws the stepmother with bravado. The step daughter seems to be every cliché one can think of. The two climax’s of the novel, a chance meeting of the young lover and Jean just does not work in the presentation of evil and thunder. Likewise, the death of the stepmother is a slightened part of the plot to which everything has been pointing....more
I wanted to read a good local novel and chose Susan Straight’s Mecca. Whatever fictional world these words are wallowing in does not resemble a novel I wanted to read a good local novel and chose Susan Straight’s Mecca. Whatever fictional world these words are wallowing in does not resemble a novel or interrelated short stories. ...more
Heidi Perks’ The Other Guest puzzles me. Which I normally like in a mystery. She writes this one by formula: a closed room, although the room is a delHeidi Perks’ The Other Guest puzzles me. Which I normally like in a mystery. She writes this one by formula: a closed room, although the room is a deluxe resort on a small Greek isle. Unfortunately, Greece plays little or no part in the book. (I find nothing of the Crete and adjoining islands that I know.) There’s the “I’ve got to know” theme used by several characters. Interspersed are alcoholism, failed IVF, a pregnant barely post teen, an unneeded for the plot dead former mate, a blank Greek detective. But there are many, many words and time changes and emphasis on different characters –most for no reason. The ending is spectacularly flacid. Hold off. There’s bound to be a better mystery coming for your summer reading....more
The New York Times Book Review stated that Nagendra Harini’s The Bangalore Detectives Club was one of the best fiction books of 2022. The reviewer flaThe New York Times Book Review stated that Nagendra Harini’s The Bangalore Detectives Club was one of the best fiction books of 2022. The reviewer flat out lied. Lied through their teeth. The setting is the most interesting: India, 1922. But the main character is an Indian revisionist version of a woke Betty Boop. The plot is ridiculous including a prostitute with –guess what—a heart of bold. The writing is painfully and groaningly amateurish. Save your time and read Aamina Ahmad’s The Return of Faraz Ali....more
Barbara Kingsolver’s retelling of David Copperfield is masterful. Demon Copperhead re-establishes the setting as a Oxycodone vision of contemporary ApBarbara Kingsolver’s retelling of David Copperfield is masterful. Demon Copperhead re-establishes the setting as a Oxycodone vision of contemporary Appalachia. As always, the writer keeps a close leash on her story while allowing her characters room to breathe and expand. ...more
Wolf Pack starts out interestingly enough with a good Samaritan attempting to save a dog’s life. Tuva Moodyson, the Samaritan, is a reporter for a smaWolf Pack starts out interestingly enough with a good Samaritan attempting to save a dog’s life. Tuva Moodyson, the Samaritan, is a reporter for a small Swedish town. She also happens to be deaf and a lesbian. She has a lover in a coma with whom she talks nightly via Facetime. The comatose lover was apparently shot in an earlier novel. No ne of these elements figure greatly in the plot. Other plot appearances incorporate a number of red herring including an inverted cross on a dead girl’s neck and dead animals. There is also far too much detail that does not matter such as the variety of pizza toppings. This rather long and involved –some of action takes place in the Ozarks rather than in Sweden—book lacks much even though it throws bundles at us including asparagus farming and symphony composition and Tuva’s experience with claustrophobia. (The symphony composition is apparently for a solo violin.) Will Dean‘s approximation of Scandinavian noir falls limp and lifeless....more
I used to warn my students never to mess with Nabokov. No matter what game you were playing, he’d win. Since Julia Jonas never was my student, she nevI used to warn my students never to mess with Nabokov. No matter what game you were playing, he’d win. Since Julia Jonas never was my student, she never heard these words. Oh! Only if she had.
Imagine the novel Lolita deprived of the language, wit, and intelligence, and you have Vladimir. Stretch a thinly drawn aged female professor into a world of semi-correctness, and you have a novel with severe problems.
Yes, it has a few witty statements such as, “national bestseller” doesn’t mean as much now that nobody reads books.
Overall the work is as flat as some outliers seem to think the world exists....more
We Are the Brennans is a flacid novel with flat stereotyped characters. The plotting is almost nonexistent. BasicallyLange, Tracey We Are the Brennans
We Are the Brennans is a flacid novel with flat stereotyped characters. The plotting is almost nonexistent. Basically, although purporting to be a family study, the works centers on Sunday, a plucky young woman who is vastly misunderstood, although loyal and kind. She is in love with Kale, and has been since she apparently was post-pubescent. Something happens. She leaves her Massachusetts home and goes to California to become a writer. See, she won a writing contest when she was in high school.
In her return home after a DUI, we are introduced to the others: paranoid and bitter mother, long dead, jolly, hard working father now trapped by dementia. Baby brother with learning disability.
Marginally better than the dreadful All the Hills Are Gold from 2020, Jenny Zhang Tinghui’s Four Treasures of the Sky covers the same subject matter: Marginally better than the dreadful All the Hills Are Gold from 2020, Jenny Zhang Tinghui’s Four Treasures of the Sky covers the same subject matter: the depleted gold fields of the late 19th Century West. Tinghui’s book is one of those rare beasts; it is engaging at the beginning but quickly become rehashed ideas, endlessly repeated. However, it is the best book I have ever read about a Chinese, cross dressing, child prostitute, who has a spirit living inside of her while dwelling in Montana. The Chinese diaspora to the United States deserves better....more
Kanon is always good. He creates characters who are fleshed out. He structures believable plots, and he writes about problems that both he and you carKanon is always good. He creates characters who are fleshed out. He structures believable plots, and he writes about problems that both he and you care about. This multi-faceted work is on the skin merely another cold war tale of a divided Berlin. But Kanon digs much deeper with his characters, their beliefs, their actions, and most impotently the results of their actions.. At its heart it studies the political ethos of love, patriotism, and belief. He never lets down....more
David Sedaris comments on how hard it was to be a homosexual in North Carolina in the ‘seventies. Did he ever think of how hard it was to be heterosexDavid Sedaris comments on how hard it was to be a homosexual in North Carolina in the ‘seventies. Did he ever think of how hard it was to be heterosexual in the same time period in North Carolina? The diaries of his life on the road are fun and sassy. The diminution of his father as he ages and Sedaris’ response to it are very touching and at times infuriating. More recent posts about politics and Covid are draggy and uninspired. Still it’s 90% Sedaris at his best. An alternate title could be "David Travels the World and Collects Off-Color Jokes.”...more
See. There are two sisters. It’s Northern Ireland. One is an IRA member –maybe. The other is a strong single mother who writes about her infant child See. There are two sisters. It’s Northern Ireland. One is an IRA member –maybe. The other is a strong single mother who writes about her infant child a lot. Crossing his legs, latching on to the nipple. Changing his nappy. I mean he’s so demanding and so cute. And meanwhile the plot goes nowhere. Whoops, there’s mammy. Nobody nuanced or interesting invades the tome. It’s a thriller zzzzzzzzz....more
The Way It Is Now is a first rate thriller. It could have been so trite with its suspended cop with an attitude hero and the “I’ve Got To Know” trope The Way It Is Now is a first rate thriller. It could have been so trite with its suspended cop with an attitude hero and the “I’ve Got To Know” trope as he searches for the truth about his mother’s death some twenty years beore.. But Gary Disher rescues it with great attention to its plot and character development. Although it borders on the Oedipean, the surrounding beach culture of surfing and capitalism make this Australian novel shine like on the sun on an early morning sea....more
Historical novels, especially those involving recent history should be treated with such a jaundiced eye that yellows become a white wash. Such is notHistorical novels, especially those involving recent history should be treated with such a jaundiced eye that yellows become a white wash. Such is not the case with Elif Shafak’s The Island of Missing Trees.
The subject is a sensitive one since it involves the island of Cyprus and enemies as old as the fabled cities there. Choose a side, Greek or Turk. But don’t think of contemporary Turkey nor the Greece of junta times. Yes, I know, tough to do.
But Shafak offers a nuanced view to a continuing conundrum. In the meantime, she weaves a wonderful tale of love, loss, and partition.
Now a word of caution. One of the main characters is a buried fig tree, yes a live tree that has been buried. She (she hers her) narration moves the book along with grace and the insights only a Ficus Benjamina could add.
Now I am firm believer that anyone using magic realism should have the name Garcia-Marquez. But I was able to postpone my skepticism about the fig tree’s narration until the final pages. Still, this is a remarkable novel tight rope walking many divergent ideas and paths that mostly are incorporated with elan. ...more
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