Dream Faces

The author sent me an autographed copy of his novel to be reviewed:

I’m sorry, I just couldn’t buy into this story. Why this story had to be told with all the characters having either a guardian angel (if you are a good person) or a demon (if you are a bad person) is beyond me. Once the reader gets the idea of the paranormal side of the characters...the author (Steve Shanks) should have backed off. It became very tiresome...enough is enough. Later the reader learns that if the boss (God?) determines real help is needed for someone, it’s okay for the supernatural to be seen and converse with his charge (although kidnapped, Grace, had no such help). What? The prose was way too rudimentary for my liking. This is the author’s first novel and I’m sure his prose and craftsmanship will improve. In the meantime, Mr. Shanks should work on his plot development and avoid dubious situations, such as the hiring of a moron (Rollo) by his boss (Mr. Petrov) to carry out crucial duties. The author needs to understand that his story must make sense. Okay, I’ll tell you a little bit of the story.

Mark Stephens is a painter (artist) who basically paints what he dreams. He has been painting three young girls over and over again. They turn out to be real missing females: Grace, Jordan and Ashley, all around thirteen years of age. He doesn’t know that the girls he is painting are real. Of course his seven foot guardian angel (‘D’) is always with him. I’m only mentioning this one time because every character that I unveil in this review has either a guardian angel or a demon with them at all times (so for repetitive reasons, I will not disclose it again). Mark sends out a marketing packet displaying his paintings. A Mr. Vlad Alexandrov of a NYC gallery calls and wants to meet Mark and see his paintings. Mark takes five finished paintings to NYC and Vlad loves them. He goes home (Michigan) and later finds out that the five paintings he left with Vlad are sold and a show is being set up for Mark in Vlad’s Ann Arbor, Michigan gallery.

Meanwhile, we find out that troubled young girls are being tricked by a loser named Jess (portraying herself to be a college student) to go out with her for a fun time. Instead they are drugged and brought to abandoned house by Jess’s weak-minded boyfriend, Nate. Then a gorilla look-alike Rollo cuffs them to a pipe in the basement. Rollo works in a Russian restaurant as the owner’s hired goon. Apparently, the owner, Mr. Petrov, plans to sell these girls to pimps. Really? If so, why starve the stupefied unwashed girls and let Rollo abuse them. This is where the story makes no sense at all. Eventually obnoxious detectives, Watts and Stein, appear to further muddle the story. There isn’t a single character that I felt any empathy for, even Jess’s toddler, Noah, who always seemed to be asleep. Did I care about Mark, who was going to get into a lot of trouble? Let me think about it... did I care? Nope.

I don’t like to be critical about an author’s baby (his/her novel), but there was nothing in this novel to hang my hat on. It was a rocky effort at best, sorry to say. But Steve does have a lot on his plate. He is an accomplished painter and his paintings are being sold in galleries and through his website. Maybe he will turn things around and write a credible second novel...just stay away from guardian ‘angels and demons.’ Wait a minute, didn’t Dan Brown already write that novel?

RATING: 2 out of 5 stars

Comment: Have you ever wondered who wrote the worst books of all time? (Steve Shanks’ novel is not one of them) Well, believe it or not, there are many different list of turkey books. The following three books make every list I’ve seen:

Scientology: The fundamentals of thought by L. Ron Hubbard (1998). His guide to greater happiness.

I want to tell you: My response to your letters, your messages, your questions by O.J.Simpson
(1995). Do you really want to read what this liar has to say?

Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler (1925). Believed to be the Nazi bible.

I’m sure you have your own favorite book that you use to count sheep. Ha,ha!

TREASURE ISLAND

“Shiver Me Timbers”, this novel was a treasure! Sorry for the pun, but I couldn’t help myself...I enjoyed myself immensely reading this 1883 adventure novel originally serialized in a children’s magazine, Young Folks (1881/1882). As dark as this novel is in some chapters, it’s hard to believe that children were allowed to read it. Oh well, the laws were much different in Great Britain during the 1800s. “Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest-Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!” That’s the drinking song of the bloodthirsty buccaneers of the times. Who are these fictitious pirates? They are some of the most well known characters in all of literature, such as, Billy Bones, Captain Flint (who has appeared in many novels and movies) and of course, the infamous, Long John Silver (he with the parrot on his shoulder). Wow what a lineup and I didn’t even mention their cutthroat crew. On the good guy side, I only need to mention the name of young Jim Hawkins, who along with Doctor Livesey narrate this story. Even though Robert Louis Stevenson died at the early age of 44 from consumption (now called tuberculosis) he was still able to write and publish such classics as The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Kidnapped. Now I’m going to tell you a little bit of the story up until the time they sail from from Bristol, England to Treasure Island in the Caribbean. Understand that I’m leaving out the juicy part, so don’t even think (for a moment) that I’m giving away the story. If you think I’m going to divulge too much...then STOP here, wuss! (just kidding). The following is my review of the first 53 pages. 

The novel is narrated by Jim Hawkins (in his early teens) except for a couple of chapters, which are narrated by Dr. Livesey. Jim works for his very ill father at the family owned Admiral Benbow Inn. One day a disagreeable seafaring man who calls himself Captain arrives at the inn. The Captain gives the innkeeper (Jim’s father) three or four gold pieces and announces, “You can tell me when I work through that...I’m a plain man; rum and bacon and eggs is what I want, and that head up there to watch the ships off.” He has a man with him who barrows a sea chest into the Captain’s room. During the day he hangs around the cove or the cliffs with his telescope (who is he looking for and what is his real name?). He stayed for months. Jim’s father was afraid to ask for more money. The Captain was drunk on rum every night and told the most dreadful stories to whomever was in the inn. Everybody was afraid of him and the inn’s customers couldn’t go home until he grew sleepy and went to bed. On a later day, Dr. Livesey shows up at the inn to check on the innkeeper’s health. After the doctor sees the innkeeper, he has words with the drunk Captain. Dr. Livesey doesn’t back down and says to the drunk seafaring man, “And now, sir, since I now know there’s such a fellow in my district, you may count I’ll have an eye upon you day and night. I’m not a doctor only; I’m a magistrate; and if I catch a breath of complaint against you, if it’s only for a piece of incivility like tonight’s, I’ll take effectual means to have you hunted down routed out of this. Let that suffice.” Winter comes and the Captain is still there. Jim’s dad is sicker.

One day while the Captain is out with his telescope, a sailor comes to the inn and asks Jim for his mate, Bill. Jim says, “Captain?” The sailor says, “the same.” The Captain comes back and sees the fellow he knows as Black Dog. They argue and draw cutlasses. Black dog is hurt and runs away. The Captain comes back in and asks for rum, but he reels and falls down. Just then the doctor enters the inn. The doctor realizes that the Captain just had a stroke. The doctor rips off the Captain’s sleeve and sees many tattoos, one saying that the Captain is really Billy Bones (He, a mate of Long John Silver and Captain Flint). The doctor draws blood (in the late 1700s, they were still bleeding patients as a treatment) and puts Billy to bed. Billy has the shakes, Jim gets him a glass of rum. Jim wants to know why the sailor was after him. Billy Bones says that they want his sea chest that was given to him when the notorious Captain Flint died. He tells Jim that he is the only one who knows where the place is. What place? During the night, Jim’s dad dies. On page 28 (yea, that’s all I’ve reviewed so far), Jim says, “I saw someone drawing slowly near along the road. He was plainly blind, for he tapped before him a stick and wore a great green shade over his eyes and nose.” The blind man says to Jim, “Will you give me your hand, my kind young friend, and lead me in.” Once in, the blind man turns nasty and has a vice grip on Jim’s arm and asks for the Captain. He puts something in the Captain’s palm and quickly leaves the inn. What did he give him? The Captain looks into his palm and says, “Ten o’clock! Six hours. We’ll do them yet.” As the Captain gets out of bed, he has a second stroke and drops dead.

Jim and his mom find a key around Billy Bones neck and take it off. They open the sea chest. Jim grabs an oilskin packet and a bag of coins and then runs out the back of the inn to get help as they hear the blind man and seven or eight pirate friends trying to break into the locked inn. The pirates get in and realize that Jim Hawkins took the packet. They hear horses coming, they run, but the blind man (who is the pirate known as Pew) runs in front of a horse and is killed. The horsemen were revenue officers coming to aide the inn. They take Jim to the doctor’s house, but he is not home...he is at Squire Trelawney’s house. Jim gets there and shows them the oilskin packet. They open it. It’s a map of Treasure Island showing where Captain Flint buried a vast treasure. They decide to go for it! On page 47 (I told you I was only going to give you a taste of the story), “Livesey,” said the squire, “you will give up this wretched practice at once. Tomorrow I start for Bristol. In three weeks’ time-three weeks!-two weeks-ten days- we’ll have the best ship, sir, and the choicest crew in England. Hawkins shall come as cabin-boy. You’ll make a famous cabin-boy, Hawkins. You, Livesey, are the ship’s doctor; I am admiral.” The doctor wanted to go with him because he knew the squire couldn't hold his tongue and the pirates also knew about the map, but the squire belayed that thought, by saying, “Livesey,” returned the squire, “you are always in the right of it. I’ll be silent as the grave.” Ha,ha, sure you will Mr. Trelawney (Was Stevenson using tree and lawn in the squire’s name to accentuate country squire? or country ignoramus?)

So Trelawney gets to Bristol and purchases a seaworthy ship named, The Hispaniola. Of course Mr. loose lips (they sink ships, don’t they?) lets the whole town know that he is going for treasure and needs a good crew (duh). Trelawney writes a letter to Livesay and Hawkins to tell them to get to Bristol immediately; he bought a ship and hired a crew. In his letter he says, “I wished a round score of men...till the most remarkable stroke of fortune brought me the very man I required. I was standing on the dock, when, by the merest accident, I fell in talk with him. I found he was an old sailor, kept a public house, knew all the seafaring men in Bristol, had lost his health ashore, and wanted a good berth as cook to get to sea again. He had hobbled down there that morning, he said, to get a smell of the salt. I was monstrously touched-so would you have been-and, out of pure pity, I engaged him on the spot to be ship’s cook. Long John Silver, he is called, and has lost a leg; but that I regarded as a recommendation, since he lost it in his country’s service (sure he did,ha-ha), under the immortal Hawke (a famous British Admiral)...between Silver and myself we got together in a few days a company of the toughest old salts imaginable-not pretty to look at, but fellows, by their faces, of the most indomitable spirit.” Can anybody be dumber? He just hired Captain Flint’s former dangerous quartermaster, Long John Silver and his ghastly crew. Okay, that’s it, I reviewed the first 53 pages. What happens after they leave Bristol and sail for Treasure Island is up to you to find out. This was a first rate novel that I highly recommend.

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

Comment: If you want to read a fabulous historical novel about Robert Louis Stevenson and his romance with Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne read Nancy Horan’s Under the Wide and Starry Sky (see my review of 3/15/2014). It’s well worth the reading.

During Stevenson’s short life time, not only did he write the three classics that I mentioned in the review, but other writers also penned classic works during the years between 1850 (Stevenson is born) and 1894 (Stevenson dies). What were they? Okay, here is the ‘hall of fame’ list:

1859- Charles Darwin publishes, On the Origin of Species.

1859- Charles Dickens publishes, A Tale of Two Cities.

1865- Lewis Carroll publishes, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
1872- Lewis Carroll publishes, Through the Looking Glass.
1872- George Eliot publishes, Middlemarch.
1874- Thomas Hardy publishes, Far From the Madding Crowd. (see my review of 1/26/2015)
1891- Oscar Wilde publishes, The Picture of Dorian Gray (see my review of 8/8/2015)

How’s that for a magnificent seven (not the movie...the list of the above books).

This is the Long John Silver that I remember from the Disney movie:

A WAVE FROM MAMA

The author sent me a copy of his novel to read and review:

The second novel of A. Robert Allen’s The Slavery and Beyond Series is a straightforward historical fiction story encompassing the struggles of freed slaves in the Weeksville section of Brooklyn, NY. In Allen’s first novel, Failed Moments (see my review of 7/3/2015), the story was somewhat arcane and nebulous compared to his current work. Both novels are profound in their own way but seem totally unrelated. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing for a professed series, but I must say that I enjoyed Allen’s storytelling ability in both novels. The reader gets a history lesson along with disparate tales pertaining to the difficult plight of slaves before and after The Civil War. I think the author’s prose needs some polishing, and he could be more descriptive (a stickler for me), but overall, he did a admirable job. I must say that I’m curious what the third book in the series will disclose since the first two were so dissimilar...except for the inclusion of the NYC Draft Riots. The July 1863 protest turned into a race riot with the Irish immigrants attacking the freed slaves living in the city. History says that 119 people died on that day (mostly Blacks?). The mass departure of the freed slaves from Manhattan into the Weeksville part of Brooklyn is the premise for A Wave from Mama.

Since the Irish were certain that the Blacks would take their jobs for lower pay, the Blacks left NYC for Weeksville after the riots. The freed slaves owned most of the land in Weeksville (finally they had a place of their own). Dock workers Ezra and Moses find a light-skinned black woman dead in a tent alongside many boxes, one with a boy in it. The young boy appears to be about five years old, tiny, and very violent. He jumps out of the box shouting, “You killed Mama, and you’re all gonna pay!” Then, the boy runs away. Later, Moses catches the boy stealing food at the general store and brings him back to the store. Good-hearted Ester Washington takes the boy in. He says his name is Vent (really Venture Simmons) and that he is twelve, not five and keeps mumbling, “I’m gonna get everyone who killed Mama.” He has the unusual habit of reciting numbers, such as, 2,4,6,8. Vent finally calms down and stays with the Washingtons. He is very athletic, fast, and can climb trees like a monkey. Everybody in the family accepts Vent except Horace (Ester and Thomas’s son). Horace is very vain (always looking at himself in the mirror) and is the top student in school.

Inasmuch the Washingtons took him in, Vent feels obligated to protect the family. When Horace gets beat up over a girl, Vent gets revenge by thrashing the kid who attacked Horace. Strangely, Vent goes into the woods each night swinging in the trees like a monkey and trapping raccoons (what?). Meanwhile the African Civilization Society in Weeksville wants to move to Liberia in Africa because outside of their area...the Blacks have no rights. Some of the freed Blacks leave for Liberia. Moses (now a friend of Vent’s) saves enough of money to buy his own property in Weeksville (you need $250). Vent finally goes to school (he is brilliant at math), and tells the principal his rule, “Any animal that eats his own kind is the devil, and got to be killed.” Vent is referring to the raccoons he has trapped and to the men who killed his mother. The men that went to Liberia come back, “The local tribes didn’t accept the Americans.” I’m only on page sixty in my review. The rest of the novel pits the freed Blacks, the Irish Whiskey gangs and the mostly corrupt police force against each other during the construction of The Brooklyn Bridge. This is where Mr. Allen does his best writing and storytelling while developing some ensuing big-time twists.

This novel enlightens the reader to a piece of history that most Americans were never aware of. Why did the Irish hate the freed Blacks? On page 67, a retired police officer know as the Professor gives the answer to a rookie cop, “The Irish understand they are viewed as the shit of society and as much as this is distasteful, it provides a kind of guarantee for the lowest-paying jobs requiring manual labor. The Blacks, though, created the pinch of the game, and the Irish view freed Blacks as a threat because they’ll work for even less. I’m sure you remember the Draft Riots six years ago-even though you must’ve been a wee bit of a lad. Despite the fact the Germans, Italians, and Polish might be viewed in much the same way, the Irish consider the Blacks as the primary threat to their livelihood.” This excellent novel by Mr. Allen covers the turbulent years of 1863 through 1883 in Brooklyn, NY. I’m assuming the third novel will take the story into the early 1900s. As I’m writing this review, I realize that it’s a good thing that this novel is different from the first, because it now makes (you guessed it) two standalone-novels. I recommend this historical fiction novel.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

Comment: The turbulence of the first two years of the novel (1863/1865) is further explained in the author’s Historical Notes & Liberties: “The first section of the book takes place in the town of Weeksville, a section of Brooklyn dominated by free Black landowners, which was located where Crown Heights stands today. Male Blacks were able to vote in New York during the early 1860s if they owned land valued at $250 or more. Many Blacks from New York fled to Weeksville after the violent Draft Riots in 1863. These riots pitted the Irish against the Blacks and the rich. The Blacks were targeted because the Irish were infuriated at the prospect of being drafted in a war that would free the people (Blacks) who would likely steal their jobs. Blacks were beaten severely and a number were lynched by roving Irish mobs. Many homes of the rich were ransacked and some wealthy New Yorkers were physically attacked because the Irish were incensed that they were able to pay a fee to be exempted from the draft.”

My favorite movie about the Draft Riots was the 2002 film Gangs of New York directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Cameron Diaz. Another fitting book about the Civil War Riots is Barnet Schecter's The Devil's Own Work (although I haven't reviewed this book yet).

the FIREMAN

This novel was literally on fire for 747 pages. Well, at least it seemed that way with spontaneous human combustion running amok in the appearance of a new nationwide plague. Joe Hill writes a convincing account of an outbreak of Draco incendia trychophyton (simply known as Dragonscale) in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. People are marked with a highly contagious spore that leaves black stripes and gold marks on the body of its host (some of the marks are very artistic)...before eventually causing them to burst into flames. Who could think of such a plague? How about Joe Hill, the son of the brilliant Stephen King, who wrote such horrors as It, Cujo, and Christine. Did his mom, Tabitha King (Caretakers and The Trap), also have an influence on Joe? I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree(s). Wow, what a novel. It’s the first contemporary novel (in a blue moon) that I had difficulty putting down before lights out. The plague has no antidote. It's spreading from city to city. NYC is among the many big cities burning down. How does one catch this deadly disease? No one knows. Cremation squads rove the streets at night ready to exterminate anyone they think is carrying the deadly spore. Hospitals have block long lines of patients awaiting treatment (to no avail). There are many significant characters in the novel, but somehow Joe Hill trims the commonalty down to a reader friendly core of five half way through the thriller. Great job! Let’s talk a little about the story.

Since New Hampshire had experienced only a few cases of dragonscale, schools were still open. Our principal character, school nurse Harper Grayson was in her office treating a child with a black eye. As she looked out the window, she saw a man staggering around the playground. He appeared to be drunk, but then she saw a fine white smoke coming out his sleeves. “The man who walked like a drunk began to sag. Then he arched his spine convulsively, throwing his head back, and flames licked up the front of his shirt. She had one brief glance at his gaunt, agonized face and then his head was a torch...school was suspended statewide that evening, with the assurances they would reopen when the crisis passed. As it happened, it never passed.” Is that an ominous start or what? The one distinct attribute of Joe Hill’s storytelling is his ability to grab your attention and hold on to it. It really is a hard novel to put down. Meanwhile, The NBA (National Basketball Association) cancels its season. “Come summer, most of the (Boston) Celtics would be dead by incineration or suicide.” Who is to blame? FOX News blamed ISIS; MSNBC blamed engineers at Halliburton (an oilfield service company); CNN blamed both. Then the unthinkable happened, “Glenn Beck burned to death on his internet program, right in front of his chalkboard, burned so hot his glasses fused to his face…” Harper goes home to her husband, Jakob. He forces her to agree to a suicide pact if they develop dragonscale. Can you believe all this happened during the first thirteen pages and the prologue? And you thought that I was giving the story away. That’s total flapdoodle!

So Nurse Harper volunteers her services at the local hospital. She is always in a full body rubber suit when handling dragonscale patients, dead or alive. One day a fireman (at least he is dressed as such) rushes into the emergency room carrying a sick boy. He demands immediate service even though he went in front of a line of dragonscale patients a block long. He says the boy has a stomach problem. The fireman doesn’t get to the end of the line when told so. Security is called and wrestle him to the ground. Before the fireman can cause a problem, Nurse Harper convinces the hospital to admit the boy because she says that he has an appendix emergency. The boy stayed three days in his room on the third floor and suddenly disappeared. How did he get out? Did the fireman use a ladder to reach the boy’s room? You just met main characters two and three: John, the fireman and the deaf boy, Nick. The first-floor cafeteria was converted into a dormitory for the healthiest of the dragonscale patients. The smolders were kept somewhere else. “Smolders smoked on and off, always ready to ignite. Smoke curled from their hair, from their nostrils, and their eyes streamed with water. The stripes on their bodies got so hot they could melt latex gloves.”(okay, I’m on page 27 of 747 pages). Later on the First-floor dormitory, we meet main character four, a lovely black patient named, Renee Gilmonton. “In a former life, she had been a professional do-gooder: organized a weekly pancake breakfast for a local orphanage, taught English to felons in the state prison and managed an independent bookstore that lost money…” She becomes friends with Nurse Harper.

One day Renee started to glow (lit up like a Christmas tree). She runs out of the hospital expecting to ignite. She wasn’t found. Later that day, the cafeteria dormitory patients ignited one after another. The hospital burns to the ground spewing ash high into the air. Harper got out in time but was showered by the ash. Her husband Jakob takes her home, washes her and then makes love to her. “A baby begins.” In the ensuing days Harper, in the shower, notices spots on her leg, “A dark, almost inky line, dusted with a few oddly mineral flecks of gold." Jakob is furious at her. Why did she have to play Florence Nightingale? Has she infected him? He leaves her for eight weeks (the incubation period) vowing that if he contracts dragonscale, he will demand her to endure the promised double suicide. While Jakob was gone, Harper finds out that, “She was pregnant and crawling with a flammable fungus.” Jakob calls and ask her if she is watching FOX TV…”She stared at the TV, jittery footage of a meadow somewhere. A few men in yellow slickers and elbow-high rubber gloves and gas masks, carrying Bushmaster assault rifles, were on the far side of the field...they were bringing people out of the woods. Kids, mostly, although there were some women with them...the first gun might’ve gone off by accident...the other guns went off, all together, firecrackers on a July night.” Then, “The newscaster was saying...illustrates the dangers of people who have been infected and who don’t seek…” I’m only on page 69, can you imagine what the next 678 pages holds for you?

Actor George Clooney was dead. He burned to death while on a humanitarian aid mission to NYC. Jakob calls Harper and tells her he has a mark on his foot, but he sandpapered it off. Jakob comes home and kicks the door open. He has a gun and tries to kill her. Harper looks at him and tells him that he doesn’t have dragonscale, but he doesn’t believe Harper’s diagnosis. Harper jumps out the window and breaks her ankle. She limps into the woods with Jakob following. The fireman is in the woods and gets the pregnant Harper into a tree house. Jakob fights the fireman and is winning until the fireman takes his glove off and ignites the hand that is wrapped around Jakob’s throat. Jakob runs away screaming (we haven’t heard the last of him). The fireman, also suffering from dragonscale, has somehow learned how to control the fire within him! Alright, I assume I've whetted your appetite and you want to finish the next 600 pages of this incredible novel. The rest of this story has more twists than Chubby Checker has. Yes, this review was long, but I didn’t even touch on the meat of this novel. Did I tell you about the fifth main character? No. Did I tell you the fireman has a British accent? Did I tell you about Bad Harold? No. Did I tell you about the pernicious Marlboro Man? No. The secret summer camp? Or Martha Quinn Island? NO & NO. You must read this novel...or you will come down with dragonscale.

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

Comment: In Joe Hill’s acknowledgments section, he says,”My screen agent, Sean Daily, and his wife, Sarah, offered support and good advice, and then Sean turned around and sold the film rights to 21st Century Fox and Temple Hill.” This will be an amazing movie.

Hill’s agent and friend, Mickey Choate, died of lung cancer recently (he was 53, never smoked and ran every day). So much for following good health guidelines. Joe said, “Mickey represented me for almost a decade before I told him Hill wasn’t really my last name.” Not for nothing couldn’t Mickey see the resemblance to Stephen King?
 
It took three drafts and four years to complete The Fireman. Joe Hill also wrote New York Times bestsellers NOS4A2, Horns, Heart-Shaped Box and graphic novel, Locke & Key, Volumes 1-6.

Who does Joe Hill look like?