Call for the Dead

This is a guest review from my eldest son, Deron:

This is my first John le Carré novel as it was le Carré’s. In this spy thriller that takes place during the early Cold War, we are introduced to George Smiley, a member of the Circus, a British intelligence agency named for its location in Cambridge Circus, London. At home, he receives an urgent late night call from the Circus Head of Service - Samuel Arthur Fennan at the Foreign Office had committed suicide. Only two days earlier, Smiley had conducted a routine security interview with Fennan prompted by an anonymous allegation. He had judged the claim baseless and assured Fennan that he “could see no reason why we should bother him further.” But despite those assurances, in a letter found near his body, Fennan wrote, “...I have decided to take my life. I cannot spend my remaining years under a cloud of disloyalty and suspicion. I realise that my career is ruined…” Smiley was baffled. The letter was in complete contradiction to what he had expressed in the interview. He then conducts an initial investigation and finds even more inconsistencies that convinces him that this was not a suicide; it was a murder.

Chapter one, “A Brief History of George Smiley”, was jarring. Rather than beginning with the action, the novel begins with a biography. I generally expect to learn a character’s history through relevant flashbacks as the story progresses and not given it wholesale. Only after finishing the book did this chapter make more sense. John le Carré is loudly declaring who George Smiley isn’t, namely Ian Fleming’s James Bond. Right out of the gate in the first sentence, the “breathtakingly ordinary” George Smiley marries the beautiful Lady Ann Sercomb, and in the second, we learn “she left him two years later in favor of a Cuban motor racing driver”. One might as well replace “a Cuban motor racing driver” with “Bond, James Bond”. Dapper? Smiley is described as “Short, fat and of a quiet disposition, he appeared to spend a lot of money on really bad clothes, which hung about his squat frame like skin on a shrunken toad.” In his prime? “Smiley was no material for promotion and it dawned on him gradually that he had entered middle age without ever being young, and that he was - in the nicest possible way - on the shelf.” And as far as espionage and foreign intrigue goes, Smiley was told, “Anyway, my dear fellow, as like as not you’re blown after all the ferreting about in the war. Better stick at home, old man, and keep the home fires burning.” This chapter also provides some clever foreshadowing of both Smiley’s professional and personal lives.

I did feel that le Carré was hand-holding me through the entire novel. Smiley noted the questions needing answers. Problems were restated, and there was very little misdirection. I always knew what Smiley was thinking through interior monologues. This left me never guessing.

The prose is the real reason to read this novel. John le Carré’s character descriptions, such as Smiley’s, are precise and vivid. Of Fennan’s wife, he writes, “Although frail, she conveyed an impression of endurance and courage, and the brown eyes that shone from her crooked little face were of astonishing intensity. It was a worn face, racked and ravaged long ago, the face of a child grown old on starving and exhaustion…” He is even skilled at purposely writing badly. I chuckled when Smiley said, “My story really begins in 1938. I was alone in my room one summer evening. It had been a beautiful day, warm and peaceful. Fascism might never have been heard of. I was working with my shirt sleeves at a desk by my window, not working because it was such a wonderful evening.” This is shortly followed by Smiley saying, “I’m sorry, I feel a little inarticulate.”

While imperfect, Call for the Dead was entertaining, and I found myself rereading sections. I’m looking forward to the next novel in this series.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

Comment:

Both John le Carré and Ian Fleming were members of intelligence services, utilizing their knowledge and experiences in their novels. Given le Carré’s awareness of James Bond, is it possible that George Smiley’s unfaithful wife was named after Fleming’s wife, Ann?

Caramel Part I

The author sent his novella to me to read and review:

If I was Haji Outlaw (he says that’s his real name) and had my druthers, I never would have done the story in the fashion that he did it in. Why write three novellas (are they long enough to even be called a novella?) totaling 171 pages instead of a decent size novel. Here are the page totals of each of the three parts: 84, 37 and 50. Haji Outlaw coulda been a contender (my favorite line from Marlon Brando in the 1954 movie On the Waterfront). A contender for what? A contender for the many sci/fi-fantasy awards that are available every year? Or the many dystopian novels adapted for film? The story is written in a crude and raw fashion (it’s almost still in it’s notebook outline), yet the reader is mesmerized by the author’s ingenuity. And although there are bits and pieces of other dystopian novels in Haji's story, such as, Hugh Howey’s 2004 Wool (see my review of 1/21/2016), it remains largely original and quite breathtaking.
 
I can’t tell the reader too much because, if you remember, part one is only 84 pages long. The year is 2112 (is Haji a Rush fan?). Most of the population live in the 135 story Giddings building. The rich and privileged in the upper floors and the downtrodden in the three basement areas (B1, B2, B3) which are overcrowded and toothless rat infested. The Giddings Building had been there since the winters turned sub-arctic at 50 below zero and summers heated up to 125 degrees. Why the weather changed is not given in part one. The novella opens with Stan mourning the loss of Donny, one of his fighters (I’m assuming that was the reason) in the drug infested B3, where there is always a blue haze in the stagnant air from the heavily smoked Scanoline drug. B3 is ruled by a gang of ruthless killers. “Stan was so consumed with these thoughts, that he did not notice the young woman who stood in the middle of the room with her head down."

Eventually gang members noticed her standing in the middle of the floor. They want her pretty jacket...or else. I will not tell you what happens next, but it’s not pretty. And Stan has his next fighter. She will not talk, so he names her Caramel, or Cara for short. He and Caramel are granted entrance to the higher floors where 16 full contact battle courts are located. Meanwhile in the ground floor tunnel, a line was forming to get in. New people were being granted entrance to serve the rich. “For the better part of the year the tunnel of life was vacant. But on this occasion it was filled with two miles of men, women, and children. These were the lucky ones. The ones who had made it out of the harsh winter beyond and had a chance to live and work in the Giddings.” Suddenly, there was loud crashing sounds in the tunnel. What can it be? Something is trying to get into the tunnel. Oh, I should have told the reader that with all the environmental changes, normal house pets mutated. The screams in the front of the line were horrible. “Whatever made it in...was killing. It was killing good. It was killing fast. And there was no end in sight.” You would never guess what was tearing the people apart. I’m not telling. It’s brilliant.

It’s a shame that I have to give this story three stars, because the author could have done so much better. His imagination is amazing. His storytelling is gripping. Haji can still fix this literature faux pas. Put all three novellas into one novel, embellish the the story with at least 200 more pages, grab a top notch editor to put it together...and wa-lah you will have a big time hit on your hands.
 
RATING: 3 out of 5 stars

Comment: It’s almost like Haji Outlaw was getting paid to see how fast he publish. Since I mentioned in the first paragraph that I didn’t read Parts two and three, I don’t know what direction the novel will take. The prose is rudimentary at best, but like everything else...he gets away with it. Can strong storytelling overcome all literature and grammar rules? Ya think?

THE BEAUTIFUL AND DAMNED

Wow, what a second novel! Coming off his first novel, This side of Paradise, no one expected F. Scott Fitzgerald to top the bestseller list again so quickly. F. Scott once again uses The 1920’s Jazz age and WWI as a backdrop for his second novel. The effects of future wealth and power are fully examined on the two main characters of the novel: Anthony Patch and his eventual wife, Gloria Gilbert. I’m also happy to report that there were only six main characters, which allows the reader time to get to know each character’s modus operandi. Anthony, a recent Harvard graduate, was brought up by his multimillionaire grandfather, Adam Patch. Grandpa wanted Anthony to write a book, or anything else constructive other than wasting his life away in the NYC nightlife. But Anthony could not get motivated in any career when he knew he was going to inherit millions from his sickly grandfather soon. Anthony got along nicely, selling off a bond or two (inherited from his mother) when he needed cash to continue his NYC daily cabareting. “At eleven he had a horror of death. Within six impressionable years his parents had died and his grandmother has faded off almost imperceptibly.” So you see, it was a matter of time before his grandfather dies...where else would the money go? Oh, life is going to be so good! Whereas Anthony occasionally traveled back and forth from NYC to Europe, he decided to get an apartment in NYC (closer to grandfather’s Tarrytown estate) and wait for the old man to die before living permanently in Europe. It’s not that he hated his grandfather (he didn’t); he just wanted his money. And his parties. And his booze.

I forgot to mention that F. Scott Fitzgerald is known to be the last descriptive writer. Let’s see how F. Scott describes Anthony’s seventy-five-year-old grandfather Adam Patch on page 16, “The span of his seventy-five years had acted as a magic bellows, the first quarter-century had blown him full with life, and the last had sucked it all back. It had sucked in the cheeks and the chest and the girth of arm and leg. It had tyrannously demanded his teeth, one by one, suspended his small eyes in dark-bluish sacks, tweaked out his hairs, changed him from gray to white in some places, from pink to yellow in others - callously transposing his colors like a child trying over a paint-box. Then through his body and his soul it had attacked his brain. It had sent him night-sweats and tears and unfounded dreads. It had split his intense normality into credulity and suspicion. Out of the coarse material of enthusiasm it had cut dozens of meek but petulant obsessions; his energy was shrunk to the bad temper of a spoiled child, and for his will to power was substituted a fatuous puerile desire for a hand of harps and canticles on earth.” What did he say? Anyway, back to the story. Anthony continues to drink and party at the many NYC private clubs he has joined. He is usually with his two best friends from Harvard. Maury Noble and Dick Caramel, who is writing a book. One day Anthony runs into Dick coming out of a barbershop. He tells Anthony that his cousin from Kansas is staying at her parent's apartment at The Plaza. Dick tells Anthony, “Got a cousin up at The Plaza. Famous girl. We can go up and meet her. She lives there in the winter - has lately anyway - with her mother and father.” Later, Anthony runs into Maury and is informed that he also met Gloria...and she has the best legs he ever saw. Lets meet Gloria.

Before Anthony meets Gloria, I would like to talk about the chapter F. Scott titled, A Flash-Back in Paradise. The reader meets “Beauty, who was born anew every hundred years, sat in a sort of outdoor waiting-room through which blew gusts of white wind and occasionally a breathless hurried star (is this heaven?). It became known to her, at length, that she was to be born again (is the VOICE God)? She learns that she will journey to a country that she has never been to. Beauty asks, “How long a stay this time?” The VOICE answers, “fifteen years”. All Beauty knows is that she will be a “society gurl”, as a “ragtime kid, a flapper, a jazz-baby, and a baby vamp.” This is what I don’t understand...the few woman in the novel all lived way over fifteen years. None of them died in this novel, none of them left after fifteen years... Is this a continuation of something that was started in F. Scott’s first novel? If so, I’m lost because I didn’t read This Side of Paradise. Okay, enough already. Gloria was gorgeous and every man or woman agreed. She was a lifetime partygoer and a big tease. And a big drinker. To Gloria, “Beauty always came first. That’s why she didn’t have children, the menace (a pregnancy) to her beauty appalled her.” Then she met Anthony. Her cousin and Anthony’s friend Dick brings her over to Anthony’s NYC apartment. It’s page 48...let the romance game start! “On Thursday afternoon Gloria and Anthony had tea together in the grill-room at the Plaza (try to get in there now, haha) They play the society game saying hello and blowing kisses to all the rival debutantes and bachelors. But they know that they are the stars dancing on the Plaza floor. Life is good...unless.

Some of the language used by F. Scott is archaic by today’s standards, but no writer could put a sentence together better than Fitzgerald. Some say this novel truly emulates the romance F. Scott Fitzgerald had with his wife, Zelda Sayre. In reviewing the many quotes from the real life Zelda, I find a Gloria Gilbert in most of them, such as, “Without you, dearest dearest I couldn’t see or hear or feel or think - live - I love you so and I’m never in all our lives going to let us apart another night.”

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

Comment: While Hemingway and The Left Bank Gang of Paris expatriate writers of the 1920s ultimately ended the descriptive writing era, I still prefer it, even though a novel like The Beautiful and Damned takes awhile to finish because it’s really a kind of textbook on writing. You really aren’t reading the novel...you are studying it. Fitzgerald never changed his writing style. That’s why I like reading the classics.

Did you know that Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (F. Scott's full name) was named after his father’s distant cousin, the author of the “Star-Spangled Banner”.

Many of Fitzgerald’s novels and short stories have been adapted to film. The Great Gatsby has been a movie five times, while The Beautiful and Damned has been done twice. Even his short stories have become movies, such as, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (you didn’t know he wrote that...did ya?)

In 1940 with The Last Tycoon only half finished, F. Scott Fitzgerald died of a heart attack on December 21, in Sheilah Graham’s (a gossip columnist) Hollywood apartment. He is buried in Rockville Union Cemetery in Maryland. He was 44 years of age.

In 1948 Zelda Fitzgerald died in a fire at a hospital in North Carolina. She was 47.

ANIMAL FARM

This is a guest review from my fifteen-year-old grandson, Kai O:

George Orwell uses the animals of Manor Farm to re-enact the Russian Revolution of 1917. Throughout the book, I found myself drawing connections from the farm to the actual events. At first, I was a little bit annoyed at this because I kept stopping every few pages or so to compare the story to real life. This got in the way of my overall enjoyment of the book. Later, I realized that George Orwell’s book was so skillfully written that I couldn’t help but find deeper meaning. Animal Farm was written in 1945, so the theme in this book seemed unimportant. But as the saying goes, those who don’t remember their past are doomed to repeat it.

The story begins with Old Major, a respected senior boar, calling all the animals (living on the farm) to a meeting in the barn. Once the meeting begins, Old Major tells the animals his dream for the future of Manor Farm. The old boar tells the animals of a farm where the animals rule themselves, and most importantly, he teaches the whole farm a song called, The Beast of England. This would be the rallying cry of the animal’s revolution. Old Major dies...but his original ideas live on. Quickly the animals revolt against their human oppressor, Mr. Jones. Soon Manor Farm is theirs and renamed Animal Farm. The pigs, being the smartest animals on the farm, became the masterminds behind the running of the farm, while the other animals took to the fields.

The animals now reign supreme on the farm. There are seven commandants behind animalism, but the sheep boil it down to, “Four legs good, two legs bad.” How will animalism fair when put into practice? If you know anything about the Russian Revolution, you have probably drawn a few conclusions. George Orwell gets straight to the point. Animal Farm isn’t a very long book, but every page added to the story. In my opinion, there are no boring parts in this book. Overall, Animal Farm is a quick read that would help anyone visualize what happened in the Russian Revolution. I would recommend this book to anyone twelve years old and older.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

Comment: Excellent short, but to the point review! As Kai gets older, he seems to dig deeper into the author’s mind to understand the true meaning of what the author is trying to say. I think he succeeded in this review.

I believe that it’s obvious that Orwell intended the Old Major to be Karl Marx; Napoleon, the pig, to be Joseph Stalin; and Boxer, the workhorse, the hard working peasant (serf). Snowball, the other pig, was the loser in a power struggle with Napoleon.