Shadow's Fire: A Chance Beginning

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

This fantasy novel had a slight herky-jerky start...a tad quick for my hankering. The novel should have elaborated on how and why Erik Eleodum (why the exotic last name?), his brother Befel (another strange name), and his cousin Bryon became disenchanted with farming. Instead, by page eight they were already on the road to adventure. By page 24, they were already gone two years. What? First of all, doesn’t the author, Christopher Patterson, need to develop the story a little more so we can warm up to the protagonists? Second of all, why all the offbeat names (I only mentioned a few)? The Lord of the Rings has already been written. It’s okay to use names of personae and countries that are easy to pronounce and remember. The laborious names don’t add to the flavor of the novel at all, as a matter of fact, it’s an irritation because it’s difficult for the reader to remember all the character’s names. If the writer is going to use unfamiliar names, he or she should provide a cast of characters in the front of the novel with a brief cameo of each character (as an example, refer to Tilar J. Mazzeo’s book, The Hotel on Place Vendome). Okay, enough of my somewhat inane ranting. If I didn’t give my required criticism, it wouldn’t be a Rick Review. Oh, before I tell the reader that I liked the novel...the sketched maps were God-awful. Come on Christopher, hire someone who is an artist. Lastly, how many players do you need in this novel? Is a couple hundred enough? Is this like Stanley Kubrick’s 1960 film, Spartacus with a cast of 10,500? Okay, I can’t stop being a wiseguy and I’m obviously exaggerating. But here is the good news, the novel settles down after a stunted start and becomes enjoyable. What took you so long, Christopher?

The three boys join a caravan of gypsies on their way to the seaport of Finlo. The gypsies are led by Marcus, a giant of a man, who is supported by his beautiful wife, Nadya...is Befel enamored? I think so. Anyway, their trip is uneventful until a man named Fox disappears into the Blue Forest one morning at dawn. Erik, sensing trouble, wakes Marcus and some of the other gypsies. Sure enough the caravan is under attack by slavers. What ensues from page 87 to page 99 is somewhat comparable to fights in Bernard Cornwell’s historical fiction novel, Agincourt. Wow, did I say that? Nobody is better than Cornwell in describing death in battle. But I submit a sample of the slaver battle on page 95, “The blade dug into Befel’s left shoulder, all the way to the handle. Befel cried out, his screams at first silent, and then deafening. He brought his homemade blade up, into the slaver’s gut. The younger man heaved, vomiting blood all over Befel. Befel (note: I don’t like using the same word or name, back to back, such as, Befel) pressed his knife up, rending flesh, cutting bowels. The fighting stopped.” This is only one example of the hand to hand combat scenarios that bleed for 13 continuous pages. Where did this author come up with this prose? I could have easily quit reading this book in the first ten pages, but I’m delighted that I didn’t. Sometimes the reader feels like "throwing in the towel" and discontinue reading. If everybody did that, we would be missing some super classic novels, such as Herman Melville’s Moby Dick (which was super boring at times). Anyhow, after the dead are buried, the three boys continue their trip east (with the survivors of the caravan) to Finlo on the South Sea.

Once in Finlo, Befel seeks help from a barber named Kevon, who is a sometimes surgeon of sorts. Befel needs his shoulder looked at and marginally repaired. This is where I stop recapping the rest of this first novel of a proposed trilogy. What will happen to the three boys (now men) in Finlo...will they board a ship to their great adventure? Or will they get stuck in Finlo at The Drunken Fin? Will the slavers attack them in reprisal? Is that traitor Fox still out there? And who is General Patuk Al’ Banan? Will we see Dwarves in this adventure? Wow, that’s a great series of questions. It seems to me that first time writers like Christopher Patterson feel obligated to start their career with a trilogy. Why? Couldn’t we have closed out this novel and tried something different? If the author retains the dream of writing the great American novel, as his grandmother desires, I don’t think that it is going to be written in the fantasy genre. The author’s first novel is not the great American novel. Other people have tried to write the great American novel, such as, Margaret Mitchell with Gone With the Wind (1936) or Harper lee with To Kill a Mockingbird (1960). Did they? What about Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)? Which one would you choose? I’ve read all three and can’t decide. The one fact I can determine is that Christopher Patterson has talent. Do I think that he is wasting his talent in the fantasy world? Maybe. I have to admit that I ask a lot of questions in my reviews, don’t I? I recommend this novel and suggest that the author finds a major publisher to promote his future works. How? To quote the great American boxer, Mike Tyson, “These books ain’t window dressing. I think Machiavelli’s the most sophisticated writer outside of Shakespeare. Way ahead of his time. Such a manipulative person. Everything he accomplished he did by kissin’ ass.” Enough said?

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

Comment: So what are the greatest fantasy series ever written? Well, here are a few that will make any reader's top ten list:

How about George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire (a Game of Thrones)? Fantasybookreview.co.uk says, “George RR Martin’s glorious high fantasy tells the tragic story of treachery, greed and war that threatens the unity of the Seven Kingdoms south of the Wall.” And I say that it is by far the best fantasy series I’ve ever read. I’ve read all the novels and I am waiting with bated breath for the next novel.

How about JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series? Fantasybookreview.co.uk says, “Read and find out how Harry discovers his true heritage at Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft, the reason behind his parents mysterious death, who is out to kill him and how he uncovers the most amazing secret of all time, the fabled Philosopher’s Stone.” This was a very enjoyable series, but I have to admit that I only saw the movies and never read any of the novels.

How about Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series? Fantasybookreview.co.uk says, “Stephen King introduces readers to one of his most enigmatic heroes, Roland of Gilead, the last gunslinger. He is a haunting figure, a loner, on a spellbinding journey into good and evil, in a desolate world which frighteningly echoes our own.” I just made a mental note to read one of these novels. Oops!

How about Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series? Fantastybookreview.co.uk says, “Twoflower was a tourist, the first ever seen on the Discworld. Tourist, Rincewind decided, meant idiot. Somewhere on the frontier between thought and reality exists the Discworld, a parallel time and place which might sound and smell very much like our own, but which looks completely different.” Now, here is a series that I read many of the novels. My favorite being, The Color of Magic. Unfortunately, Mr. Pratchett recently passed away. God Bless.

The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith

This is a guest review from Deron O:

I purchased this book of short stories ten years ago and I don’t remember why. It wasn’t because of his name, Cordwainer Smith, that’s for sure. I’d never heard of him, his stories don’t appear in the usual round-ups of the best sci-fi, and there surely hasn’t been a summer blockbuster movie inveigling, “From the mind of Cordwainer Smith…”. I’m glad I finally read this book. It was one entertaining story after another.

The first twenty-seven stories chronicle a future history of mankind spanning over 15,000 years from now through the Ancient Wars that destroyed civilization, through the foundation of utopia guided and governed by the Instrumentality of Mankind, through to the Rediscovery of Man. Rather than “spanning”, I might have said “looping back”. While utopia did end death, hunger, and work, life became bland, each day the same. History ceased. “The nightmare of perfection had taken [mankind] to the edge of suicide.” It was then that “...the Instrumentality dug deep in the treasury, reconstructing the old cultures, the old languages, and even the old troubles.” This is the Rediscovery of Man. The final six stories are unrelated to Smith’s future history, but are just as good.

His ideas are peculiar, and often, the first page or two of a story makes only vague sense. Scanners Live in Vain begins, “Martel was angry. He did not even adjust his blood away from anger. He stamped across the room by judgment, not by sight. When he saw the table hit the floor, and could tell by the expression on Luci's face that the table must have made a loud crash, he looked down to see if his leg was broken. It was not.” Also, terms are used multiple time before being explained, such as “cranch”. When the ideas and terms became clearer, I’d often reread those first few pages and visualize something completely different than I did initially. This adds to the richness of Smith’s universe.

Many stories concern space travel. They generally focus more on the psychological issues that arise from space travel rather than on the technology. The greatest hazard to travellers is the mysterious First Effect that causes, in people, the The Great Pain of Space, a “need for death”. To forestall this homicidal impulse, passengers are placed in suspended animation while the spacecraft is crewed by Scanners and Habermans that have had all their senses, except for sight, disconnected from their brains to stave off the First Effect. This psychological condition forms the latticework on which stories such as Scanners Live in Vain and Think Blue, Count Two are built.

Other stories (The Dead Lady of Clown Town, The Ballad of Lost C’mell) concern the underpeople, human-like beings created from animals that labor for mankind, and their struggle to win equal rights, which is clearly a nod to the civil rights movement.

The stories On The Gem Planet, On the Storm Planet, and On the Sand Planet form a novella of just over a hundred pages. It follows Casher O’Neill as he endeavors to regain control of his home planet where a military coup has overthrown its ruler, his uncle. Alone, he travels the stars seeking aid in his mission. I particularly enjoyed this story as it reminded me of a Jack Vance space opera. Smith’s story takes a turn at the end quite unlike the violent resolution I expected as in a Vance story.

There is humor here, too. From Gustible’s Planet recounts Earth’s encounter with the Apicians, intelligent life that “resembled nothing more than oversize ducks, four feet to four feet six in height.” The Apicians follow Gustible, who discovered their planet, back to Earth where they generally make nuisances of themselves through their bottomless stomachs and love of Earth food. I laughed out loud when reading this story partly because of how incongruous the tone was as compared to Smith’s other stories and partly from being genuinely funny. I wondered if this was truly part of his future history or just him poking a little bit of fun of himself.

I’m lucky to have stumbled upon Cordwainer Smith. His unique voice in the world of science fiction makes him a must read. My only regret is that this is his complete short science fiction and only his novel Norstrilia remains for me to be read.

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

Comment: Cordwainer Smith’s real name was Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger (1913-1966). He was more than just a science fiction writer. He grew up in China and through his father’s involvement in Chinese politics, became a confidant of Chiang Kai-shek. In this book’s introduction, John J. Pierce says, “...he became perhaps the world’s leading authority on psychological warfare.” and that “He wrote the book on psychological warfare - under his own name, as with all his non-fiction.” His interest in psychology is clearly why some many of his stories have a psychological rather than a technological bent, which differentiates him from the crowd.

THE FIFTH HEART

Weaving genuine historical figures into your novel has to be pure artistry. Dan Simmons has done that with almost all his novels, most recently with the 2009 Drood: A Novel, the 2010 Black Hills (see my review of 12/23/2010), and the 2013 The Abominable (see my review of 1/08/2014). This novel is not dissimilar. Imagine writing a novel with the improbable merger of Sherlock Holmes and the great American author Henry James attempting to solve the murder of Clover Adams, wife of historian Henry Adams. Yes, that’s from the family that produced two American presidents. Then, sprinkle in Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), Theodore Roosevelt, Rudyard Kipling, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and then mention Robert Louis Stevenson and the up and coming Junior grade Brussels police inspector Hercule Poirot. Of course President Grover Cleveland, Dr. Watson, and Arthur Conan Doyle are implicated in this mystery. However the novel opens in 1893 Paris with Sherlock Holmes and Henry James about to commit suicide by simultaneously jumping into the Seine River (being there at the same time was pure happenstance). Can you swallow this story? I did with piss and vinegar (is that an idiom?). Anyway James is depressed and Sherlock is on a three year disappearance after a feigned death in a fight with Professor Moriarty (is he in this novel?...of course) at Reichenbach Falls. Sherlock tells James after their aborted suicides fail that, “I discovered, Mr. James, that I was not a real person. I am ...how would a literary person such as yourself put it? I am, the evidence has proven to me most conclusively, a literary construct. Some ink-stained scribbler’s creation. A mere fictional character.” What??

Basically, there is no horse sense to this novel; it’s main function is to please the reader and it does...big time. We all know that Professor Moriarty was created to eventually kill off Sherlock and end the series. But does he ever do it. It seems Conan Doyle wants to but doesn’t have the guts to pull the trigger. Is there any real proof that Sherlock dies? I don’t think so. Dan Simmons writes this novel under the assumption that the great Sherlock Holmes lives and, in fact, arrives in Washington, D.C. to solve a possible murder not knowing whether he is real or a fictional character. Henry James, who seemingly follows Holmes to America without any thought pattern, has trepidations that he is a failed writer (thus his attempted suicide). But, he is easily maneuvered into making the trip back to America. Why Sherlock doubts himself as a real person is puzzling since throughout the novel he demonstrates his brilliant mind and stealth. When they arrive in America, Sherlock briefly goes into disguise as Norwegian explorer Jan Sigerson. Sherlock’s client is the brother of the supposedly murdered Clover Adams but soon finds out that his client has taken his own life. As a matter of fact, everyone in the novel also thinks that Clover committed suicide by drinking her photography chemicals (yucky!). Since Clover Adams’ husband Henry is away in Europe, Sherlock and Henry James stay at John (an American historian) and Clara Hay’s mansion. The Hays are neighbors of Henry Adams (an American statesman) and are also friends of Henry James. Got it so far? As soon as Sherlock unpacks, he heads into D.C. to buy cocaine and morphine. In the 1800s England, it seems like everyone was a drug addict (drinking laudanum, a liquid opium) or had gout or consumption. Anyway, he buys his drugs from some toughs and they make the mistake of trying to roll Sherlock. Ha, this part was funny.

On page 47 (you thought that I was giving up too much of the story, didn’t you?...there are 570 pages still to go) we find out about the Five of Hearts, a salon of five people: Henry and Clover Adams, John and Clara Hay and Clarence King (a famous geologist). Did the group’s elitism cause them to acquire enemies? Maybe. Sherlock suspects Clover’s recent friendship with Rebecca Lorne and Clifton Richards is dubious. Are they really anarchists? Is Clifton Richards a deadly assassin who almost killed Sherlock years ago? Is Rebecca really Clifton’s mother? As the plot thickens and the fog clears, it is apparent that President Grover Cleveland is to be assassinated at the 5/1/1893 opening of The World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. (Incidentally, if you are interested in that Chicago Expo, read The Devil in the White City by another favorite author, Erik Larson.) It’s amazing how Dan Simmons ties historical persona and events into all his novels. If you haven’t read a Simmons novel...shame on you. If you read my reviews, you know that I’m a big fan of the three dots (a.k.a ellipsis). Regardless, Sherlock surmises that the anarchists have a list of world presidents and royalty to assassinate. Remember that President James A. Garfield was shot by ‘wacko’ Charles J. Guiteau and subsequently died in 1881 and later in 1901, President William McKinley was assassinated by anarchist Leon Czolgosz. The late 1800s into the early 1900s were very volatile, so Sherlock might be on to something. While I just touched on the beginning of the novel, I’ll let you plow through the last 500 gripping pages or so. It’s going to be a jaunt.

And so what do I like about Dan Simmons’s novels? Well, he kinda over informs the reader like Wikipedia. For instance ,I know that in 1893, Clara Hay was 44 years old when she died, Sherlock Holmes was 38 years old and taller than normal, Henry James was 50 years old and had gout, Clarence King was 5’ 6”, Henry James is 49 years old, Samuel Clemens is 57 years old, William Dean Howells is 56 years old, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr is 52 years old, Rudyard Kipling is 27 years old, and Teddy Roosevelt was a stocky 5’ 8”. This information gives the reader a upgraded character discernment with a hint of the milieu during the time period. Let’s face it, back in the 1800s, if you were 5’ 10” you were considered a semi-giant. I don’t think any writer has a better handle on the reality of the times of their novel than Dan Simmons. But the biggest asset Simmons has is the non-drowsy zone he creates. I have read at least ten Dan Simmons novels and never once did I nod off. This is one of America’s best novelist, and I don’t know why this Science fiction/ horror/ fantasy writer doesn’t get his just kudos. Okay, I know he won the Hugo Award in 1989, but it's 26 years later...where is the current adulation? Do I recommend this novel? Is the Pope Catholic?

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

Comment: In the above novel, Henry James, while in his room in John Hay’s mansion, reads about Sherlock’s adventures in The Strand Magazine of the United Kingdom. This is the actual magazine that Arthur Conan Doyle first published his Sherlock Holmes detective short stories in a serialization format. It seems that all writers of the mid 1800s published their stories in this form. Henry James tries to find out if Sherlock is real by asking him questions from some of the stories in the magazine. Sherlock is sharp and, in fact, corrects some of the magazine’s adventures. Are these magazine serials why Sherlock thinks he is not “a real person?” Later in the novel, Samuel Clemens wonders if maybe he is also a fictional character in Sherlock Holmes’s fictional story. He asks Henry James that maybe…” this whole assassination plot is part of some melodramatic tale?”  

Even the great Charles Dickens published his stories in magazines, then later in the form of a novel. According to Prof. Joel J. Brattin, Honorary Curator of Fellman Dickens Collection, “Every one of Charles Dickens’s novels was published serially--that is, the novels appeared not all at once, but in parts or installments, over a space of time. Publishing his novels in serial form expanded Dickens’s readership, as more people could afford to buy fiction on the installment plan; publishers, too, liked the idea, as it allowed them to increase sales and to offer advertisements in the serial parts. And Dickens enjoyed the intimacy with his audience that serialization provided.”

Sherlock Holmes:

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

The following is a guest review from my eleven year old grandson, Kai O:

 

What happens when an expedition to kill a giant narwhal is shipwrecked and then saved by the same narwhal? But what if the sea monster is actually a giant submarine? This is what happens to Professor Pierre Aronnax in Jules Verne’s amazing book, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I've never read anything like this great book. But an early warning...don’t read the summary on the back of the book. It gives away too much of the story and nearly ruined it for me.

When Professor Pierre Aronnax is thrown overboard on the Abraham Lincoln, he is thrown into a undersea adventure with mystery and amazement.  The adventure starts when the professor, a whaler named Ned Land, and the professor’s assistant, Conseil, are saved by the submarine named The Nautilus commanded by the mysterious Captain Nemo.  Soon after they climb inside, they find themselves in a dark room. Later, Captain Nemo comes into the room with his lieutenant and attempts to communicate unsuccessfully due to Captain Nemo speaking a wholly unknown language. After being served a meal and now sleeping in a lit room, Captain Nemo comes back now speaking the professor’s language. Captain Nemo explains that the world can not know of his existence; therefore, he can’t let them go. On the flipside, Professor Aronnax and his friends are hurled into awe inspiring adventure, including undersea forests and sea monsters.

I really liked this book...it was like nothing that I ever read before. Conversely, this book does have various chapters centered around boring topics, such as the descriptions of the fish surrounding the Nautilus and their classification. For this reason, I would only recommend this book to the most dedicated readers, but it is still a great book to read.  Finally, I would give the book four stars because of its various boring chapters.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

Poster from the movie (1954), starring Kirk Douglas and James Mason:

PASSIONATE CRUSADERS

The author sent me a copy of her novel to review:

Heather Voight has written an eye-opening book about America’s cavalier effort regarding the attempted immigration of European Jews to America (Britain as well) during WWII. The book focuses on the apparent anti-semitism of America’s State Department and the general anti-semitic stance of the public. Did we really believe that if we brought victimized Jews from Europe to America that most would be Nazi spies? Obviously, we believed the Japanese-Americans on the west coast were spies because we took their homes and businesses away and sent them to internment camps in the midwest. I guess you had to live in 1940s America to get the full flavor of what was going through the average American citizen’s mind. Lets be real, nobody knew that we were going to win the war in Japan or Germany. My review in no way is making a judgement of any kind...like I said, you had to be there. As I read Heather Voight’s book, I kept thinking…"With hindsight, It’s easy to make the right decision.” The Japanese-Americans would have remained on the west coast and the Jews would have been welcomed with open arms in America and Britain (at least one would hope so). As I read her book, I also thought about the scuttlebutt I read in other books about Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh being Hitler sympathizers in the 1930s (both received The Commander Cross of the Order of the German Eagle by Hermann Goring in 1938 on separate dinner parties). Several weeks later the infamous Kristallnacht broke out throughout Germany. Ford and Lindbergh kept their medals.

Everything considered, Heather Voight, a successful freelance writer and history blogger, did her homework with due diligence with the known facts. This is not a novel, this really happened. Normally, pure history books put me to sleep. That’s why I’m a big fan of Erik Larson, who writes nonfiction that reads like fiction. He recently said in AARP Magazine that his way of writing nonfiction changed when he read David McCullough’s, The Johnstown Flood. He now calls his style of nonfiction...narrative nonfiction. I only mention this because Voight’s book, while not a cliffhanger nonfiction work, was not dry or tedious. Maybe because it was short and precise, I’m not sure, it worked. I know that I fell asleep many times reading William L. Shirer’s 1,280 page tome, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Regardless, I learned a lot about our belated attempt to rescue the European Jews. Again, I’m not passing judgement either way.

So how did The War Refugee Board (WRB) get started? Not easily, based on the prejudices I mention in the first (lengthy) paragraph. But the two heroes have to be, first of all, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., Secretary of the Treasury, friend and old neighbor of FDR. By the way he was the only Jew on FDR’s cabinet, so he was walking on eggshells. He had to convince FDR that America had to help the Jews overseas. Not easy when, “Although the British stated their position more bluntly, the Foreign Office and the U.S. State Department both saw Jews as garbage that needed to be disposed of elsewhere.” Ouch! The second hero was the head of the WRB, John Pehle. So what were some of their obstacles? Well first of all, “The failure of the Roosevelt administration to fund the WRB showed the world that the United States government was not committed to the Jewish rescue.” Secondly, by the time the WRB was established, four million Jews were already murdered. Thirdly, “Throughout the war, the British resisted Jewish immigration to Palestine and they responded similarly to the Hungarian government’s proposal (to save Jewish lives). Fourthly, “Although there is no way to know how many Jews could have escaped under the various ransom proposals or which offers would have proved successful, the reluctance of the Allies to supply the Nazis with Allied goods should have been overridden by the desire to preserve human lives.” In other words, the Nazis made many offers to exchange Jews for goods that America and England both refused.

So, how did this rescue effort end? It’s a matter of history, but the best way to find out is to buy this factual history book. I must say that I was impressed with Heather Voight’s style and prose, although there were edit problems that were not the fault of the author. Buy it and learn.

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

Comment: What are the best Holocaust books written by Jews who actually experienced the nightmare? Let’s examine a few. Probably the best know book is Anne Frank’s, The Diary of a Young Girl (1947). Amazon.com states, “Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life, Anne Frank’s remarkable diary has since become a world classic-a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit. In 1942, with Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, they and another family lived cloistered in the “Secret Annex” of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death. In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and amusing, her account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short.”

Another profound book is Elie Wiesel’s, Night (1958). Goodreads.com states, “Night is a work by Elie Wiesel about his experience with his father in the Nazi German concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald in 1944-1945, at the height of the Holocaust and toward the end of the Second World War. In just over 100 pages of sparse and fragmented narrative, Wiesel writes about the death of God and his own increasing disgust with humanity, reflected in the inversion of the father-child relationship as his father declines to a helpless state and Wiesel becomes his resentful teenage caregiver. Penetrating and powerful, Night awakens the shocking memory of evil at its absolute and carries with it the unforgettable message that this horror must never be allowed to happen again.”

A more recent publication is Thomas Buergenthal’s, A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy (2007). Goodreads.com states, “Thomas Buergenthal, now a judge in the International Court of Justice in the Hague, tells his astonishing experience as a his memoir, A Lucky Child. He arrived at Auschwitz at age 10 after surviving two ghettos and a labor camp. Separated first from his mother and then his father, Buergenthal managed by his wits and some remarkable strokes of luck to survive on his own. Almost two years after his liberation, Buergenthal was miraculously reunited with his mother and in 1951 arrived in the U.S. to start a new life. Now dedicated to helping those subjected to tyranny throughout the world, Buergenthal writes his story with a simple clarity that highlights the stark details of unimaginable hardship.”

RIDERS of the PURPLE SAGE

Could this novel by Zane Grey be the most eminent western ever written? Could be. I haven’t read the two main challengers: Owen Wister’s The Virginian (1902) or Jack Schaefer’s Shane (1946), although I did see and love the movie. Did Cormac McCarthy learn how to limit the main characters to four or five after reading this novel? Could be. Did Zane Grey learn descriptive writing by reading the old masters like Nathaniel Hawthorne or Herman Melville? Could be. But Zane Grey’s descriptive strength is in delineating the backdrop surroundings. You want an example? How about on page 45, “All about him was ridgy roll of wind-smoothed, rain-washed rock. Not a tuft of grass or a bunch of sage colored the dull rust-yellow. He saw where, to the right, this uneven flow of stone ended in a blunt wall. Leftward, from the hollow that lay at his feet, mounted a gradual slow-swelling slope to a great height topped by leaning, cracked, and ruined crags.” Does Zane Grey love to use dashes in between words to emphatically enhance his descriptions? Could be. I have always been in awe of the old descriptive writers (it seems to be a lost art), but Zane Grey is the first author that I have read who actually details and emblazons the scenery for the enjoyment of the reader. Well done. Grey has only four main characters, three antagonist and of course hundreds of cattlemen known as Riders of the Purple Sage.
 

The story is set in 1871 Utah in a village named Cottonwoods. Jane Withersteen has inherited her father’s huge ranch. Her father was a devout Mormon who wanted Jane to marry fellow rancher and Mormon Elder, Tull. Jane, also a God-fearing Mormon, doesn’t love Tull and will not marry him. Except for Jane, the Mormons have no tolerance for Gentiles (any person who isn’t Mormon). As the novel opens, Elder Tull and his men are preparing to whip Jane’s ranch foreman, Bern Venters, because he is a gentile and Tull wants him off Jane’s ranch. Before that can happen, a rider with two black guns shows up. He turns out to be the infamous (to the Mormons) gunslinger, Lassiter. What’s he doing here? Tull and his gang are scared off. The reader finds that Venters was also a very capable gunman who fell in love with Jane and gave up his guns out of respect for her. Lassiter came to Cottonwoods to visit the grave of Milly Erne (who was a friend of Jane). How does Lassiter know Milly? He will not tell. One thing for sure is that Lassiter hates Mormon men, not the women. On page thirty he says, “Venters, take this from me, these Mormons ain’t just right in their minds. Else could a Mormon marry one woman when he already has a wife, an’ call it duty?” Jane takes Lassiter to see Milly’s grave. He still will not tell Jane how he knows Milly. Jane finds out that the rustler Oldring, along with his mysterious masked rider and his gang have rustled Jane’s red herd (2,500 steer). Venters ask Jane for his guns back with the intention of tracking the stolen herd to Oldring’s secret hideout.

Venters finds the hiding place, but he is attacked by the masked rider and another. He kills both. No, wait the masked rider is still alive. The mask comes off and it is a girl. Who is she? He can’t believe that he shot a woman. Venters finds Surprise Valley, a huge balancing rock and many caves in the cliffs. There he mends the masked girl who’s name is Bess. As she recovers, she tells Venters that she doesn’t want to go back to Oldring. He still doesn’t know who she is. As she recovers, they live in the beautiful secure valley for months. They fall in love. Meanwhile Jane, who secretly helps gentile families, brings a dying Mrs. Larkins and her daughter, Fay, to her ranch. Are the Mormons working with the rustlers to ruin Jane and force her to give up the ranch and marry Tull? Is the gunslinger Lassiter falling in love with Jane? Jane knows that “passionately devoted as she was to her religion, she had refused to marry a Mormon.” This story is ready to explode. Jane's white herd (also 2,500 steer) is also rustled. Will Lassiter give up his guns like Venters did, or will he go into town to kill Mormons? What a story.

Okay, you have met the four main characters: Jane, Lassiter, Venters and Bess. What will happen to them? You have met two of the antagonist: Tull and Oldring, but not the third. The third is Mormon Bishop Dyer. This is not a nice man. What will happen to the bad guys? Do Venters and Bess stay in Surprise Valley or make a break-out for freedom. Can Lassiter give up his gunslinger ways to satisfy Jane’s pious thoughts. What started as a simple western novel became convoluted with a cliff-hanging (I’m using Zane’s dashes) ending. Well, I suggest that you grab a copy of this 1912 western classic to find how this quintessential novel ends.

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

Comment: I don’t know what took me so long to read a Zane Grey novel. In the last five years I have read many books each year by the classic authors. If you scroll through my blog from the year 2010 to the present, you will see many reviews of books written by the heavy-hitters of literature. Now, I ask myself, “when are you going to read a Louis L’Amour western?” Good question. The man wrote 100 novels, 250 short stories and sold 320 million copies. Surely I can read one.

And what about Hombre (1961) by Elmore Leonard. A classic story of a Apache leading passengers of a attacked stagecoach through a desert. And even though I saw the movie version of Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove (1986 Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction), shouldn’t I read the novel? The wonderful adventures of a few retired The Texas Rangers driving cattle from Texas to Montana.

And who could forget Glendon Swarthout’s The Shootist (1975). Yes, I saw the movie featuring John Wayne in his last western movie. It’s the story of a gunslinger dying of cancer trying to find a way to die with dignity. Lastly, I will end this section with a book I did read. It’s Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses (see my review of 4/2/2013). Its the story of 16 year old John Cole and his escapades in 1949 Mexico.

From the movie:

IRVING TITANS

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

I wasn’t entirely entertained by this (sort of) continuation of Peter Gent’s North Dallas Forty (1973) and parody of the The Dallas Cowboys. My main complaint is with the pragmatism of the novel. Certainly the author could have balanced realism with fiction in a more sensible way. Some of my questions are...Would any player stay with the team if bandied about in training camp by the owner, Ruben Weitzman (Jerry Jones) or head coach Marshall Jankowski (Jimmy Johnson)? Obviously the answer is no. Listen, I spent 13 weeks in Parris Island as a U.S. Marine and it wasn’t as tough as this supposed training camp. Would any player be immediately cut if they protested anything? Of course not. Would a football groupie wield the kind of power Charlene had over everybody on the team including the owner and the press? Would any player take the crap dished out by coach Swanson (even if he was 6’ 8” and 385 lbs)? I don’t think so. My guess is that the hundred or so players that the Irving team had at training camp would have left and the players union would have Weitzman and Jankowski up on some serious charges. We all like a football comedy; such as, The Longest Yard (1974), Heaven Can Wait (1978), or Semi-Tough (1977) but make it semi-real. This was a clumsy effort at a parody. I’m sure Mr. Dawson is an aspiring writer and gentleman but do it proper...write something somewhat original. I see flashes of talent throughout the novel, so like Nike says, “Just do it!”

Okay, enough lambasting already. What’s the novel about? It’s 1989 and the Irving Titans (Dallas Cowboys) have lost their luster. The owner Bum Reason (Bum Bright) has gone broke during the Savings & Loan crisis. He sells the team to Ruben Weitzman (Jerry Jones), who hires Marshall Jankowski (Jimmy Johnson) as his head coach after firing Coach Osborn (Tom Landry). A little on the hackneyed side wouldn’t you think? Anyway, the story is told by the semi washed up QB of the Titans, Jimmy Stone (I’m not sure who he is, maybe Danny White) after the Titans suffer a lackluster season in 1988. Jimmy is torn between two beautiful woman: Charlene Rivers, who makes $750,000 a year by framing almost everybody involved in the NFL, and a cocktail waitress named Nicole Anderson (does anybody care who Jimmy winds up with?). Anyway, the team is sent to a desolate and hot training camp to be terrorized by a bunch of cussing blowhard coaches. They have a new draft pick QB named Sammy Holmes (Troy Aikman?) in camp along with a new tight end named Larry Dresden (Jay Novacek?). They go 1-15 in 1989, but management is encouraged. They make a unbelievable trade before the 1990 season starts. They trade their star running back, Drew Krowsky (Herschel Walker) to the Minnesota Vikings for 13 Ist round picks. Yea, right. Do you think that trade was possible after the owner told the world that he wanted to get rid of his running back after the 1989 season ended? NOT!

The real trade was: Dallas sent Walker and four picks (between 1990-1991) to the Vikings for five players, three 1st round picks, three 2nd round picks, one third round pick and one sixth round pick (between 1990-1993). Quite a trade, but not as good as the Irving Titan’s trade. This novel is filled with nonsensical scenarios and that was the main reason that I couldn’t warm up to this novel. You will have to buy your own copy of this novel to find out what happens to the Irving Titans and all it’s characters after the big trade. Was it a bad novel? Not really, but there was little that the reader could hang his hat on. Just one harebrained chapter after another with very little comedy. I don’t want to be a wet blanket (this review is idiom heaven)... but come on. Yes, the author shows some talent, but give me something more veritable to read, not something that seemed simulated to me. I’m trying to be fair in my review of Mr. Dawson’s novel because I think he can do better. He could have written an indigenous novel, but choose to continue a old one. I have to give his work a neutral rating. 

RATING: 2 out of 5 stars

Comment: Sports books and novels have always interested me. I found a site (talkingbooks.dpi.wi.gov/tab_sports) that list Sports Illustrated's favorite sports books. Who else can be better to ask…”What sports book should I read?” Two of the novels on the list are already mentioned in my first paragraph (I'm not telling which ones, ha). Anyway here are a few of the books that are high up the list of 100: 

The Sweet Science. By A.J. Liebling (1956). Pound-for-pound the top boxing writer of all time, Liebling is at his bare-knuckled best here, bobbing and weaving between superb reporting and evocative prose. The fistic figures depicted in this timeless collection of New Yorker essays range from champs such as Rocky Marciano and Sugar Ray Robinson to endearing palookas and eccentric cornermen on the fringes of the squared circle. Liebling's writing is efficient yet stylish, acerbic yet soft and sympathetic. ("The sweet science, like an old rap or the memory of love, follows its victims everywhere.") He leavens these flourishes with an eye for detail worthy of Henry James. The one-two combination allows him to convey how boxing can at once be so repugnant and so alluring.

The Boys of Summer. By Roger Kahn (1971). A baseball book the same way Moby Dick is a fishing book, this account of the early-'50s Brooklyn Dodgers is, by turns, a novelistic tale of conflict and change, a tribute, a civic history, a piece of nostalgia and, finally, a tragedy, as the franchise's 1958 move to Los Angeles takes the soul of Brooklyn with it. Kahn writes eloquently about the memorable games and the Dodgers' penchant for choking-"Wait Till Next Year" is their motto-but the most poignant passages revisit the Boys in autumn. An auto accident has rendered catcher Roy Campanella a quadriplegic. Dignified trailblazer Jackie Robinson is mourning the death of his son. Sure-handed third baseman Billy Cox is tending bar. No book is better at showing how sports is not just games. [New York Times bestseller] 

Ball Four. By Jim Bouton (1970). Though a declining knuckleballer, Bouton threw nothing but fastballs in his diary of the 1969 season. Pulling back the curtain on the seriocomic world of the big leagues, he writes honestly and hilariously about baseball's vices and virtues. At a time when the sport was still a secular religion, it was an act of heresy to portray players "pounding the Ol' Budweiser," "chasin' skirts" or "poppin' greenies." (And that was during games.) Bouton's most egregious act of sacrilege-his biting observations about former teammate Mickey Mantle-led to his banishment from the "Yankee family." But beyond the controversy, Ball Four was, finally, a love story. Bouton writes, "You spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time." [New York Times bestseller] 

Friday Night Lights . By H. G. Bissinger (1990). Schoolboy football knits together the West Texas town of Odessa in the late 1980s. But as Permian High grows into a dynasty, the locals' sense of proportion blows away like a tumbleweed. A brilliant look at how Friday-night lights can lead a town into darkness. [New York Times bestseller] 

Paper Lion . By George Plimpton (1965). No one today does what the fearless Plimpton once did with regularity. Here, in his first Walter Mitty-esque effort, the author of the equally brilliant Shadow Box and The Bogey Man infiltrates the Detroit training camp as a quarterback with no arm, no legs and no shot. [New York Times bestseller][Made into a movie] 

The Natural . By Bernard Malamud (1952). The movie was a Mawkish Rocky-in-flannels, but the novel is a darker, more subtle tale of phenom Roy Hobbs, who loses his prime years to a youthful indiscretion, then gets a second chance. TIME called the novel (which ends differently from the film) "preposterously readable."[New York Times bestseller][Made into a movie]

Readers, you can’t go wrong reading any of the above books.