Eh bien, it’s been almost four years since I last reviewed a Hercule Poirot mystery...and I wasn’t disappointed. This is my sixth review of an Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot novel. I absolutely love reading the adventures of the somewhat rotund, short, Belgian, mustachioed detective. Poirot never uses muscle (does he have any?) to apprehend the guilty person. He tells Captain Arthur Hastings (the narrator of this novel) what a detective is after Hastings accuses Poirot of being very noticeable, “That is because you have the mistaken idea implanted in your head that a detective is necessarily a man who puts on a false beard and hides behind a pillar! The false beard, it is vieux jeu, and shadowing is only done by the lowest branch of my profession. The Hercule Poirots, my friend, need only to sit back in a chair and think.” Mon ami, once again I failed to pick out the murderer, putting my record at one successful and five unsuccessful ascertains. Oh well, so who got murdered?
Hercule gets a letter dated April 17th on June 28th from Emily Arundell from the country town of Market Basing in England. It’s odd that it took so long to get to London. It’s a very hazy letter with many underlined and triple underlined words. She ask about his fees but doesn’t tell Hercule exactly what she wants. It seems that she had an accidental fall down a flight of stairs but now suspects that one of her relatives visiting during the Easter holiday might have tried to murder her. The reason? She is a sickly and wealthy old woman with two nieces and one nephew who are eager for their inheritance. They need money now. Hercule and his friend, Captain Hastings, decide to drive down to Market Basing in Hasting’s second hand Austin. When they arrive, they find that Emily has recently died and the house is for sale. They also learn that everyone involved says “Bob”, the wire-haired Terrier, left his ball on the top of the stairs and Emily tripped over it causing her to fall down the stairs. But that fall didn’t kill her...only left her bruised. So how did she pass away? Was it a natural death or murder? Let’s meet the suspects.
When the will was read, Emily’s house companion, Wilhelmina Lawson, got the estate and most of the cash. The maid and cook got small cash rewards. Miss Lawson was flabbergasted...or is she a good actor? Emily’s nephew, Charles, who has previously been in trouble with the law, desperately needed cash. Did he kill Emily, not knowing that Emily (just before her death) changed the will...leaving all the relatives out? Emily’s niece,Theresa, wanted money to fund her fiance doctor’s research project. Did they kill Emily? The second niece, Bella Tanios wanted out of her marriage with a Greek doctor. She needed money to live in the style she desired with her two children. Or did Bob, the dog, leave the ball on the stairs on purpose? Did he have an alibi? (just kidding, but he really did have one). Captain Hastings isn’t sure Emily was murdered. Hercule asks him, “It does not intrigue you at all to know who attempted to kill her?” Hercule goes to the grave site and discovers that Emily died on May 1st 1936.
Poirot stood looking for some time. He murmured softly: “May 1st...May 1st...and today, June 28th, I receive her letter. You see, do you not, Hastings, that that fact has got to be explained?” And explained it will be. One of the reasons I love reading the old classics is the nostalgia that you learn from the period. This novel was published in 1937 and exhibits some of the prejudices of that era. On page 183, Agatha headlines the chapter, A nigger in the woodpile. Wow, even in England? Wikipedia defines the term as, “A nigger in the woodpile is a dated American figure of speech meaning, some fact of considerable importance that is not disclosed-something suspicious or wrong.” It can also mean: When a caucasian has some negroid ancestory there is said to have been a nigg** in the woodpile, usually said if the caucasian has some negroid traits like kinky hair. Anyway, enough of the history lesson. I loved the novel.
RATING: 5 out of 5 stars
Comment: This was the novel that I read on the return trip from my recent visit to Hawaii. If anybody is interested, the following are the five previous reviews that I have done on Hercule Poirot novels: Murder on the Orient Express (see my review of 3/12/2012), Death on the Nile (see my review of 4/7/2012), Five little Pigs (see my review of 7/5/2012), Death in the Clouds (see my review of 10/16/2012) and One, Two, Buckle my Shoe (see my review of 5/16/2013).
Friday, April 28, 2017
Saturday, April 15, 2017
APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA
John O’hara’s 1934 debut novel was written in the style of the American expatriate writers living in Paris during the 1920s, but it didn’t inspire me to crave anymore of his novels. Okay, I know he later wrote best sellers, Pal Joey and BUtterfield 8, which became popular movies, but I don’t have a warm and fuzzy fondness for this novel. I guess I’m still a descriptive writer fan and the only one left at that time was F. Scott Fitzgerald. O’Hara’s novel had the Ernest Hemmingway style of long narrative paragraphs sans any wasted descriptions. It’s a style that is somewhat carried on till this day, although slightly modified with a sprinkling of descriptive writing. It’s a ho-hum tale drawing together a Gibbsville (fictional town) Pennsylvania Cadillac dealer and his wife, a Cadillac salesman and his wife, a local wiseguy along with his entourage consisting of his girlfriend and his lackey. Sound exciting? All the action takes place during three days of the Christmas holiday mostly at the Gibbsville Country Club, a local restaurant/hotel or in the bedrooms. This is coal country excitement at its best. I did enjoy reminiscing the highball. When I was a youngster in the 1950s, I remember my dad serving highballs to guest during the Christmas holidays. At that time it was whiskey and ginger ale. Since then there are many variations of the highball. Anyway, can you build a story around throwing a drink in somebody’s face? Well, this novel kinda does.
On page one, “Our story opens in the mind of Luther L. (L for Leroy) Fliegler, who is lying in his bed, not thinking of anything, but just aware of sounds, conscious of his own breathing, and sensitive to his own heartbeats. Lying beside him is his wife, lying on her right side and enjoying her sleep.” Can the novel open with a sex scene between a Cadillac salesman and his wife? Yes indeed! “...and then turned and put his hands around his wife’s waist and caressed the little rubber tire of flesh across her diaphragm. She began to stir and then she opened her eyes and said, My God, Lute, what are you doing?” “Merry Christmas,” he said. And that’s the last the reader hears from the Flieglers for awhile because the scene switches to his boss and his wife at the Lantenengo Country Club. Luther says that he will not join the club till he can afford it. Meanwhile his boss, Julian English, and his wife, Caroline, are at the Lantenengo Country Club’s Christmas party. As usual, Julian is soused. How can that be...isn’t it Prohibition? Yes, but the coal town has a wiseguy, Ed Charney, who is supplying the club and the Stagecoach restaurant with all the booze they need. Ed owns the Stagecoach and has his bimbo girlfriend, Helene, singing at the hotel’s cocktail lounge. At the Lantenengo Country club, the drunken Julian visualizes throwing a drink into the face of the richest man in town, Harry Reilly, as Harry holds court telling one of his jokes.
The character Julian English appeared strange to me because he seemed to have his life made, yet he kept putting himself in difficult situations for no apparent reason. Okay, he probably was an alcoholic, but had a very desirable wife, a country club membership, and owned a Cadillac dealership. His strange behavior is never revealed in this novel. Why did Julian fantasize throwing a drink into the face of Harry Reilly? “The liquid, Julian reflected, would trickle down inside the waistcoat and down, down into Reilly’s trousers, so that even if the ice did not hurt his eye, the spots on his fly would be so embarrassing he would leave. And there was one thing Reilly could not stand; he could not stand being embarrassed." The narrator of the novel never describes the actual incident, but the reader learns of the deed by heresay. “The band was playing Something To Remember You By. The stag line was scattered over the floor by the time the band was working on the second chorus of the tune, and when Johnny Dibble suddenly appeared, breathless”..."Jeez, he said. Jeezozz H. Kee-rist. You hear about what just happened?” “No. No,” they said. “You didn’t? About Julian English?” “No. No. What was it?” “Julian English. He just threw a highball in Harry Reilly’s face. Jeest!” Okay, that part was pretty funny. All of this happened in the first fifteen pages. This was the start of Julian English’s downfall.
I know John O’Hara went on to become a great American writer...I just wasn’t partial to this novel. Did I hate It? Absolutely not! Sometimes it’s the luck of the draw. You want to read a novel from a classic writer and you just pick the wrong one. The one you would not like. Anyway, I will continue my quest to read all the so-called great authors. I give this novel an “okay” rating.
RATING: 3 out of 5 stars
Comment: I think that it’s interesting that John O’Hara got the idea for the title of his novel from W. Somerset Maugham’s retelling of an old Mesopotamian tale. The British writer known for his 1934 novel, Of Human Bondage, was supposedly the highest paid author during the 1930s. His retelling appears as an epigraph in John O’Hara’s novel.
DEATH SPEAKS:
There was a merchant in Baghdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the market-place I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture; now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me. The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the market-place and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning? That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.
Was that precious, or what? I love literature!
On page one, “Our story opens in the mind of Luther L. (L for Leroy) Fliegler, who is lying in his bed, not thinking of anything, but just aware of sounds, conscious of his own breathing, and sensitive to his own heartbeats. Lying beside him is his wife, lying on her right side and enjoying her sleep.” Can the novel open with a sex scene between a Cadillac salesman and his wife? Yes indeed! “...and then turned and put his hands around his wife’s waist and caressed the little rubber tire of flesh across her diaphragm. She began to stir and then she opened her eyes and said, My God, Lute, what are you doing?” “Merry Christmas,” he said. And that’s the last the reader hears from the Flieglers for awhile because the scene switches to his boss and his wife at the Lantenengo Country Club. Luther says that he will not join the club till he can afford it. Meanwhile his boss, Julian English, and his wife, Caroline, are at the Lantenengo Country Club’s Christmas party. As usual, Julian is soused. How can that be...isn’t it Prohibition? Yes, but the coal town has a wiseguy, Ed Charney, who is supplying the club and the Stagecoach restaurant with all the booze they need. Ed owns the Stagecoach and has his bimbo girlfriend, Helene, singing at the hotel’s cocktail lounge. At the Lantenengo Country club, the drunken Julian visualizes throwing a drink into the face of the richest man in town, Harry Reilly, as Harry holds court telling one of his jokes.
The character Julian English appeared strange to me because he seemed to have his life made, yet he kept putting himself in difficult situations for no apparent reason. Okay, he probably was an alcoholic, but had a very desirable wife, a country club membership, and owned a Cadillac dealership. His strange behavior is never revealed in this novel. Why did Julian fantasize throwing a drink into the face of Harry Reilly? “The liquid, Julian reflected, would trickle down inside the waistcoat and down, down into Reilly’s trousers, so that even if the ice did not hurt his eye, the spots on his fly would be so embarrassing he would leave. And there was one thing Reilly could not stand; he could not stand being embarrassed." The narrator of the novel never describes the actual incident, but the reader learns of the deed by heresay. “The band was playing Something To Remember You By. The stag line was scattered over the floor by the time the band was working on the second chorus of the tune, and when Johnny Dibble suddenly appeared, breathless”..."Jeez, he said. Jeezozz H. Kee-rist. You hear about what just happened?” “No. No,” they said. “You didn’t? About Julian English?” “No. No. What was it?” “Julian English. He just threw a highball in Harry Reilly’s face. Jeest!” Okay, that part was pretty funny. All of this happened in the first fifteen pages. This was the start of Julian English’s downfall.
I know John O’Hara went on to become a great American writer...I just wasn’t partial to this novel. Did I hate It? Absolutely not! Sometimes it’s the luck of the draw. You want to read a novel from a classic writer and you just pick the wrong one. The one you would not like. Anyway, I will continue my quest to read all the so-called great authors. I give this novel an “okay” rating.
RATING: 3 out of 5 stars
Comment: I think that it’s interesting that John O’Hara got the idea for the title of his novel from W. Somerset Maugham’s retelling of an old Mesopotamian tale. The British writer known for his 1934 novel, Of Human Bondage, was supposedly the highest paid author during the 1930s. His retelling appears as an epigraph in John O’Hara’s novel.
DEATH SPEAKS:
There was a merchant in Baghdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the market-place I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture; now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me. The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the market-place and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning? That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.
Was that precious, or what? I love literature!
Thursday, April 6, 2017
PROGENY'S PROMISE
The author sent me a copy of his novel to review:
This is a really good sci-fi novel...kudos to the author, Kenneth O. Wick. He did a great job joining two major simultaneous problems on Earth into one story. And these are big problems. How about an alien coming down to Earth and telling the POTUS (President of the United States) that the earth is dying and he wants to evacuate several hundred thousand individuals (ten years is the maximum age) to an Earth-like planet. At the same time, the biggest USA oil company and a general in the Air Force want the POTUS to surrender the country over to them. Wouldn’t the POTUS want to blow her brains out? No way, not the first black female President of the United States! Do you see how this story can get addicting? Before I tell you a little bit of the story, I have to say that early on in the novel I was getting confused by all the players in the story. But, by the grace of God, or the author’s ingenuity, there was a list of good guys and bad guys at the book’s end. Luckily, I found that list early on, or this review might have taken on a different face. I also thought that there was too much going on (a very busy story) besides the above mentioned two major problems. Would the nine nuclear capable countries trade bombs so soon after the oil wells hardened? Would any USA general use North Korea (of all countries) to drop nuclear bombs for them? I don’t think so...even if you were trying to overthrow The White House. Anyway, those are my minor kvetches (I had to look hard to find fault) against an otherwise marvelous effort from a excellent storyteller.
The pumping units on the oil fields of ProMax Oil, owned by Colin and Dick Baines, blowup in North Dakota. It seems that the oil in the ground has solidified. Dr. Jessica Mayers (PHD in geophysics), reared by her Uncle Nathan Bishop and the Baines boys after her father was killed in an accident at ProMax, is stunned by what took place. Nathan, the production supervisor, says, “I’ve talked to some other lease operators, they all say the same thing. The oil can’t be pumped. It’s as if something is seizing the pump rods downhole like the oil turned to concrete.” They later find out that it happened all over the world. Meanwhile the reader learns that the oil was solidified on purpose from the first sentient species born after the creation of the universe. They are the Lumiens from the Green Planet circling a star located at the edge of the Great Rift boundary within the Milky Way galaxy. Was this a hostile event? No, according to the Lumien Master Galaxy Steward, Cyrhion. Earth was only four and a half billion years old and dying. Cyrhion knew the reason was that it was the first planet to alter the environmental balance. Cyrhion thought, “Core death is imminent...They are killing their planet.” The Lumien’s Commander Koden was on the Earth’s surface and with his Knights stopped the oil from flowing. Since the only usable oil is whatever’s in the barrels and the oil tankers, the world starts to panic. They know nothing of the aliens at this point. Every country is pointing the finger at each other. What country is making a play for world dominance by controlling the oil supply? Will the nine nations that have nuclear weapons start threatening each other?
In the Oval office, President Elizabeth Hunter asks her Vice President, Joint Chiefs of staff, heads of the NSA and CIA, and some Cabinet Secretaries, “Can someone please explain to me why crude oil can’t be pumped out of the ground?” No one knows. The President says, “Gentlemen, if something doesn’t change soon, anarchy will come marching when the first gas station runs dry.” General Abramson (Air force) was the one person in the room that didn’t say a word. He just stared at the President. President Hunter ask him, “General Abramson, how will this situation affect our Air Force capabilities?” “Ma’am, the Air Force is ready for all emergencies. This grave challenge shall be met and overcome with the might of the Air Force marching ever onward to a glorious victory over evil.” The President and her close advisors have suspected for some time now that he has become involved with some obscure religious sect. When the President asks the General what evil is he talking about, he says, “This is the work of Satan, Madam President. We’re being tested. However, the great Commander of us all shall lead us to victory.” One of the President’s top advisors, Colonel Raymond Tohler, directed a top-secret surveillance operation monitoring an active terrorist faction within the United States Air Force, known as the Dominionists. The majority of Air Force personnel were presumed to be backing the Dominionist leaders. Was General Abramson the leader? If not, who was?
“An large object appeared, hovering twenty feet above the White House South Lawn.” The secret service tried to get the President into the war room bunker. She refused and stepped outside to greet the aliens. In her mind a distant thought creeped in, I am here in peace, for Earth. “A tall, slender being stepped through the hatch, and descended the steps to the White House lawn.” “President Hunter, my name is Cyrhion,” he said in perfect English. “I am the Lumien Master Steward of this galaxy.” He asked her if they could talk over important matters in her Oval office. In the Oval office, surrounded by her National Security team, she was speechless. Her Secretary of Energy, Maxwell Vetters, asked the alien, “Why are you here? What do you mean by steward of this galaxy?” “Mature galaxies, which have nurtured the growth of many life forms, are protected by Lumiens. The embryonic and infant galaxies, after evolving, are given a Lumien steward at what we call first life spark.” Secretary Vetter, trying to grasp the inconceivable enormity of the concept, tried to form words. "I am here because Earth is dying,” Cyrhion said. After a long pause, the room erupted in a chorus of incoherent voices. The President held up her hand. “What do you mean, dying?” she said. Can this man write, or what. This review seems real long, doesn’t it? Well, believe it or not, I’m only up to page 43 of a 407 page novel. I told you in the first paragraph that this was a very busy story...I wasn’t kidding!
I’ll finish my short review (Haha) with Cyrhion’s response to the President’s question on page 43. “Earth’s temperatures are soaring out of control. Her bio systems are shutting down and soon will be unable to evolve in time to correct the imbalances. She will continue the struggle for survival, but when her interior temperatures exceed the critical stage, our data forecasts thirty-five to fifty years from now, the planet will begin expanding at an accelerated rate. The crust and mantle will develop fracture openings along all existing fault structures, and the interior magma will erupt through these fractures, shrinking her atmosphere to a mere veil. Her interior heat will escape to space, the core will freeze and Earth will die.” Wow! Numbing silence passed through the Oval office, except from the suspected mutinous leader of the Dominionist, General Abramson. He said, “What a load of malarkey, God created this planet and all the heavens around us. This planet is a gift to all mankind, to do with as we please, and if there is any need for planet saving to be done, the Lord Almighty shall come forth and replenish his Earth, with goodness and bounty for all his children.” “Hallelujah,” Jeb Henley, the Director of the CIA, said. Is the Director the mole in the White House for the Dominionist? Cyrhion said, “Your God did not create this planet, General, and cannot save it...only I can.”
So my 44 page review comes to an end. I will leave you with the following questions in order to whet your appetite further (if needed). Do the world powers start nuking each other as the oil dries up? Are the Baines brother’s making a play for world dominance? Do the Dominionist mutineers have a thermonuclear bomb? Are they targeting a USA city? Can the Lumiens save the Earth? Or will the nine nuclear capable nations blow up Earth? This is an exciting novel that has to be read to appreciate the creative genius of Kenneth O. Wick. By the way, I thank the author for not getting too technical, that's a beef I have with some authors. The sequel to this novel, Progeny’s Journey, is due out in the fall of 2017.
RATING: 5 out of 5 stars
Comment: The author wrote such an original novel that it’s hard to compare his work with the work of another writer. The rationale is that most sci-fi invasion novels of Earth are for hostile takeovers. In Progeny’s Promise, the aliens were here to help us save Earth. But I can think of only one story were the invasion is peaceful. It’s the 1951 black and white movie, The Day the Earth Stood Still starring Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal and Sam Jaffe. The film was adapted from Harry Bates’ 1940 short story, Farewell to the Master. Do you remember Michael Rennie as Klaatu and his eight foot tall robot, Gort? Do you remember how it ended?
Klaatu emerges from the saucer and addresses Barnhardt’s assembled scientists, informing them that he represents an interplanetary organization that created a police force of invincible robots like Gort to “patrol the planets in spaceships like this one, and preserve the peace” by automatically annihilating aggressors. In matters of aggression, we have given them absolute power over us. This power cannot be revoked. Klaatu concludes with, “It is no concern of ours how you run your planet, but if you threaten to extend your violence, this Earth of yours will be reduced to a burned-out cinder. Your choice is simple: join us, and live in peace, or pursue your present course and face obliteration.” Klaatu and Gort depart in the spaceship (this synopsis was courtesy of Wikipedia).
This is a really good sci-fi novel...kudos to the author, Kenneth O. Wick. He did a great job joining two major simultaneous problems on Earth into one story. And these are big problems. How about an alien coming down to Earth and telling the POTUS (President of the United States) that the earth is dying and he wants to evacuate several hundred thousand individuals (ten years is the maximum age) to an Earth-like planet. At the same time, the biggest USA oil company and a general in the Air Force want the POTUS to surrender the country over to them. Wouldn’t the POTUS want to blow her brains out? No way, not the first black female President of the United States! Do you see how this story can get addicting? Before I tell you a little bit of the story, I have to say that early on in the novel I was getting confused by all the players in the story. But, by the grace of God, or the author’s ingenuity, there was a list of good guys and bad guys at the book’s end. Luckily, I found that list early on, or this review might have taken on a different face. I also thought that there was too much going on (a very busy story) besides the above mentioned two major problems. Would the nine nuclear capable countries trade bombs so soon after the oil wells hardened? Would any USA general use North Korea (of all countries) to drop nuclear bombs for them? I don’t think so...even if you were trying to overthrow The White House. Anyway, those are my minor kvetches (I had to look hard to find fault) against an otherwise marvelous effort from a excellent storyteller.
The pumping units on the oil fields of ProMax Oil, owned by Colin and Dick Baines, blowup in North Dakota. It seems that the oil in the ground has solidified. Dr. Jessica Mayers (PHD in geophysics), reared by her Uncle Nathan Bishop and the Baines boys after her father was killed in an accident at ProMax, is stunned by what took place. Nathan, the production supervisor, says, “I’ve talked to some other lease operators, they all say the same thing. The oil can’t be pumped. It’s as if something is seizing the pump rods downhole like the oil turned to concrete.” They later find out that it happened all over the world. Meanwhile the reader learns that the oil was solidified on purpose from the first sentient species born after the creation of the universe. They are the Lumiens from the Green Planet circling a star located at the edge of the Great Rift boundary within the Milky Way galaxy. Was this a hostile event? No, according to the Lumien Master Galaxy Steward, Cyrhion. Earth was only four and a half billion years old and dying. Cyrhion knew the reason was that it was the first planet to alter the environmental balance. Cyrhion thought, “Core death is imminent...They are killing their planet.” The Lumien’s Commander Koden was on the Earth’s surface and with his Knights stopped the oil from flowing. Since the only usable oil is whatever’s in the barrels and the oil tankers, the world starts to panic. They know nothing of the aliens at this point. Every country is pointing the finger at each other. What country is making a play for world dominance by controlling the oil supply? Will the nine nations that have nuclear weapons start threatening each other?
In the Oval office, President Elizabeth Hunter asks her Vice President, Joint Chiefs of staff, heads of the NSA and CIA, and some Cabinet Secretaries, “Can someone please explain to me why crude oil can’t be pumped out of the ground?” No one knows. The President says, “Gentlemen, if something doesn’t change soon, anarchy will come marching when the first gas station runs dry.” General Abramson (Air force) was the one person in the room that didn’t say a word. He just stared at the President. President Hunter ask him, “General Abramson, how will this situation affect our Air Force capabilities?” “Ma’am, the Air Force is ready for all emergencies. This grave challenge shall be met and overcome with the might of the Air Force marching ever onward to a glorious victory over evil.” The President and her close advisors have suspected for some time now that he has become involved with some obscure religious sect. When the President asks the General what evil is he talking about, he says, “This is the work of Satan, Madam President. We’re being tested. However, the great Commander of us all shall lead us to victory.” One of the President’s top advisors, Colonel Raymond Tohler, directed a top-secret surveillance operation monitoring an active terrorist faction within the United States Air Force, known as the Dominionists. The majority of Air Force personnel were presumed to be backing the Dominionist leaders. Was General Abramson the leader? If not, who was?
“An large object appeared, hovering twenty feet above the White House South Lawn.” The secret service tried to get the President into the war room bunker. She refused and stepped outside to greet the aliens. In her mind a distant thought creeped in, I am here in peace, for Earth. “A tall, slender being stepped through the hatch, and descended the steps to the White House lawn.” “President Hunter, my name is Cyrhion,” he said in perfect English. “I am the Lumien Master Steward of this galaxy.” He asked her if they could talk over important matters in her Oval office. In the Oval office, surrounded by her National Security team, she was speechless. Her Secretary of Energy, Maxwell Vetters, asked the alien, “Why are you here? What do you mean by steward of this galaxy?” “Mature galaxies, which have nurtured the growth of many life forms, are protected by Lumiens. The embryonic and infant galaxies, after evolving, are given a Lumien steward at what we call first life spark.” Secretary Vetter, trying to grasp the inconceivable enormity of the concept, tried to form words. "I am here because Earth is dying,” Cyrhion said. After a long pause, the room erupted in a chorus of incoherent voices. The President held up her hand. “What do you mean, dying?” she said. Can this man write, or what. This review seems real long, doesn’t it? Well, believe it or not, I’m only up to page 43 of a 407 page novel. I told you in the first paragraph that this was a very busy story...I wasn’t kidding!
I’ll finish my short review (Haha) with Cyrhion’s response to the President’s question on page 43. “Earth’s temperatures are soaring out of control. Her bio systems are shutting down and soon will be unable to evolve in time to correct the imbalances. She will continue the struggle for survival, but when her interior temperatures exceed the critical stage, our data forecasts thirty-five to fifty years from now, the planet will begin expanding at an accelerated rate. The crust and mantle will develop fracture openings along all existing fault structures, and the interior magma will erupt through these fractures, shrinking her atmosphere to a mere veil. Her interior heat will escape to space, the core will freeze and Earth will die.” Wow! Numbing silence passed through the Oval office, except from the suspected mutinous leader of the Dominionist, General Abramson. He said, “What a load of malarkey, God created this planet and all the heavens around us. This planet is a gift to all mankind, to do with as we please, and if there is any need for planet saving to be done, the Lord Almighty shall come forth and replenish his Earth, with goodness and bounty for all his children.” “Hallelujah,” Jeb Henley, the Director of the CIA, said. Is the Director the mole in the White House for the Dominionist? Cyrhion said, “Your God did not create this planet, General, and cannot save it...only I can.”
So my 44 page review comes to an end. I will leave you with the following questions in order to whet your appetite further (if needed). Do the world powers start nuking each other as the oil dries up? Are the Baines brother’s making a play for world dominance? Do the Dominionist mutineers have a thermonuclear bomb? Are they targeting a USA city? Can the Lumiens save the Earth? Or will the nine nuclear capable nations blow up Earth? This is an exciting novel that has to be read to appreciate the creative genius of Kenneth O. Wick. By the way, I thank the author for not getting too technical, that's a beef I have with some authors. The sequel to this novel, Progeny’s Journey, is due out in the fall of 2017.
RATING: 5 out of 5 stars
Comment: The author wrote such an original novel that it’s hard to compare his work with the work of another writer. The rationale is that most sci-fi invasion novels of Earth are for hostile takeovers. In Progeny’s Promise, the aliens were here to help us save Earth. But I can think of only one story were the invasion is peaceful. It’s the 1951 black and white movie, The Day the Earth Stood Still starring Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal and Sam Jaffe. The film was adapted from Harry Bates’ 1940 short story, Farewell to the Master. Do you remember Michael Rennie as Klaatu and his eight foot tall robot, Gort? Do you remember how it ended?
Klaatu emerges from the saucer and addresses Barnhardt’s assembled scientists, informing them that he represents an interplanetary organization that created a police force of invincible robots like Gort to “patrol the planets in spaceships like this one, and preserve the peace” by automatically annihilating aggressors. In matters of aggression, we have given them absolute power over us. This power cannot be revoked. Klaatu concludes with, “It is no concern of ours how you run your planet, but if you threaten to extend your violence, this Earth of yours will be reduced to a burned-out cinder. Your choice is simple: join us, and live in peace, or pursue your present course and face obliteration.” Klaatu and Gort depart in the spaceship (this synopsis was courtesy of Wikipedia).
Sunday, April 2, 2017
The Tannenbaum Tailors and the Brethren of the Saints (volume 2)
The author sent my thirteen year old grandson, Kai, an autographed copy of his novel to review:
The second novel of the Tannenbaum Tailors series offers a new perspective. This story picks up right where the first one left off. Christmas passes without any more trouble from the Spiritless. Jack gets a toy bullet train for Christmas. The tiny tailors decide to take a ride on the train, but Tonto misfires his grappling hook called a glimmer lift and smashes into the side of the train. He finds that he can’t reel in the hook.
Steve grapples in to save him, but just as Tonto gets reeled into the train, bugs (the size of small dogs to the tailors) blast out of the luggage compartments. When Brendan goes in to check out the bullet train to find the source of the bugs, there is a big flash, and Brendan disappears right before the eyes of the other elves. Soon after the flash, the elves find the source of the bugs. There is a termite hole that goes through a tree and deep under the house. Because Irene is the smallest tailor, she is sent in to kill the termites at the nest. Here is where the story takes a turn for the worst.
It’s probably worth mentioning that there is a second act to this book where one of Brendan’s crewmates betrays him and tells the police about how he told Jack (from the previous novel) about the tailors. Overall the storytelling was good, and I especially liked the author’s character development. But the one thing I didn’t like was in the first part of the book. There were no contractions in the dialogue. For example, they never say “I’m”, it’s always written out as “I am.” This doesn’t sound like a problem, but it makes the dialogue seem unnatural, however later on in the story this improves.
To conclude, the second novel was a huge improvement over the first. I would recommend this novel to YA readers in the 12-18 age group.
RATING: 5 out of 5 stars
Comment: Kai made an excellent point about the lack of contractions in the first part of the story. People in normal conversation use contractions; such as, “don’t”, “can’t” or “couldn’t”. In usual conversation you wouldn’t say, “do not”, “can not”, or “could not”...would you? yourdictionary.com says, “When writing dialogue in a novel or play, contractions help reflect how a character actually speaks.” As Arte Johnson (playing a German soldier) always said on the TV series Laugh-In, “verrrrry interesting.”
The second novel of the Tannenbaum Tailors series offers a new perspective. This story picks up right where the first one left off. Christmas passes without any more trouble from the Spiritless. Jack gets a toy bullet train for Christmas. The tiny tailors decide to take a ride on the train, but Tonto misfires his grappling hook called a glimmer lift and smashes into the side of the train. He finds that he can’t reel in the hook.
Steve grapples in to save him, but just as Tonto gets reeled into the train, bugs (the size of small dogs to the tailors) blast out of the luggage compartments. When Brendan goes in to check out the bullet train to find the source of the bugs, there is a big flash, and Brendan disappears right before the eyes of the other elves. Soon after the flash, the elves find the source of the bugs. There is a termite hole that goes through a tree and deep under the house. Because Irene is the smallest tailor, she is sent in to kill the termites at the nest. Here is where the story takes a turn for the worst.
It’s probably worth mentioning that there is a second act to this book where one of Brendan’s crewmates betrays him and tells the police about how he told Jack (from the previous novel) about the tailors. Overall the storytelling was good, and I especially liked the author’s character development. But the one thing I didn’t like was in the first part of the book. There were no contractions in the dialogue. For example, they never say “I’m”, it’s always written out as “I am.” This doesn’t sound like a problem, but it makes the dialogue seem unnatural, however later on in the story this improves.
To conclude, the second novel was a huge improvement over the first. I would recommend this novel to YA readers in the 12-18 age group.
RATING: 5 out of 5 stars
Comment: Kai made an excellent point about the lack of contractions in the first part of the story. People in normal conversation use contractions; such as, “don’t”, “can’t” or “couldn’t”. In usual conversation you wouldn’t say, “do not”, “can not”, or “could not”...would you? yourdictionary.com says, “When writing dialogue in a novel or play, contractions help reflect how a character actually speaks.” As Arte Johnson (playing a German soldier) always said on the TV series Laugh-In, “verrrrry interesting.”
Thursday, March 30, 2017
the NORTH WATER
Ian McGuire’s second novel is as dark as it can get, yet somehow the author’s story has occasional breaks in the clouds. How did he do that? Even the protagonist, Patrick Sumner, who is normally a somber and gloomy individual portrays hope and optimism at the story’s bleakest times. This takes writer skills that are unrivaled. I’ve read darker novels, such as Cormac McCarthy’s Outer Dark (see my review of 3/1/2013), but somehow I enjoyed the few breaks in the gloom with McGuire’s novel...while still experiencing Cormac’s terror. Surprisingly (since it’s a new novel), Goodreads.com rates McGuire’s novel as the sixth best whaling novel ever written. Which novel is first? You know the answer is Herman Melville’s 1851 novel Moby Dick which was a readers lesson in perseverance. I tried to find faults in McGuire’s novel but couldn’t, which is a rare statement from me. Alrighty then, let’s get a taste of the story.
The year is 1859. The whaling ship Volunteer and its sister ships are off from Yorkshire to the north waters of the Arctic Circle on a commercial whaling trip. The owner of the ships, Mr. Baxter, confers with the Volunteer’s Captain Brownlee before they ship out. Does Brownlee have orders from Baxter other than harpooning whales? Mr. Baxter hires an ex-British Army surgeon, Patrick Sumner, as the ship’s medic. What is Sumner hiding from the crew about his recent discharge from The British East India Company during the Indian Soldiers Rebellion of 1857? Was he released Honorably? What is he hiding in his locked military footlocker aboard the ship? Am I asking too many questions? (just throwing out some teasers). The next crew member of note is the nasty harpooner Henry Drax, who believes in no laws except his own. The First Mate is a Mr. Cavendish, who the Shetlander crew deem worthless. Mr. Baxter says, “Cavendish is a great turd and whoremonger, it’s true, but he will do whatever he’s told to.” The Second Mate is a Master Black. Then we have the two other harpooners, Otto and Jones-the-whale. The main characters are kept to a handful, which is to my liking.
As they sail out towards the north waters, Our protagonist, Patrick Sumner, thinks to himself, “ By and large it will be an easeful, perhaps a mildly tedious, sort of time, but God knows that is what he needs after the madness of India: the filthy heat, the barbarity, the stench. Whatever the Greenland whaling is like, he thinks, it will surely not be anything like that.” Really! Think again (Haha). On the way to the whales, the ship stops on Jan Mayen Island to kill seals for their blubber and skins. Sumner almost dies as he falls in the icy waters and isn’t rescued for three hours. He suffers some frostbite and while he is comatose, he dreams of what happened in India. After Sumner recovers, a cabin boy appears at his room complaining of stomach pain. It’s actually butt pain. Sumner realizes that a seaman sodomized the boy, but the boy will not talk. The wrong man is accused and put in chains after the cabin boy is found dead in a empty cask. Who killed the boy? The stage is set...what happens next?
Otto, the harpooner, has a dream. He tells Sumner, “You will be killed by a bear - when the rest of us are already dead,” Otto says. “Eaten, swallowed up somehow,” “You are a good fellow, Otto, but what you are saying is folly”, Sumner tells him. “We’re not in danger anymore. Set your mind at ease and forget the f***ing dream.” Will the dream be a reality? Sorry, I’ll stop my review here, so you can buy your own copy of this thriller to enjoy. I have to say that this was the fastest 255 pages that I’ve ever read. (I love that irregular verb). Which means what? Yes, I loved this novel! I highly recommend this novel.
RATING: 5 out of 5 stars
Comment: My favorite nautical novel is Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island (see my review of 8/23/2016). If you read my long review, you know that I loved the novel. By the way, if you want to know more about Robert Louis Stevenson read Nancy Horan’s Under the Wide and Starry Sky (see my review of 3/15/2014)...it was a fabulous historical novel.
So what did Goodreads.com think of Treasure Island? The following is their teaser: “The most popular pirate story ever written in English, featuring one of literature’s most beloved “bad guys,” Treasure Island has been happily devoured by several generations of boys-and girls-and grownups. Its unforgettable characters include: young Jim Hawkins, who finds himself owner of a map to Treasure Island, where fabled pirate booty is buried; honest Captain Smollett, heroic Dr. Livesey, and the good-hearted but obtuse Squire Trelawney, who help Jim on his quest for the treasure; the frightening Blind Pew, double-dealing Israel Hands, and seemingly mad Ben Gunn, buccaneers of varying shades of menace; and, of course, garrulous, affable, ambiguous Long John Silver, who is one moment a friendly, laughing, one-legged sea-cook...and the next a dangerous pirate leader.”
The year is 1859. The whaling ship Volunteer and its sister ships are off from Yorkshire to the north waters of the Arctic Circle on a commercial whaling trip. The owner of the ships, Mr. Baxter, confers with the Volunteer’s Captain Brownlee before they ship out. Does Brownlee have orders from Baxter other than harpooning whales? Mr. Baxter hires an ex-British Army surgeon, Patrick Sumner, as the ship’s medic. What is Sumner hiding from the crew about his recent discharge from The British East India Company during the Indian Soldiers Rebellion of 1857? Was he released Honorably? What is he hiding in his locked military footlocker aboard the ship? Am I asking too many questions? (just throwing out some teasers). The next crew member of note is the nasty harpooner Henry Drax, who believes in no laws except his own. The First Mate is a Mr. Cavendish, who the Shetlander crew deem worthless. Mr. Baxter says, “Cavendish is a great turd and whoremonger, it’s true, but he will do whatever he’s told to.” The Second Mate is a Master Black. Then we have the two other harpooners, Otto and Jones-the-whale. The main characters are kept to a handful, which is to my liking.
As they sail out towards the north waters, Our protagonist, Patrick Sumner, thinks to himself, “ By and large it will be an easeful, perhaps a mildly tedious, sort of time, but God knows that is what he needs after the madness of India: the filthy heat, the barbarity, the stench. Whatever the Greenland whaling is like, he thinks, it will surely not be anything like that.” Really! Think again (Haha). On the way to the whales, the ship stops on Jan Mayen Island to kill seals for their blubber and skins. Sumner almost dies as he falls in the icy waters and isn’t rescued for three hours. He suffers some frostbite and while he is comatose, he dreams of what happened in India. After Sumner recovers, a cabin boy appears at his room complaining of stomach pain. It’s actually butt pain. Sumner realizes that a seaman sodomized the boy, but the boy will not talk. The wrong man is accused and put in chains after the cabin boy is found dead in a empty cask. Who killed the boy? The stage is set...what happens next?
Otto, the harpooner, has a dream. He tells Sumner, “You will be killed by a bear - when the rest of us are already dead,” Otto says. “Eaten, swallowed up somehow,” “You are a good fellow, Otto, but what you are saying is folly”, Sumner tells him. “We’re not in danger anymore. Set your mind at ease and forget the f***ing dream.” Will the dream be a reality? Sorry, I’ll stop my review here, so you can buy your own copy of this thriller to enjoy. I have to say that this was the fastest 255 pages that I’ve ever read. (I love that irregular verb). Which means what? Yes, I loved this novel! I highly recommend this novel.
RATING: 5 out of 5 stars
Comment: My favorite nautical novel is Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island (see my review of 8/23/2016). If you read my long review, you know that I loved the novel. By the way, if you want to know more about Robert Louis Stevenson read Nancy Horan’s Under the Wide and Starry Sky (see my review of 3/15/2014)...it was a fabulous historical novel.
So what did Goodreads.com think of Treasure Island? The following is their teaser: “The most popular pirate story ever written in English, featuring one of literature’s most beloved “bad guys,” Treasure Island has been happily devoured by several generations of boys-and girls-and grownups. Its unforgettable characters include: young Jim Hawkins, who finds himself owner of a map to Treasure Island, where fabled pirate booty is buried; honest Captain Smollett, heroic Dr. Livesey, and the good-hearted but obtuse Squire Trelawney, who help Jim on his quest for the treasure; the frightening Blind Pew, double-dealing Israel Hands, and seemingly mad Ben Gunn, buccaneers of varying shades of menace; and, of course, garrulous, affable, ambiguous Long John Silver, who is one moment a friendly, laughing, one-legged sea-cook...and the next a dangerous pirate leader.”
Friday, March 24, 2017
COINMAN, An Untold Conspiracy
The author sent me a copy of his novel to review:
Pawan Mishra has written a humorous and tormenting story... all at the same time. The funny side reminded me of the American version of the TV show The Office. Coinman prompted me to think of the quirky Dwight played by Rainn Wilson. The bullying side reminded me of a adult office version of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, but a more civil edition. Coinman’s office was ruled by a gang of four, while the stranded boys were ruled by a gang of three with Piggy playing the counterpart of Pawan Mishra’s Coinman. Why was Coinman an outcast in his office? Because he loved “the joy of coin jingling!” What? Yes, that’s the hypothesis of the story. I’m going to email the author to find out how he thought of the idea. Anyway he took that zany habit and built a delightful tale around it. Coinman fell in love with coins when, as a baby, his father spilled coins on the floor. Baby Coinman found the one coin his father didn’t pick up and did what any baby would do...he put it in his mouth and swallowed it. Somehow his digestive system dissolved the coin, and he was forever hooked on coins. He had to have coins at all times in the left pocket of his trousers unless he had to use his left hand, then the coins would be moved into his right pocket. “Jangle jingle! Clink clatter! Ding-a-ling! Ring-a-ding!” Is that funny, or what? And if he had to hold a chart with both hands for a colleague at a office presentation, he would make the excuse that he had to go to the bathroom.
The venue for the story is a office building in Northern India. The managers are on the second floor, and the regular office workers are on the first floor sitting in individual desks. By the way, the reader never really finds out what the company actually does. It seems like they spend the whole shuffling papers and scheming against Coinman. According to Coinman, it looks like all the desks on the floor inch away from him on a daily basis. Coinman knows it’s true because he measures the distance from his desk to his neighbors desks as a daily routine. Nobody wanted to hear the constant jingling of coins in his pocket. “The coin-stricken souls at the office used as pain-killers some fabricated tales about Coinman’s buffoonery, yet these pain-killers were not good enough to make even a dent in the constant trauma the coins caused. The mind-paralyzing sound of the coins, mixed with the hatred against him, evolved to a stubborn assessment in their minds that Coinman was perpetrating the most unbearable experience they’d ever known.” The group’s attitude was simple, “They wanted independence from coins at any cost!” Coinman’s real name was Kesar, but somehow it changed to Coinman when his office mail, office newsletter, and official records started to be addressed to Coinman instead of Kesar. He went to the second floor to protest, but they said Its always been Coinman...so it stuck, go figure!
I have to say that I thought the author’s prose was excellent, mainly because I’m a fan of descriptive writing. Pawan Mishra took two pages (pages nine & ten) to describe Coinman’s appearance...that’s what I’m talking about! Getting back to the story, we learn about Coinman’s personal life such as, how he lives jam-packed with his mother, Kasturi, father, Daulat, his wife, Imli and a distant cousin, Shimla. Coinman’s wife is an actor who has the habit of adopting the personality of whoever she is currently playing on stage. For instance when she played a doctor on stage, she would come home as a doctor with a medical bag. She even gave Coinman a needle in the butt while he was sleeping (Haha). Okay, let’s get back to the conniving office gang of four: Hukum (the leader), Daya, Sevak and Panna. They are now joined by co-conspirators, Ratiram and the lovely office female, Tulsi, who has decided enough is enough. All the office workers have a meeting in the building’s cafeteria. Tulsi takes the leadership role, “Let us strip him of his coins, let’s rob the filthy insect of its wings, let’s snatch his happiness and share it equally among us.” Then she dropped her voice to almost a whisper. “Let’s do it in a way that lets us kill the snake without breaking the stick.” Okay, I told you enough of the story, the best is yet to come. What plan did the office gang finally come up with? What will Coinman do if he can’t jingle his coins? The author came up with a strange but simple story that somehow captivated me. Pick up your own copy, indulge yourself with this duck soup novel.
RATING: 4 out of 5 stars
Comment: This is the first novel I’ve read pertaining to bullying, however co-contributor, Pat Koelmel wrote a review on R.J. Palacio’s Wonder (see her review of 8/25/2014). It’s the story of a ten year old boy named Auggie, who has a rare medical facial deformity. His parent’s enroll him into a private school after years of home schooling. There, he faces bullying for the way he looks, not because he jingles coins in his pocket.
Pawan Mishra has written a humorous and tormenting story... all at the same time. The funny side reminded me of the American version of the TV show The Office. Coinman prompted me to think of the quirky Dwight played by Rainn Wilson. The bullying side reminded me of a adult office version of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, but a more civil edition. Coinman’s office was ruled by a gang of four, while the stranded boys were ruled by a gang of three with Piggy playing the counterpart of Pawan Mishra’s Coinman. Why was Coinman an outcast in his office? Because he loved “the joy of coin jingling!” What? Yes, that’s the hypothesis of the story. I’m going to email the author to find out how he thought of the idea. Anyway he took that zany habit and built a delightful tale around it. Coinman fell in love with coins when, as a baby, his father spilled coins on the floor. Baby Coinman found the one coin his father didn’t pick up and did what any baby would do...he put it in his mouth and swallowed it. Somehow his digestive system dissolved the coin, and he was forever hooked on coins. He had to have coins at all times in the left pocket of his trousers unless he had to use his left hand, then the coins would be moved into his right pocket. “Jangle jingle! Clink clatter! Ding-a-ling! Ring-a-ding!” Is that funny, or what? And if he had to hold a chart with both hands for a colleague at a office presentation, he would make the excuse that he had to go to the bathroom.
The venue for the story is a office building in Northern India. The managers are on the second floor, and the regular office workers are on the first floor sitting in individual desks. By the way, the reader never really finds out what the company actually does. It seems like they spend the whole shuffling papers and scheming against Coinman. According to Coinman, it looks like all the desks on the floor inch away from him on a daily basis. Coinman knows it’s true because he measures the distance from his desk to his neighbors desks as a daily routine. Nobody wanted to hear the constant jingling of coins in his pocket. “The coin-stricken souls at the office used as pain-killers some fabricated tales about Coinman’s buffoonery, yet these pain-killers were not good enough to make even a dent in the constant trauma the coins caused. The mind-paralyzing sound of the coins, mixed with the hatred against him, evolved to a stubborn assessment in their minds that Coinman was perpetrating the most unbearable experience they’d ever known.” The group’s attitude was simple, “They wanted independence from coins at any cost!” Coinman’s real name was Kesar, but somehow it changed to Coinman when his office mail, office newsletter, and official records started to be addressed to Coinman instead of Kesar. He went to the second floor to protest, but they said Its always been Coinman...so it stuck, go figure!
I have to say that I thought the author’s prose was excellent, mainly because I’m a fan of descriptive writing. Pawan Mishra took two pages (pages nine & ten) to describe Coinman’s appearance...that’s what I’m talking about! Getting back to the story, we learn about Coinman’s personal life such as, how he lives jam-packed with his mother, Kasturi, father, Daulat, his wife, Imli and a distant cousin, Shimla. Coinman’s wife is an actor who has the habit of adopting the personality of whoever she is currently playing on stage. For instance when she played a doctor on stage, she would come home as a doctor with a medical bag. She even gave Coinman a needle in the butt while he was sleeping (Haha). Okay, let’s get back to the conniving office gang of four: Hukum (the leader), Daya, Sevak and Panna. They are now joined by co-conspirators, Ratiram and the lovely office female, Tulsi, who has decided enough is enough. All the office workers have a meeting in the building’s cafeteria. Tulsi takes the leadership role, “Let us strip him of his coins, let’s rob the filthy insect of its wings, let’s snatch his happiness and share it equally among us.” Then she dropped her voice to almost a whisper. “Let’s do it in a way that lets us kill the snake without breaking the stick.” Okay, I told you enough of the story, the best is yet to come. What plan did the office gang finally come up with? What will Coinman do if he can’t jingle his coins? The author came up with a strange but simple story that somehow captivated me. Pick up your own copy, indulge yourself with this duck soup novel.
RATING: 4 out of 5 stars
Comment: This is the first novel I’ve read pertaining to bullying, however co-contributor, Pat Koelmel wrote a review on R.J. Palacio’s Wonder (see her review of 8/25/2014). It’s the story of a ten year old boy named Auggie, who has a rare medical facial deformity. His parent’s enroll him into a private school after years of home schooling. There, he faces bullying for the way he looks, not because he jingles coins in his pocket.
Saturday, March 18, 2017
THE LAST KIND WORDS SALOON
I finally read a Larry McMurtry novel, and I’m glad I did. Most of the reviewers of this 2014 novel gave it one or two stars (47% on Amazon). I think they are way out of line. Surely the author of the best western novel ever written (so says Bestwesternbooks.com and many others), Lonesome Dove, couldn’t have written a stinker...could he? No, I don’t think he did. His style was smooth and deliberate with a touch of western humor. I don’t think that Larry McMurtry had any intention of writing a serious novel about Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday as they traveled from Long Grass, Texas to Denver, Colorado and eventually to Tombstone, Arizona for the showdown at the O.K. Corral in 1881. Larry McMurtry states in the forward, “The Last Kind Words Saloon is a ballad in prose whose characters are afloat in time; their legends and their lives in history rarely match. I had the great director John Ford in mind when I wrote this book; he famously said that when you had to choose between history and legend, print legend. And so I’ve done.” With that said, I read McMurtry’s story with a grain of salt. Apparently most of the reviewers either missed that early quote or didn’t understand what he was saying. I thought the author’s prose was first-rate, sprinkled with the local flavor of the waning years of the old west. Some reviewers said the chapters were too short...so what. This style of writing makes me want to read more pages per session. I’m the type of reader that counts pages to see how many are left if it appears the chapter is too long.
The story is mostly lighthearted with both Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday not the deadeye shooters that most books portray them to be. Wyatt hardly ever has a job in this novel and is either drunk or arguing with his wife, Jessie, the bartender at The Last Kind Words Saloon owned by Wyatt’s brother, Warren. By the way, when the Earps leave a town, Warren brings the saloon sign with him. Wyatt’s brother Morgan is always the sheriff and Virgil Earp is his deputy. The novel introduces the reader to the real life Texas rancher Charlie Goodnight (known as the father of the Texas Panhandle) and his fictional partner Lord Benny Ernle, a British Baron. Lord Ernle gets killed early in the novel while sprinting with his horse on unfamiliar territory where he falls off a cliff and breaks his neck. We meet Madame San Saba of the brothel, The Orchid, in Long Grass, Texas. Supposedly, she was rescued from a harem in Turkey by Lord Ernle and taken under his wing. San Saba was reported to still be a virgin (what?). The reader meets the authentic telegraph operator and reporter Nellie Courtright, who was reputed to be the girlfriend of Buffalo Bill Cody, who also makes am appearance in this novel. As a matter of fact, Buffalo Bill hires Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday to join his Wild West Show in Denver for a $100 a show, each to stage a gunfight skit with blanks of course. The boys are a tad leery of blanks, “I’d be wary of it. What if some fool forgot to put blanks in his gun?”, said Doc. The Comanche Chief Quanah Parker, the son of kidnapped Cynthia Ann Parker and Comanche chief Peta Nocona also makes a brief appearance. I wonder if the 1956 John Wayne movie, The Searchers, is loosely based on the authentic Parker incident.
I’m not going to get into the Tombstone gunfight between Wyatt, Doc Holliday, Morgan, and Virgil Earp versus Ike and Billy Clanton, and the McLaury brothers (Johnny Ringo left town before the showdown) at the O.K. Corral. But I will tell you about a funny incident at Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in Denver. Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday’s first show didn’t go off too well. “The gunfighter skit involving Wyatt and Doc did not, at first, go well at all. For one thing the pair had not bothered to practice - both despised practice, on the whole. “Pull a pistol out of a dern holster and shoot it - why would that require practice?” Wyatt wondered. “Everything about show business requires practice,” Cody told him. “Sure enough, on the very first draw, Wyatt yanked his gun out so vigorously that it somehow flew out of his hand and landed twenty feet in front of him with the barrel in the dirt. Doc, meanwhile, had the opposite problem; he had jammed his pistol in its holster so tight that it wouldn’t come out. This behavior annoyed Doc so much that he ripped off the holster and threw it at a bronc, which happened to be loose in the arena.” I told you that the novel had some humor, didn’t I? Look, I know that this wasn’t McMurtry’s best novel, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. So do I recommend this lightly regarded novel? Did Babe Ruth hit home runs?
RATING: 4 out of 5 stars
Comment: Reading a Larry McMurtry novel keeps my quest to read at least one of all the great cowboy author’s novels intact. The next writer has to be either Louis L’Amour (1952’s Hondo), Jack Shaefer (1963’s Monte Walsh or 1949’s Shane), or A.B. Guthrie (1947’s The Big Sky).
Larry McMurtry’s credentials are amazing. His 1966 novel, The Last Picture Show,also became a hit movie winning two academy awards, as did Terms of Endearment (1975), which won five academy awards. And he and co-writer Diana Ossana wrote the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain, which won three academy awards. Lonesome Dove (the 1985 Pulitzer Prize novel) was a successful winner of seven Emmy awards as a miniseries. Wow!
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
edna & luna
The author sent me a autographed copy of her novel to review:
This is another novel that reminds me of Seinfeld’s theme for his TV series, which was “a show about nothing.” This was a novel about nothing. It was a pleasant story and well written but a tad uneventful. I’m just not sure what caused Gleah Powers to write this story. Maybe she wanted to write a story that was the opposite of the 1991 film Thelma and Louise. Thelma’s husband has the same name as Luna’s trailer park landlord, Darryl. And Louise has a boyfriend who would not commit like Luna’s Dr. Mark. Okay, I’m just having some fun, but Gleah Powers’ novel was a bit stodgy...don’t you think? One last thing...both story venues are in the Southwest. Okay, so what’s this yawner about. Well, there are two main characters, which is a good thing.
The first character is Edna Harwood. She is seventy years old and just lost her husband, Hank, three months after they moved from Chicago to Phoenix. She is lonely. She just found out that she needs a hysterectomy. This reminds her of the miscarriage she had at a much younger age. To make matters worse, somebody burglarizes her home and accidentally dumps Hank’s cremated ashes onto her carpet. For some reason the author often has Edna in a supermarket (usually buying bourbon). Anyway, she meets Joe at a Sun City Senior Citizens Club dance. Joe agrees to build a windbreaker in her backyard. Are you excited yet? Anyhow, Edna will eventually run into Luna at the supermarket...of course.
The second character is Luna, who just left her violent husband. She moves into a trailer park near Edna’s home with her dog, Tula. Luna has been a healer all her life and advertises that fact but has no paying customers as of yet. She has occasional sex with the park’s landlord, Darryl, and a Dr. Mark that she recently met.
So now that I whet your appetite with the modus operandi of the two centerpieces, I’ll leave their subsequent meeting and the crux of the novel for you to read. I don’t want to appear to be uncaring to the author because she has impressive credentials as a painter, actor, and dancer besides other literary accomplishments. But this novel was...humdrum.
RATING: 3 out of 5 stars
Comment: This is probably the shortest review I ever wrote. But besides the Thelma and Louise comparison I made in the first paragraph, which was tongue-in-cheek, there is nothing that I’ve read to compare with her novel.
This is another novel that reminds me of Seinfeld’s theme for his TV series, which was “a show about nothing.” This was a novel about nothing. It was a pleasant story and well written but a tad uneventful. I’m just not sure what caused Gleah Powers to write this story. Maybe she wanted to write a story that was the opposite of the 1991 film Thelma and Louise. Thelma’s husband has the same name as Luna’s trailer park landlord, Darryl. And Louise has a boyfriend who would not commit like Luna’s Dr. Mark. Okay, I’m just having some fun, but Gleah Powers’ novel was a bit stodgy...don’t you think? One last thing...both story venues are in the Southwest. Okay, so what’s this yawner about. Well, there are two main characters, which is a good thing.
The first character is Edna Harwood. She is seventy years old and just lost her husband, Hank, three months after they moved from Chicago to Phoenix. She is lonely. She just found out that she needs a hysterectomy. This reminds her of the miscarriage she had at a much younger age. To make matters worse, somebody burglarizes her home and accidentally dumps Hank’s cremated ashes onto her carpet. For some reason the author often has Edna in a supermarket (usually buying bourbon). Anyway, she meets Joe at a Sun City Senior Citizens Club dance. Joe agrees to build a windbreaker in her backyard. Are you excited yet? Anyhow, Edna will eventually run into Luna at the supermarket...of course.
The second character is Luna, who just left her violent husband. She moves into a trailer park near Edna’s home with her dog, Tula. Luna has been a healer all her life and advertises that fact but has no paying customers as of yet. She has occasional sex with the park’s landlord, Darryl, and a Dr. Mark that she recently met.
So now that I whet your appetite with the modus operandi of the two centerpieces, I’ll leave their subsequent meeting and the crux of the novel for you to read. I don’t want to appear to be uncaring to the author because she has impressive credentials as a painter, actor, and dancer besides other literary accomplishments. But this novel was...humdrum.
RATING: 3 out of 5 stars
Comment: This is probably the shortest review I ever wrote. But besides the Thelma and Louise comparison I made in the first paragraph, which was tongue-in-cheek, there is nothing that I’ve read to compare with her novel.
Monday, March 13, 2017
ONE GOD: THE WILL TO POWER
The author sent me a copy of her novel to review:
I didn’t think anybody could make the world of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) a somewhat gripping read-through, but Polish writer Kata Mlek easily met my challenge. This is the first novel of a planned trilogy. I thought the ebb and flow of the novel was outstanding with some intervals of relative calm and then many chapters of great peril. The only salient criticism I have of the novel is that there are too many main characters for my taste. I found other minor faults in Kata’s novel, but since I haven’t read her second book in the series, The Last Man, it wouldn’t be fair to bring it up. Jeffrey M. Smith’s 2003 noteworthy expose`on GMOs, Seeds of Deception, seems to back-up the foundation of Kata’s novel. One thing for sure is that Kata Mlek is one fine storyteller. So let me tell you a little about her novel.
The novel takes place in the very near future, mainly in Poland, Hungary and Africa. Miroslav (Miran) works for TransAgra, a company that makes transgenic oats, but Miran wants to start his own GMO company that he names Genesis. He is backed financially by the heir to a Belgian mining fortune, Andreas Maes, and romantically by his best researcher, Sylvia (Satia). Miran is apparently bisexual since he has relations with both genders (Andreas and Satia). The other main player in the GMO world is VitaGen run by Elliot Goldblum. Andreas and his investors decide that Goldblum must go. They kidnap his son Zachary in exchange for his stock in VitaGen. He refuses. A box with his son’s head is mailed to him. I’m only mentioning this because VitaGen and the Goldblums are a very small and early part of the story. Obviously, Andreas' group takes over Vitagen and make Miran the president of the new company, Genesis.
Now the other player in this story is Will Smart, the CEO of EatSmart of Hungary. Since his company knew that GMO plants were mostly outlawed in Europe, he ran a series of Smart’s Organic Farms (SOFs) to compete. His company’s war against Miran’s GMO company is the focal point of the story. How was Genesis going to get their GMO plants unprohibited? What lies did EatSmart make up to enrage the public against Genesis? Smart’s farms would recruit families to live on his farms to produce “crops using natural seeds and fertilizers.” Why was Smart running his farms like a cult? Is Smart’s EatSmart company just as unprincipled and miscreant as Miran’s Genesis company? You Bet Your Bippy! And, you haven’t met the Beata and Yatsek family; the Anna and Mihal family; Emeryk Baranovski or Levi yet. The struggle for the dominance of the world’s food supply by Genesis and EatSmart goes on throughout the 247 pages of this novel. And, according to the author, into the next novel.
This novel was a surprise to me. The teasers that I read didn’t make it seem that I would like the story. I think the big reason this novel was a joy to read was because Kata Mlek left out all the technical jargon about GMOs. If I want to know the technical side of GMOs, I will grab a textbook on the subject (Haha, highly unlikely). Good job, Kata, I highly recommend your novel.
RATING: 4 out of 5 stars
Comment: If you want to see a first-rate movie about the GMO problem, watch Daryl Wein’s 2015 movie, Consumed, starring Danny Glover, Zoe Lister-Jones, and Victor Garber.
Environmental activist Erin Brockovich said about the movie, “Entertaining, relatable, suspenseful and informative, and a real eye opener to what is going on. This film has re-inspired and educated me. BRAVO!"
I didn’t think anybody could make the world of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) a somewhat gripping read-through, but Polish writer Kata Mlek easily met my challenge. This is the first novel of a planned trilogy. I thought the ebb and flow of the novel was outstanding with some intervals of relative calm and then many chapters of great peril. The only salient criticism I have of the novel is that there are too many main characters for my taste. I found other minor faults in Kata’s novel, but since I haven’t read her second book in the series, The Last Man, it wouldn’t be fair to bring it up. Jeffrey M. Smith’s 2003 noteworthy expose`on GMOs, Seeds of Deception, seems to back-up the foundation of Kata’s novel. One thing for sure is that Kata Mlek is one fine storyteller. So let me tell you a little about her novel.
The novel takes place in the very near future, mainly in Poland, Hungary and Africa. Miroslav (Miran) works for TransAgra, a company that makes transgenic oats, but Miran wants to start his own GMO company that he names Genesis. He is backed financially by the heir to a Belgian mining fortune, Andreas Maes, and romantically by his best researcher, Sylvia (Satia). Miran is apparently bisexual since he has relations with both genders (Andreas and Satia). The other main player in the GMO world is VitaGen run by Elliot Goldblum. Andreas and his investors decide that Goldblum must go. They kidnap his son Zachary in exchange for his stock in VitaGen. He refuses. A box with his son’s head is mailed to him. I’m only mentioning this because VitaGen and the Goldblums are a very small and early part of the story. Obviously, Andreas' group takes over Vitagen and make Miran the president of the new company, Genesis.
Now the other player in this story is Will Smart, the CEO of EatSmart of Hungary. Since his company knew that GMO plants were mostly outlawed in Europe, he ran a series of Smart’s Organic Farms (SOFs) to compete. His company’s war against Miran’s GMO company is the focal point of the story. How was Genesis going to get their GMO plants unprohibited? What lies did EatSmart make up to enrage the public against Genesis? Smart’s farms would recruit families to live on his farms to produce “crops using natural seeds and fertilizers.” Why was Smart running his farms like a cult? Is Smart’s EatSmart company just as unprincipled and miscreant as Miran’s Genesis company? You Bet Your Bippy! And, you haven’t met the Beata and Yatsek family; the Anna and Mihal family; Emeryk Baranovski or Levi yet. The struggle for the dominance of the world’s food supply by Genesis and EatSmart goes on throughout the 247 pages of this novel. And, according to the author, into the next novel.
This novel was a surprise to me. The teasers that I read didn’t make it seem that I would like the story. I think the big reason this novel was a joy to read was because Kata Mlek left out all the technical jargon about GMOs. If I want to know the technical side of GMOs, I will grab a textbook on the subject (Haha, highly unlikely). Good job, Kata, I highly recommend your novel.
RATING: 4 out of 5 stars
Comment: If you want to see a first-rate movie about the GMO problem, watch Daryl Wein’s 2015 movie, Consumed, starring Danny Glover, Zoe Lister-Jones, and Victor Garber.
Environmental activist Erin Brockovich said about the movie, “Entertaining, relatable, suspenseful and informative, and a real eye opener to what is going on. This film has re-inspired and educated me. BRAVO!"
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