the BEAR and the NIGHTINGALE

Although Katherine Arden is a Texan by birth, she writes like a seasoned Russian novelist. I presume studying Russian literature in Moscow had a lot to do with her Russian folklore style. I especially admire her using the Russian peculiarity (to us, not to them) of each character having multiple names. Sometimes this causes confusion for the reader. But when you realize that Russians have a first name, patronymic name and surname spelled in many varieties each, it’s less puzzling. They might also have a peasant name or a cutesy/loving name to go along with their other names. For example our main character is Vasilisa, but she is also known as: Vasya, Vasilisa Petrovna, Vasochka, and Vedma by a bathhouse spirit named Bannik. Oh yes, Vasya sees lots of spirits and they all relate to her. If you want a better example of multiple names, read Dostoevsky’s 1866 masterpiece, Crime and Punishment (see my review of 11/17/2014). Katherine Arden’s descriptive writing is in play when writing about the approaching cold winter in northern Russia, “The season was just turning, the drab fields full of shaved stubble and dusted with snow...it was cold, but Vasya did not think of it. She had been born to cold.” Throughout the novel the author has a foreboding style of writing that makes the reader wince when thinking of what’s going to happen next...and the heebie-jeebies usually transpire. I find it hard to believe that this novel is Katherine Arden’s first.

Katherine Arden recreates fourteenth century Russia with this fresh tale drawn from old Russian fables. Pyotr Vladimirovich was a great lord living on rich lands with many peasant workers. He enjoyed a good life with his wife, Marina; sons, Kolya, Sasha and Alyosha and daughter, Olga. Longtime nurse and nanny, Dunya, also lived in the big house, now the chief cook and family storyteller. Early in the novel, Dunya tells the tale of The Frost King, “The master of the white snow, the black firs, and the silver frost”, to the children. All the peasants believed him to be real along with all the other woodland spirits. Later in the day, Marina tells Pyotr, “I am with child.” Pyotr was concerned because Marina was older now “and she had grown so thin that winter.” Marina said, “I want a daughter like my mother was.” Marina’s mother is a story in itself. During the reign of Ivan the first, “A ragged girl (Marina’s mother) rode through the Kremlin-gates, alone except for her tall gray horse. Despite filth and hunger and weariness, rumors dogged her footsteps. She had such grace, the people said, and eyes like the swan-maiden in a fairy tale...when Ivan first saw this girl, he sat unmoving for a full ten minutes. A year later he married this mysterious girl.” Who is she? Where did she come from? “The princess would not say where she had come from: not then and not ever.” The Church didn’t like the princess or her  daughter, Marina. “At the bishop’s insistence, Marina, her only child, was married off to a boyar (Pyotr) in the howling wilderness, many days’ travel from Moscow.” The stage is set for the birth of Vasya. Will she have the same special abilities and attributes as her grandmother had?

Vasya is born. “Marina breathed out once, gently, and died.” Before Marina died, she named the baby girl, Vasilisa...Vasya. “All that winter, the house echoed with the child’s cries. More than once, Dunya and Olga, despaired of her, for she was a scrawny, pallid infant, all eyes and flailing limbs. But the winter passed and the child lived. She ceased screaming and throve on the milk of peasant woman.” As she got older, Vasya had a habit of going into the woods alone. One day she didn’t come home for supper after a day in the forest. Who was Vasya calling when she sat in the snowy forest and said, “I know you sleep when the snow comes, but couldn’t you wake up? See, I have cakes (stolen from Dunya’s kitchen).” With no answer, Vasya decides to go home, but for some reason gets lost in the woods. She sees a tree unlike another. It was big, black and gnarled like a wicked old woman. “A man lay curled like a beast at the foot of this tree, fast asleep. She could not see his face; it was hidden between his arms. Through rents in his clothes, she glimpsed cold white skin. He did not stir at her approach.” With Vasya’s urging, he finally woke up. One side of his face was fair with a gray eye. The other side of his face was a mass of bluish scars with the eye socket sewn shut. He says, “What manner of girl-child comes here, all alone?” And then softer, “Such eyes, Almost I remember...Well, come here.” He made his voice coaxing. “Your father will be worried.” What did this thing (?) almost remember? I know that I told you a lot, but so far I’ve only reviewed the first 24 pages of a 314 page novel...are you ready to buy your own copy yet?

Before the one-eyed man could do any harm to Vasya, “There came the crunch of hooves in the snow, and the snorting breaths of a horse. A horse and rider stepped into the clearing. The horse was white and strong; when the rider slid to the ground, Vasya saw that he was slender and bold-boned, the skin drawn tight over cheek and throat. He wore a rich robe of heavy fur, and his eyes gleamed blue.” I told you that the author’s descriptive writing was to my liking. Anyway, who are these strange men and is one of them the Frost King? If so, who is the other man? The man in the rich robe of heavy fur says to the one-eyed man, “What is this?” The ragged man cringed, “No concern of yours, she came to me-she is mine.” The newcomer said to him, “Is she? Sleep, Medved, for it is winter.” So, they obviously know each other. Vasya is now frightened and turns around and flees. The stranger doesn’t follow. Vasya is eventually found by her brother, Sasha and returned home. Later, “Sasha, though he told no one, ranged the forest to the west, looking for this one-eyed man, or an oak tree with roots about its knees. But never man nor tree did he find, and then the snow fell for three days, straight and hard, so that none went out.” Okay, that’s the end of my 29 page review. The real good stuff is still ahead...and I mean real good. Did you notice that I never mentioned the bear or the nightingale? I also didn’t mention all the Russian folklore spirits and demons that you will meet. Only one thing annoyed me. I had to keep going to Google or Wikipedia to decipher some Russian words; such as, devushka (girl) or domovoi (a household spirit in Russian folklore). Guess what? I didn’t realize that the author had a glossary at the book’s end that would have answered all my questions. Oh well!

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

Comment: I looked up a listopia that Goodreads.com had on the internet concerning the top novels based on Russian folklore. They all seem to be recent novels, so I don’t know what the criteria was when the vote took place, but the following are the top two novels:

1. The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey (2012). This was a surprise because it was a novel that I reviewed in 2013. Goodreads.com said, “Alaska, the 1920s. Jack and Mabel have staked everything on a fresh start in a stark place, and Mabel is haunted by the baby she lost many years before-when a little girl appears mysteriously on their land, each is filled with wonder, but also foreboding...is she what she seems, and can they find room in their hearts for her?” What did I think? Check out my review of 4/13/2013.
2. Egg and Spoon by Gregory Maguire (2014). Goodreads.com said, “Elena Rudina lives in the impoverished Russia countryside. Her father has been dead for years. One of her brothers has been conscripted into the Tsar’s army, the other taken as a servant in the house of the local landowner. Her mother is dying, slowly, in their tiny cabin. And there is no food. But then a train arrives in the village…”  

HOTEL BRUCE

This review is done by my Children’s Picture Book Specialist, Pat Koelmel:

Not every sequel, be it a sequel to a movie or a book, can live up to its original. Well, in the case of Hotel Bruce, a picture book for ages 5-8 by author-illustrator Ryan T. Higgins and sequel to the fabulously popular Mother Bruce (had I reviewed it, I’d have given it five shiny stars, that’s how much I loved it), it came close...real close.

Okay, so here are the bare facts about Hotel Bruce. A grumpy bear by the name of Bruce, upon migrating back north in the spring with his charges (four geese who believe him to be their mother), finds his home transformed into a hotel by three mice. What happens after that will have kids roaring with laughter. As for Bruce, well, he just plain roars. But what else would you expect from a cantankerous bear whose home has been turned upside down? By the way, if you want to know how a bear ends up the mother of four geese, pick up Mother Bruce, recipient of the E.B. White Read-Aloud Award and the Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Honor.

Kids will also flip over Mr. Higgins’ laugh-out loud illustrations. Detailed and colorful, each spread will give little ones plenty to look at. Bruce’s expressions alone (which range from grumpy to grumpier to grumpiest) are worth the price of admission.
 
So if you’re looking for someplace a little different to stay for your next vacation, check out Hotel Bruce. It’s got all the amenities.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars
 
Comment: Coming soon (September 26, 2017 to be exact) is Ryan T. Higgins’ third installment in the Bruce series, Bruce’s Big Move. Other picture books by this author include Twaddleton’s Cheese, Wilfred, and Be Quiet!   

WE GOT IT ALL WRONG: death and grief, heaven and hell and mental illness

The authors sent me an autographed copy of their book to review:

I’m sure Beverly Hafemeister and Kym McBride are very discerning ladies, but I have to treat their dual work as a novel and not as a workshop type book. I didn’t see any credibility in anything I read, but it was sorta entertaining. The reviewers that gave this book five stars are obviously friends of the writers. I repeat...their story didn’t have an ounce of believability. Beverly is the healing recipient and Kym is the psychic medium conducting phone seances (for the lack of better words) between Beverly and her minister friend, Hal, who passed away the year before. Beverly has many mental problems including “fits of weeping and heavy depression followed by feelings of weighty despondency.” Kym writes that Beverly will serve as the experimental “lab rat” in this book. Beverly writes, “You will find, as Kym and I did, that we go through life unaware of our largely invisible spiritual support system no matter what our preferred religious dogma is.” That’s right, they both have spiritual guides that that help them through life. Beverly’s guide is Bob (or Cherith) who “is a master of disguises with a droll sense of humor and is the perfect compliment to an uptight client.” Kym’s guide is Timingo, who is “level-headed and rather straight laced...the perfect guide for a medium.” By the way, good news: according to Kym, we all have invisible spiritual guides to help us through life...as they would say on the TV show Laugh-In...“I didn’t know that.”

One of the main themes in this book (out of respect, I don’t want to use the word novel again...in case they are right, you never know) is the Invisible Structure. What is that? Okay, I’ll tell you what it is, but you will not understand. “It is a beautiful, organized, multifaceted support system that surrounds all people at every stage of life. This structure’s parameters guide you back to Source that is achieved through levels of enlightenment (knowledge).” If they are talking about thanking the Lord (the Source?) for watching over you everyday, then I agree one hundred percent! I’m also a little foggy on some of the invisibles, such as, a crossed spirit, which Hal (Beverly’s deceased friend) was one of. By the way, all Beverly had to do to talk to Hal was make a phone appointment with Kym and start talking to Hal after saying her name and Hal’s name three times. Anyway, “crossed spirits still have their personality, intelligence, sense of humor, and style of speaking. Their feelings of love do not stop. They still have their free will. These souls can decide if they feel a loved one is ready or not to know things about them and their transition.” But you have to understand that they are on the otherside, ghost are not. Crossed spirits cannot see ghost, because ghost are still stuck on earth. Ghost tend to be mischievous. And most importantly, “not unlike some of the living, they feel they are trapped by their circumstances.”

Kym says that she has “talked to close to 1,000 dead people” since working as a medium. At the end of each chapter, the authors summarize their life theme’s progress. Kym’s thoughts are relayed to the reader under the heading of, Kym’s Professional Journey or Personal Growth Questions. For instance on page 87, Kym asks, “What’s your attitude towards ghosts wanting to take up residence in another person’s aura? Anger, compassion, a desire for revenge? What’s triggering your feelings? What’s your opinion of the host? Are they weak-willed, a victim, empathetic, a sinner?” Wow, that’s a lot to chew on! I’ll have to get back to Kym on that later. Beverly, in one of her Beverly’s Personal Journey segments says, after a phone conversation with Kym and Hal (still dead), “Another surprise of the reading concerns automatic handwriting. I don’t feel really comfortable with that idea (I wouldn’t either). As Edgar Cayce (a non-profit Org. in NYC that runs workshops on spiritual growth) warned, you never know who’s on the other end. To whom are you connected? Oh well, maybe I’m being too much a worry wart. It should be a fun way to communicate directly.” Well I’d be a little worried myself. Anyway you get the essence of this dual written workshop type book. Obviously I’m a nonbeliever, but a lot of people do believe in the spiritual world. With that in mind, I recommend this book to all doubters and followers of the spiritual world.

RATING: 3 out of 5 stars

Comment: If anything else, the world of spiritualism is certainly entertaining. Recently I enjoyed David Jaher’s The Witch of Lime Street (see my review of 12/10/2016). Basically this novel pits Harry Houdini against Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (yes, the author) and the world of spiritualism and the mediums who oversee it. It was a true story and very entertaining.

I also read Irene Weinberg’s, They Serve Bagels in Heaven (see my review of 10/11/2016). This novel wasn’t even close to being believable, but again it was enjoyable. The novel that makes you think twice about afterlife is neurosurgeon Eben Alexander’s, Proof of Heaven (see my review of 8/10/2013). The doctor’s credentials make his story convincing.

INTO THE WATER

Whoa Nellie (no pun intended)...Did Paula Hawkins write this book or did somebody else write it? It has an almost separate style and tempo than her recent bestseller, The Girl on the Train (see my review of 8/16/2015).This is a somewhat puzzling story encompassing an English country town (Beckford) full of apparently guilty people who occasionally commit suicide by drowning themselves in the pool of the town’s river (or were some of them murdered?). Sigmund Freud could have made a nice living in this town. When you read this novel make sure that you have pen and paper handy because you will need to take notes to remember the myriad of characters in this story. Paula, if you are going to have what seemed like twenty five main characters...insert a dramatis personae in the novel. Okay, as the story starts to unravel, the reader remembers who is who, but it took me almost two hundred pages to get there. In your new novel, I did like the short chapters and the different narrators for each chapter. I’m going to say that Paula Hawkins narrowly missed having a sophomore jinx on her hands. But in the last two hundred pages, she pulled a "rabbit out of the hat" and saved the novel. Her endgame was intense and maybe a tad brilliant. Paula Hawkins made the river seem like it was alive...was it a drowning pool or “a place to get rid of troublesome woman?” That’s for you to find out.

Jules (Julia) Abbott hears from the police. Her estranged sister, Nel Abbott, has drowned in the pool of the town’s river...they think it might be suicide. Jules ponders to herself, “I was thinking about what I was going to say to you when I got there, how I knew you’d done this to spite me, to upset me, to frighten me, to disrupt my life. To get my attention, to drag me back to where you wanted me. And there you go, Nel, you’ve succeeded: here I am in the place I never wanted to come back to, to look after your daughter, to sort out your bloody mess.” Jules goes back to her former town and old house. It’s empty, so she lets herself in and starts looking around Nel’s old room (which is now Nel’s daughter Lena’s room). Jules is looking under the bed when she hears, “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Nel’s teenage daughter, Lena, has arrived. Jules says, “I’m sorry. I’m Jules. We haven’t met, but I’m your aunt.” Lena instantly dislikes her Aunt Jules. Lena tells Jules that the police are downstairs. Jules meets Detective Inspector Sean Townsend and Detective Sergeant Erin Morgan (two more of the main characters). Det.Townsend tells Jules, “DS Morgan will be your liaison with the police. She’ll keep you informed about where we are in the investigation.” Jules asks, “There’s an investigation?” DS Morgan tells Jules, “Your sister’s body was seen in the river by a man who was out walking his dogs early yesterday morning...she was fully clothed, and her injuries were consistent with a fall from the cliff above the pool.” Jules asks, “You think she fell?” Lena says, “You don’t think she fell, do you?” “You know better than that.” Did she commit suicide, fall or was she pushed over?

Nel had been writing a history of all the drownings that occurred in the pool of the river that was below a cliff. Most of the town’s population were annoyed with Nel’s version of the drownings. Lena Abbott’s best friend, Katie, recently committed suicide in the drowning pool. Katie’s mother, Louise Whittaker, blamed Lena and Nel for her daughter’s death. Was Louise involved in Nel’s drowning? Was Katie’s teacher, Mark Henderson, the reason Katie drowned herself? What did Katie’s brother Josh know about her drowning. The town’s psychic Nickie Sage had her own theories on how Nel and Katie drowned. Nickie thinks their deaths are linked with the long ago drowning of Detective Sean Townsend’s mother, Lauren. And what does Sean’s father, Patrick, the town’s retired disciplinarian policeman, have to do with these deaths? Why did Sean’s wife, Helen Townsend, hate Det. Erin Morgan and seem to have a schmaltzy type relationship with her husband’s father, Patrick? I told you that this story starts out very confusing with many characters. This is probably where a lot of the reviewers abandoned this story and issued one or two stars. If they would have continued reading, they would have seen how all this tied into a clever conclusion. My opinion of this novel changed from negative to positive halfway through the story, so I understand why the reviewers (who vacated the story) rated it so low.

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

Comment: The writing style of Paula Hawkins’ second novel was (in my opinion) very different from her first novel. It made me think of the old argument about Harper Lee’s novel, To kill a Mockingbird. Many pundits say that her lifelong friend, Truman Capote (In Cold Blood) wrote that novel for her. That notion was reinforced when her less than great second novel, Go Set a Watchman (see my review of 2/23/2016), was published 55 years after her first novel. I don’t believe in those rumors, but it did make me mull it over.

Ghostwriting must be a lucrative job, but why would you want to write a book without getting credit for it? The dictionary says, “A ghostwriter is a person who writes one or numerous speeches, books, articles, etc. for another person who is named or presumed to be the author.” Think about it, how can James Patterson write six novels every year? How can Bill O’Reilly pump out books from his Killing series seemingly every two or three months. Check out how many books in this series he has published in the last four years while hosting a television show.  

Rascal Farms

The author sent me a copy of his book to review. The review is done by Children's Picture Book Specialist, Pat Koelmel:

Well, Mr. Anderson Atlas, author of Morty’s Travels (see my review of 2/27/2017), has written yet another picture book for ages 4 and up; although, I’d be willing to bet that even younger ones would appreciate the antics of the woodland animals featured in this particular story. Here’s a brief summary: A hungry raccoon, tired of eating slugs and pinecones, stumbles upon a farm and proceeds to raid the crops. Soon all the other animals follow suit, and before long, there’s nothing left. After, the animals realize what they’ve done and try to make amends.

Overall, while I enjoyed the story, there were several things that didn’t work for me. For instance, I wish that the animals would have somehow noticed how their stealing was affecting the farm and the family who lived there before it was entirely depleted. And why the farmer didn’t do anything to stop them either is a mystery. As for the ending, I would have liked to have seen the animals compensate the farmer by reseeding his farm instead of growing their own crops in the forest and delivering only a small box of food as reparation. I would also suggest that the author take a closer look when editing. I noticed a number of repetitive phrases and a typo or two.

Okay, now for the things that did work. First on my list were the many clever solutions the animals came up with in order to feed their own families in the future. What also stood out for me was how well the author communicated three out of the five senses (sight, smell, and taste) when the raccoon first encountered the farm’s bounty of food. Given the fact that the use of any of the five senses helps the reader to truly connect with a story, I was right there on the farm with the raccoon. But, all in all, my favorite thing about Mr. Atlas’s writing is that I get a clear sense of his passion for storytelling.

So, do I recommend this book? That would be a yes for the pluses just cited, the super cute animal drawings, and the author’s ability to make little kids (and big kids, like me) giggle.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

Comment: Some of the funniest picture books I know feature animals. Outstanding examples include Henny by Elizabeth Rose Stanton, Mother Bruce by Ryan T. Higgins, Snappsy the Alligator by Julie Falatko (author) and Tim Miller (illustrator), and Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin (author) and Betsy Lewin (illustrator). Another favorite featuring a mythical creature is Larf by Ashley Spires.  

HEART of GOLD

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

Warren Adler, the best selling author of The War of the Roses and Mother Nile (see my review of 1/5/2017), has written a tension filled novel with more twist and turns than Carter has little liver pills (am I showing my age?). Wow, what a 368 page ride! Besides being a thriller, the novel asks some important questions. The first question is: What’s the price of honor? Would you debase yourself for a hundred million dollars in gold coins? This novel answers that question loud and clear. The second question is: Why did nearly four million Jews walk meekly into the gas chambers at the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland? And thirdly, why did Jewish work gangs rifle through the incoming Jews luggage and search their bodies for valuables after they were gassed to death? Our heroine of the novel, Karla Smith tells her Jewish lawyer, Milton Gold, why they did that according to her father (who was there), “While their fellows froze, they stole layers of clothing, smuggling it out of enclosures. They were the scavengers. They feasted on the possessions of the dead while other Jews threw their carcasses into the fire, and still others gathered the rendered fat from their bodies and packaged it to manufacture soap...they used the bits and pieces from this hoard to buy favors, to buy time, to bribe, to cheat.” While this seems painful, can you blame them for wanting to live another day? What would you do?

The premise of the story is centered around two main characters (that’s to my liking). It starts out with a beautiful girl from Montana coming to NYC and hiring a seedy Manhattan lawyer, Milton Gold. She seeks Milton’s help in securing a hundred million dollars in gold coins. She is the only one who knows where it’s hidden in the communist controlled Poland of the 1970's. She tells Milton that her dad died three weeks ago and on his deathbed told her the story of the hidden gold. He told her of his time as a Polish prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp. He hated the Jews. “My father’s family were bankers...I have only some vague recollections about him telling me about that. The family had this bank in Warsaw. In September of 1939, when the Germans invaded Poland, his father removed the bank’s reserves and hid them somewhere in the city. Sometime in the summer of 1943, the family was apprehended and everyone shipped off to Auschwitz, which was also a work camp. The family never survived the camps...only my father.” Did Karla’s dad tell her the truth? She continues her story to Milton, “When the Germans dismantled the camps in the face of the advancing Russians, my father escaped. He made his way back to Warsaw, found the gold, then moved it in an attempt to get it to the West. The problem was that the Russians were advancing too fast and he had to hide it elsewhere...he got through to the Allied lines and joined the tide of displaced persons flooding Europe. He managed to make his way to America, then to Butte.” Why didn’t he go back to Poland and regain the gold?

After Karla’s meeting with Milton, she calls him and tells him that she is being followed. He sneaks out of his apartment building and meets her at a bar. When they leave they are followed by two men, who attack them. Milton shoots one man and they escape to a cheap hotel near his office. Milton tells her, “Like you, Karla, I don’t think I have a choice. I’m afraid I’m in this, whether I like it or not.” Karla tells Milton why her dad hated Jews, “He saw the Jews as pariahs, betraying each other to survive. Telling lies. Committing brutal acts against their own people just to stay alive, even for just a few more days. What infuriated him most was the conventional perception portrayed almost everywhere you looked-that it was only the Jews who suffered in those camps, only the Jews who were exterminated.” Milton doesn’t buy her dad’s story. He tells Karla, “He was obviously deranged by his experiences. Six million Jews were murdered, most shoved into the gas chambers. Innocent people. If you read, as you say, you know he was wrong.” So who were these men that attacked Karla and Milton? Were they from Poland? And what did these men want? I’m sorry that I’m asking so many questions, but as Warren Adler’s story develops, many different cabals come into play. Warren Adler is one strong storyteller with excellent descriptive prose (not overdone like Diane Ackerman’s The Zookeeper’s Wife). I’ll let you buy your own copy of this novel to find out what happens to this exhilarating couple once they land in Poland in search of the gold. Do I recommend? Did the Chicago Cubs go 108 years before winning another World Series? Yes they did!

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

Comment: In most mysteries or thrillers, tension and suspense must be the main goal of the author in order to hook the reader immediately. I mean right out of the gate from the first page to the last. I think Warren Adler accomplished that feat in this novel. The reader didn’t know which group (there were three) pursuing them were good or bad, if any. They all had their reasons for wanting the treasure, but the tension continued throughout the novel because Karla stuck to her guns (not literally). She wanted all the gold and wasn’t going to tell anybody where it was, even under the threat of death while cornered in a communist country. The novel’s tension didn’t let up until almost the last page. Good job Warren Adler.

Okay, the best tension authors are Stephen King and Cormac McCarthy...hands down. But there is no use listing their novels since everybody knows them. However, I’ve read various novels over the last several years that were highly tense. One novel is Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves (see my review of 2/1/2013) which was my first venture into ergodic literature. In my review’s last paragraph, I wrote, “Back at the house, things are bleak as the house finally started to attack.” Yea, that was an intense novel! The second novel was Dostoyevsky’s 1866 novel, Crime and Punishment (see my review of 11/17/2014). The murderer, Rodion Romanovich (one of several names that he uses in this novel) has interviews with Porfiry (Russia’s Hercule Poirot) that were very anxious. And lastly I have to give credit to Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, for switching his story lines, chapter to chapter with cliffhangers to create strained moments for the reader.

CITIES OF THE PLAIN

Cormac McCarthy’s third volume of The Border Trilogy offers the reader more about the cowboy life versus the first two novels, All the Pretty Horses (see my review of 4/2/2013) and The Crossing (see my review of 10/3/2013). Don’t get me wrong, this novel is still very dark, but I did like the ranch exploits of our two protagonist before the heavy duty grief set in. This novel brings back the expert horse trainer, John Grady Cole, the main character in All the Pretty Horses and Billy Parham, the excellent tracker and the principle character in The Crossing. They are both working as ranch hands on a ranch shortly to be taken over by the U.S. Army in New Mexico. With cattle ranching on the downside and a possible sale of the ranch, it’s fairly depressing for the ranch hands and owner, Mac McGovern. Cormac continues his previous style of using numerous Spanish sentences, phrases and words, such as, alcahuete (pimp). Yes my friends, once again a woman, this time a whore, is going to bring in the dark clouds. If you remember John Grady fell in love with a rancher’s beautiful daughter, Alejandra in All the Pretty Horses. This time he falls in love with a young whore he meets in Juarez, Mexico. Also continued is Cormac’s method of no quotation marks, which works surprisingly well.

The guts of the story centers around John Cole falling in love with a whore, Magdalena, in Juarez. The owner of the brothel, Eduardo, and his main pimp, Tiburcio, don’t like John. John wants to buy Magdalena from Eduardo, bring her across the border and marry her, but has no chance with Eduardo disliking him. John Cole enlist the aid of Billy Parham. He tells Billy that he wants him to go to the brothel and buy the girl for him since Eduardo doesn’t know him. Billy says, “Let me see if I got this straight. You want me to go to a whorehouse in Juarez mexico and buy this whore cash money and bring her back across the river to the ranch. Is that about the size of it?” (I’m using quotation marks that were not in the novel). John Grady nodded. “Shit”, said Billy. “Smile or somethin, will you? Goddamn. Tell me you aint gone completely crazy.” “I aint gone completely crazy” “The hell you aint.” “I’m in love with her, Billy.” (by the way, some of the previous words are not typos). Billy goes to Juarez to meet with Eduardo. “Eduardo was sitting at his desk smoking black cigars...How may I help you?” “I got a business proposition for you”, Billy said. “What I wanted”, said Billy, “was to buy one of these girls.” “You believe these girls are here against their will?” (this character, Eduardo was very scary) “Tell me this”, he said. “All right.” "Are you the principal or agent?” Obviously Eduardo knows that Billy is here representing John Cole, and we find out later that Eduardo is also in love with Magdalena and would rather slit her throat then let her go.

Billy gets back to the ranch very late and goes into the ranch kitchen for a cup of coffee. John is there waiting for him. John says, “Did you offer him money?” “Oh we had a pretty good visit, take it all around.” “What did he say?” “He said she didn’t want to leave there.” “Well that’s a lie.” “Well that may be. But he says she aint leavin.” “Well she is.” “He leaned forward and began to count off (for John) on the fingers of the hand that held the cigarette: She aint American. She aint a citizen. She dont speak english. She works in a whorehouse. No, hear me out. And last but not least-he sat holding his thumb-there’s a son of a bitch owns her outright that I guarangoddamntee will kill you graveyard dead if you mess with him. Son, aint there no girls on this side of the damn river?” “Not like Her.” Okay, this is where I stop my review and the dark clouds begin to move in. No modern author can write with Cormack McCarthy’s nerve-racking technique. If you want proof of that see two movies that were adapted from his novels, The Road and No Country for Old Men. This was a great novel, and I’m glad that I finally finished The Border Trilogy.

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

Comment: This was the novel that I read on the jet to Hawaii. There is no way that I can fall asleep on a jet, so I always bring two books with me. The novel that I read from Hawaii back to New Jersey was Dumb Witness (see my review of 4/28/2017).  

DUMB WITNESS

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).         

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!