The author sent me a copy of her novel to read and review:
I have a menza menza opinion on Susan St. John’s first novel. I assumed that a novel set in East Africa (Kenya & Tanzania) would have a lot of excitement...it didn’t. Throw in a safari with all the wild animals roaming freely...there has to be some sort of mishap, right? No, there were no incidents, no attacks, no narrow escapes involving the wild animals. That disappointed me. Then I said to myself, but this novel is so well written, so I kept going for all of its 437 pages. And I’m glad I did. Gadzooks, I loved the descriptive writing except when it occasionally got overdone. What do I mean about overdone? Well on pages 93 through 95, the author describes a man and woman in a Toyota Land Cruiser that approaches and passes (going the other way) the vehicle of our female protagonist, Sarah. How can you write three pages describing their immaculate clothing, or the man’s jewelry, “A loose-fitting gold-link chain encircles his neck, sparkling above a chest full of dark, curly hair visible through his half-unbuttoned shirt.” And guess what? That’s three pages describing a couple that you will not see or hear from in this story again. There are other things that somewhat annoyed me; such as Sarah didn’t seem to realize that she was bipolar until a doctor near the end told her so. Then she totally accepted that and took his advice. And the ending? Let’s not talk about that. So what did I Like? A lot actually. I loved the way the author kept the main characters to a handful. Other than the above mentioned exaggerated pages 93-95, Susan’s descriptive writing was refreshing...as was her prose. I can see that she has storytelling abilities, she just needs to add some pizzazz...get the reader excited! Surely a lion could have attacked one of the minor characters. Somebody could have been rescued from a quicksand pit! One of the rhinos (that the safari goers saw) could have charged the truck...something was needed. Susan’s novel reminded me a little of Karen Blixen/Isak Dinesen's 1937 book (later adapted into a movie) Out of Africa, also set in Kenya. Is that a compliment to the author? I guess it depends on whether you liked or disliked Blixen’s book. Enough already, what was the story about?
Sarah and her husband Peter hire Max Einfield to be their guide on a safari to East Africa. Sarah and Peter are not close anymore and Sarah hopes that this trip will revive their marriage. But it seems that all Peter is interested in is his new camera equipment. Max, who has a PhD in Zoology, is also the pilot of the safari plane and a known big game spotter. Sarah wants to record their trip’s experiences in her journal. But Max and Peter spend the whole trip harassing her to stop the journal. I never understood why Max, in particular, also berates Sarah about walking barefooted (a safety issue) the entire book. I could never figure out why these two men were so mean to her. By the way, the reader finds out that Sarah is bipolar, but I didn’t notice her having any severe mood swings. She only complained about a strange bronchitis or pneumonia cough throughout the novel. The threesome are later joined on the safari by Thad and Julia and the safari event’s owner, William. Later you will meet “world renowned” wildlife photographer, Brandon Howard. He flits in and out of the story, as does William, making it a Cormac McCarthy friendly five main characters novel. The following are some lines from Susan’s novel that illustrate her ability to write descriptive prose: Sarah describing Thad, "Sarah judges that Thad is above six feet tall and probably weighs in over two hundred pounds. His head juts forward so as to hear every word. His ears look like a pair of catchers' mitts, making the sentences of others into baseballs each glove reaches out to catch. He has the appearance of a yuppie poster child for the forty-something success story that he is.”, the sun setting, “The sun goes down as if being swallowed by the sky.” and to avoid scurvy, “Max picks up a slice of lemon covering the cut fruit and sucks it hard, using his tongue to wipe the acid from his teeth. He picks up a second piece and repeats the ritual with the sourness reflected only slightly in his expression.” Nice clean (not overstated) subtle descriptive lines.
I think that it is sad that Ernest Hemingway and his lost generation of writers decided that descriptive writing was passe. What possessed these writers to change the rules. Anyway, I for one, still enjoy reading the out of style way...descriptive.
RATING: 3 out of 5 stars
Comment: I mentioned Ernest Hemingway’s group of American and British expatriates. The whole group went to Spain in 1925 to see the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain and watch the bull fights (and drink heavily). The trip’s result was Hemingway’s first novel published in 1926 - The Sun Also Rises.
As far as the movie I mentioned, Out of Africa starred Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. It garnered seven Academy Awards and three Golden Globes. But my favorite African movie (also set in East Africa) is the 1951 adventure film The African Queen starring Humphrey Bogart (he won the Academy Award for Best Actor) as the drunken riverboat captain and Katherine Hepburn as Sister Rose. I also liked the 1964 movie Zulu, which featured the epic battle between the British Army and the Zulus in 1879. Finally, I also enjoyed the 1995 adaptation of Michael Crichton’s 1980 sci/fi adventure novel Congo.
Friday, August 31, 2018
Friday, August 17, 2018
LINCOLN in the BARDO
George Saunders’ avant-garde novel gives me plenty of fodder to chew on...so to speak. Since Abe Lincoln is in it, one would say the genre is historical fiction. But I saw a new genre the other day that some people are putting this novel in...magical realism. Where did that come from? And I thought weird fiction was a far out genre. Silly me. This novel is experimental and also ergodic at the same time (in this case, many pages with limited writing). It has endless narrators with their names in lowercase under every line they say, such as, “As the man continued to gently rock his child.” (under that line, the reverend everly thomas), “While his child, simultaneously, stood quietly leaning against him.” (under that line, hans vollman) and “Then the gentleman began to speak.” (under that line, roger bevins iii). Do you see what I’m saying? This same model of identifying the narrator is also used when a line is borrowed from a book or article; such as, “The doctor assured Lincoln that Willie would recover.” (under that line, In ‘The President’s Hippocrates,” by Deborah Chase, M.D., account of Joshua Freewell). Did you notice that when a book is mentioned, it has the proper capitalization? Finally, there is heavy use of “op. cit.”, which means, “in the work already cited.” Of course that adverb is likewise under a line of text. Anyway, I thought I would mention these technical things before you plunge headlong into Saunders’ novel. By the way, I’m not complaining...I liked the inventiveness of the author.
Although the story is strange, it is quite simple. Basically, eleven year old Willie Lincoln is dying from a horrible cold and fever upstairs while Abe and Mary Todd are entertaining downstairs at a State Dinner in the White House. “They dined on tender pheasant, fat partridge, venison steaks, and Virginia hams; they battened upon canvasback ducks and fresh turkeys, and thousands of tidewater oysters shucked an hour since and iced, slurped raw, scalloped in butter and crackermeal, or stewed in milk.” “Yet there was no joy in the evening for the mechanically smiling hostess and her husband. They kept climbing the stairs to see how Willie was, and he was not doing well at all.” The next day...Willie dies. Mary Todd is too distraught to go to the burial. Judge Carroll loans Lincoln a space in his family’s crypt at a Georgetown cemetery, so Abe can temporarily bury his son (Willie will be buried at a later date in Illinois). Unknown to anybody is that the cemetery is populated by many ghosts that are in a bardo state. Bardo is a Tibetan term for existing between death and rebirth. Most of the cemetery’s population didn’t even know they were dead. Some people have gone to the final judgement; one scurried back after he saw what his punishment was going to be (was it the reverend everly thomas?). How did he do that? They socialize during the night and go to their sick-beds (they don’t say coffin, because they believe they are sick, not dead) at dawn. When Lincoln arrives to bury Willie in the borrowed white crypt, the whole cemetery citizenry is abuzz. What’s in store for Willie after the Lincoln burial party leave? And how do the ghosts handle Lincoln coming back in the evening to hold and coddle his dead son for the last time? Is Willie now a ghost?
The story behind the novel is interesting. According to Wikipedia, “The novel was inspired by a story Saunder’s wife’s cousin told him about how Lincoln visited his son Willie’s crypt at Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown on several occasions to hold the body, a story that seems to be verified by contemporary newspaper accounts.” And according to The Guardian (a British newspaper), George Saunders said the following in 2017, “Without giving anything away, let me say this: I made a bunch of ghosts. They were sort of cynical; they were stuck in this realm, called the bardo (from the Tibetan notion of a sort of transitional purgatory between rebirths), stuck because they’d been unhappy or unsatisfied in life. The greatest part of their penance is that they feel utterly inessential-incapable of influencing the living.” The only ghost that understands their plight is Reverend Everly Thomas (the Judgement Day escapee from paragraph two). His friends, Mr. Bevins and Mr. Vollman don’t have a clue on what’s going on. The reverend says, “Many times I have been tempted to blurt out the truth to Mr. Bevins and Mr. Vollman: A terrible judgement awaits you, I long to say. Staying here, you merely delay. You are dead, and shall never regain that previous place. At daybreak, when you must return to your bodies, have you not noticed their disgusting states? Do you really believe those hideous wrecks capable of bearing you anywhere again? And what is more (I would say, if permitted): you shall not be allowed to linger here forever. None of us shall. We are in rebellion against the will of our Lord, and in time must be broken, and go.” Grab your own copy and enjoy this very strange novel.
RATING: 5 out of 5 stars
Comment: The Lincolns had very little luck with the health of their children. Three of their four sons didn’t make it to adulthood. Edward Baker Lincoln died at the age of four in 1850 from tuberculosis; as you know, Willie Lincoln died at the age of eleven in 1862 from fever; Thomas Tad Lincoln almost got to adulthood but succumbed to heart failure at the age of eighteen in 1871.
Robert Todd Lincoln (8/1/1843 to 7/26/1926) lived to the ripe age of 82. Robert served briefly for Gen. Grant in the closing days of the Civil War. Robert’s grandson, Robert “Bud” Todd Lincoln Beckwith (died in 1985) was the last person known to have direct Lincoln lineage.
Although the story is strange, it is quite simple. Basically, eleven year old Willie Lincoln is dying from a horrible cold and fever upstairs while Abe and Mary Todd are entertaining downstairs at a State Dinner in the White House. “They dined on tender pheasant, fat partridge, venison steaks, and Virginia hams; they battened upon canvasback ducks and fresh turkeys, and thousands of tidewater oysters shucked an hour since and iced, slurped raw, scalloped in butter and crackermeal, or stewed in milk.” “Yet there was no joy in the evening for the mechanically smiling hostess and her husband. They kept climbing the stairs to see how Willie was, and he was not doing well at all.” The next day...Willie dies. Mary Todd is too distraught to go to the burial. Judge Carroll loans Lincoln a space in his family’s crypt at a Georgetown cemetery, so Abe can temporarily bury his son (Willie will be buried at a later date in Illinois). Unknown to anybody is that the cemetery is populated by many ghosts that are in a bardo state. Bardo is a Tibetan term for existing between death and rebirth. Most of the cemetery’s population didn’t even know they were dead. Some people have gone to the final judgement; one scurried back after he saw what his punishment was going to be (was it the reverend everly thomas?). How did he do that? They socialize during the night and go to their sick-beds (they don’t say coffin, because they believe they are sick, not dead) at dawn. When Lincoln arrives to bury Willie in the borrowed white crypt, the whole cemetery citizenry is abuzz. What’s in store for Willie after the Lincoln burial party leave? And how do the ghosts handle Lincoln coming back in the evening to hold and coddle his dead son for the last time? Is Willie now a ghost?
The story behind the novel is interesting. According to Wikipedia, “The novel was inspired by a story Saunder’s wife’s cousin told him about how Lincoln visited his son Willie’s crypt at Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown on several occasions to hold the body, a story that seems to be verified by contemporary newspaper accounts.” And according to The Guardian (a British newspaper), George Saunders said the following in 2017, “Without giving anything away, let me say this: I made a bunch of ghosts. They were sort of cynical; they were stuck in this realm, called the bardo (from the Tibetan notion of a sort of transitional purgatory between rebirths), stuck because they’d been unhappy or unsatisfied in life. The greatest part of their penance is that they feel utterly inessential-incapable of influencing the living.” The only ghost that understands their plight is Reverend Everly Thomas (the Judgement Day escapee from paragraph two). His friends, Mr. Bevins and Mr. Vollman don’t have a clue on what’s going on. The reverend says, “Many times I have been tempted to blurt out the truth to Mr. Bevins and Mr. Vollman: A terrible judgement awaits you, I long to say. Staying here, you merely delay. You are dead, and shall never regain that previous place. At daybreak, when you must return to your bodies, have you not noticed their disgusting states? Do you really believe those hideous wrecks capable of bearing you anywhere again? And what is more (I would say, if permitted): you shall not be allowed to linger here forever. None of us shall. We are in rebellion against the will of our Lord, and in time must be broken, and go.” Grab your own copy and enjoy this very strange novel.
RATING: 5 out of 5 stars
Comment: The Lincolns had very little luck with the health of their children. Three of their four sons didn’t make it to adulthood. Edward Baker Lincoln died at the age of four in 1850 from tuberculosis; as you know, Willie Lincoln died at the age of eleven in 1862 from fever; Thomas Tad Lincoln almost got to adulthood but succumbed to heart failure at the age of eighteen in 1871.
Robert Todd Lincoln (8/1/1843 to 7/26/1926) lived to the ripe age of 82. Robert served briefly for Gen. Grant in the closing days of the Civil War. Robert’s grandson, Robert “Bud” Todd Lincoln Beckwith (died in 1985) was the last person known to have direct Lincoln lineage.
Sunday, July 29, 2018
Call for the Dead
This is a guest review from my eldest son, Deron:
This is my first John le Carré novel as it was le Carré’s. In this spy thriller that takes place during the early Cold War, we are introduced to George Smiley, a member of the Circus, a British intelligence agency named for its location in Cambridge Circus, London. At home, he receives an urgent late night call from the Circus Head of Service - Samuel Arthur Fennan at the Foreign Office had committed suicide. Only two days earlier, Smiley had conducted a routine security interview with Fennan prompted by an anonymous allegation. He had judged the claim baseless and assured Fennan that he “could see no reason why we should bother him further.” But despite those assurances, in a letter found near his body, Fennan wrote, “...I have decided to take my life. I cannot spend my remaining years under a cloud of disloyalty and suspicion. I realise that my career is ruined…” Smiley was baffled. The letter was in complete contradiction to what he had expressed in the interview. He then conducts an initial investigation and finds even more inconsistencies that convinces him that this was not a suicide; it was a murder.
This is my first John le Carré novel as it was le Carré’s. In this spy thriller that takes place during the early Cold War, we are introduced to George Smiley, a member of the Circus, a British intelligence agency named for its location in Cambridge Circus, London. At home, he receives an urgent late night call from the Circus Head of Service - Samuel Arthur Fennan at the Foreign Office had committed suicide. Only two days earlier, Smiley had conducted a routine security interview with Fennan prompted by an anonymous allegation. He had judged the claim baseless and assured Fennan that he “could see no reason why we should bother him further.” But despite those assurances, in a letter found near his body, Fennan wrote, “...I have decided to take my life. I cannot spend my remaining years under a cloud of disloyalty and suspicion. I realise that my career is ruined…” Smiley was baffled. The letter was in complete contradiction to what he had expressed in the interview. He then conducts an initial investigation and finds even more inconsistencies that convinces him that this was not a suicide; it was a murder.
Chapter one, “A Brief History of George Smiley”, was jarring. Rather than beginning with the action, the novel begins with a biography. I generally expect to learn a character’s history through relevant flashbacks as the story progresses and not given it wholesale. Only after finishing the book did this chapter make more sense. John le Carré is loudly declaring who George Smiley isn’t, namely Ian Fleming’s James Bond. Right out of the gate in the first sentence, the “breathtakingly ordinary” George Smiley marries the beautiful Lady Ann Sercomb, and in the second, we learn “she left him two years later in favor of a Cuban motor racing driver”. One might as well replace “a Cuban motor racing driver” with “Bond, James Bond”. Dapper? Smiley is described as “Short, fat and of a quiet disposition, he appeared to spend a lot of money on really bad clothes, which hung about his squat frame like skin on a shrunken toad.” In his prime? “Smiley was no material for promotion and it dawned on him gradually that he had entered middle age without ever being young, and that he was - in the nicest possible way - on the shelf.” And as far as espionage and foreign intrigue goes, Smiley was told, “Anyway, my dear fellow, as like as not you’re blown after all the ferreting about in the war. Better stick at home, old man, and keep the home fires burning.” This chapter also provides some clever foreshadowing of both Smiley’s professional and personal lives.
I did feel that le Carré was hand-holding me through the entire novel. Smiley noted the questions needing answers. Problems were restated, and there was very little misdirection. I always knew what Smiley was thinking through interior monologues. This left me never guessing.
The prose is the real reason to read this novel. John le Carré’s character descriptions, such as Smiley’s, are precise and vivid. Of Fennan’s wife, he writes, “Although frail, she conveyed an impression of endurance and courage, and the brown eyes that shone from her crooked little face were of astonishing intensity. It was a worn face, racked and ravaged long ago, the face of a child grown old on starving and exhaustion…” He is even skilled at purposely writing badly. I chuckled when Smiley said, “My story really begins in 1938. I was alone in my room one summer evening. It had been a beautiful day, warm and peaceful. Fascism might never have been heard of. I was working with my shirt sleeves at a desk by my window, not working because it was such a wonderful evening.” This is shortly followed by Smiley saying, “I’m sorry, I feel a little inarticulate.”
While imperfect, Call for the Dead was entertaining, and I found myself rereading sections. I’m looking forward to the next novel in this series.
RATING: 4 out of 5 stars
RATING: 4 out of 5 stars
Comment:
Both John le Carré and Ian Fleming were members of intelligence services, utilizing their knowledge and experiences in their novels. Given le Carré’s awareness of James Bond, is it possible that George Smiley’s unfaithful wife was named after Fleming’s wife, Ann?
Saturday, July 28, 2018
Caramel Part I
The author sent his novella to me to read and review:
If I was Haji Outlaw (he says that’s his real name) and had my druthers, I never would have done the story in the fashion that he did it in. Why write three novellas (are they long enough to even be called a novella?) totaling 171 pages instead of a decent size novel. Here are the page totals of each of the three parts: 84, 37 and 50. Haji Outlaw coulda been a contender (my favorite line from Marlon Brando in the 1954 movie On the Waterfront). A contender for what? A contender for the many sci/fi-fantasy awards that are available every year? Or the many dystopian novels adapted for film? The story is written in a crude and raw fashion (it’s almost still in it’s notebook outline), yet the reader is mesmerized by the author’s ingenuity. And although there are bits and pieces of other dystopian novels in Haji's story, such as, Hugh Howey’s 2004 Wool (see my review of 1/21/2016), it remains largely original and quite breathtaking.
I can’t tell the reader too much because, if you remember, part one is only 84 pages long. The year is 2112 (is Haji a Rush fan?). Most of the population live in the 135 story Giddings building. The rich and privileged in the upper floors and the downtrodden in the three basement areas (B1, B2, B3) which are overcrowded and toothless rat infested. The Giddings Building had been there since the winters turned sub-arctic at 50 below zero and summers heated up to 125 degrees. Why the weather changed is not given in part one. The novella opens with Stan mourning the loss of Donny, one of his fighters (I’m assuming that was the reason) in the drug infested B3, where there is always a blue haze in the stagnant air from the heavily smoked Scanoline drug. B3 is ruled by a gang of ruthless killers. “Stan was so consumed with these thoughts, that he did not notice the young woman who stood in the middle of the room with her head down."
Eventually gang members noticed her standing in the middle of the floor. They want her pretty jacket...or else. I will not tell you what happens next, but it’s not pretty. And Stan has his next fighter. She will not talk, so he names her Caramel, or Cara for short. He and Caramel are granted entrance to the higher floors where 16 full contact battle courts are located. Meanwhile in the ground floor tunnel, a line was forming to get in. New people were being granted entrance to serve the rich. “For the better part of the year the tunnel of life was vacant. But on this occasion it was filled with two miles of men, women, and children. These were the lucky ones. The ones who had made it out of the harsh winter beyond and had a chance to live and work in the Giddings.” Suddenly, there was loud crashing sounds in the tunnel. What can it be? Something is trying to get into the tunnel. Oh, I should have told the reader that with all the environmental changes, normal house pets mutated. The screams in the front of the line were horrible. “Whatever made it in...was killing. It was killing good. It was killing fast. And there was no end in sight.” You would never guess what was tearing the people apart. I’m not telling. It’s brilliant.
It’s a shame that I have to give this story three stars, because the author could have done so much better. His imagination is amazing. His storytelling is gripping. Haji can still fix this literature faux pas. Put all three novellas into one novel, embellish the the story with at least 200 more pages, grab a top notch editor to put it together...and wa-lah you will have a big time hit on your hands.
RATING: 3 out of 5 stars
Comment: It’s almost like Haji Outlaw was getting paid to see how fast he publish. Since I mentioned in the first paragraph that I didn’t read Parts two and three, I don’t know what direction the novel will take. The prose is rudimentary at best, but like everything else...he gets away with it. Can strong storytelling overcome all literature and grammar rules? Ya think?
If I was Haji Outlaw (he says that’s his real name) and had my druthers, I never would have done the story in the fashion that he did it in. Why write three novellas (are they long enough to even be called a novella?) totaling 171 pages instead of a decent size novel. Here are the page totals of each of the three parts: 84, 37 and 50. Haji Outlaw coulda been a contender (my favorite line from Marlon Brando in the 1954 movie On the Waterfront). A contender for what? A contender for the many sci/fi-fantasy awards that are available every year? Or the many dystopian novels adapted for film? The story is written in a crude and raw fashion (it’s almost still in it’s notebook outline), yet the reader is mesmerized by the author’s ingenuity. And although there are bits and pieces of other dystopian novels in Haji's story, such as, Hugh Howey’s 2004 Wool (see my review of 1/21/2016), it remains largely original and quite breathtaking.
I can’t tell the reader too much because, if you remember, part one is only 84 pages long. The year is 2112 (is Haji a Rush fan?). Most of the population live in the 135 story Giddings building. The rich and privileged in the upper floors and the downtrodden in the three basement areas (B1, B2, B3) which are overcrowded and toothless rat infested. The Giddings Building had been there since the winters turned sub-arctic at 50 below zero and summers heated up to 125 degrees. Why the weather changed is not given in part one. The novella opens with Stan mourning the loss of Donny, one of his fighters (I’m assuming that was the reason) in the drug infested B3, where there is always a blue haze in the stagnant air from the heavily smoked Scanoline drug. B3 is ruled by a gang of ruthless killers. “Stan was so consumed with these thoughts, that he did not notice the young woman who stood in the middle of the room with her head down."
Eventually gang members noticed her standing in the middle of the floor. They want her pretty jacket...or else. I will not tell you what happens next, but it’s not pretty. And Stan has his next fighter. She will not talk, so he names her Caramel, or Cara for short. He and Caramel are granted entrance to the higher floors where 16 full contact battle courts are located. Meanwhile in the ground floor tunnel, a line was forming to get in. New people were being granted entrance to serve the rich. “For the better part of the year the tunnel of life was vacant. But on this occasion it was filled with two miles of men, women, and children. These were the lucky ones. The ones who had made it out of the harsh winter beyond and had a chance to live and work in the Giddings.” Suddenly, there was loud crashing sounds in the tunnel. What can it be? Something is trying to get into the tunnel. Oh, I should have told the reader that with all the environmental changes, normal house pets mutated. The screams in the front of the line were horrible. “Whatever made it in...was killing. It was killing good. It was killing fast. And there was no end in sight.” You would never guess what was tearing the people apart. I’m not telling. It’s brilliant.
It’s a shame that I have to give this story three stars, because the author could have done so much better. His imagination is amazing. His storytelling is gripping. Haji can still fix this literature faux pas. Put all three novellas into one novel, embellish the the story with at least 200 more pages, grab a top notch editor to put it together...and wa-lah you will have a big time hit on your hands.
RATING: 3 out of 5 stars
Comment: It’s almost like Haji Outlaw was getting paid to see how fast he publish. Since I mentioned in the first paragraph that I didn’t read Parts two and three, I don’t know what direction the novel will take. The prose is rudimentary at best, but like everything else...he gets away with it. Can strong storytelling overcome all literature and grammar rules? Ya think?
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
THE BEAUTIFUL AND DAMNED
Wow, what a second novel! Coming off his first novel, This side of Paradise, no one expected F. Scott Fitzgerald to top the bestseller list again so quickly. F. Scott once again uses The 1920’s Jazz age and WWI as a backdrop for his second novel. The effects of future wealth and power are fully examined on the two main characters of the novel: Anthony Patch and his eventual wife, Gloria Gilbert. I’m also happy to report that there were only six main characters, which allows the reader time to get to know each character’s modus operandi. Anthony, a recent Harvard graduate, was brought up by his multimillionaire grandfather, Adam Patch. Grandpa wanted Anthony to write a book, or anything else constructive other than wasting his life away in the NYC nightlife. But Anthony could not get motivated in any career when he knew he was going to inherit millions from his sickly grandfather soon. Anthony got along nicely, selling off a bond or two (inherited from his mother) when he needed cash to continue his NYC daily cabareting. “At eleven he had a horror of death. Within six impressionable years his parents had died and his grandmother has faded off almost imperceptibly.” So you see, it was a matter of time before his grandfather dies...where else would the money go? Oh, life is going to be so good! Whereas Anthony occasionally traveled back and forth from NYC to Europe, he decided to get an apartment in NYC (closer to grandfather’s Tarrytown estate) and wait for the old man to die before living permanently in Europe. It’s not that he hated his grandfather (he didn’t); he just wanted his money. And his parties. And his booze.
I forgot to mention that F. Scott Fitzgerald is known to be the last descriptive writer. Let’s see how F. Scott describes Anthony’s seventy-five-year-old grandfather Adam Patch on page 16, “The span of his seventy-five years had acted as a magic bellows, the first quarter-century had blown him full with life, and the last had sucked it all back. It had sucked in the cheeks and the chest and the girth of arm and leg. It had tyrannously demanded his teeth, one by one, suspended his small eyes in dark-bluish sacks, tweaked out his hairs, changed him from gray to white in some places, from pink to yellow in others - callously transposing his colors like a child trying over a paint-box. Then through his body and his soul it had attacked his brain. It had sent him night-sweats and tears and unfounded dreads. It had split his intense normality into credulity and suspicion. Out of the coarse material of enthusiasm it had cut dozens of meek but petulant obsessions; his energy was shrunk to the bad temper of a spoiled child, and for his will to power was substituted a fatuous puerile desire for a hand of harps and canticles on earth.” What did he say? Anyway, back to the story. Anthony continues to drink and party at the many NYC private clubs he has joined. He is usually with his two best friends from Harvard. Maury Noble and Dick Caramel, who is writing a book. One day Anthony runs into Dick coming out of a barbershop. He tells Anthony that his cousin from Kansas is staying at her parent's apartment at The Plaza. Dick tells Anthony, “Got a cousin up at The Plaza. Famous girl. We can go up and meet her. She lives there in the winter - has lately anyway - with her mother and father.” Later, Anthony runs into Maury and is informed that he also met Gloria...and she has the best legs he ever saw. Lets meet Gloria.
Before Anthony meets Gloria, I would like to talk about the chapter F. Scott titled, A Flash-Back in Paradise. The reader meets “Beauty, who was born anew every hundred years, sat in a sort of outdoor waiting-room through which blew gusts of white wind and occasionally a breathless hurried star (is this heaven?). It became known to her, at length, that she was to be born again (is the VOICE God)? She learns that she will journey to a country that she has never been to. Beauty asks, “How long a stay this time?” The VOICE answers, “fifteen years”. All Beauty knows is that she will be a “society gurl”, as a “ragtime kid, a flapper, a jazz-baby, and a baby vamp.” This is what I don’t understand...the few woman in the novel all lived way over fifteen years. None of them died in this novel, none of them left after fifteen years... Is this a continuation of something that was started in F. Scott’s first novel? If so, I’m lost because I didn’t read This Side of Paradise. Okay, enough already. Gloria was gorgeous and every man or woman agreed. She was a lifetime partygoer and a big tease. And a big drinker. To Gloria, “Beauty always came first. That’s why she didn’t have children, the menace (a pregnancy) to her beauty appalled her.” Then she met Anthony. Her cousin and Anthony’s friend Dick brings her over to Anthony’s NYC apartment. It’s page 48...let the romance game start! “On Thursday afternoon Gloria and Anthony had tea together in the grill-room at the Plaza (try to get in there now, haha) They play the society game saying hello and blowing kisses to all the rival debutantes and bachelors. But they know that they are the stars dancing on the Plaza floor. Life is good...unless.
Some of the language used by F. Scott is archaic by today’s standards, but no writer could put a sentence together better than Fitzgerald. Some say this novel truly emulates the romance F. Scott Fitzgerald had with his wife, Zelda Sayre. In reviewing the many quotes from the real life Zelda, I find a Gloria Gilbert in most of them, such as, “Without you, dearest dearest I couldn’t see or hear or feel or think - live - I love you so and I’m never in all our lives going to let us apart another night.”
RATING: 5 out of 5 stars
Comment: While Hemingway and The Left Bank Gang of Paris expatriate writers of the 1920s ultimately ended the descriptive writing era, I still prefer it, even though a novel like The Beautiful and Damned takes awhile to finish because it’s really a kind of textbook on writing. You really aren’t reading the novel...you are studying it. Fitzgerald never changed his writing style. That’s why I like reading the classics.
Did you know that Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (F. Scott's full name) was named after his father’s distant cousin, the author of the “Star-Spangled Banner”.
Many of Fitzgerald’s novels and short stories have been adapted to film. The Great Gatsby has been a movie five times, while The Beautiful and Damned has been done twice. Even his short stories have become movies, such as, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (you didn’t know he wrote that...did ya?)
In 1940 with The Last Tycoon only half finished, F. Scott Fitzgerald died of a heart attack on December 21, in Sheilah Graham’s (a gossip columnist) Hollywood apartment. He is buried in Rockville Union Cemetery in Maryland. He was 44 years of age.
In 1948 Zelda Fitzgerald died in a fire at a hospital in North Carolina. She was 47.
I forgot to mention that F. Scott Fitzgerald is known to be the last descriptive writer. Let’s see how F. Scott describes Anthony’s seventy-five-year-old grandfather Adam Patch on page 16, “The span of his seventy-five years had acted as a magic bellows, the first quarter-century had blown him full with life, and the last had sucked it all back. It had sucked in the cheeks and the chest and the girth of arm and leg. It had tyrannously demanded his teeth, one by one, suspended his small eyes in dark-bluish sacks, tweaked out his hairs, changed him from gray to white in some places, from pink to yellow in others - callously transposing his colors like a child trying over a paint-box. Then through his body and his soul it had attacked his brain. It had sent him night-sweats and tears and unfounded dreads. It had split his intense normality into credulity and suspicion. Out of the coarse material of enthusiasm it had cut dozens of meek but petulant obsessions; his energy was shrunk to the bad temper of a spoiled child, and for his will to power was substituted a fatuous puerile desire for a hand of harps and canticles on earth.” What did he say? Anyway, back to the story. Anthony continues to drink and party at the many NYC private clubs he has joined. He is usually with his two best friends from Harvard. Maury Noble and Dick Caramel, who is writing a book. One day Anthony runs into Dick coming out of a barbershop. He tells Anthony that his cousin from Kansas is staying at her parent's apartment at The Plaza. Dick tells Anthony, “Got a cousin up at The Plaza. Famous girl. We can go up and meet her. She lives there in the winter - has lately anyway - with her mother and father.” Later, Anthony runs into Maury and is informed that he also met Gloria...and she has the best legs he ever saw. Lets meet Gloria.
Before Anthony meets Gloria, I would like to talk about the chapter F. Scott titled, A Flash-Back in Paradise. The reader meets “Beauty, who was born anew every hundred years, sat in a sort of outdoor waiting-room through which blew gusts of white wind and occasionally a breathless hurried star (is this heaven?). It became known to her, at length, that she was to be born again (is the VOICE God)? She learns that she will journey to a country that she has never been to. Beauty asks, “How long a stay this time?” The VOICE answers, “fifteen years”. All Beauty knows is that she will be a “society gurl”, as a “ragtime kid, a flapper, a jazz-baby, and a baby vamp.” This is what I don’t understand...the few woman in the novel all lived way over fifteen years. None of them died in this novel, none of them left after fifteen years... Is this a continuation of something that was started in F. Scott’s first novel? If so, I’m lost because I didn’t read This Side of Paradise. Okay, enough already. Gloria was gorgeous and every man or woman agreed. She was a lifetime partygoer and a big tease. And a big drinker. To Gloria, “Beauty always came first. That’s why she didn’t have children, the menace (a pregnancy) to her beauty appalled her.” Then she met Anthony. Her cousin and Anthony’s friend Dick brings her over to Anthony’s NYC apartment. It’s page 48...let the romance game start! “On Thursday afternoon Gloria and Anthony had tea together in the grill-room at the Plaza (try to get in there now, haha) They play the society game saying hello and blowing kisses to all the rival debutantes and bachelors. But they know that they are the stars dancing on the Plaza floor. Life is good...unless.
Some of the language used by F. Scott is archaic by today’s standards, but no writer could put a sentence together better than Fitzgerald. Some say this novel truly emulates the romance F. Scott Fitzgerald had with his wife, Zelda Sayre. In reviewing the many quotes from the real life Zelda, I find a Gloria Gilbert in most of them, such as, “Without you, dearest dearest I couldn’t see or hear or feel or think - live - I love you so and I’m never in all our lives going to let us apart another night.”
RATING: 5 out of 5 stars
Comment: While Hemingway and The Left Bank Gang of Paris expatriate writers of the 1920s ultimately ended the descriptive writing era, I still prefer it, even though a novel like The Beautiful and Damned takes awhile to finish because it’s really a kind of textbook on writing. You really aren’t reading the novel...you are studying it. Fitzgerald never changed his writing style. That’s why I like reading the classics.
Did you know that Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (F. Scott's full name) was named after his father’s distant cousin, the author of the “Star-Spangled Banner”.
Many of Fitzgerald’s novels and short stories have been adapted to film. The Great Gatsby has been a movie five times, while The Beautiful and Damned has been done twice. Even his short stories have become movies, such as, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (you didn’t know he wrote that...did ya?)
In 1940 with The Last Tycoon only half finished, F. Scott Fitzgerald died of a heart attack on December 21, in Sheilah Graham’s (a gossip columnist) Hollywood apartment. He is buried in Rockville Union Cemetery in Maryland. He was 44 years of age.
In 1948 Zelda Fitzgerald died in a fire at a hospital in North Carolina. She was 47.
Tuesday, July 17, 2018
ANIMAL FARM
This is a guest review from my fifteen-year-old grandson, Kai O:
George Orwell uses the animals of Manor Farm to re-enact the Russian Revolution of 1917. Throughout the book, I found myself drawing connections from the farm to the actual events. At first, I was a little bit annoyed at this because I kept stopping every few pages or so to compare the story to real life. This got in the way of my overall enjoyment of the book. Later, I realized that George Orwell’s book was so skillfully written that I couldn’t help but find deeper meaning. Animal Farm was written in 1945, so the theme in this book seemed unimportant. But as the saying goes, those who don’t remember their past are doomed to repeat it.
The story begins with Old Major, a respected senior boar, calling all the animals (living on the farm) to a meeting in the barn. Once the meeting begins, Old Major tells the animals his dream for the future of Manor Farm. The old boar tells the animals of a farm where the animals rule themselves, and most importantly, he teaches the whole farm a song called, The Beast of England. This would be the rallying cry of the animal’s revolution. Old Major dies...but his original ideas live on. Quickly the animals revolt against their human oppressor, Mr. Jones. Soon Manor Farm is theirs and renamed Animal Farm. The pigs, being the smartest animals on the farm, became the masterminds behind the running of the farm, while the other animals took to the fields.
The animals now reign supreme on the farm. There are seven commandants behind animalism, but the sheep boil it down to, “Four legs good, two legs bad.” How will animalism fair when put into practice? If you know anything about the Russian Revolution, you have probably drawn a few conclusions. George Orwell gets straight to the point. Animal Farm isn’t a very long book, but every page added to the story. In my opinion, there are no boring parts in this book. Overall, Animal Farm is a quick read that would help anyone visualize what happened in the Russian Revolution. I would recommend this book to anyone twelve years old and older.
RATING: 4 out of 5 stars
Comment: Excellent short, but to the point review! As Kai gets older, he seems to dig deeper into the author’s mind to understand the true meaning of what the author is trying to say. I think he succeeded in this review.
I believe that it’s obvious that Orwell intended the Old Major to be Karl Marx; Napoleon, the pig, to be Joseph Stalin; and Boxer, the workhorse, the hard working peasant (serf). Snowball, the other pig, was the loser in a power struggle with Napoleon.
George Orwell uses the animals of Manor Farm to re-enact the Russian Revolution of 1917. Throughout the book, I found myself drawing connections from the farm to the actual events. At first, I was a little bit annoyed at this because I kept stopping every few pages or so to compare the story to real life. This got in the way of my overall enjoyment of the book. Later, I realized that George Orwell’s book was so skillfully written that I couldn’t help but find deeper meaning. Animal Farm was written in 1945, so the theme in this book seemed unimportant. But as the saying goes, those who don’t remember their past are doomed to repeat it.
The story begins with Old Major, a respected senior boar, calling all the animals (living on the farm) to a meeting in the barn. Once the meeting begins, Old Major tells the animals his dream for the future of Manor Farm. The old boar tells the animals of a farm where the animals rule themselves, and most importantly, he teaches the whole farm a song called, The Beast of England. This would be the rallying cry of the animal’s revolution. Old Major dies...but his original ideas live on. Quickly the animals revolt against their human oppressor, Mr. Jones. Soon Manor Farm is theirs and renamed Animal Farm. The pigs, being the smartest animals on the farm, became the masterminds behind the running of the farm, while the other animals took to the fields.
The animals now reign supreme on the farm. There are seven commandants behind animalism, but the sheep boil it down to, “Four legs good, two legs bad.” How will animalism fair when put into practice? If you know anything about the Russian Revolution, you have probably drawn a few conclusions. George Orwell gets straight to the point. Animal Farm isn’t a very long book, but every page added to the story. In my opinion, there are no boring parts in this book. Overall, Animal Farm is a quick read that would help anyone visualize what happened in the Russian Revolution. I would recommend this book to anyone twelve years old and older.
RATING: 4 out of 5 stars
Comment: Excellent short, but to the point review! As Kai gets older, he seems to dig deeper into the author’s mind to understand the true meaning of what the author is trying to say. I think he succeeded in this review.
I believe that it’s obvious that Orwell intended the Old Major to be Karl Marx; Napoleon, the pig, to be Joseph Stalin; and Boxer, the workhorse, the hard working peasant (serf). Snowball, the other pig, was the loser in a power struggle with Napoleon.
Friday, June 29, 2018
SOMETHING IN THE WATER
Finders keepers, losers weepers! That seems to be the premise of Catherine Steadman’s maiden novel. The above phrase tightens its noose around all the main characters in this gripping tale set in Great Britain. The novel’s protagonist and narrator is documentary filmmaker, Erin Locke, who will soon be married to the love of her life, “Mark works in banking. I Know, yes, boo, hiss. But all I can say is: he’s not an arsehole. You’ll have to trust me on that. He’s definitely no Eton, drinking-club, polo-team alumnus.” They both have money put aside, a beautiful home, and potentially exciting careers when the unforeseen happens. According to Mark, thanks to stodgy bank politics and economic hard times, he loses his job at the bank and waits to tell Erin on the cusp of their wedding/honeymoon arrangements to Bora Bora. Reluctantly, Erin agrees to trim off some of the expense of the wedding, including a week shorter in the honeymoon department. Mark, no longer the joyful future husband, agrees to keep his chin up and try to enjoy their once-in-a-lifetime adventure in Polynesia. Erin wonders why Mark didn’t tell her about the loss of his job and all the wedding cutbacks till now, “He canceled our honeymoon. No, he didn’t cancel it; he just rearranged some of it, that’s all. But without asking me?” Mark says, “Erin. Thanks for being, you know...I’ve got a lot on my plate right now...I tend to clam up when I’m stressed.” Liar liar, pants on fire!
The first part of Steadman’s novel seemed to take awhile to develop and then when it did, it seemed to come on too fast...go figure. I liked how she kept the main characters down to a minimum. The author also proved that characters could remain anonymous and still be vital to the story. I love that kind of creative writing. Whenever a bad guy (for the sake of another word) contacted Erin or Mark, it was in the form of a text; such as, “The screen flares to life. Text messages ping up on the phone. Two messages: The offer still stands Contact me.” Do you see how a writer can make a character remain important without knowing their name? When Erin picks up the pursuing bad guy’s lost phone and dials him up, he doesn’t answer with his name, instead he simply says, "Who is it?" All of this adds mystery to the story. You are probably asking yourself (based on the book’s title), what did Erin and Mark find in the water? And who are these nameless people that are trying to find them? Are they bad, or just desperate to get back what was theirs in the first place? Who are the real bad guys...Erin and Mark, or the nameless hunters?
Based on the research I did, If you recover a lost item and return it to a police station and they can’t find the owner after thirty days...it’s yours. But if author/actress Catherine Steadman followed that thought, she wouldn’t have a novel. Anyway, I was impressed with this young Downton Abbey actress’ (she plays Mabel Lane Fox in the series) ability to understand the basic rules of good literature and deploy them in her first novel. My only dislike was her mad dash to end the novel. I think she could have added another fifty pages, or so, to slow down the pace, although she does have a style that encourages the reader to rapidly turn the pages. Like I said in the second paragraph...go figure. By the way, I forgot to mention that the (eight page) first chapter titled The Grave was a splendid idea...the proverbial putting the cart before the horse. It hooked me right into the creel. The first line is, “Have you ever wondered how long it takes to dig a grave? Wonder no longer. It takes an age. However long you think it takes, double that.” I dare you, I double dare you to buy this novel!
RATING: 4 out of 5 stars
Comment: Steadman's novel is original in its concept. I looked through a list of novels involving items lost at sea and didn't come up with a similar story.
I have no reason why I used those three children's phrases other than they just seemed to fit the text of its paragraph and my mood writing this review tonight.
The first part of Steadman’s novel seemed to take awhile to develop and then when it did, it seemed to come on too fast...go figure. I liked how she kept the main characters down to a minimum. The author also proved that characters could remain anonymous and still be vital to the story. I love that kind of creative writing. Whenever a bad guy (for the sake of another word) contacted Erin or Mark, it was in the form of a text; such as, “The screen flares to life. Text messages ping up on the phone. Two messages: The offer still stands Contact me.” Do you see how a writer can make a character remain important without knowing their name? When Erin picks up the pursuing bad guy’s lost phone and dials him up, he doesn’t answer with his name, instead he simply says, "Who is it?" All of this adds mystery to the story. You are probably asking yourself (based on the book’s title), what did Erin and Mark find in the water? And who are these nameless people that are trying to find them? Are they bad, or just desperate to get back what was theirs in the first place? Who are the real bad guys...Erin and Mark, or the nameless hunters?
Based on the research I did, If you recover a lost item and return it to a police station and they can’t find the owner after thirty days...it’s yours. But if author/actress Catherine Steadman followed that thought, she wouldn’t have a novel. Anyway, I was impressed with this young Downton Abbey actress’ (she plays Mabel Lane Fox in the series) ability to understand the basic rules of good literature and deploy them in her first novel. My only dislike was her mad dash to end the novel. I think she could have added another fifty pages, or so, to slow down the pace, although she does have a style that encourages the reader to rapidly turn the pages. Like I said in the second paragraph...go figure. By the way, I forgot to mention that the (eight page) first chapter titled The Grave was a splendid idea...the proverbial putting the cart before the horse. It hooked me right into the creel. The first line is, “Have you ever wondered how long it takes to dig a grave? Wonder no longer. It takes an age. However long you think it takes, double that.” I dare you, I double dare you to buy this novel!
RATING: 4 out of 5 stars
Comment: Steadman's novel is original in its concept. I looked through a list of novels involving items lost at sea and didn't come up with a similar story.
I have no reason why I used those three children's phrases other than they just seemed to fit the text of its paragraph and my mood writing this review tonight.
Saturday, June 16, 2018
the DEATH of Mrs. WESTAWAY
A thriller doesn’t get any better than Ruth Ware’s latest nail-biter. Winner Winner chicken dinner if you can identify the murderer within the last fifty pages. It almost seemed like the murderer was a blue plate special and handed over to us...then unceremoniously taken from us with a sleight of hand (that hand belongs to master storyteller, Ruth Ware). Whodunit? Halfway through the novel, I didn’t even know there was a murder. My only criticism of Ware’s novel was the unnecessary sidebar with Hal and a loan shark’s hoodlum, it felt out of place. Wouldn’t the loan shark pursue her all the way to Trepassen? He didn’t even bother her when Hal stupidly kept coming back to her attic flat in Brighton. Okay enough of that; I just couldn’t let this brilliant novel go unscathed. I thought the italic font from one of the ladies' (which one?) 1994 diary was intense and kept the reader guessing... a welcomed offshoot of the story. The juxtaposition of the diary and the guts of the story had a somewhat melded effect for the general mood of the novel. Well done. I also enjoyed Mrs. Westaway’s solo servant, Mrs. Warren, who, I’m sure, reminded everybody (who read the novel, or saw the movie) of Mrs. Danvers from Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca (see my 4/3/2016 review of Daphne’s similar work, Jamaica Inn). Nothing like a cantankerous old servant to stir-up the built-in hate of a dreary crumbling mansion on a cold rainy day. Haha.
Harriet (call me Hal) Westaway is a twenty-one year old girl that has a tarot card reading service in her booth on a Brighton’s West Pier. She recently lost her mother to a hit and run accident. She is in debt up to her wazoo. The tarot card business was her mother’s. Hal lives alone in an attic flat at Marine View Villas. “The name was a lie. There were no villas, only a slightly shabby little row of terraced houses, their paint peeling from constant exposure to the salty air...and there was no view.” One day she goes home to find two strange letters in among the many bills that were marked FINAL DEMAND. She owes for rent, gas and electricity, “But the one that really made her stomach turn-over was different from the official bills. It was a cheap envelope, obviously hand delivered, and all it said on the front, in ballpoint letters, was 'Harriet Westaway, top flat.'...Inside there was just one sheet of paper, with only a couple of sentences typed on it.” That same message showed up at her booth on the pier. “She had been ignoring calls and texts to that effect for months.” The message was always the same, “Sorry to have missed you. We would like to discuss you’re financial situation. We will call again.” Is it greetings from the loan shark? Hal threw everything in the recycling bin, but as she took a bite of her fish and chips, an elegant letter caught her eye.
At first she didn’t see it…"A letter in a stiff white envelope, addressed by hand, and stuffed into the bin along with the takeout menus.” She must have shoved it in there by mistake. She ripped open the letter, “The piece of paper she pulled out wasn’t an invitation. It was a letter, written on heavy, expensive paper, with the name of a solicitor’s firm on top.” The following is an abridged version of that letter, “I am writing at the instruction of my client, your grandmother, Hester Mary Westaway of Trepassen House, St. Piran...Mrs. Westaway passed away on 22nd November, at her home...As Mrs. Westaway’s solicitor and executor, it is my duty to contact beneficiaries under her will...Because of the substantial size of the estate, probate will need to be applied...The process of disbursement cannot begin until this has taken place...In the meantime, you could provide me with copies of two documents confirming your identity and address...Please write to your late grandmother’s housekeeper Mrs. Warren...Yours truly, Robert Treswick.” Maybe it’s me, but the character’s names and the towns they live in have the flavor of Charles Dickens all over them. Hal stared at the letter for a long time. Is there another Harriet Westaway “Because it didn’t make sense. Not one bit. Hal’s grandparents had been dead for more than twenty years.” Did they mail the letter to the wrong person? Could Hal pull off the deception and finally get out of debt? If she took wrongful money and got caught, she would go to jail.
“There had clearly been some sort of mistake. She was not Hal’s grandmother. The money belonged to someone else, and that was all there was to it. Tomorrow she would write back and tell Mr. Trewick that.” Or would she? She starts second guessing herself. “But what if it’s true? They wrote to you, didn’t they? They have your name and address.” But she knew it wasn’t true. However, she thinks to herself, “You could claim this money, you know. Not many people could, but if anyone can pull this off, it’s you.” Okay, I didn’t want to review more then the first seventeen pages, so I’ll stop here. The good news is that you have 351 pages of pure excitement ahead of you. This is not the first time I’ve read this accomplished storyteller...see my 9/19/2017 review of The Lying Game and my 9/7/2016 review of The Woman in Cabin 10. In the three Ruth Ware books I’ve read, she has spent some chapter time writing about something that didn’t seem needed in the story. I mentioned in the first paragraph of my review that the incident with Hal and the loan shark’s hoodlum wasn’t necessary. Well, there was a second incident and I will talk about it in my comment section.
RATING: 5 out of 5 stars
Comment: The second unneeded incident that Ruth wrote about was in chapter six. When a strange woman, who was waiting outside Hal’s Tarot Card booth (as Hal is closing up) says, “I’ve been waiting,” said a hectoring female voice. “Don’t you want customers?” Hal says to the woman that she should have knocked. The lady says, “If you was a real psychic, you would’ve known.” That’s an excellent point. Anyway, the lady moans about a son that has gone bad. After the session ends, the lady drops sixty pounds on Hal’s table and disappears out the door. Hal runs after her to tell her that she can’t accept that much money for a Tarot reading. Now what does the debt ridden Hal do? She puts all sixty pounds in a donation box. It doesn’t make any sense. Was the mysterious woman really the ghost of Mrs. Westaway? Did Hal donate the sixty pounds to charity because she needed to convince herself that she wasn’t a thief? The hoodlum disturbance happened in chapter seven. After those chapters, the reader never saw hide nor hair of either character. Is Ruth Ware writing symbolism into her novels for us to discover? If so, who was the hoodlum representing? The bad son? Interesting.
Also interesting is that in the exclusive B & N pages at the novel’s end, Ruth Ware says she picked out the Cornwall section of England for her novel because of her love for Daphne du Maurier’s Jamaica Inn. “I’ve written a lot about Agatha Christie, but I often say that while Christie taught me how to plot, du Maurier’s books are my go-to for how to write character.”
Harriet (call me Hal) Westaway is a twenty-one year old girl that has a tarot card reading service in her booth on a Brighton’s West Pier. She recently lost her mother to a hit and run accident. She is in debt up to her wazoo. The tarot card business was her mother’s. Hal lives alone in an attic flat at Marine View Villas. “The name was a lie. There were no villas, only a slightly shabby little row of terraced houses, their paint peeling from constant exposure to the salty air...and there was no view.” One day she goes home to find two strange letters in among the many bills that were marked FINAL DEMAND. She owes for rent, gas and electricity, “But the one that really made her stomach turn-over was different from the official bills. It was a cheap envelope, obviously hand delivered, and all it said on the front, in ballpoint letters, was 'Harriet Westaway, top flat.'...Inside there was just one sheet of paper, with only a couple of sentences typed on it.” That same message showed up at her booth on the pier. “She had been ignoring calls and texts to that effect for months.” The message was always the same, “Sorry to have missed you. We would like to discuss you’re financial situation. We will call again.” Is it greetings from the loan shark? Hal threw everything in the recycling bin, but as she took a bite of her fish and chips, an elegant letter caught her eye.
At first she didn’t see it…"A letter in a stiff white envelope, addressed by hand, and stuffed into the bin along with the takeout menus.” She must have shoved it in there by mistake. She ripped open the letter, “The piece of paper she pulled out wasn’t an invitation. It was a letter, written on heavy, expensive paper, with the name of a solicitor’s firm on top.” The following is an abridged version of that letter, “I am writing at the instruction of my client, your grandmother, Hester Mary Westaway of Trepassen House, St. Piran...Mrs. Westaway passed away on 22nd November, at her home...As Mrs. Westaway’s solicitor and executor, it is my duty to contact beneficiaries under her will...Because of the substantial size of the estate, probate will need to be applied...The process of disbursement cannot begin until this has taken place...In the meantime, you could provide me with copies of two documents confirming your identity and address...Please write to your late grandmother’s housekeeper Mrs. Warren...Yours truly, Robert Treswick.” Maybe it’s me, but the character’s names and the towns they live in have the flavor of Charles Dickens all over them. Hal stared at the letter for a long time. Is there another Harriet Westaway “Because it didn’t make sense. Not one bit. Hal’s grandparents had been dead for more than twenty years.” Did they mail the letter to the wrong person? Could Hal pull off the deception and finally get out of debt? If she took wrongful money and got caught, she would go to jail.
“There had clearly been some sort of mistake. She was not Hal’s grandmother. The money belonged to someone else, and that was all there was to it. Tomorrow she would write back and tell Mr. Trewick that.” Or would she? She starts second guessing herself. “But what if it’s true? They wrote to you, didn’t they? They have your name and address.” But she knew it wasn’t true. However, she thinks to herself, “You could claim this money, you know. Not many people could, but if anyone can pull this off, it’s you.” Okay, I didn’t want to review more then the first seventeen pages, so I’ll stop here. The good news is that you have 351 pages of pure excitement ahead of you. This is not the first time I’ve read this accomplished storyteller...see my 9/19/2017 review of The Lying Game and my 9/7/2016 review of The Woman in Cabin 10. In the three Ruth Ware books I’ve read, she has spent some chapter time writing about something that didn’t seem needed in the story. I mentioned in the first paragraph of my review that the incident with Hal and the loan shark’s hoodlum wasn’t necessary. Well, there was a second incident and I will talk about it in my comment section.
RATING: 5 out of 5 stars
Comment: The second unneeded incident that Ruth wrote about was in chapter six. When a strange woman, who was waiting outside Hal’s Tarot Card booth (as Hal is closing up) says, “I’ve been waiting,” said a hectoring female voice. “Don’t you want customers?” Hal says to the woman that she should have knocked. The lady says, “If you was a real psychic, you would’ve known.” That’s an excellent point. Anyway, the lady moans about a son that has gone bad. After the session ends, the lady drops sixty pounds on Hal’s table and disappears out the door. Hal runs after her to tell her that she can’t accept that much money for a Tarot reading. Now what does the debt ridden Hal do? She puts all sixty pounds in a donation box. It doesn’t make any sense. Was the mysterious woman really the ghost of Mrs. Westaway? Did Hal donate the sixty pounds to charity because she needed to convince herself that she wasn’t a thief? The hoodlum disturbance happened in chapter seven. After those chapters, the reader never saw hide nor hair of either character. Is Ruth Ware writing symbolism into her novels for us to discover? If so, who was the hoodlum representing? The bad son? Interesting.
Also interesting is that in the exclusive B & N pages at the novel’s end, Ruth Ware says she picked out the Cornwall section of England for her novel because of her love for Daphne du Maurier’s Jamaica Inn. “I’ve written a lot about Agatha Christie, but I often say that while Christie taught me how to plot, du Maurier’s books are my go-to for how to write character.”
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