Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
In Nick Herron’s Slow Horses, Slough House is where disgraced and shunned Great Britain’s MI5 agents are sent on the theory it’s where they can do no further harm.
Jackson Lamb is in charge of the has-beens who’ve been relegated to his watch for various security infringements. These include, among others, alcoholism; misplaced classified documents and misidentifying a terrorist in a training exercise. Besides being crude and disdainful, Lamb has his own reasons for being at Slough House.
Mostly, the disgraced agents do nothing but while away the hours. River Cartwright, whose task is to transcribe phone conversations, resents being among the misfits. He’s anxious to return to the spy game. He’s also the one accused of botching the training drill.
When a young man of Pakistani descent is abducted and his captors threaten to live broadcast his beheading, River sees an opportunity to restore his reputation.
A discredited journalist, an addition to the Slough House team and River’s family history contribute to the fast-paced narrative. At the risk of providing a spoiler, high level corruption is an evolving factor.
Different viewpoints are provided, as are brief histories of some of the other “slow horses.” That of the kidnap victim is compelling. He’s a British citizen with no ties to any radical groups. Yet, his racist abductors think otherwise.
Slow Horses is the first in a series by Herron, an award-winning crime writer. A television production of the same name closely follows the book, but lacks its character detail.
Slow horses
Four Bookmarks
Soho Crime, 2010
329 pages
Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng starts slow; initially it’s too easy to put down, until, well, it isn’t.
Much has to do with the mystery surrounding the absence of 12-year-old Bird’s mother who his father refuses to acknowledge while insisting his son to do the same. They live in a not-too-distant dystopian world where fear and suspicion rule based on safeguarding America’s culture known as PACT.
It’s a time when children are removed from parents suspected of seditious thoughts and behaviors. Those of Chinese, and by default all Asians, are considered threats. Bird’s mother Margaret is Chinese American and a poet. Her work goes largely unnoticed until one day PACT protesters use a line from one of her poems for their cause: Our Missing Hearts. To protect her son, she leaves the family.
Despite his father’s pleas, Bird’s curiosity about his mother becomes a driving force. These efforts to find her are where the narrative revs up.
Margaret’s story catches the past up with the present. This includes her childhood in the neighborhood’s only Asian family, later surviving on the streets when the economy collapses (blamed on the Chinese), and meeting Bird’s father and becoming a mother.
It’s been years since Margaret has written poetry, but she embraces a new passion based on the protester’s slogan: she tries to meet and interview as many parents as possible whose children have been taken from them.
Ng’s writing is vivid and frightening in its depiction of how self-preservation is manipulated by fear.
Out Missing Hearts
Four Bookmarks
Penguin Press, 2022
335 pages (includes author’s notes and acknowledgements)
Danya Kukafka begins Notes on an Execution 12 hours before Ansel Packer is to die by lethal injection for the murder of three young girls. His final hours and minutes alternate with the stories of three women whose lives impacted his: Lavender, his mother; Hazel, a victim’s sister; and Saffy the resolute police investigator who pursued the cases.
It’s a foreboding narrative. There’s no doubt as to Ansel’s guilt, yet the author deftly – uncomfortably – describes the forces behind his actions.
Ansel’s mother was 17 when she gave birth; four years later she abandoned him and his infant brother after years of abuse by the boys’ father. When the children were picked up by social services, they were hungry and filthy. Ansel’s memory is of the constant cries of his brother, who he was led to believe died soon after.
In and out of foster care, Ansel’s behavior is odd from the start. He’s intelligent, a loner, yet knows how to charm when necessary. He’s 18 when he commits his first murder; two more follow shortly afterwards. Many years later, he’s a suspect in the murder of his ex-wife.
The writing is tense and the themes raise a lot of questions. Time is played out in years for Lavender, Hazel and Saffy evidenced in their aging and experiences. For Ansel, time passes in the present, although he does reflect on his past.
Kukafka builds suspense with a sense of irony while combining hope with despair – something deeply felt by those in Ansel’s life.
Notes on an Execution
Three-and-a-half bookmarks
William Morrow, 2021
306 pages
In a small, post-war French village, two young teenage girls, Agnes and Fabienne, are the main characters in Yiyun Li’s The Book of Goose. Yes, it’s a strange title, more unusual than the story itself.
As an adult married woman living in the U.S., Agnes learns of Fabienne’s death whom she hasn’t seen in more than 10 years and reflects on their friendship.
Out of boredom, the girls played games relying on Fabienne’s imagination and rules. The two were opposites in personalities, with Agnes always willing to follow her friend’s directives.
Fabienne devises a plan for the two to write a book; she dictates and Agnes, who has better penmanship, puts it down on paper. They enlist the help of the old widowed postmaster, who ultimately fine tunes the book before contacting a publisher in Paris.
Thus the game takes on a new dimension with unsophisticated Agnes recognized as a child prodigy. This farm girl is scrutinized and celebrated as she goes beyond Paris eventually to a finishing school in England, unhappily leaving her friend behind.
Although Fabienne often called her friend an idiot or imbecile, Agnes is more than she appears. Agnes could have other friends, but chooses Fabienne. They fill an unspoken need in each other.
The novel’s essence is grounded in the meaning of friendship with an underlying thread of deceit, loss and discovery. The adult characters are one-dimensional in sharp contrast to the multilayered portrayal of the young girls.
As for the title, Agnes has geese.
The Book of Goose
Four Bookmarks
Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2022
348 pages
In The Cape Doctor, E.J. Levy crafts a historical novel on the real life of a young
Irish girl who becomes a successful surgeon in the 1800s.
Much has been written, as evidenced in Levy’s acknowledgements about the
life of Margaret Anne Bulkley aka Dr. James Barry. Relying on facts about
him, Levy’s narrative portrays Margaret Brackley’s transformation to Dr.
Jonathan Perry as arduous and driven by necessity. Margaret’s family is
destitute; she can do little as a daughter.
The story moves from Cork, Ireland, to London; from Edinburgh to Cape
Town. As the settings change, so does Margaret. Thanks to a friend of her late
uncle, she is privately educated proving to be an excellent student. In order
to attend medical school, so that she may ultimately provide for her family,
she must live life as a man.
This, of course, is not without complications. Nonetheless, Perry earns a
medical degree, joins the army and is sent to Cape Town. This is where the
majority of the narrative occurs and the greatest threats to Perry’s true
identify arise.
Levy establishes intrigue through Perry’s friendship with Lord Somerton, the
Cape Town governor. Even as the doctor makes his name as a man of compassion
and skilled surgeon, rumors begin to surface the type of relationship shared by
the two men.
The fear of Perry’s exposure is engaging. Yet, the slow-moving pace isn’t captivating enough.
The Cape Doctor
Three Bookmarks
Little, Brown and Company, 2021
335 pages, includes acknowledgements
Dinners with Ruth by Nina Totenberg is subtitled A Memoir on the Power of Friendships, which could be changed to A Memoir on Power Friendships.
Totenberg, legal affairs correspondent for NPR, first met Ruth Bader Ginsberg long before either had established their careers. As their stars rose, their relationship flourished. Yet, RBG’s isn’t the only name Totenberg drops recounting dinner parties and other social events.
Friendships with her NPR colleagues, in particular Susan Sontag and Cokie Roberts, have been previously celebrated in another memoir. Additionally, Totenberg counts several former Supreme Court justices, reporters, her sisters and many others among her friends.
Certainly, the most engaging narratives are those regarding RBG. Totenberg refers to her intelligence, kindness, quiet nature and love for her husband Martin who died in 2010. Earlier, Totenberg’s first husband died after a long illness. Both women provided support and comfort to the other. When the journalist remarried, the justice officiated.
Totenberg briefly shares her family background and her entrée into journalism: first in print media and later among the first of NPR’s staff. She remains a contributing journalist and has received numerous accolades for her work.
Each of the 17 chapter names includes the word friend or friendship. From love to fame, from hardships to lost, aspects of various significant connections significant in Totenberg’s life are recounted. Not only does the reader learn more about the author, but an added benefit is the opportunity to reflect on the importance, and variety, of friends in one’s own life.
Dinners With Ruth
Four Bookmarks
Simon & Schuster, 2022
304 pages, includes notes, acknowledgements and index
Zorrie is the title character in Laird Hunt’s novel about a woman whose life is defined by loss, love and the tenacity to keep moving forward.
Following the death of her parents, Zorrie lives with a joyless aunt until the age of 21 when she leaves her hometown in rural Indiana to find her place in the world. She’s undaunted traveling alone and sleeping under the stars. She gets to Illinois where she eventually finds employment at a radium factory painting the numbers on clock faces. The townspeople call the young women who work there “ghost girls” thanks to the radioactive material that makes them glow – something that is haunting. Although she makes enduring friendships with other young women, Zorri makes her way back to Indiana.
This is a terse novel with little embellishment, much like Zorri’s life. Despite this, the descriptions of the community, farms and hardscrabble existence of Zorri and her neighbors are vivid. She’s a no-nonsense, kind and hardworking person.
Soon after returning to Indiana, she marries Harold, the son of the older couple with a spare room to let. Hunt’s adroit narrative leaves the reader as surprised as Zorri by the depth of her relationship with Harold.
The depression, World War II and other events of the mid-20th century impact Zorri’s life in profound ways. Still, her resiliency and Hunt’s ability to highlight beauty among mundane daily routines make for an engaging novel. Zorri may not articulate appreciation for what she has, but it’s evident nonetheless.
Zorri
Almost-four bookmarks
Bloomsbury Books, 2021
161 pages
Barbara Kingsolver acknowledges a connection with Charles Dickens, which explains the many similarities between her most recent novel, Demon Copperhead, and the classic David Copperfield. Admittedly, I’ve forgotten a lot about the latter, but recall enough to know they both deal with contemporary social issues of their times. For Dickens, child labor, squalid living conditions and long-standing poverty in 1800s London were among the problems he addressed.
Kingsolver sets her narrative in southern Appalachia where Demon, an exceptionally reliable narrator, tells his life’s story beginning with his birth in a single-wide trailer to an unwed mother prone to addiction. If not for the kindness of neighbors, the Peggots, who temporarily and intermittently become his surrogate family, Demon likely would have ended up in foster care long before he did.
The topics Kingsolver focuses on include physical abuse, disarray within the foster care system, child labor, the elevation of high school football over classroom education and widespread drug addiction. Demon is a victim of these and more. Despite often making poor decisions – without consistent role models there’s little reason to expect otherwise – he’s intelligent and self-aware. He’s also caring and resilient.
Demon is artistic and a keen observer of his situation and those around him. His hunger in one foster home is palpable, as is his fear when he runs away. Besides the Peggots, a handful of other adults try to help Demon, but their rural community has access to ill-gotten pharmaceuticals with few resources to focus on their consequences.
Demon Copperhead
Four-and-a-half Bookmarks
Harper, 2022
548 pages, includes acknowledgements
In my effort not to binge read Louise Penny mysteries, I discovered I’m still not up to date on her oeuvre. The Madness of Crowds gets me closer. Written in the midst of the pandemic, this novel incorporates an element of timeliness unlike most of Penny’s previous works.
Beginning with the loosening of mask mandates and the availability of vaccinations, the residents of Three Pines are finally comfortable venturing out to enjoy the companionship of family and friends.
Between Christmas and New Year’s, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is tasked with overseeing security at a nearby university for a controversial speaker. Professor Abigail Robinson believes the pandemic demonstrated the need to euthanize the physically weak and mentally feeble but otherwise healthy human beings. Her thesis slowly gains attention from supporters and detractors.
The usual cast of characters is featured, including Gamache’s family, his closet colleagues Jean-Guy Beauvoir and Isabelle Lacoste, along with the quirky, but endearing residents, of the serene, isolated village of Three Pines. Added to the mix are Robinson, her assistant, the university’s chancellor and a Sudanese refugee being considered for the Nobel Peace Prize.
No Gamache tale would be complete without plenty of intrigue. In this case several issues arise, in addition to that of euthanizing, there’s murder, defending free speech, family secrets, tortuous mental health treatments and how far one has – or might have – to go to protect a loved one.
The murder investigation is at the forefront, but everything else is always near the surface.
The Madness of Crowds
Four Bookmarks
Minotaur Books, 2021
436 pages, including acknowledgements
The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams is an engaging novel about how the complete edition of the Oxford English Dictionary came to be. In addition to its development, perhaps more importantly, it addresses women’s roles in the achievement.
Along with the words that make it into the initial version is the vocabulary that the mostly male lexicographers overlooked – either by design or ignorance. Here’s where narrator Esme comes in. As a young child she spent most of her time under the table where her widowed father and his colleagues collected words for inclusion in the dictionary.
When not in the “Scriptorium,” Esme is in the nearby home of James Murray where housemaid Lizzie cares for the young girl. Despite class differences, theirs is a relationship that endures as Esme grows up and begins her own collection of words. She starts with some discarded by the men and later adds the vernacular of working class women she discovers with Lizzie’s help.
Williams’s novel is inspired by true events, but isn’t just historical. The story is brought to life by the vivid personalities of the main characters, but also lesser, nonetheless equally important, ones. While the dictionary is being compiled (a decades-long endeavor), the arduous battle of the women’s suffrage movement is underway (another lengthy process). The backdrop of societal mores, the Great War and personal relationships imbues the work with emotion.
Words and their meanings are significant but their power is reflected in how they’re used and by whom.
The Dictionary of Lost Words
Four Bookmarks
Ballentine Books, 2021
388 pages (includes epilogue, author’s notes, timeline and book group discussion questions)
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