Saturday, March 25, 2017
Faces in the Crowd - Valeria Luiselli
The narrator writes a novel based on her years as a translator in NY City. She writes that her younger self became obsessed with the work of early twentieth century poet Gilberto Owen, especially with the brief time Owen lived in NY City.
There is a metafictional element to this multilayered story. The woman writing the story within the novel is married with two kids. In brief chapters she comments on her present life and on the process of writing the novel. Occasionally she writes of her husband interrupting her to object to a distortion of the facts. She explains to him that this is a novel therefore it need not be strictly factual. Thus, she also becomes an unreliable narrator.
The fiction of ‘Faces in the Crowd’ multiplies several times and comments on its own fictionality. First there is Valeria Luiselli who writes a novel, then the novel’s narrator, a fictional character writing of her youth in NY City, and admitting to fictionalizing this, in the larger sense, already fictional narrative. Then within that framework, the young translator partly invents the story of Gilberto Owen, who unlike the others (excepting Luiselli) was a real person. In later chapters, Owen becomes the narrator, telling his own story, but in doing so this fictionalized Owen tells a semi fiction account of his own life. Gradually these layers of fiction and reality and time and distance converge.
Magic Realism is a tradition amoung Latin American writers. They invented it, and they are the best at it. I’ve been a fan of MR since reading Alejo Carpentier, Italo Calvino, and Borges. Miss Luiselli is also very good, as is perhaps expected.
To give one example, both the translator and Owen see each other in the subway, first in passing cars, then on the platform, but they never speak. Like ghosts or visions, both living in the same city but decades apart.
The novel seems a bit down on Gilberto Owen. He was a successful journalist, poet, and diplomat who may have achieved greater fame had he not died young.
These Owen sections are not the novel’s main strength. The story of the translator and her friends is the first and far more interesting section of the book. The best part of the Owen chapters is that even the minor characters are people who existed in real life, and all lived in NY City at the same time as Owen, though their interactions are all invented by the narrator and of course on another level by Luiselli. As the narrator states, that they could have easily met one another is more important (to a story teller) than if they actually did so.
Actually, once one realizes that these characters are based on real people, the Owen sections gain more interest, and in fact Luiselli deserves credit for her research and her cleverness in inventing a plausible social circle for these people to inhabit. None of this may have happened, but it all could have happened.
Luiselli has a terrific ability to suggest a long stretch of dialogue with just a few lines. She creates a sense of relationship between characters with a casual build up of brief moments. In a series of sections, chapters, paragraphs, constructed like small poems, or prose poems, she creates the lives and adventures of the translator and all her friends and acquaintances,
The light touch of Magic Realism and Metafiction in an otherwise realist manner works very well. But in the final sections the Magic becomes too heavy handed whilst the Realism vanishes, and the novel suffers as a result. I found myself missing the earlier sections before I had finished reading the novel.
I would have liked to see the translator’s story continue for the length of the novel. And to a slightly lesser extent I would like to see what Luiselli could do with a full length semi-fictional treatment of Owen’s life in NY City. But I know that neither will happen.
Sunday, February 12, 2017
The Gargoyle, by Andrew Davidson
I've decided to post a few more reviews on this blog.
Concise reaction: this is a good book. My favorite sequence was the mystical/spiritual journey in the final third of the novel. The author did a nice job of adapting a chunk of The Inferno, and tying it in with the Niflheim viking section and so on.
At times Davidson was guilty of padding of his narrative, especially but not entirely in the first third. The accident and character biography and hospital treatment section was ok, just overdone. He should have moved on to the appearance of Marianne much sooner. Then after her introduction the story needed to move more quickly past the 'getting to know Marianne' hospital visits to their past life together. The attempt to build mystery about Marianne and do a 'gradual reveal', instead threatened to bog down the entire plot.
Some of the short tales that lay outside the main plot, though of course meant to connect thematically, were quite good. I especially enjoyed the stories of Galileo and of the dragon. But many were not interesting, or perhaps there were just too many of them. The central plot was ok. And the writing was overall capable, but as stated earlier the writer had a tendency to drag a scene or sequence on too long. And sometimes would add unnecessary information in narrative asides, for example, providing detail on the history of morphine, and pointing out that the character had to be injured before he could learn to feel. Disguising this as narrator thoughts is no excuse, the reader does not need the former and can figure out the later for themselves.
The novel could have benefited from being edited down by a third. But overall it was a good book and a decent read.
Monday, May 20, 2013
James - Falling Towards England
Falling Towards England: Unreliable Memoirs Continued, Clive James, Cape, 1985.
Picking up where the first volume left off, Clive James arrives in England to make his fortune. Four the next three years he roustabouts around London (mostly), taking a series of odd jobs and generally making a nuisance of himself. Again, we have the exaggerated comic detail, and the reminder that this memoir is unreliable, so not to take any of it too seriously. Likely the series of jobs came and went for the usual mundane reasons, such as being laid off. But mundane is rarely funny in itself, it has to be made funny within the structure of the joke or in the delivery, or both. Clive James knows more about humor than I, he could explain all this much better. The point is that James gives us the essence of his early London experience, but turns the details into a series of comic adventures, Tom Jones style. James' behavior is as bad as in the first volume. He continuously takes advantage of friends and acquaintances and behaves with utter disregard for others. It is odd that James would portray himself in this manner. But he claims his faults were real and that he gradually overcame them, decades later according to his narration. There is sufficient humor and self-deprecation, and remorse over ill-deeds, that we cannot dislike James and continue to turn pages to read more of his antics. Despite his insistence that he did not have many friends, he is never wanting for company in these stories; There is always someone who hands him a job or a place to live. Characters from the first volume reappear in greater or lesser roles. They join others who gain prominence. Part of the fun is trying to guess who these characters are based upon. James moves from job to job, always screwing up in comic or pathetic fashion. He did have a recommendation from his boss at the Australian newspaper(from volume one)which he attempted to use to gain employment with an English paper. The reply was why should they hire him to do a job that an Englishman could do. The answer is because he has experience, and an excellent recommendation from someone this person has reason to respect and listen to. But James claims he did not have an answer and did not get the job. He tells the reader that at one low point in these early London years,he contemplated suicide, or at least a return to Australia. Of course overall there is quite a bit of the tall tale in this book. Despite James' living in near-starvation and near-homelessness for three years, he never suffered either fate, and made several trips to Italy to visit his girlfriend, and made at least the one trip to Paris. He had a second recommendation, this one from a Sydney University Professor to help him apply to enter Oxford University. He was accepted, and when the required waiting period ended (at the end of the three years covered in the book) James entered Pembroke College in Oxford. This next major step in his life is the conclusion of this memoir, and the segue to volume three.
Picking up where the first volume left off, Clive James arrives in England to make his fortune. Four the next three years he roustabouts around London (mostly), taking a series of odd jobs and generally making a nuisance of himself. Again, we have the exaggerated comic detail, and the reminder that this memoir is unreliable, so not to take any of it too seriously. Likely the series of jobs came and went for the usual mundane reasons, such as being laid off. But mundane is rarely funny in itself, it has to be made funny within the structure of the joke or in the delivery, or both. Clive James knows more about humor than I, he could explain all this much better. The point is that James gives us the essence of his early London experience, but turns the details into a series of comic adventures, Tom Jones style. James' behavior is as bad as in the first volume. He continuously takes advantage of friends and acquaintances and behaves with utter disregard for others. It is odd that James would portray himself in this manner. But he claims his faults were real and that he gradually overcame them, decades later according to his narration. There is sufficient humor and self-deprecation, and remorse over ill-deeds, that we cannot dislike James and continue to turn pages to read more of his antics. Despite his insistence that he did not have many friends, he is never wanting for company in these stories; There is always someone who hands him a job or a place to live. Characters from the first volume reappear in greater or lesser roles. They join others who gain prominence. Part of the fun is trying to guess who these characters are based upon. James moves from job to job, always screwing up in comic or pathetic fashion. He did have a recommendation from his boss at the Australian newspaper(from volume one)which he attempted to use to gain employment with an English paper. The reply was why should they hire him to do a job that an Englishman could do. The answer is because he has experience, and an excellent recommendation from someone this person has reason to respect and listen to. But James claims he did not have an answer and did not get the job. He tells the reader that at one low point in these early London years,he contemplated suicide, or at least a return to Australia. Of course overall there is quite a bit of the tall tale in this book. Despite James' living in near-starvation and near-homelessness for three years, he never suffered either fate, and made several trips to Italy to visit his girlfriend, and made at least the one trip to Paris. He had a second recommendation, this one from a Sydney University Professor to help him apply to enter Oxford University. He was accepted, and when the required waiting period ended (at the end of the three years covered in the book) James entered Pembroke College in Oxford. This next major step in his life is the conclusion of this memoir, and the segue to volume three.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
James - Unreliable Memoirs
Unreliable Memoirs: Always Unreliable, Clive James, Picador, 1980.
This first book of James' memoirs covers his childhood and first go at University.
James calls his memoir 'unreliable', right in the title. James is telling the reader that this is a fictive memoir, a recollection of actual events and people but combined with fiction. True stories may be exaggerated or expanded upon with fiction elements, some tales may be invented, depictions of people may be acurate or partially or entirely fiction. It is assumed though, that even with a generous dose of fiction, the essence, the main body of the tale, gives a genuine insight into the life and character of the person writing the memoir. In fact, the use of fiction is meant not to obfuscate the past, but to help reveal it by providing detail, a focus, a contrast.
Most of the book concerns James'childhood in Australia in the fourties and fifties. Tale after tale recounts James' adventures as a child. They are largley comic, and no doubt exaggerated versions of real events. Many of the stories depict James behaving badly. At times funny, at times irritating, but always readable. The reader continues turning pages to see what happens next even while cursing James the child for being a nasty little shit.
According to these memoirs, James was an unusually self aware child. James tells us that he frequently made deliberate calculations in behavior to ensure acceptance at school. For example, when almost labelled as a 'brain' or even worse, a 'teacher's pet', he set fire to his desk to provoke a beating from the school disciplinarian and thereby ensure his acceptance as one of the bad kids. Other similar calculations follow. In his last years of school, he observed that he was now one of the smaller kids instead of one of the largest. Therefore he reionvented his persona, changing his behaviour from bad kid to class clown, and by making others laugh avoided being bullied.
There is much humor in this book, some of which has not aged well, but that is often the case with humor. There is also pathos in this book, and moments of reflection, and constant apologies from James for being such a rotten kid. He writes that he knew better even then, but did not change his behavior. But he would improve eventually, years later, he assures the reader.
Another interesting characteristic is that of false modesty. James makes a point of telling us his very high IQ score, then self-deprecatingly states that it means nothing. Yet he did make a point of telling us.
The final section of Unreliable Memoirs tells of James' first crack at University. Though the smallest section it is the most interesting. Here we meet characters more realized than the shadowy companions of his childhood. We witness James' attraction to the avant-garde, and to literature and the literary life, all presented in a sequence of amusing tales. He tells of his early love of books, of the counter-culture as it was in the fifites, of his early writing, of his freinds and schoolmates. James writes once or twice that he had few freinds, yet he never lacks for company. Perhaps 'few', like 'some', is a relative term to be taken relatively. All through his schooling James insists he neglected his studies, yet he always has high marks. In University he also neglects his reading, his work, his classes, yet he manages a degree.
Following his degree James quickly finds work at a newspaper. He seems to take to it well. But he abruptly decides that England is the place to be so he loads up his trunk and heads across the sea. He says goodbye to his girlfreind (who along with others reapears in later sequels to this memoir) and boards ship headed for England, circa early 1960's. The bad behavior toward other people and things continues during his University years right to the memoirs end, but, James insists, his behaviur improved, eventually.
This first book of James' memoirs covers his childhood and first go at University.
James calls his memoir 'unreliable', right in the title. James is telling the reader that this is a fictive memoir, a recollection of actual events and people but combined with fiction. True stories may be exaggerated or expanded upon with fiction elements, some tales may be invented, depictions of people may be acurate or partially or entirely fiction. It is assumed though, that even with a generous dose of fiction, the essence, the main body of the tale, gives a genuine insight into the life and character of the person writing the memoir. In fact, the use of fiction is meant not to obfuscate the past, but to help reveal it by providing detail, a focus, a contrast.
Most of the book concerns James'childhood in Australia in the fourties and fifties. Tale after tale recounts James' adventures as a child. They are largley comic, and no doubt exaggerated versions of real events. Many of the stories depict James behaving badly. At times funny, at times irritating, but always readable. The reader continues turning pages to see what happens next even while cursing James the child for being a nasty little shit.
According to these memoirs, James was an unusually self aware child. James tells us that he frequently made deliberate calculations in behavior to ensure acceptance at school. For example, when almost labelled as a 'brain' or even worse, a 'teacher's pet', he set fire to his desk to provoke a beating from the school disciplinarian and thereby ensure his acceptance as one of the bad kids. Other similar calculations follow. In his last years of school, he observed that he was now one of the smaller kids instead of one of the largest. Therefore he reionvented his persona, changing his behaviour from bad kid to class clown, and by making others laugh avoided being bullied.
There is much humor in this book, some of which has not aged well, but that is often the case with humor. There is also pathos in this book, and moments of reflection, and constant apologies from James for being such a rotten kid. He writes that he knew better even then, but did not change his behavior. But he would improve eventually, years later, he assures the reader.
Another interesting characteristic is that of false modesty. James makes a point of telling us his very high IQ score, then self-deprecatingly states that it means nothing. Yet he did make a point of telling us.
The final section of Unreliable Memoirs tells of James' first crack at University. Though the smallest section it is the most interesting. Here we meet characters more realized than the shadowy companions of his childhood. We witness James' attraction to the avant-garde, and to literature and the literary life, all presented in a sequence of amusing tales. He tells of his early love of books, of the counter-culture as it was in the fifites, of his early writing, of his freinds and schoolmates. James writes once or twice that he had few freinds, yet he never lacks for company. Perhaps 'few', like 'some', is a relative term to be taken relatively. All through his schooling James insists he neglected his studies, yet he always has high marks. In University he also neglects his reading, his work, his classes, yet he manages a degree.
Following his degree James quickly finds work at a newspaper. He seems to take to it well. But he abruptly decides that England is the place to be so he loads up his trunk and heads across the sea. He says goodbye to his girlfreind (who along with others reapears in later sequels to this memoir) and boards ship headed for England, circa early 1960's. The bad behavior toward other people and things continues during his University years right to the memoirs end, but, James insists, his behaviur improved, eventually.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Green - Paper Towns
Paper Towns. John Green. Dutton Books. 2008.
Quentin 'Q' Jacobsen and Margo Spiegelman share a wild night of pranks and adventure. The next day, Margo is not at school. She has disapeared. No one knows where she went or why, or whether she is alive or dead. Q and his freinds try to uncover what happened to her. They find what they belive are clues to her disapearance, left by Margo herself for Q.
The novel develops the main cast through events in and around the last three months of their final year of High School. In the time off from school they follow the clues. Margo had been the most popular girl in High School. But as Q and his freinds dig, they discover that no one really knew Margo. Each person who knew her had a different idea of her personality. She was a reflection of their own ideas, their own biases and assumptions, and on her part Margo played the role she was given. But her own personality remained seperate and hidden form everyone. An irony here is that enough is given about Margo for each reader to make their own idea of who Margo is, based on their own reactions to the story and their own biases and personalities and past histories. Thus one of Green's themes extends beyond the page into the reader's world.
As the young characters search they learn more about the real Margo. Q in particular is obsessed with knowing the truth and with finding her or what happened to her. The novel ends with a furious race against time across the country to where they believe they will find Margo. What they discover you need to read the book to find out.
Of all the Green teen books, this is possibly the best, and the most accesible to an adult audience. The themes of identity, friendship, and so on resonate with all readers.
Quentin 'Q' Jacobsen and Margo Spiegelman share a wild night of pranks and adventure. The next day, Margo is not at school. She has disapeared. No one knows where she went or why, or whether she is alive or dead. Q and his freinds try to uncover what happened to her. They find what they belive are clues to her disapearance, left by Margo herself for Q.
The novel develops the main cast through events in and around the last three months of their final year of High School. In the time off from school they follow the clues. Margo had been the most popular girl in High School. But as Q and his freinds dig, they discover that no one really knew Margo. Each person who knew her had a different idea of her personality. She was a reflection of their own ideas, their own biases and assumptions, and on her part Margo played the role she was given. But her own personality remained seperate and hidden form everyone. An irony here is that enough is given about Margo for each reader to make their own idea of who Margo is, based on their own reactions to the story and their own biases and personalities and past histories. Thus one of Green's themes extends beyond the page into the reader's world.
As the young characters search they learn more about the real Margo. Q in particular is obsessed with knowing the truth and with finding her or what happened to her. The novel ends with a furious race against time across the country to where they believe they will find Margo. What they discover you need to read the book to find out.
Of all the Green teen books, this is possibly the best, and the most accesible to an adult audience. The themes of identity, friendship, and so on resonate with all readers.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Hay - Late Nights on Air
Late Nights on Air, Elizabeth Hay, McClelland and Stewart, 2007.
A group of characters work together at a radio station in the summer of 1975. Harry Boyd, Dido, Eddy, Eleanor, Gwen, Ralph.
These are the main five characters, but others appear occasionally, each crisply drawn and given life. The book chronicles story of their lives together working at the station over a year. The reader experiences their shifting friendships and loyalties. Each major character is given time as the viewpoint character. Their personalities and motives are explored, their feelings toward the world around them and of the other characters is revealed. But little is certain. Feelings grow between some characters and then fade, or emotion lurks beneath the surface then grows as the year or years pass. The interplay between these characters shifts and remains complex. Even among friends an opinion, a judgement, may differ on a third character. This richness and variability are the novels strengths. The characters seem real, nothing between them is pat or too easy.
The main characters are arguably Gwen and Harry. Gwen is a rookie in the radio business who drove to Yellowknife alone. Harry is a former radio star who bombed in a try at television and took the radio job as a sort mutual favor slash exile. But arguments could be made that Dido and Eleanor, and in the final part of the book Ralph are equal characters. Yet the view point we see more often is either Harry or Gwen.
Eddy is present throughout much of the novel and is given a brief time as the view-point character, letting us only briefly inside his head. His personality does not travel much beyond the belligerent, ambitious, and talented character he appears to be at the novel's beginning. We do not learn why he is so relentlessly hostile to Harry. That Harry has failed at tv and is back where his career began is part of it. Perhaps that is all the explanation the author intended. But it is insufficient.
Dido is described as broad shouldered, with narrow hips and big hands. In short, she is described as a man. Why the author has done this is a mystery. All the men find her irresistible, yet in real life they would not. Her physical description is not an attractive one. Is there meant to be a hint ofe form the book's beginning. She is said to have a attractive voice, and that is something, but not enough given her mannish appearance and unlikeable personality. Still, in real life a woman friend said she thought Dido 'sensual'.
Another character is the land itself. Hay writes as someone intimately familiar with Yellowknife and the northern landscape. The land's smells, its sights, its feel. All come alive in careful evocative detail. The presence of the land is a force, a living character, throughout the book. The second to last section concerns a long trip into the back country by four of the characters. It sets up like the novel's pentultimate section, but it is not. There are important developments on that trip, it changes several lives, but more story remains. The book continues to follow and develop several characters, and leads finally to a (too long to be believable) long-delayed realization for two of them.
Death pervades the book. Not always on stage but as a lurking presence. A few of the characters die. But beyond that, death is always referred to. Either offstage deaths of relatives, or the repeated theme of a long lost, long dead, arctic explorer and his entire party. It could be argued that death is another central character. Though not always center stage, it or its possibility is ever present, a part of the landscape, a part of life in the north country, as envisioned by the author.
Harry takes the job as a temporary position. This gives him leeway to experiment and try anything he likes since he doesn't expect the job to last anyway. In radio he has great confidence. Remember first, this is the seventies. He gives increased responsibility to women as radio personalities, reporters, newsreaders. Some of the men are angry. Harry experiments in other ways. Some things work, some do not. Many of his staff become angry and plan rebellion. This portrayal of seventies society is yet another well-drawn and interesting part of this excellent novel.
A group of characters work together at a radio station in the summer of 1975. Harry Boyd, Dido, Eddy, Eleanor, Gwen, Ralph.
These are the main five characters, but others appear occasionally, each crisply drawn and given life. The book chronicles story of their lives together working at the station over a year. The reader experiences their shifting friendships and loyalties. Each major character is given time as the viewpoint character. Their personalities and motives are explored, their feelings toward the world around them and of the other characters is revealed. But little is certain. Feelings grow between some characters and then fade, or emotion lurks beneath the surface then grows as the year or years pass. The interplay between these characters shifts and remains complex. Even among friends an opinion, a judgement, may differ on a third character. This richness and variability are the novels strengths. The characters seem real, nothing between them is pat or too easy.
The main characters are arguably Gwen and Harry. Gwen is a rookie in the radio business who drove to Yellowknife alone. Harry is a former radio star who bombed in a try at television and took the radio job as a sort mutual favor slash exile. But arguments could be made that Dido and Eleanor, and in the final part of the book Ralph are equal characters. Yet the view point we see more often is either Harry or Gwen.
Eddy is present throughout much of the novel and is given a brief time as the view-point character, letting us only briefly inside his head. His personality does not travel much beyond the belligerent, ambitious, and talented character he appears to be at the novel's beginning. We do not learn why he is so relentlessly hostile to Harry. That Harry has failed at tv and is back where his career began is part of it. Perhaps that is all the explanation the author intended. But it is insufficient.
Dido is described as broad shouldered, with narrow hips and big hands. In short, she is described as a man. Why the author has done this is a mystery. All the men find her irresistible, yet in real life they would not. Her physical description is not an attractive one. Is there meant to be a hint ofe form the book's beginning. She is said to have a attractive voice, and that is something, but not enough given her mannish appearance and unlikeable personality. Still, in real life a woman friend said she thought Dido 'sensual'.
Another character is the land itself. Hay writes as someone intimately familiar with Yellowknife and the northern landscape. The land's smells, its sights, its feel. All come alive in careful evocative detail. The presence of the land is a force, a living character, throughout the book. The second to last section concerns a long trip into the back country by four of the characters. It sets up like the novel's pentultimate section, but it is not. There are important developments on that trip, it changes several lives, but more story remains. The book continues to follow and develop several characters, and leads finally to a (too long to be believable) long-delayed realization for two of them.
Death pervades the book. Not always on stage but as a lurking presence. A few of the characters die. But beyond that, death is always referred to. Either offstage deaths of relatives, or the repeated theme of a long lost, long dead, arctic explorer and his entire party. It could be argued that death is another central character. Though not always center stage, it or its possibility is ever present, a part of the landscape, a part of life in the north country, as envisioned by the author.
Harry takes the job as a temporary position. This gives him leeway to experiment and try anything he likes since he doesn't expect the job to last anyway. In radio he has great confidence. Remember first, this is the seventies. He gives increased responsibility to women as radio personalities, reporters, newsreaders. Some of the men are angry. Harry experiments in other ways. Some things work, some do not. Many of his staff become angry and plan rebellion. This portrayal of seventies society is yet another well-drawn and interesting part of this excellent novel.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Harris - You Comma Idiot
You comma Idiot, Doug Harris.
You Comma Idiot is a comedic novel about a directionless guy drifting through life who suddenly has several problems hit him at once, disrupting the rut his life had become. It is written in the second person, which isn't used often. The book isn't hilarious, but it is amusing. And yes it does take place in Montreal, so you Montrealers out there will recognize the locales portrayed in the story.
The narrator is the idiot of the title, but after a few pages of self-deprecation reveals that he considers himself more intelligent than those around him. His actions do not back that up however, and often his much-maligned side-kick demonstrates more sense.
The narrator does show some growth by book's end, but very little,extremely little, probably less than the author intended. That is, my impression is that the author thought his main character was much more impressive in those final scenes than he actually is. But it is after all a set of character types set in a Montreal milieu the author is very familiar with, for comic effect. I would suggest that the city of Montreal is actually the main and best - developed character.
You Comma Idiot is a comedic novel about a directionless guy drifting through life who suddenly has several problems hit him at once, disrupting the rut his life had become. It is written in the second person, which isn't used often. The book isn't hilarious, but it is amusing. And yes it does take place in Montreal, so you Montrealers out there will recognize the locales portrayed in the story.
The narrator is the idiot of the title, but after a few pages of self-deprecation reveals that he considers himself more intelligent than those around him. His actions do not back that up however, and often his much-maligned side-kick demonstrates more sense.
The narrator does show some growth by book's end, but very little,extremely little, probably less than the author intended. That is, my impression is that the author thought his main character was much more impressive in those final scenes than he actually is. But it is after all a set of character types set in a Montreal milieu the author is very familiar with, for comic effect. I would suggest that the city of Montreal is actually the main and best - developed character.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Leonard - The Big Bounce
The Big Bounce, Elmore Leonard, Fawcett, 1969.
Jack Ryan is a minor criminal arrested for a fight at a pick-up baseball game. Local Justice of the Peace Mr Majestic is a baseball fan, and on the possibility hes opponent carried a knife, Jack is released with no charges laid. Ryan is a former baseball prospect who never quite made it to the pros. His bosses, now his ex bosses, at the melon plantation where he worked order Ryan to leave town. Mr. Majestic offers Ryan a job as handyman at his beach front cabanas. Ryan decides to stay. He takes the lead in a break in to steal wallets from a party with two accomplices, then takes the job with Mr. Majestic.
He meets Nancy, a young mistress of a local millionaire. She is a master manipulator, perhaps even better than Jack. She tempts Jack into a robbery of her lover's payroll. But Jack is also tempted to live on the right side of the law. Then his partners in his last job return, and his former employer finds out he has not left town. The complications build in an easy-going fashion which matches Jack's personality and approach. The plot moves swiftly, while the emphasis is on character.
This is an early Leonard crime story and one of his best. His writing shows the style he is known for, practiced in his westerns, but we also see the signs of a younger Leonard still developing his technique. The dialogue style is there, the basic yet swift plot, the scenarios and complications which build one on the other. There is also a reliance on long flashbacks as a method to develop character. It is not something I have noticed in other Leonard novels. It works fine here as we get long looks into both Jack's and Nancy's past. But it is something the later Leonard would not do. The only sub-plot that does not work is that of the young woman in the cabin who takes an apparent interest in Ryan and who he thinks wants to seduce him. That entire scenario falls flat.
The various threads and characters come together very cleverly for the finale, which ends in a perhaps mildly ambiguous conclusion, like this sentence, but remains true to the characters and is in that very satisfying.
Jack Ryan is a minor criminal arrested for a fight at a pick-up baseball game. Local Justice of the Peace Mr Majestic is a baseball fan, and on the possibility hes opponent carried a knife, Jack is released with no charges laid. Ryan is a former baseball prospect who never quite made it to the pros. His bosses, now his ex bosses, at the melon plantation where he worked order Ryan to leave town. Mr. Majestic offers Ryan a job as handyman at his beach front cabanas. Ryan decides to stay. He takes the lead in a break in to steal wallets from a party with two accomplices, then takes the job with Mr. Majestic.
He meets Nancy, a young mistress of a local millionaire. She is a master manipulator, perhaps even better than Jack. She tempts Jack into a robbery of her lover's payroll. But Jack is also tempted to live on the right side of the law. Then his partners in his last job return, and his former employer finds out he has not left town. The complications build in an easy-going fashion which matches Jack's personality and approach. The plot moves swiftly, while the emphasis is on character.
This is an early Leonard crime story and one of his best. His writing shows the style he is known for, practiced in his westerns, but we also see the signs of a younger Leonard still developing his technique. The dialogue style is there, the basic yet swift plot, the scenarios and complications which build one on the other. There is also a reliance on long flashbacks as a method to develop character. It is not something I have noticed in other Leonard novels. It works fine here as we get long looks into both Jack's and Nancy's past. But it is something the later Leonard would not do. The only sub-plot that does not work is that of the young woman in the cabin who takes an apparent interest in Ryan and who he thinks wants to seduce him. That entire scenario falls flat.
The various threads and characters come together very cleverly for the finale, which ends in a perhaps mildly ambiguous conclusion, like this sentence, but remains true to the characters and is in that very satisfying.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
MacDonald - The Green Ripper
The Green Ripper, John D MacDonald, Fawcett Gold Medal, 1979.
Some books from earlier eras age very well, every bit as readable as when they were written, some even find a more appreciative audience many years after the first publication. But while looking through a few books in the Travis McGee series, I became worried that this highly regarded series would seem dated. I looked for one of the more recent books, one that was also mentioned in places as one of the best. I picked up this one, not sure if it met the second criteria, but it met the first.
I suspect it was more of a sensation when first published. It is, for better or worse, very much in the style of much 70's adventure fiction. The characters talk a great deal, they follow leads and uncover a few facts which lead them somewhere else. In this case a female character is introduced as McGee's latest girlfriend, and of course we read how awesome she is, McGee wants to marry her. Then very quickly she is killed off. McGee wants revenge. She was, it is obvious, killed off by a cult. In the seventies cults probably seemed even more mysterious and weird than they do now. Today they are a familiar menace, then they were a new menace. Anyway, McGee spends most of the book following leads, discovering that government agents are also after this cult, and not much else.
Finally McGee decides to join the cult as a way of finding out who killed his girlfriend and then killing them. Luckily for McGee, the group he joins are not regular cult members, they are part of some special cult militia getting military training. Either the author did not know about cult brainwashing techniques, or he ignored them. Just their possibility makes joining a cult to get information a very stupid idea. But the hero is lucky, this section of the cult is a military section.
McGee is told he cannot leave, but is allowed to wander around the base/ compound and ask any questions he pleases and have them fully answered. They even give him a woman to - well I am not sure what she is supposed to be doing, watch him perhaps, but her author-purpose is to supply sex scenes and give plot information. The absurdity builds until the action finale.
This novel is silly really, and I hope not an example of the Travis McGee greatness which so many write about, because this book certainly isn't.
Some books from earlier eras age very well, every bit as readable as when they were written, some even find a more appreciative audience many years after the first publication. But while looking through a few books in the Travis McGee series, I became worried that this highly regarded series would seem dated. I looked for one of the more recent books, one that was also mentioned in places as one of the best. I picked up this one, not sure if it met the second criteria, but it met the first.
I suspect it was more of a sensation when first published. It is, for better or worse, very much in the style of much 70's adventure fiction. The characters talk a great deal, they follow leads and uncover a few facts which lead them somewhere else. In this case a female character is introduced as McGee's latest girlfriend, and of course we read how awesome she is, McGee wants to marry her. Then very quickly she is killed off. McGee wants revenge. She was, it is obvious, killed off by a cult. In the seventies cults probably seemed even more mysterious and weird than they do now. Today they are a familiar menace, then they were a new menace. Anyway, McGee spends most of the book following leads, discovering that government agents are also after this cult, and not much else.
Finally McGee decides to join the cult as a way of finding out who killed his girlfriend and then killing them. Luckily for McGee, the group he joins are not regular cult members, they are part of some special cult militia getting military training. Either the author did not know about cult brainwashing techniques, or he ignored them. Just their possibility makes joining a cult to get information a very stupid idea. But the hero is lucky, this section of the cult is a military section.
McGee is told he cannot leave, but is allowed to wander around the base/ compound and ask any questions he pleases and have them fully answered. They even give him a woman to - well I am not sure what she is supposed to be doing, watch him perhaps, but her author-purpose is to supply sex scenes and give plot information. The absurdity builds until the action finale.
This novel is silly really, and I hope not an example of the Travis McGee greatness which so many write about, because this book certainly isn't.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Tosches - Cut Numbers
Cut Numbers. Nick Tosches. Back Bay Books (Little, Brown, and Co.) 2001.
Tosches tells a parallel story of two characters. Both are hard men living on the fringes of crime. They know the big hitters in the crime world, but live and work in the margins. One is Louis, a shylock, handing out loans and collecting payments every week. The other is Joe Brusher, a killer. Their two stories run separately, and involve some of the same supporting players, but they never meet.
Each man is approaching middle-age, feeling the years of effort, and the lack of success. Both welcome a chance to make their fortunes. Louis especially can barely make a living, fights with his girlfriend, and feels the effects of a gangster mid-life crisis.
The novel is rich in colorful, realistic characters, gritty dialogue, and believable detail on the life of low - level crooks. Joe makes a good menacing figure, and we do get some of his point of view. But it is Louie who is the main character. We spend more time with him, get most of the story through his eyes. He is not always a likable character, but Tosches makes him a sympathetic one.
Tosches tells a parallel story of two characters. Both are hard men living on the fringes of crime. They know the big hitters in the crime world, but live and work in the margins. One is Louis, a shylock, handing out loans and collecting payments every week. The other is Joe Brusher, a killer. Their two stories run separately, and involve some of the same supporting players, but they never meet.
Each man is approaching middle-age, feeling the years of effort, and the lack of success. Both welcome a chance to make their fortunes. Louis especially can barely make a living, fights with his girlfriend, and feels the effects of a gangster mid-life crisis.
The novel is rich in colorful, realistic characters, gritty dialogue, and believable detail on the life of low - level crooks. Joe makes a good menacing figure, and we do get some of his point of view. But it is Louie who is the main character. We spend more time with him, get most of the story through his eyes. He is not always a likable character, but Tosches makes him a sympathetic one.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Ellis - The Informers
The Informers. Brett Easton Ellis. Vintage. 1994.
Ellis's 'The Informers' is actually a collection of short stories, one per chapter; but he purposefully writes them all in the first person and rarely or never gives the narrator a name, so the stories blend together in an esoteric, impressionistic, crazy way. College kids talking of a dead friend, the unhappy wife of a movie mogul, a serial killer, and so on. The chapter-stories move one to the other like a prose form of an old-school punk rock performance.
Ellis's 'The Informers' is actually a collection of short stories, one per chapter; but he purposefully writes them all in the first person and rarely or never gives the narrator a name, so the stories blend together in an esoteric, impressionistic, crazy way. College kids talking of a dead friend, the unhappy wife of a movie mogul, a serial killer, and so on. The chapter-stories move one to the other like a prose form of an old-school punk rock performance.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Nersesian - Chinese Takeout
Chinese Takeout Arthur Nersesian, Perennial, 2003.
Orloff Trenchant is a painter living in his van, hustling paintings to art dealers, selling books at a sidewalk stand, and failing at his relationships with women.
Orloff basically has three relationships as the book progresses. The first ends quickly, the second occupies most of the book, and the third seems like a backup that is there when needed. The dialogue often sounds unnatural, and the plotting is a little shakey; Orloff's paranoia and foolish decisions seem meant as humorous and as drama at the same time, but end up being neither.
Where the book succeeds is in it's depiction of setting. The knowledge of the Chinatown area, its history, its streets and places, is colorful and thorough and always engaging. Also the small things are done well: the street of book vendors, the scene where Orloff takes down street signs and substitutes ads about himself, and so on. These portions of the book make it a good read.
Orloff Trenchant is a painter living in his van, hustling paintings to art dealers, selling books at a sidewalk stand, and failing at his relationships with women.
Orloff basically has three relationships as the book progresses. The first ends quickly, the second occupies most of the book, and the third seems like a backup that is there when needed. The dialogue often sounds unnatural, and the plotting is a little shakey; Orloff's paranoia and foolish decisions seem meant as humorous and as drama at the same time, but end up being neither.
Where the book succeeds is in it's depiction of setting. The knowledge of the Chinatown area, its history, its streets and places, is colorful and thorough and always engaging. Also the small things are done well: the street of book vendors, the scene where Orloff takes down street signs and substitutes ads about himself, and so on. These portions of the book make it a good read.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Ellis - Less Than Zero
Less Than Zero, Bret Easton Ellis, Vintage, 1985.
It begins as an odd little book, then draws you in and becomes fascinating, and finally a bit disturbing. At first the style may be a little off-putting, but very quickly the reader is drawn in. Ellis has a great ear for dialogue, and for choosing detail, sparse but effective, to build a scene.
The book features many parties, but Ellis makes each seem different. The action is varied within the repeated framework of parties and dinners and clubs.
There is a fairly large group of main characters, but Ellis handles them well, and the reader is never lost thinking 'who is that again?'
The only problem is the author's unnecessary need to 'top himself' late in the book; the characters have shown so much hedonism throughout, that Ellis goes over the top in the final chapters to create a climax. He needn't have bothered, to have maintained the status quo of the earlier chapters would have suited the novel and the ending much better.
It begins as an odd little book, then draws you in and becomes fascinating, and finally a bit disturbing. At first the style may be a little off-putting, but very quickly the reader is drawn in. Ellis has a great ear for dialogue, and for choosing detail, sparse but effective, to build a scene.
The book features many parties, but Ellis makes each seem different. The action is varied within the repeated framework of parties and dinners and clubs.
There is a fairly large group of main characters, but Ellis handles them well, and the reader is never lost thinking 'who is that again?'
The only problem is the author's unnecessary need to 'top himself' late in the book; the characters have shown so much hedonism throughout, that Ellis goes over the top in the final chapters to create a climax. He needn't have bothered, to have maintained the status quo of the earlier chapters would have suited the novel and the ending much better.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Kurt Vonnegut
Vonnegut was most famous for his novel Slaughterhouse Five, the story of a man, circa post-WWII, traveling at random through time, re-living the events of his own life, including his death, multiple times. The hero knows he is time-traveling as he repeats the events of his life, but he can do nothing to change events, or choose when or where in his life he will travel, or stop his time traveling. Eventually he accepts his fate, adopting the philosophy of fatalism, and in doing so he acquires peace.
Recurring themes throughout Vonnegut's work are determinism, iconoclasm, humanism, and fatalism, revealing much about the author's own attitudes to the world, and to life and death. He was also a great literary experimenter. Vonnegut's plots are disjointed, and many of his characters are more thematic devices than characters. He also used metafiction, using sections of a novel to write about the novel, sometimes appearing as himself in the narrative. For example, in Breakfast of Champions, one of his bestsellers, we get the great humorous exchange:
"This is a very bad book you're writing," I said to myself.
"I know," I said.
This novel is also a sort of all-star novel, featuring many cameos by characters from several other of Vonnegut's works, including, for example, the frequently appearing Kilgore Trout, an unsuccessful though prolific sf writer.
Recurring themes throughout Vonnegut's work are determinism, iconoclasm, humanism, and fatalism, revealing much about the author's own attitudes to the world, and to life and death. He was also a great literary experimenter. Vonnegut's plots are disjointed, and many of his characters are more thematic devices than characters. He also used metafiction, using sections of a novel to write about the novel, sometimes appearing as himself in the narrative. For example, in Breakfast of Champions, one of his bestsellers, we get the great humorous exchange:
"This is a very bad book you're writing," I said to myself.
"I know," I said.
This novel is also a sort of all-star novel, featuring many cameos by characters from several other of Vonnegut's works, including, for example, the frequently appearing Kilgore Trout, an unsuccessful though prolific sf writer.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Charles Bukowski
So many sites about or including Charles Bukowski. He was a post-beat, beat generation writer. For ten years he worked in the Post Office, then quit to write - primarily poetry. Referred to at times as the Poet of Skid Row, he lived close enough - just below or just above - the poverty line to know what he was talking about. He wrote poetry, short stories that are often prose poems (as are many of his poems) and novels that belong in the category called fictive biography. www.rooknet.com/beatpage/writers/bukowski The Beat Page gives a good intro to Bukowski's work. It is a relatively old site dedicated to Beat writers. There are links to other beat-related sites, bios of beat authors, and a list of top ten beat books.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Masamune - Ghost in the Shell
Ghost in the Shell. Shirow Masamune. Kodansha Ltd (Japan), and Dark Horse Manga (U.S.) 2004.
The manga 'Ghost in the Shell', comes securely wrapped in cellophane, with a parental advisory warning label on the front c over. Yes, it includes a little of everything you would expect when seeing a parental advisory.
It is an excellent book. Basically it is a serious, adult science fiction (cyber-punk or post-cyberpunk) illustrated novel. Or put another way, it is an adult comic book. The setting is a future in which the technology and the human have begun to overlap. Some humans chose to have their bodies partially or entirely replaced by robot bodies, making them cyborgs. These bodies are indistinguishable from human bodies (except for the weight), and in some cases they have enhanced strength, hidden attached weapons, and other devices. Also there are robots which likewise look, and largely behave, like humans. The difference can often only be determined by a scan to detect a 'ghost', basically the spirit, residing inside the body.
The main character is Major Motoko Kusanagi, of 'section 6', a special forces unit of the Japanese police. Most of the story is an excellent police/military/spy thriller-adventure. But inlaid with the action is philosophic-scientific speculation on several questions, primarily: 'What is human?'. Masamune references engineering, biology, chemistry, Buddhism, the Kabbalah, western philosophy, etc.
The main characters are interesting but not always sympathetic, because in their crime-fighting journeys, they are sometimes jaded and unsympathetic toward the victims. Does this simply mean they are sometimes assholes, or is Masamune suggesting their partial or total mechanization is making them less human?
The manga 'Ghost in the Shell', comes securely wrapped in cellophane, with a parental advisory warning label on the front c over. Yes, it includes a little of everything you would expect when seeing a parental advisory.
It is an excellent book. Basically it is a serious, adult science fiction (cyber-punk or post-cyberpunk) illustrated novel. Or put another way, it is an adult comic book. The setting is a future in which the technology and the human have begun to overlap. Some humans chose to have their bodies partially or entirely replaced by robot bodies, making them cyborgs. These bodies are indistinguishable from human bodies (except for the weight), and in some cases they have enhanced strength, hidden attached weapons, and other devices. Also there are robots which likewise look, and largely behave, like humans. The difference can often only be determined by a scan to detect a 'ghost', basically the spirit, residing inside the body.
The main character is Major Motoko Kusanagi, of 'section 6', a special forces unit of the Japanese police. Most of the story is an excellent police/military/spy thriller-adventure. But inlaid with the action is philosophic-scientific speculation on several questions, primarily: 'What is human?'. Masamune references engineering, biology, chemistry, Buddhism, the Kabbalah, western philosophy, etc.
The main characters are interesting but not always sympathetic, because in their crime-fighting journeys, they are sometimes jaded and unsympathetic toward the victims. Does this simply mean they are sometimes assholes, or is Masamune suggesting their partial or total mechanization is making them less human?
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Stableford - Journey to the Center
I recently looked again at Journey to the Center, by Brian Stableford. This was one of the first sf books I ever purchased. It is the story of humans who live on an artificial planet, built by some unknown race millennium earlier. The planet has endless levels and passages honeycombing its interior. The center has never been reached, and in the circumstances of the plot, one explorer who makes his living searching for artifacts within the planet, is caught between several factions who desire to journey deep into its interior.
It is a book that holds up well. I did not realize until recently that Stableford had eventually written two sequels, now out of print. Seeking them out is on my agenda.
Stableford is or should be considered an sf master. He has published more than 50 novels since the seventies, and is also an editor, non-fiction writer, and translator. In these past five years, last I read, he has no contract with a publishing house yet continues to write novels on a publish-on-demand basis. I wish some publishing house would pick him up and give his latest books wider distribution, both because he is an excellent author and out of respect for a master author of sf and fantasy.
It is a book that holds up well. I did not realize until recently that Stableford had eventually written two sequels, now out of print. Seeking them out is on my agenda.
Stableford is or should be considered an sf master. He has published more than 50 novels since the seventies, and is also an editor, non-fiction writer, and translator. In these past five years, last I read, he has no contract with a publishing house yet continues to write novels on a publish-on-demand basis. I wish some publishing house would pick him up and give his latest books wider distribution, both because he is an excellent author and out of respect for a master author of sf and fantasy.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Cussler - Pacific Vortex
Pacific Vortex. Clive Cussler. Bantam Books. 1983.
The author introduction states that this is the first Dirk Pitt story. He says it was never before published, that he was reluctant to submit it because it did not have the intricate plots of later Pitt adventures. True, as I read, I saw it did not have as many sub-plots as other Pitt novels I have read. At 270 pages this edition, it is a moderately long book, even without a lot of intricate plotting. And in fact the book seems much shorter. It flows, it speeds along. Most of the sequences are enjoyable and well-paced, the characters that appear, even in cameo, are largely interesting and get interesting things to say and do.
I enjoyed this novel more than the other Pitt books I have read so far. The lack of many lengthy subplots with their extensive plotting actually helps the stories momentum and keeps Pitt himself in the thick of the action; In other Pitt novels he, Pitt, disappears for long stretches and at times seems like a minor character. In this one he is definitely the hero, and his actions drive the story forward.
The only major problem is an early scene in which Pitt enters the Admiralty office wearing bathing trunks. The anger and threats tossed around go way over the top. After that small stumble it's all good.
The author introduction states that this is the first Dirk Pitt story. He says it was never before published, that he was reluctant to submit it because it did not have the intricate plots of later Pitt adventures. True, as I read, I saw it did not have as many sub-plots as other Pitt novels I have read. At 270 pages this edition, it is a moderately long book, even without a lot of intricate plotting. And in fact the book seems much shorter. It flows, it speeds along. Most of the sequences are enjoyable and well-paced, the characters that appear, even in cameo, are largely interesting and get interesting things to say and do.
I enjoyed this novel more than the other Pitt books I have read so far. The lack of many lengthy subplots with their extensive plotting actually helps the stories momentum and keeps Pitt himself in the thick of the action; In other Pitt novels he, Pitt, disappears for long stretches and at times seems like a minor character. In this one he is definitely the hero, and his actions drive the story forward.
The only major problem is an early scene in which Pitt enters the Admiralty office wearing bathing trunks. The anger and threats tossed around go way over the top. After that small stumble it's all good.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Lewis - Jack Returns Home
Jack Returns Home, Ted Lewis, Pan Books, 1971.
English mob enforcer Jack Carter returns to his home town to investigate his brother's murder. It is a classic setup, and used brilliantly here. The book covers roughly three intense days from a Friday evening to Sunday afternoon. Jack digs through his past, meeting old friends and old enemies. He gets closer to the truth of his brother's death. His bosses send people to order Jack to stop his activities. When he refuses, these friends are told to bring him back any way necessary. Jack meets his niece, his brother's co-workers and mistress. He peels layer after layer off the sordid side of his old town. As the book races to its climax the action becomes increasingly brutal and unforgiving. Sub plots pile up; the tension is ratcheted ever higher. Jack has the knowledge and the capacity for violence to keep pushing forward with almost no allies against increasing number of enemies.
As Jack moves through the town he recalls his past, his childhood, old friends long gone, the old neighborhoods as they were in his youth. It reads like a memoir. How much of the author's own past is used as material in these sections? We may never know, but the detail and precision of the writing reads like the author had intimate knowledge of these people and places.
The book is as much about Jack's personality, and his relationship with his brother, as it is about the revenge plot. All the characters are effectively drawn. The dialogue is crisp, the scene setting vivid. The plot is almost flawless in its construction. 'Jack Returns Home' is one of the greatest crime novels ever written.
English mob enforcer Jack Carter returns to his home town to investigate his brother's murder. It is a classic setup, and used brilliantly here. The book covers roughly three intense days from a Friday evening to Sunday afternoon. Jack digs through his past, meeting old friends and old enemies. He gets closer to the truth of his brother's death. His bosses send people to order Jack to stop his activities. When he refuses, these friends are told to bring him back any way necessary. Jack meets his niece, his brother's co-workers and mistress. He peels layer after layer off the sordid side of his old town. As the book races to its climax the action becomes increasingly brutal and unforgiving. Sub plots pile up; the tension is ratcheted ever higher. Jack has the knowledge and the capacity for violence to keep pushing forward with almost no allies against increasing number of enemies.
As Jack moves through the town he recalls his past, his childhood, old friends long gone, the old neighborhoods as they were in his youth. It reads like a memoir. How much of the author's own past is used as material in these sections? We may never know, but the detail and precision of the writing reads like the author had intimate knowledge of these people and places.
The book is as much about Jack's personality, and his relationship with his brother, as it is about the revenge plot. All the characters are effectively drawn. The dialogue is crisp, the scene setting vivid. The plot is almost flawless in its construction. 'Jack Returns Home' is one of the greatest crime novels ever written.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Brackett - The Hounds of Skaith
Leigh Brackett. The Hounds of Skaith. 1974. Ballantine Books.
Part two of the Eric John Stark trilogy.
Eric drove North to the enemy citadel to rescue his freind in the first volume. In this volume they move South by a different route toward the Spaceport. This time Stark has new allies, namely several very powerful war dogs he commands with telepathy. This Southern journey is at first much like the journey in part one. It has an episodic structure in which Stark's group encounters various hostle life forms. The land itself and everything on it is hostile. Once again the reader may wonder how anyone could survive on such a hostile world. At least this time fewer humanoids are willing to eat travellers.
The corrupt preisthood of the first book is still active. They control a major city and a powerful army, and more of those fiercly powerful wardogs. As Stark journeys South he realizes that to reach the Spaceport he must bypass the enemy city. And to do that he must become increasingly involved in planet politics. So as he moves he gathers an army. An army of those wanting an end to the preisthood's power. The novel's big set piece is the battle for that city. Stark makes allies and enemies. Some of each group are lost in this struggle. And always Stark is the epitome of single-minded courage and unflinching drive. He is an impossible hero; but he is a great hero. It is this depiction of Stark, and the gritty, colorful depictions of the landscape, the many well drawn characters, and Brackett's endless imagination for people's and civilizations, which make this novel a good read.
Part two of the Eric John Stark trilogy.
Eric drove North to the enemy citadel to rescue his freind in the first volume. In this volume they move South by a different route toward the Spaceport. This time Stark has new allies, namely several very powerful war dogs he commands with telepathy. This Southern journey is at first much like the journey in part one. It has an episodic structure in which Stark's group encounters various hostle life forms. The land itself and everything on it is hostile. Once again the reader may wonder how anyone could survive on such a hostile world. At least this time fewer humanoids are willing to eat travellers.
The corrupt preisthood of the first book is still active. They control a major city and a powerful army, and more of those fiercly powerful wardogs. As Stark journeys South he realizes that to reach the Spaceport he must bypass the enemy city. And to do that he must become increasingly involved in planet politics. So as he moves he gathers an army. An army of those wanting an end to the preisthood's power. The novel's big set piece is the battle for that city. Stark makes allies and enemies. Some of each group are lost in this struggle. And always Stark is the epitome of single-minded courage and unflinching drive. He is an impossible hero; but he is a great hero. It is this depiction of Stark, and the gritty, colorful depictions of the landscape, the many well drawn characters, and Brackett's endless imagination for people's and civilizations, which make this novel a good read.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)