Posted in 9-2012 Reviews, Austria, Biography, Book Club Suggestions, England, France, Historical, Literary, Non-fiction, Social and Political Issues, Ukraine on Jul 30th, 2012
Considering the esoteric subject matter, the hypnotic charm of this biography comes as a complete surprise. Though I had expected the book to be good, I had no idea how quickly and how thoroughly it would engage and ultimately captivate my interest. Through this sensitive author/artist, the reader shares the quest for information about five generations of his family history, delights in the discovery of his family’s art collecting prowess, and thrills at his ability to convey the charms of a collection of 264 netsukes from the early 1800s. Despite the sadness that accompanies the Anschluss in Vienna and leads to the loss of the family’s entire financial resources, the novel is far from melancholic. Ultimately, he connects with the reader, who cannot help but feel privileged to have been a part of this author’s journey of discovery.
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Daniel Silva, who was a journalist for years before he became a novelist, has always taken care to create plots that relate directly to current political and historical realities. In this novel Silva goes way beyond the facts that we all understand from the media, elucidating the complexities and the heartfelt commitments of both the Arabs and the Jews to preserving “their own” piece of the land in what is now Israel, and especially Jerusalem. Allon is restoring “The Deposition of Christ,” widely regarded as Caravaggio’s finest painting, working at night in the Vatican, when the body of a female curator in the antiquities department is found beneath the Michelangelo-designed dome of the basilica. While this is being investigated, Allon learns from Shimon Pazner at the Israeli Embassy that Hezbollah, aided by Iran, may be planning a major attack on some Israeli site in Europe. Eventually, these two plots coincide, but not before Silva has explored the complexities of the financial dealings at the Vatican; the personal alliances within the Vatican and within Rome itself; the financial and cultural interconnections between the Palestinians, Hezbollah, Iran, and the antiquities market; and the extreme actions suicide bombers are willing to commit to advance their agenda. No compromise seems possible in dealing with any of these issues as the reader becomes newly aware of the increasing tensions of the area and the unlikelihood that any solution, other than war, will be the result.
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It is difficult to think of Alice Thomas Ellis, the pen name of Anna Haycraft, without also thinking of some of her equally talented contemporaries – Beryl Bainbridge, whom she mentored, Penelope Fitzgerald, Muriel Spark, Jane Gardam, Elizabeth Taylor, Barbara Pym, Penelope Fitzgerald, and others – all of whom also wrote brilliant, often satiric, darkly humorous, and psychologically astute novels about women and families, primarily in the 1970s and 1980s. Ellis’s first novel, THE SIN EATER (1977), pays homage to the Welsh tradition of the sin eater, someone who would come to the household of a recently deceased person, and enact a short ritual in which s/he would “eat” the sins of the deceased so that s/he could then safely pass on to a happy afterlife. In this novel, the Anglo-Welsh patriarch of an old family is dying in Llanelys, and his children and their spouses gather at the estate to await the end. Stunning imagery, delicious turns of phrase, and lively dialogue make the narrative sparkle. In PILLARS OF GOLD Ellis writes some of the wittiest dialogue ever, crafting a hilarious tale in which one of the neighbors is missing and the neighborhood does not want to report her absence to the police for fear of being wrong. Then a body matching the description of the missing woman is discovered in a nearby canal. More satire of contemporary life.
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Seventy-year-old Harry Chapman has been ill at home, and has just been admitted to a hospital for diagnosis and treatment. Confined to bed for the next two weeks, Harry, a writer, cannot help sharing his thoughts and “suppositions” with the reader and sometimes the hospital staff, recreating conversations and bringing family members, friends, and literary characters to life. But Harry does not stop there. Books, poems, plays, and paintings are also a vivid part of his on-going reality, and some of Harry’s favorite literary characters and his most admired fellow writers cross the borders of reality and fiction to work their way into his memories of real people and real events. His attention constantly jumps around, but it is through these seemingly random memories, stories, favorite poems, and observations about life that author Paul Bailey succeeds in bringing Harry to life and creating a “real” person for the reader. Ultimately, author Paul Bailey creates a novel in which Harry becomes an everyman on an odyssey, one in which he seeks answers to life’s most basic questions of what life means and whether the journey has been worthwhile.
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Although a major part of The Absolutist centers on the horrors of World War I, Irish author John Boyne has created a novel which goes beyond the typical “war story” and becomes also a study of character and values. This broader scope allows the novel to appeal to a wide audience interested in seeing the effects of war on the main character, Tristan Sadler, throughout the rest of his life. More a popular novel than a “literary” novel in its appeal to the reader, Boyne has carefully constructed the plot with alternating time settings – before, during, and after the war – to take full advantage of the elements of surprise. The author often hints at personal catastrophes or dramatic events in one part of the novel, creating a sense of suspense and foreboding, then reveals these secret events in grand fashion in another part, keeping the pace so lively that it is difficult for the reader to find a place to stop. Though the novel is very serious, with no humor to leaven it, The Absolutist is riveting, and a fast read, showing the personal side effects of war’s horrors.
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