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Edward St. Aubyn–LOST FOR WORDS

Jun 15th, 2015 by

Note: This novel by Edward St. Aubyn is WINNER of the 2014 Wodehouse Prize for comic fiction.

“Personally I think that competition should be encouraged in war and sport and business, but that it makes no sense in the arts.  If an artist is good, nobody else can do what he or she does and therefore all comparisons are incoherent.  Only the mediocre, pushing forward a commonplace view of life in a commonplace language can really be compared, but my wife thinks that ‘least mediocre of the mediocre’ is a discouraging title for a prize…”—Mr. Wo, Shanghai Global Partners, new owners of the Elysian group.

The fine line between satire and farce is obliterated in this novel about the annual granting of England’s most prestigious literary prize.  Author Edward St. Aubyn never hesitates to leap with both feet from satire into bold farce and back, as often as some of his characters jump with both feet into and out of each other’s beds.  At the same time, however, he also maintains a bemused and distantly objective point of view regarding the machinations of those authors competing for the Elysian Prize, as well as the judges who must decide the winner, and the literary establishment which recognizes the internal wheeling and dealing but still takes it all seriously.  Though the author never mentions the name of the real prize he is satirizing, perhaps the one for which he was once on the Short List, every reader of British literature will have an idea of which among several prizes is being satirized here.  The prize in this novel is named for Elysian, a highly controversial agricultural company which manufactures “the world’s most radical herbicides and pesticides, and a leader in the field of genetically modified crops.” Elysian thinks nothing of crossing wheat with Arctic cod to make it frost resistant or lemons with bullet ants to give them extra zest.

St. Aubyn’s parodies of various literary styles, represented by some of the candidates for the Elysian Prize mentioned here will bring smiles of recognition to many readers.  All the World’s a Stage, a book favored by Elysian judge Tobias Benedict, an actor, shows St. Aubyn’s skill in writing sophisticated parodies of Shakespearean drama here. Readers will have great fun identifying which passages from Hamlet, Macbeth, and other plays he borrows from in some of the Shakespearean passages.  Conversations between William and Ben [Jonson] and Thomas Kyd and John Webster are delightful, conjuring up all the controversy about who “really” wrote Shakespeare’s plays.  Like Shakespeare himself, author St. Aubyns also delights in mining the depths of low humor and farce for other scenes, both Shakespearean and otherwise.  The writing of one candidate for the prize, wot u starin at, by Hugh MacDonald, is so full of gutter language involving Death Boy and Wanker that I can only quote it selectively here: Wanker “was fixed ta the corner, as if some (expletive) with a nail gun had shot him through the hands and feet and crucified the sorry (expletive) to Death Boy’s floor….[He] wasna in the mood for a fight, being skag-sick, and [expletive] at the world on account of his AIDS test comin back positive.”

Huge pile of books from which the Elysian Prize nominees are supposed to be chosen by the judges who are “reading” this group.

Penny Feathers, one of the five Elysian judges, a writer of thrillers, has greatly expanded her own output after discovering an app called “Ghost.”  When she types in “refugee,” for instance, “several useful suggestions pop up: ‘clutching a pathetic bundle,’ or ‘eyes big with hunger’…Under ‘shoes’ you got ‘badly scuffed,’ ‘highly polished,’ ‘seen better days,’ and ‘bought in Paris.’   She could…scroll and click all day, the word count going up in leaps and bounds.’ ” As judge, Feathers is supporting a book entitled The Enigma Conundrum (my favorite title), which includes a “marvelous portrait of the brilliant…Alan Turing” and an “utterly convincing” portrait of Winston Churchill – “you could almost smell the cigar smoke and the brandy on his breath.”

From the huge number of novels for the year, the judges choose the longlist, from twelve to twenty books long.

Despite the wonderfully over-the-top descriptions, St. Aubyns also manages to maintain a reserve (and a distanced smirk) which gives added punch to the genuine issues he develops within the plot of this novel.  Malcolm Craig, a member of Parliament and Under-Secretary of State for Scotland, has been appointed Chairman of the prize committee.  The other judges are the aforementioned Penny Feathers, the thriller writer with the Ghost app; Tobias Benedict, the actor, who is also the godson of Sir David Hampshire, the aristocrat in charge of choosing the prize committee;  Jo Cross, a well-known columnist and media personality; and Vanessa Shaw, an “Oxbridge academic” who identifies her specific area of interest simply as “good writing.”  None of the judges feel any need to read the large number of books that eventually form the Long List – and in choosing the Short List, all have at least one favorite novel – in some cases the only candidate for the prize that they have read at all. One judge does not attend meetings, and Malcolm Craig, himself, is a tool of the wonderfully named publishing house Page and Turner.

Here three female judges and two male, like the judges in this novel, hold the six novels which comprise the shortlist. In the novel, each judge is committed to a particular book and lobbies for that book in the deliberations.

Among the nominees for the prize are the previously mentioned wot you starin at by Hugh Macdonald; All the World’s a Stage by Hermione Fade, the Shakespearean entry; The Enigma Conundrum by Tim Wentworth, supported by Penny Feathers; The Frozen Torrent by Sam Black; and, in a surprise, a book that was submitted by mistake in place of Consequences by author Katherine Burns.  The Palace Cookbook by Lakshmi Badanpur, a cookbook with memoir by the auntie of Sonny Badanpur  is now being considered for the fiction prize. In search of a new angle, the prize committee has been impressed by the suggestions about life that these recipes represent.  The committee is deadlocked in choosing a winner.

The big banquet at which a winner is announced takes place at the Guildhall in this photo by Sarah Lee.

St. Aubyn’s Lost for Words, a book of significant literary accomplishment, gives the lie to the idea that good fiction is dead  –  its humor, intelligence, and awareness of the greater world not only intact but sparkling, a book which, in its way, celebrates the values which serious readers accept and even admire.  Of all the books I have read recently,  this one has most tickled my fancy and kept me reading happily during a period in which so much other reading has been ultra-serious and (often) very long.  A perfect book for summer written by a well-recognized author who is taking a different and much welcomed tack, Lost for Words may not be on any Short Lists, but it is high on my own Favorites List.

Photos, in order: The author’s photo appears on http://www.abc.net.au/

The big stack of books for the whole year, from which the Elysian Prize nominees are taken, is shown here:  http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/

astilbe 7:1:20The twelve-book longlist may be found here:  http://www.goodhousekeeping.co.uk/

The authors and their choices for the shortlist, which each will support individually, are depicted on http://www.theguardian.com/

The celebration banquet at the Guildhall  appears on http://www.theguardian.com Photo by Sarah Lee.

ARC:  Picador

Posted in 6-2015 Reviews, Book Club Suggestions, England, Humor, Satire, Absurdity, Social and Political Issues | No Comments »

Deborah Levy-Bertherat–THE TRAVELS OF DANIEL ASCHER

Jun 11th, 2015 by

“Guillaume went up to get his [“Black Insignia”] books from Helene’s room and came back all out of breath…Seeing Guillaume with his enormous sports bag, Daniel [the author of the books] started laughing, are they all in there, yes, all twenty-three [volumes], they’re all battered, I’ve read them so many times I know them by heart.  Daniel opened the bag and took out a few books, how wonderful, the broken spines, the stains and scars, it’s what every writer dreams of.”

In this short but beautifully compressed novel about writing, identity, memory, and the Holocaust, French author Deborah Levy-Bertherat tells the story of Helene Roche and her great-uncle Daniel Roche, previously known as Daniel Ascher, and also known as H. R. Sanders, author of the Black Insignia series of young adult adventure novels.  Divided into three parts which take place between September 1999, and July 2000, the novel focuses on Helene’s efforts to come to terms with her relationship with this much older family member, even as she herself is writing her thesis for a degree at the Institute of Art and Archaeology at the University of Paris.  Helene has recently moved into a nearby garret apartment which her great-uncle has offered in a building he owns nearby while he is off on one of his many travels.  Not especially close to her uncle, she lives with her boyfriend Guillaume, a fellow student who is a huge fan of Daniel’s Black Insignia series adventure novels which he read as a boy.

Gradually, Daniel’s story unfolds, as Helene learns that Daniel, a Jewish child living at the time of World War II,  was adopted by her family when his own family disappeared.  She knows that he has some family members in the US, but she is not involved or interested enough in his life to want to pursue this aspect of his life.  Though this is actually part of her own family’s history, she does not regard it as any of her business.  Her closest connection to Daniel has been that, historically, when he has returned from his many trips, he has brought her a gemstone from one of the countries that he has visited.  Guillaume, however, is completely committed to knowing and befriending Daniel on the basis of his novels, all of which he wants to have autographed by the author.

The Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, a continuing motif throughout this novel, is where Helene took her young neighbor Jonas for after school visits.

Delightful drawings by Andreas Gurewich accompany the novel, which develops the story of the past as Helene visits the old neighborhood in which Daniel Ascher grew up.   Helene knows that Daniel’s family consisted of photographers, and she is curious to meet any of the older residents of the neighborhood who might have known people associated with the old Ascher Studio, now destroyed.   Postcards from faraway places like Patagonia, sent by Daniel to Helene and others, make Helene feel somewhat more curious about her great-uncle Daniel’s experiences.  Though she herself has never managed to read more than a few pages of any of his books, she learns from Guillaume that the adventures of Peter Ashley-Mill, the hero of the Black Insignia books, provide hints about real life adventures that Daniel Ascher may have experienced and survived in Machu Pichu, the jungles of Borneo, and the ruins of Pompeii, among other places.

The Institute of Art and Archeology, at the University of Paris, where Helene was studying for an advanced degree: Photo by Tony Page/Travelsignposts.com

Gradually, Daniel’s complex feelings about his adoption, his adoptive family, and the survivors of his birth family in the United States, are revealed, and Helene’s feeling that he seems to have changed since his last trip make their relationship even more complex.  Old photographs and their history, a modern day hurricane and its aftereffects, and a trip to New York all animate the changes taking place in the relationship between Daniel and Helene.  Suggestions arise regarding secret relationships among family members, which threaten to affect future relationships.  Within six months, questions arise regarding the veracity of Daniel’s own statements about his life and his feelings about his writing life.

A valuable fire agate, similar to what Daniel gave Helene after his trip to Patagonia.

The novel’s action is not complex, though it deals with three generations of people, some of them from other countries, and many of whom have good reason to hide the past. The novel sometimes jumps around out of chronological context, though the author is careful to keep her audience in mind as she tells the story. At about the halfway mark, I found myself thinking that this might be a good book for use in teaching young high school students about the various literary tools and techniques, well developed here, which are  available to writers who might want to provide a new approach to a memoir, a story, or a major subject like the Holocaust (though that is not its primary focus).  As Helene learns more about Daniel and about herself, she matures and comes to some conclusions of her own, and as the novel ends, the reader cannot help but hope that the family will be able to deal with the revelations which are emerging.

Helene is doing a thesis on the Mosaic at Germigny-des-Pres, at the top of the semicircular vault in this early Romanesque church. Note the two horizontal angels in the center, mentioned in the novel.

Author Levy-Bertherat has a light touch for much of the novel, despite the seriousness of the themes and discoveries about the past, and she succeeds in stimulating empathy for her damaged characters, especially Daniel and Helene, his much younger family member.  Ultimately she shows that the true writer and committed chronicler of the past, wrapped in the atmosphere of another time, has no alternative but to follow his/her muse into the scenes and stories which have animated his/her own life, and as Levy-Bertherat shows here, relive and perhaps revise his/her own history in the process.  A novel which is simple in its plot and complex in execution, The Travels of Daniel Ascher raises awareness in the reader about the effects of the past on the present – and our inability to escape the past, even should we wish to do so.

Photos, in order: The author’s photo appears on http://cultures-j.com/

The Luxembourg Gardens, where Helene took little Jonas after school, are shown on http://ciaobambino.com/

The Institute of Art and Archaeology at the University of Paris is where Helene was studying for her advanced degree.  Photo by Tony Page on http://www.travelsignposts.com

The valuable fire agate, which Daniel brought home to Helene after his trip to Patagonia is shown on https://es.pinterest.com/explore/

The mosaic of angels at Germigny-des-Pres, at the top of the semicircular vault of this Romanesque church, is the subject of a thesis by Helene and appears on http://orfeee45.over-blog.com/

ARC:  Other Press

Posted in 6-2015 Reviews, Book Club Suggestions, France, Historical, Literary, Social and Political Issues | No Comments »

Sergio Ramirez–DIVINE PUNISHMENT

Jun 4th, 2015 by

Note: The author is WINNER of the Alfaguara International Novel Award, RECIPIENT of the International Prize for Human Rights (Bruno Kreisky Foundation), WINNER of the Order of Merit of the Federal Government of  Germany, and WINNER of the 2014 Carlos Fuentes Prize for Literary Creation in Spanish.

“Rosalio Usulutlan…editor-in-chief of [Leon, Nicaragua’s] El Cronista newspaper, quit his seat at the end of the first screening of the MGM film Payment Deferred starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O’Sullivan [released in 1932]…In the article he was planning to write the next morning, Usulutlan intended to warn  his readers of the dangers inherent in the film’s plot: merely by attending the cinema, unscrupulous persons would be able to learn how to prepare lethal poisons…the method was clearly shown on the screen.”

Within months of the release of the 1932 Charles Laughton film Payment Deferred, the wife of a Guatemalan attorney and three other people associated with him in Nicaragua, would die in Leon under circumstances which suggest poisonings similar to those in the popular American film.  Later that year, the attorney, Oliverio Castaneda, former first secretary to the Guatemalan legation in Nicaragua, would be awaiting trial and possible sentencing for these deaths, though all the evidence is circumstantial.  Writing a novel based on the real case and its investigation in 1932-1933, Nicaraguan author Sergio Ramirez recreates what has been described as “the most celebrated criminal trial in Nicaraguan history,” a case which Ramirez uses to illustrate the conditions and social mores of the country as Anastasio Somoza Garcia is laying the groundwork for his eventual dictatorship in Nicaragua, which would begin in 1936.

Fellow author Carlos Fuentes declares that with this book “Sergio Ramirez has written the great novel of Central America,” which he describes as incorporating a “heart of darkness…the fullness of comedy, and the imminence of tragedy.”  Fuentes compares Ramirez to Flaubert in technique, and calls this book “a true microcosm of Central America…[with] the action [also] reverberating in Costa Rica and Guatemala.”

Ramirez (1942 – present) is not “just” the author of this novel, however.  He has a history which gives him unique insights into the political situation in Nicaragua over the years, and his background shows in his literary attention to detail and his observations of the tensions and jealousies between the government, the police, and the army.  A liberal who opposed the Somoza government of Anastasio Somoza Debayle, the son of Anastasio Somoza Garcia (who came to power during the time of the novel), he was actively involved in planning and bringing about the Sandinista political revolution in Nicaragua in 1979, and from 1985 – 1990, he served as Vice President of the country during the presidency of Daniel Ortega.  Somehow, during the 1980s, Ramirez, who grew estranged from Ortega and his policies, also managed to write this novel, considered his masterpiece, but thirty years would pass before the book would be translated into English and published for the first time for an American audience by McPherson & Company, which released it in May, 2015.

Payment Deferred, a 1932 film from the book by C. S. Forester, starred Charles Laughton and Maureen O’Hara, and paralleled the action of this novel.

The imagery of the Charles Laughton and Maureen O’Hara film Payment Deferred, which opens the book, infuses the story of the Nicaraguan deaths, attributed to Oliverio Castaneda.  Documents and reports (and even gossip) presented by journalists, physicians, police, the judicial authorities, the army, attorneys, and the voracious public, are presented here for the reader, as they were in 1932-3, when the Castaneda case was the biggest topic of conversation in Nicaragua.  As in the case with Charles Laughton in the film Payment Deferred, the killer in the real case, assumed by all to be Castaneda himself, is believed to have used a quick-acting poison, killing, first, his wife, and later two members of the family with whom he is living. And while the film focuses on “payment deferred,” the novel focuses instead, perhaps ironically, on “divine punishment,” its Spanish title.

Anastasio Somoza Garcia, the dictator who, with his sons, ruled Nicaragua for over thirty-five years, is preparing his takeover as this novel unfolds.

The story is not complicated and relies on the oldest of motives.  Oliverio Castaneda, a Guatemalan who has come to Nicaragua to work as first secretary for the Guatemalan legation, is a married man who is very ambitious and always in need of money.  Befriending the wealthy Don Carmen Contreras, for whom he eventually works in the water supply business, Castaneda and his wife manage to get an invitation to move into the Contreras home, Casa Prio, where Castaneda quickly begins flirting with the two Contreras daughters, Matilde, in her early twenties, and Maria del Pilar, who is fourteen.  It is not long before Castaneda’s wife Marta begins to become a hindrance to his long-term plans, though he is careful to be publicly attentive to her while also courting Contreras’s daughters.  When wife Marta falls ill and dies, the cause is officially “complications from blackwater fever,” brought on by a previous case of malaria, though many believe that she died from strychnine poisoning.  Soon after that, Matilde and Don Carmen Contreras also suffer attacks of some similar “illness” – like blackwater fever.  Accounting frauds are discovered in the books of Don Carmen’s business, connected to Castaneda’s tenure there, and Castaneda is additionally implicated in the death of his friend Rafael Ubico.

The eruption of Nicaraguan volcano Cerro Negro occurred five days after the conclusion of the novel. The ironies and the symbolism are unmistakable.

Many depositions from the time are revealed here, all of which implicate Castaneda, and some of which are connected to Anastasio Somoza, who was then in the army.  Letters and other hidden transactions also implicate Castaneda.  As author Ramirez presents the legal case, consisting of many depositions, legal briefs, medical reports, and statements from “witnesses,” he builds both the structure of the novel and the case against Castaneda.  Faced with almost five hundred pages of “evidence” clearly indicating Castaneda’s overwhelming guilt, the reader cannot help but wonder if Castaneda is being framed from on high, possibly the victim of an elaborate plot.  The hostilities among the various governmental groups involved and the motivations for fraud among some of them raise the possibility, at least, that Castaneda may, in fact, be a victim.  Sergio Ramirez, in this unusual novel of Nicaraguan social, political, and judicial issues wants the reader to think beyond the obvious. Originally published in 1988 in Nicaragua, it is as fresh and relevant now as it was then.

Note: The spirited and often subtle translation representing many different points of view must have been challenging for translator Nick Caistor with Hebe Powell, but they met those challenges and succeeded in creating a  detailed but natural-sounding translation.

ALSO reviewed here:  THE SKY WEEPS FOR ME

Double click to enlarge. Leon is on the west coast above Managua.

Photos, in order:

The photo of author Sergio Ramirez appears on http://www.fnpi.org/

The book cover of C. S. Forester’s Payment Deferred, which became the basis for the Charles Laughton film in 1932, is seen on http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/payment-deferred/

Anastasio Somoza Garcia, who became President of Nicaragua from 1936 – 1956 is shown on http://www.rottentomatoes.com/

The eruption of Nicaraguan volcano Cerro Negro occurred five days after the conclusion of the novel. The ironies and the symbolism are unmistakable.  http://www.mnh.si.edu

The map of Central America with the relationship between Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica is found here:  http://www.infoplease.com/

ARC:  McPherson & Company

Posted in 6-2015 Reviews, 7-2014 Reviews, Epic Novel, Historical, Literary, Nicaragua, Social and Political Issues | No Comments »

Mary Whipple–BOOK EXPO AMERICA, 2015: Some Books to Watch For

May 30th, 2015 by

“Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul.” — Joyce Carol Oates

Book Expo America, held at the Javits Center in New York City for the past few years, opened its last Expo there on Wednesday, May 27, 2015 – May 29, 2015.  Next year it, and its companion Book Con (which is held the weekend after Book Expo concludes), will move to Chicago for the Big Event(s).  As always, the enthusiasm was high as booksellers, librarians, reviewers, publishers, agents, and other book professionals gathered to see and hear what the publishers have planned for the next six months.  Talks, panel discussions, breakfasts with authors, individual meetings with favorite publishers, and autograph sessions in which fans can meet favorite authors and receive signed advance review copies of new books make the lines long, the aisles crowded, and the excitement palpable.  This year China was the featured country (last year it was the United Arab Emirates), and a large center section of the exhibition hall was reserved for books from and about China.

Extending across the lobby, this banner for the newly discovered Harper Lee book was so large I could not get all of it into one photo.

The biggest banners, some of them extending across the entire lobby outside the exhibition hall give an immediate clue about which books will probably be receiving the greatest amount of publicity and promotion.  Prominently featured was an enormous banner for Harper Lee’s GO SET A WATCHMAN, due in July, so large it was difficult to fit all of it into one photograph.  Lee Child’s latest Jack Reacher novel, MAKE ME, due in September; Brandon Stanton’s book featuring the HUMANS OF NEW YORK series, due in October; and Mitch Albom’s THE MAGIC STRINGS OF FRANKIE PRESTO, due in November, were some of the other books with huge, attention-getting banners.

International fiction coming up in the next few months, which will also be gaining some attention (I hope), includes:

Anthony Marra signed his new collection of stories, THE TSAR OF LOVE AND TECHNO, shown in the background.  The collection is set in old Russia and the USSR under the Communists.

Deborah Levy-Bertheart—THE TRAVELS OF DANIEL ASCHER (May), described as a “sensation in France…a story about literary deceptions, family secrets, and a thrilling quest for the truth,” as two people uncover secrets hidden since the Occupation in World War II.

Rob Doyle—HERE ARE THE YOUNG MEN (June), set in Dublin after the collapse of Ireland’s “Celtic Tiger” economy.

Elizabeth Taylor—A VIEW OF THE HARBOUR (June), a classic from 1947, republished by New York Review Books, one of her many wry and wonderfully observed novels of the 1940s to 1970s.  She is most famous in the US for her novel MRS. PALFREY AT THE CLAREMONT. Also, ANGEL and A GAME OF HIDE AND SEEK.

William Boyd, author of the new SWEET CARESS, and of many other prize-winning novels, signed his new novel at BEA on Friday.

 

Dario Fo—THE POPE’S DAUGHTER (August), Lucrezia Borgia tells her own side of the “story.”

Naja Marie Aidt—ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS (August), set in Denmark, written by an author from Greenland.

Patricia Duncker—SOPHIE AND THE SYBIL (August), set in Victorian England, with a lively portrait of author George Eliot (the Sybil), as she is completing MIDDLEMARCH.

 

Chantel Acevedo signed her recent novel, THE DISTANT MARVELS,  set in Cuba during Hurricane Flora in 1963.  The novel provides a vivid history of the island in just 300 pages.  See link in photo notes.

Gabriel Urza—ALL THAT FOLLOWED (August), “a psychologically twisting novel about a politically charged act of violence” in the Spanish Basque country.  Inspired by a true story.

Andrei Makine—A WOMAN LOVED (August), a fictionalized novel of Catherine the Great by a Russian author who lives in France.  He is author also of THE LIFE OF AN UNKNOWN MAN.

William Boyd—SWEET CARESS (September), about a female photographer from the early 20th century, set in London, Berlin, New York, and Europe up through the Second World War.  He has also written WAITING FOR SUNRISE and  NAT TATE, AN AMERICAN ARTIST.

Stuart Neville—THOSE WE LEFT BEHIND (September), another of his famous Belfast thrillers.  ALSO by Neville, COLLUSION

Simon Mawer signs copies of THE GLASS ROOM  in Czechoslovakia, where that novel is set. His new novel,  TIGHTROPE, set in England, is due  in November.

Elena Ferrante—THE STORY OF THE LOST CHILD (September), the fourth of her Neapolitan novels about the relationships and markedly different lives of Lila and Elena from their childhood through their careers, families, and late adulthood.  ALSO by Ferrante:  TROUBLING LOVE, a standalone,

MY BRILLIANT FRIEND (#1 of the trilogy),

THE STORY OF A NEW NAME  (#2), and  THOSE WHO LEAVE AND THOSE WHO STAY (#3)

Valeria Luiselli—THE STORY OF MY TEETH (September),  an experimental novel set in Mexico. (She is on my Favorites list for 2014 for FACES IN THE CROWD).

Susan Abulhawa—THE BLUE BETWEEN SKY AND WATER (September), about the women in Palestine and Gaza who must become the breadwinners and guardians of the family.

Anthony Marra—THE CZAR OF LOVE AND TECHNO (October), a collection of stories, most of them set in Russia and the USSR under Communism.  Also by Marra:  A CONSTELLATION OF VITAL PHENOMENA, set in Chechnya.

Jeanette Winterson—THE GAP OF TIME (October), a modern retelling of Shakespeare’s THE WINTER’S TALE, published by Hogarth Shakespeare.  Also by Winterson:  LIGHTHOUSEKEEPING

As I was leaving Book Expo, I saw Mika Brezezinski coming up the stairs for her book signing. A regular on Morning Joe, where she represents the only (much-needed) female voice on the program, she has a new book, GROW YOUR VALUE: Working to Your Full Potential.

Simon Mawer—TIGHTROPE (November), set in post-war England.  Also by Mawer:  TRAPEZE and    THE GLASS ROOM

Oscar Hijuelos—TWAIN AND STANLEY ENTER PARADISE (November), about explorer Henry Stanley, his artist wife, and his friend Mark Twain during their trip to Cuba in search of Stanley’s father.  A posthumous novel on which the author had worked for decades, later found among his effects.

Photos, in order: The photo of William Boyd, by Jacques Demarthon/AFP/Getty Images, appears on http://www.theguardian.com/

Chantel Acevedo’s recent new book, THE DISTANT MARVELS, is set in Cuba during Hurricane Flora in 1963 and provides a vivid history of the island in just 300 pages.  Photo from http://livestream.com

Simon Mawer’s photo may be found on http://brnensky.denik.cz.

All other photos belong to marywhipplereviews.com

One of the large banners outside the exhibition hall announced that Swedish author Stieg Larsson’s Millenium Trilogy lives on, though Larsson himself died in 2004. A new author has just published an addition to the series which will be released in the US in September.  Here’s the link: THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER’S WEB:

Posted in 6-2015 Reviews, Book Club Suggestions, Historical, Literary, Mystery, Thriller, Noir, Psychological study, Social and Political Issues | No Comments »

Kate Atkinson–A GOD IN RUINS

May 24th, 2015 by

Note: Kate Atkinson is the 2015 Costa Award WINNER for A GOD IN RUINS.  Kate Atkinson was WINNER Of the Whitbread Award Book of the Year (1995) for BEHIND THE SCENES IN THE MUSEUM, WINNER of the 2009 CWA Gold Dagger Thriller Award for WHEN WILL THERE BE GOOD NEWS, and WINNER of both the Costa Award (2013) and the Walter Scott Prize (2013) for LIFE AFTER LIFE

“Walking back along the lane, Teddy felt a sudden unexpected tremor in his breast, a kind of exaltation of the heart.  The memory of the lark’s song and the sharp green smell of the great bouquet of bluebells that he had picked for his mother combined to make a pure moment of intoxication, a euphoria that seemed to indicate that all the mysteries were about to be revealed.  (“There’s a world of light,” his sister Ursula said.  “But we can’t see it for the darkness.”)

Teddy Todd, age eleven in this quotation from the early pages of the novel, has a poet’s nature, and at times he dreams of becoming a poet and fine writer.  Sensitive to the sights, sounds, and smells of nature, he seems to be on his way to a life of beauty, which may actually be attainable during his life of privilege within his large multigenerational family.  This single moment in 1925, in which he feels his “exaltation of heart” turns out to be the only moment of complete euphoria he is ever likely to experience in his lifetime, however.  The “darkness” which his older sister Ursula says hides the “light” is already being felt by the adults in his life.  By 1939, when he is twenty-five, he himself is on his way to war as a Halifax pilot, part of the Bomber Command in Yorkshire, on the first of seventy sorties for his country in which he and his crew kill hundreds of enemy fighters – and civilians – some of their own men dying in their efforts.

This novel, author Kate Atkinson’s “companion novel” to her earlier Life After Life, reintroduces the Todd family, and Ursula, Teddy’s sister, who is the main character of that earlier book.  The styles of the books are very different, however.  In Life After Life, Ursula is born and dies, more than once, and with each death, the author revisits the circumstances, showing how just one little change in her life might have avoided that death.  She then retells the stories of her characters so that they do not die, having them make changes so that instead of dying by accident, they continue to live on, until they make another mistake but then are brought back to life yet again, ultimately revealing the history of the period up through World War II.  In A God in Ruins, by contrast, Atkinson has created a firm, but hidden, chronology in terms of the lives of her characters, who do not die and get reborn.  Here she shuffles the episodes in her characters’ lives so that their stories are revealed in narrative chunks taken out of context and time.  All the details are here, but the explanations for events often hang in the balance and lead to some suspense.

The Four-Engine Halifax Bomber, which Teddy flew for three years over Germany.

A one-page first chapter, about Teddy as he is about to take off from Naseby on a bombing run in 1944, is followed by chapters from 1925 (in which the opening quotation appears), 1980, 1947, 1939, 1993, 1951, 1982, back to 1943, and eventually up to 2012, and the reader must sort out these constant flashbacks and put them into some sort of chronological order.  The opening chapters also introduce over twenty characters from four generations of Todds, and for each of these families, Atkinson details the lifestyles and mores, ranging from the rural conservative gentry of Teddy’s parents to the anti-establishment commune in which Teddy’s daughter Viola lives, as she rejects any kind of responsibility.  By far the most fascinating and lively chapters are those in which Teddy is engaged in battle. The six men who fly with him become his “family.”

Atkinson says in her notes at the end that the stories about the heroic Augustus, written by Izzie, are based on those of Just William, written by Richmal Crompton.

The novel starts slowly, as Atkinson introduces her characters – Teddy, his parents, his sisters and brothers, and his young neighbor Nancy, who eventually becomes his wife.  His aunt Izzie has written a series of children’s books about Augustus, a little boy modeled on Teddy, who is lost within his own family but who performs heroic acts and shows his kindness and care for others in her books.  Within the first fifty pages of A God in Ruins, the reader knows that grown-up Teddy has one daughter Viola, who resents him, and two grandchildren, Sunny and Bertie (Roberta).  A hundred pages elapse before the most tension-filled aspect of the novel, begins – Teddy’s war experiences – though the reader has learned earlier about his war record.  Mixed in with these war narratives are scenes showing his late-in-life decisions to move to smaller and smaller quarters to facilitate his care as he ages into his nineties.  Each of these moves also involves disposing of possessions which have meaning to him – the piano belonging to his deceased wife, a Liberty Arts and Crafts sideboard, his war medals.  As the novel continues, the focus shifts to Viola and her children, especially Sunny, with whom she has had no contact for many years, and near the end of the novel, it includes the preparations for Queen Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee on the Thames.  The conclusion includes an unexpected twist.

One item from his wife’s family with which Teddy must part as he moves to smaller quarters is a Liberty Arts and Crafts Sideboard, described as identical to one that was sold on Antiques Roadshow. (See photo credits)  Viola is furious that she did not get the profits.

The novel which results from all these structural elements features a broad scope and a panoramic historical vision, especially of World War II, but Atkinson also concentrates on revealing the essence of man through her scenes, as well as man’s attempt to explain his life through religion.  She is particularly concerned with the enormous influence of evil – even its control over man – and, as she quotes (from Ralph Waldo Emerson) in the beginning of the novel,  “A man is a god in ruins.  When men are innocent, life shall be longer, and shall pass into the immortal, as gently as we awake from dreams.”  In this case, it is Teddy who is the god in ruins, a man whose inherent “niceness” has not served him well enough to survive war’s horrors without damaging his soul.  Since Teddy lives to be nearly one hundred years old, his life becoming smaller and smaller in its scope, and his living quarters also becoming successively smaller as he becomes less and less independent, the pattern of his life will sadden all but the most hard-hearted readers.

Dropping aluminum “chaff” to confuse German radar was a program in which Teddy and his crew participated.

As a long-time fan of Kate Atkinson, whose novel Life After Life was #1 on my Favorites list for 2013, I was surprised by this book.  The structure, which moves from the 1920s to 2012, in seemingly random episodes, eliminates by its very nature many of the surprises upon which a long novel depends.  Its slow start, with its focus on the characters, none of whom are characters with whom I could identify or find exceptional, places a big burden on the later war scenes for the novel’s  “excitement.”  For me, the novel sprawled, without a clear narrative focus, and while some episodes and characters added to the thematic development and illustrated the “ruin” of man, they sometimes felt extraneous and drained the excitement and energy from this novel of almost five hundred pages.  The surprise ending, which many have lauded for its creativity, carried the whiff of trickery for me and made me sad – an appropriate and ironic result, perhaps, considering the author’s own focus on a “god” in “ruins.”

Also by Kate Atkinson: CASE HISTORIES (Jackson Brodie mystery #1),      ONE GOOD TURN (Jackson Brodie mystery #2),     WHEN WILL THERE BE GOOD NEWS? (Jackson Brodie mystery #3),     STARTED EARLY, TOOK MY DOG (Jackson Brodie mystery #4),  BIG SKY (Jackson Brodie mystery #5)

LIFE AFTER LIFE,    TRANSCRIPTION

Photos, in order: The author’s photo appears on https://www.librarything.com/

The 4-engine Halifax bomber, which Teddy flew for several years, is shown on http://www.helmo.gr

Just William by Richmal Crompton serves as the model for the series written here by Teddy’s Aunt Izzie.  Teddie was the model for Izzie’s series,

When Teddy had to move to smaller quarters, his Liberty Arts and Crafts sideboard, identical to this one sold on Antiques Roadshow, was consigned for sale.  When Viola learned the sale price, she was furious that she did not demand the sideboard so that she could have benefitted from the sale.  Details here:  http://www.pbs.org

The dropping of aluminum chaff to confuse German radar, , a program called Window, is shown in this photo: https://www.pinterest.com

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