This novel had me at the end of the opening chapter. There I was in New York City, on August 7, 1974, watching Philippe Petit dance along a tightrope...moreThis novel had me at the end of the opening chapter. There I was in New York City, on August 7, 1974, watching Philippe Petit dance along a tightrope strung between the Twin Towers. I was craning my neck, squinting against the bright sky, holding my breath even though I knew – thanks not only to history but to a documentary I’d watched – that the dancer would make it safely back to ground. That’s what great story-telling can do, make you hold your breath even though you know it’s going to be okay.
After this chapter, I met the first of several characters who populate Colum McCann's novel of inter-connected lives in New York as they are each affected, one way or another, by the events of that day. I settled happily into the point of view of a Bronx-residing Irish emigre and the tale of his brother and some feisty prostitutes. It was with some reluctance that I gave him up to enter into the life of another character. But by the time I was led from that character into the point of view of another, I was turning pages at a leisurely pace. And the next character? I had invested a significant amount of my time, and I carried on.
This is not to imply that I felt reading the book a chore. I liked each of the characters. And I cared about each – but not greatly. The problem was the lack of tension. Not that there was no tension, but if this novel was a wire strung between two iconic buildings, there’d be a big sag in the middle.
The other thing I began to notice was how tenuous the connections were between these characters’ lives and Petit’s feat. The entire novel seemed rather loose to me – ironic when it’s about a wire so tightly strung.
A friend of mine described this book as “more for women” and perhaps that’s an apt description – if one accepts that women in general enjoy character studies lacking urgency. I like a novel like that – like this – once in a while. If you do, too, give this award-winning novel a spin.
Sherriff Hackberry Holland, a veteran of the Korean War, doles out his kind of law enforcement near the US-Mexico border, and in the course of this mu...moreSherriff Hackberry Holland, a veteran of the Korean War, doles out his kind of law enforcement near the US-Mexico border, and in the course of this must deal with many a nasty fool. Most of these evil fools are intriguing because Burke doesn't paint them all black; even in the final pages the reader can have some sympathy for Holland's main antagonist. There are, perhaps, a few too many characters, but Burke needs them to cover his issues -- immigration, religion, history, past wars, drug-smuggling and other evils.
What Burke does extremely well, I think, in this novel and in the couple of others I've read, is create a strong sense of place. I started this book never having been to southwest Texas; now, I almost feel I have. Burke brings the land alive with several senses; in the early pages, a character feels the coolness of wind and rain mist across his face, and smells a "feral odor, like cougar scat and a sun-bleached carcass and burnt animal hair and water that had gone stagnant in a sandy drainage traced with the crawl lines of reptiles." There are many passages like this that draw you into the characters' world.
Trouble is, I didn't want to be in their worlds, especially. Holland is haunted by a dark past filled with lots of young women and booze, the kind of past that allows a character to repent and show his tender side while still proving he was once, so to speak, a man's man. I found this a bit trite. I also found parts of the book over-written. In the final scenes, amid the drama of life and death, characters speak not tersely but verbalize away to the point that it slows the action.
This book got some glowing reviews. Several reviewers said Burke was getting better as he got older, a "master" at his game, etc. As I read it, I was aware of an author perhaps a little off his game, using characters as his soapbox to tell us all what's wrong with the world. If you're looking for an entertaining mystery that incorporates modern themes, you could do worse. But there are many passages you may want to skip, so as to reach the end sooner.(less)
How many novels are truly iconoclastic? Peyton Place is surely one. I remember my mother watching the series on black-and-white TV and I started this...moreHow many novels are truly iconoclastic? Peyton Place is surely one. I remember my mother watching the series on black-and-white TV and I started this novel out of curiosity, my sense of commitment merely lukewarm. I ended up reading the entire book. While not exactly a book impossible to put down, it was one I couldn't bear to take back to the library without finishing. If you're a writer or reader interested in what makes a bestseller, note what author Grace Metalious understood so well: We LOVE secrets. And Peyton Place is oh so full of them. Surprise: Most of the secrets concern sex. In its heyday, this novel was considered a "dirty book." Reading this in 2012, I found the sex scenes overly purple and steeped in chauvinist attitude and I had to stifle the gag reflex a few times. But never mind; there is much to admire in this novel, because in addition to respecting the power of secrets, what Metalious also knew was how to complicate matters. We are compelled to read on when the need for keeping secrets becomes more and more dire. I read this in July and think it's as good as any modern day beach read. I'm giving it three stars, but 3.5 is what I really think.(less)
As a rule, I don't read self-help books and this isn't one — though you could certainly use some of the information in it to help change your own habi...moreAs a rule, I don't read self-help books and this isn't one — though you could certainly use some of the information in it to help change your own habits.
Duhigg gives us social science explanations for why we do what we do over and over and over again. This is interesting enough, and if you have any habits you want to change, you'll probably find his description of the "habit loop" very useful. I'd give this part of the book a 3 out of 5. The book itself is also well-organized – "habit" is a big topic and the author makes it easier for us to follow by presenting his material in three sections: the habits of individuals, organizations and societies.
Where Duhigg excels is storytelling. I couldn't put down the story of coach Tony Dungy even though I am not remotely interesting in football. While I felt that calling some of the behaviors in the last two sections (organizations and societies) "habits" was too much of a stretch, the stories here are still compelling.
The clock is ticking for LAPD detective Harry Bosch: He's retirement age but, through the Deferred Retirement Option Program—the DROP—he's been awarde...moreThe clock is ticking for LAPD detective Harry Bosch: He's retirement age but, through the Deferred Retirement Option Program—the DROP—he's been awarded a couple more years to solve cases.
The main case in the book, the one he's been told is top priority, involves the apparent suicide of the son of a councilman. This councilman and Bosch have "issues" but for some reason the guy wants Bosch on the case. The question of why is seemingly put on the back burner as Bosch goes to work investigating the death, but it stayed on my mind throughout because I knew a skilled writer like Connelly would not introduce it without a good payoff at the end. Here, Connelly did not disappoint.
The other case Bosch is working on—the one he'd make his priority if he could—involves a cold case. A DNA test of blood on an old victim matches a known predator, but there's a problem: The guy who appears guilty was only eight years old at the time of the crime. As Bosch tries to solve this mystery, he's forced to question his feelings about sexual predators.
Everything comes together at the end, of course. Along the way Bosch encounters a love interest, though this lacks spark. When it comes to female characters, Connelly can slip into cliché; for example, the wife of the councilman's son is "stunningly beautiful" and "aging as gracefully as a fine wine." The book entertains because of the pace and the tension. Connelly excels at tight plotting.
But the reason I read him is his use of setting – he makes the gritty underside of LA so real I can feel the smog at the back of my throat. While the master of the LA novel will always be, for me, Raymond Chandler, Connelly is the next best thing. (less)
Characters grab our imagination when they work against our expectations, and this is certainly the case with Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander. She's p...moreCharacters grab our imagination when they work against our expectations, and this is certainly the case with Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander. She's petite and young and we expect her to be vulnerable yet she is fierce; she is (apparently) mentally incapacitated, yet is also brilliant. Above all is the fact that this character so brutally treated by powerful male villains uses her strengths to get back at her tormentors in ingenious ways. This is a female action figure no one had seen until Larsson gave her to us. Salander is the main reason I put up with the lack of editing in the first two books, DRAGON and FIRE.
HORNET'S NEST opens with our tattooed heroine confined to a hospital bed. For the first half of the book, I kept thinking that any moment, she was going to throw off the sheets and do something exciting. Halfway through, Salander was still in bed doing a little emailing but not much else. Since I'd invested a significant amount of time in HORNET'S, I hung in there for all 563 pages. Thankfully, she finally got up in the end. If you loved the first two books, you might get some enjoyment from this final book of the Millennium trilogy. But my recommendation would be to skip this one and wait for the movie. (less)
If you're a writer or serious reader, you know the value of complications -- a character does one thing to try to make things better for himself, but...moreIf you're a writer or serious reader, you know the value of complications -- a character does one thing to try to make things better for himself, but this action creates an even bigger problem he must then solve. This novel is an excellent example of this kind of plotting.
I was drawn to the novel because of the movie. The premise of three people stumbling upon a few million dollars didn't excite me much, but one evening when there was nothing else to watch, I tried it. And what gripped me immediately was how the main character dug himself into a deeper and deeper hole. This isn't a story about money, it's about characters at the mercy of their own greed. We watch in horror as an ordinary, small-town nice guy commits acts he'd never before believed himself capable of. The novel is everything the movie is, and more. Which makes the novel somewhat less. What I mean by this is that a few too many dead bodies pile up in the novel; we don't need to see them all to get the point that someone is capable of killing.
I debated whether to give this novel 3 or 4 stars. I can't give an "honest" rating because I saw the movie first, and I didn't read the novel to find out what happened, but to find out how the novelist made it happen. But I recommend this novel if for any reader interested in strong plotting and surprising twists. If you're like me, interested in how screenwriters take a story from print to screen, you'll want to both read the novel and see the movie.(less)
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