David Schwinghammer's Blog, page 9
September 7, 2017
Dinner Party
Joshua Ferris has been voted one of the top twenty young writers under the age of forty. I've read THEN WE CAME TO THE END and TO RISE AGAIN AT A DECENT HOUR. Both were excellent. He was up for the NATIONAL BOOK AWARD and the MAN BOOKER PRIZE.
I can't say the same for this anthology of short stories. About the best of the lot was the last one “A Fair Price”. It's about a man who hires an independent mover to help him clean out his storage shed for twenty dollars an hour. Jack tries to make pleasant conversation with the man, but all he gets in return are grunts or total silence. Then it gets to be a contest about manhood. Mike, the mover, takes time out to talk on his phone but he won't talk to Jack. Jack calls him on it. Eventually their animosity leads to fisticuffs, and Jack realizes he has to make a decision that will tell us as readers what kind of man he really is.
Another one, “More Abandon,” is about a man who can't bear to go home after work, although his co-workers fight to get out of the place. He borrows field glasses and looks in the windows of the building across the street. He raids various offices of his fellow co-workers. He calls a married woman and tells her he loves her, five times. He has a chance to erase the messages, but he hits “send”. He spends the rest of the night trying to figure out how to erase the messages. Then he falls asleep in one of the offices, only to be found by a coworker who doesn't seem all that shocked that he's been sleeping in her office.
Most of the stories concern some kind of dinner or dinner party, hence the title. In his acknowledgments, Ferris thanks his agent and his wife for not confusing the author with “his awful, male characters who in turn embolden the author to make those characters more male and awful still.” I didn't think they were awful. I've even met people like some of them, but I didn't like any of them.
I can't say the same for this anthology of short stories. About the best of the lot was the last one “A Fair Price”. It's about a man who hires an independent mover to help him clean out his storage shed for twenty dollars an hour. Jack tries to make pleasant conversation with the man, but all he gets in return are grunts or total silence. Then it gets to be a contest about manhood. Mike, the mover, takes time out to talk on his phone but he won't talk to Jack. Jack calls him on it. Eventually their animosity leads to fisticuffs, and Jack realizes he has to make a decision that will tell us as readers what kind of man he really is.
Another one, “More Abandon,” is about a man who can't bear to go home after work, although his co-workers fight to get out of the place. He borrows field glasses and looks in the windows of the building across the street. He raids various offices of his fellow co-workers. He calls a married woman and tells her he loves her, five times. He has a chance to erase the messages, but he hits “send”. He spends the rest of the night trying to figure out how to erase the messages. Then he falls asleep in one of the offices, only to be found by a coworker who doesn't seem all that shocked that he's been sleeping in her office.
Most of the stories concern some kind of dinner or dinner party, hence the title. In his acknowledgments, Ferris thanks his agent and his wife for not confusing the author with “his awful, male characters who in turn embolden the author to make those characters more male and awful still.” I didn't think they were awful. I've even met people like some of them, but I didn't like any of them.
August 28, 2017
Al Franken, Giant of the Senate
It should be evident that the title is an example of irony, something Franken has been hounded about since he first decided to run for the Senate. Actually about a quarter of the book is rather self-deprecating.
No, this is a biography more than a political piece, although Franken does get on his progressive activist horse more than once.
He starts with his stint on “Saturday Night Live” which was originally a writing gig with his partner Tom Davis. They met at Blake school near the Twin Cities, Davis a year younger. Franken spent fifteen years, on and off, at SNL. When he ran for the Senate, Republican hounddogs dug up every off-color remark he made, trying to make him look like a perv. Franken's most effective response was that he's been married to the same woman, Franni, with whom he has two children and I believe three grandchildren. No, he's not the character/characters he played on SNL.
Franken doesn't emphasize the close Senate race he had with incumbent Norm Coleman, former Democratic mayor of St. Paul turned George W. Bush mouthpiece. He lost by 750, just close enough to ask for a recount, which he won. Governor Tim Pawlenty sued, turning to the Supreme Court, which sided with Franken who eventually won by only 330 or so votes. Franken doesn't rub it in, although he could. Pawlenty's former law partner was one of the votes that turned the tide for Franken.
Franken was hardly funny during his first term, although occasionally he couldn't help himself. That's why his chief of staffs kept trying to “dehumorize” him. About the funniest line he's gotten off so far is “Here's the thing you have to understand about Ted Cruz. I like Ted Cruz more than moat of my other colleagues like Ted Cruz. And I hate Ted Cruz.” Mark Twainish, right? Franken also wrote a country song with Orrin Hatch. Hatch's staff wondered why they were laughing so hard in Hatch's office. Hatch is President Pro Temp, third in line for the presidency if something happens to Trump. He's a staunch conservative.
Back to the self-deprecating part. For some reason Franken had the gavel when Sonia Sotomayor was nominated for the Supreme Court. Each senator got to say his piece during her hearing. Mitch McConnell tried to portray her as a personality with no redeeming experience. Franken rolled his eyes, much like Al Gore did when George W. Bush said something stupid during one of their debates. Apparently rolling your eyes is worse than calling the president a “liar” during the State of the Union speech. I believe Joe Wilson is still in Congress. Anyway, Franken realized his mistake and apologized profusely. McConnell responded rather well, saying that'll happen in the heat of the moment. Forget about it. From that moment on he took every chance he got to compliment McConnell on his rare apolitical speeches. Franken claims they're now friends, but he may have been kidding.
Franken is a much better senator than anybody thought he'd be. Like his cohort Amy Klobuchar, he takes every opportunity to co-sponsor bills with members from across the aisle. He managed to get a bill passed two weeks after being sworn in. It was about therapy dogs for veterans with PTS. Unfortunately it took nine years for the bill to go into effect.
This isn't RUSH LIMBAUGH IS A BIG FAT IDIOT or LIES; AND THE LYING LIARS WHO TELL THEM: A FAIR AND BALANCED LOOK AT THE RIGHT, but it was the number one non-fiction book on the New York Times best seller list last week, a rarity for a liberal piece.
No, this is a biography more than a political piece, although Franken does get on his progressive activist horse more than once.
He starts with his stint on “Saturday Night Live” which was originally a writing gig with his partner Tom Davis. They met at Blake school near the Twin Cities, Davis a year younger. Franken spent fifteen years, on and off, at SNL. When he ran for the Senate, Republican hounddogs dug up every off-color remark he made, trying to make him look like a perv. Franken's most effective response was that he's been married to the same woman, Franni, with whom he has two children and I believe three grandchildren. No, he's not the character/characters he played on SNL.
Franken doesn't emphasize the close Senate race he had with incumbent Norm Coleman, former Democratic mayor of St. Paul turned George W. Bush mouthpiece. He lost by 750, just close enough to ask for a recount, which he won. Governor Tim Pawlenty sued, turning to the Supreme Court, which sided with Franken who eventually won by only 330 or so votes. Franken doesn't rub it in, although he could. Pawlenty's former law partner was one of the votes that turned the tide for Franken.
Franken was hardly funny during his first term, although occasionally he couldn't help himself. That's why his chief of staffs kept trying to “dehumorize” him. About the funniest line he's gotten off so far is “Here's the thing you have to understand about Ted Cruz. I like Ted Cruz more than moat of my other colleagues like Ted Cruz. And I hate Ted Cruz.” Mark Twainish, right? Franken also wrote a country song with Orrin Hatch. Hatch's staff wondered why they were laughing so hard in Hatch's office. Hatch is President Pro Temp, third in line for the presidency if something happens to Trump. He's a staunch conservative.
Back to the self-deprecating part. For some reason Franken had the gavel when Sonia Sotomayor was nominated for the Supreme Court. Each senator got to say his piece during her hearing. Mitch McConnell tried to portray her as a personality with no redeeming experience. Franken rolled his eyes, much like Al Gore did when George W. Bush said something stupid during one of their debates. Apparently rolling your eyes is worse than calling the president a “liar” during the State of the Union speech. I believe Joe Wilson is still in Congress. Anyway, Franken realized his mistake and apologized profusely. McConnell responded rather well, saying that'll happen in the heat of the moment. Forget about it. From that moment on he took every chance he got to compliment McConnell on his rare apolitical speeches. Franken claims they're now friends, but he may have been kidding.
Franken is a much better senator than anybody thought he'd be. Like his cohort Amy Klobuchar, he takes every opportunity to co-sponsor bills with members from across the aisle. He managed to get a bill passed two weeks after being sworn in. It was about therapy dogs for veterans with PTS. Unfortunately it took nine years for the bill to go into effect.
This isn't RUSH LIMBAUGH IS A BIG FAT IDIOT or LIES; AND THE LYING LIARS WHO TELL THEM: A FAIR AND BALANCED LOOK AT THE RIGHT, but it was the number one non-fiction book on the New York Times best seller list last week, a rarity for a liberal piece.
August 14, 2017
The Thirst
THE THIRST may scare some people away because it's about drinking human blood. Actually it's about a serial killer who drinks the blood of his victims. According to a psychologist named Hallstein Smith, this type of person is called a “vampirist”. But they don't sleep all day and sleep in a coffin.
Harry Hole has retired from the police force. In a previous case a serial killer was hunting policemen and Rakel, with whom he's now living, is afraid for him. He loves her, so he agrees to quit. But then, Mikael Bellman, the police chief, who's being considered for the department of justice, ask specifically for Harry. Harry loves hunting murders almost as much as he loves Rakel. For some reason she doesn't object.
There are lots of twists and turns. Jo Nesbo is pretty good at false leads. At one point a hematologist doctor tells Oleg, Rakel's son from another relationship, his mother has rare blood. She's been in a coma for weeks, then suddenly gets well as if nothing happened. My ears perked up like a German shepherd. I'm the type who's always looking for the least likely suspect. He or she is usually the one who did it. Nesbo has a technique for readers like me. Make the reader feel kind of sorry for the suspect you should be able to figure out right off the bat. He got me.
About half way through the book, Hallstein Smith reveals that a vampirist is too impulsive to plan a murder. So now we're looking for the brains behind the killer. Harry tracks down a stalker who looks like a likely suspect. A waitress from the Jealousy Bar is also missing. One of the previous victims met a Tinder date there and this guy was there. Harry develops a relationship with the owner of the bar; he even buys into the bar to keep it open. If you haven't read a Harry Hole novel before, Harry is an alcoholic. When Rakel gets well he asks her to be his bookkeeper. She says she'll think about it. But the brains behind the vampirist is a lot smarter than that or Jo Nesbo is a lot smarter than that. It ain't that easy.
Eventually the light goes on for Harry as it always does, and it almost gets him killed. A good mystery writer also does the minor characters really well. In the Harry Hole mysteries there's this incompetent cop, Truls Bernsten, who's been selling evidence on the vampirist to a newspaper woman. He's pretty much bullet-proof because he grew up with Mikael Bellman, the police chief. Sadly, he's also is love with Bellman's wife, whom he tries to save during a crucial time in the story. He does something like this in every one of the Hole novels. Just when you think he's a total skunk, he solves the case or whatever.
Some people will hate this book, but since Nesbo faked me out of my jock, I have to give it four stars.
Harry Hole has retired from the police force. In a previous case a serial killer was hunting policemen and Rakel, with whom he's now living, is afraid for him. He loves her, so he agrees to quit. But then, Mikael Bellman, the police chief, who's being considered for the department of justice, ask specifically for Harry. Harry loves hunting murders almost as much as he loves Rakel. For some reason she doesn't object.
There are lots of twists and turns. Jo Nesbo is pretty good at false leads. At one point a hematologist doctor tells Oleg, Rakel's son from another relationship, his mother has rare blood. She's been in a coma for weeks, then suddenly gets well as if nothing happened. My ears perked up like a German shepherd. I'm the type who's always looking for the least likely suspect. He or she is usually the one who did it. Nesbo has a technique for readers like me. Make the reader feel kind of sorry for the suspect you should be able to figure out right off the bat. He got me.
About half way through the book, Hallstein Smith reveals that a vampirist is too impulsive to plan a murder. So now we're looking for the brains behind the killer. Harry tracks down a stalker who looks like a likely suspect. A waitress from the Jealousy Bar is also missing. One of the previous victims met a Tinder date there and this guy was there. Harry develops a relationship with the owner of the bar; he even buys into the bar to keep it open. If you haven't read a Harry Hole novel before, Harry is an alcoholic. When Rakel gets well he asks her to be his bookkeeper. She says she'll think about it. But the brains behind the vampirist is a lot smarter than that or Jo Nesbo is a lot smarter than that. It ain't that easy.
Eventually the light goes on for Harry as it always does, and it almost gets him killed. A good mystery writer also does the minor characters really well. In the Harry Hole mysteries there's this incompetent cop, Truls Bernsten, who's been selling evidence on the vampirist to a newspaper woman. He's pretty much bullet-proof because he grew up with Mikael Bellman, the police chief. Sadly, he's also is love with Bellman's wife, whom he tries to save during a crucial time in the story. He does something like this in every one of the Hole novels. Just when you think he's a total skunk, he solves the case or whatever.
Some people will hate this book, but since Nesbo faked me out of my jock, I have to give it four stars.
July 29, 2017
Wintering
In order to talk about WINTERING, we need to know something about the setting and the major characters.
If you have an Atlas, you want to find Minnesota, then the chain of lakes that include the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and its continuance, Quetico Provincial Park in Canada. That's where Harry Eide and his son, Gus, set out on a “wintering” journey in 1963, imitating the French explorers, the Voyageurs, who had no idea where they were or where they were going. Harry had some old maps that his son soon found were not all that reliable. Harry wanted to go farther than he'd ever gone before into the vast Quetico. Okay, wintering isn't the real reason Harry wants to leave his home in fictional Gunflint, Minnesota. There's a Gunflint Trail, but no town that I know of. Harry's wife has had an affair with the worst person in Gunflint, Charlie Aas. He's got his finger in every nasty business in Gunflint. Harry is hoping to lure Charlie into the wild for a showdown. We never find out why he risked his son in the process. Charlie will not hesitate to kill Harry's son to get even.
Okay, now we move ahead to the present where Gus has come to the door of Harry's true love, Berit Lovig. She lived with Harry for thirty years before he became senile and walked into the woods again. Gus tells her all about what happened during the wintering trek in 1963. We need to know a little about Harry's background. His father was Odd (real name) Eide, married to Rebekah, Harry's mother. She left him for a phony preacher much like Charlie Aas, Hosea Grimm. Berit was pretty much a spinster; she wound up taking care of Rebekah for years. Hosea Grimm was such a phony he owned a whore house, which Charlie Aas tried to intimidate Rebekah into selling him when Hosea died. She stood up to him, sold it, and gave each of the prostitutes a thousand dollars to live on when they left. Gus never forgave his grandmother and couldn't stand to be in her presence.
Much of this book is about learning how to survive. Harry wasn't lying all that much. Gus and Harry bushwhack and portage their way through the wilderness. They find an old cabin to winter in. Gus cuts enough wood to last the winter; he can feel himself getting stronger; he skiis for days and sleeps in a tent, but he also makes maps that will help Harry and Gus make it home. He's becoming a man.
If you have an Atlas, you want to find Minnesota, then the chain of lakes that include the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and its continuance, Quetico Provincial Park in Canada. That's where Harry Eide and his son, Gus, set out on a “wintering” journey in 1963, imitating the French explorers, the Voyageurs, who had no idea where they were or where they were going. Harry had some old maps that his son soon found were not all that reliable. Harry wanted to go farther than he'd ever gone before into the vast Quetico. Okay, wintering isn't the real reason Harry wants to leave his home in fictional Gunflint, Minnesota. There's a Gunflint Trail, but no town that I know of. Harry's wife has had an affair with the worst person in Gunflint, Charlie Aas. He's got his finger in every nasty business in Gunflint. Harry is hoping to lure Charlie into the wild for a showdown. We never find out why he risked his son in the process. Charlie will not hesitate to kill Harry's son to get even.
Okay, now we move ahead to the present where Gus has come to the door of Harry's true love, Berit Lovig. She lived with Harry for thirty years before he became senile and walked into the woods again. Gus tells her all about what happened during the wintering trek in 1963. We need to know a little about Harry's background. His father was Odd (real name) Eide, married to Rebekah, Harry's mother. She left him for a phony preacher much like Charlie Aas, Hosea Grimm. Berit was pretty much a spinster; she wound up taking care of Rebekah for years. Hosea Grimm was such a phony he owned a whore house, which Charlie Aas tried to intimidate Rebekah into selling him when Hosea died. She stood up to him, sold it, and gave each of the prostitutes a thousand dollars to live on when they left. Gus never forgave his grandmother and couldn't stand to be in her presence.
Much of this book is about learning how to survive. Harry wasn't lying all that much. Gus and Harry bushwhack and portage their way through the wilderness. They find an old cabin to winter in. Gus cuts enough wood to last the winter; he can feel himself getting stronger; he skiis for days and sleeps in a tent, but he also makes maps that will help Harry and Gus make it home. He's becoming a man.
July 20, 2017
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
ASTROPHYSICS for PE0PLE in HURRY certainly is short and sweet. I was hoping for something on the Super Collider and the discovery of the God Particle. Tyson alludes to it but doesn't go into any depth.
He does discuss Dark Matter and Dark Energy to an extent, but only to say that we don't know what it is. He suggests that it may have to do with gravity from a parallel universe, but that's pretty much it.
About the most interesting tidbits concern how light came to be, and why we won't be able to see what the universe looked like before 380,000 years after the Big Bang. You see, during those years photons were always crashing into electrons. After the 380,000 year mark, photons before to escape, leaving kind of a background fog; not enough photons had escaped, and they hadn't mated with electrons and protons to form atoms as of yet. This fog is called the Cosmic Microwave Background.
There's another section on moons, asteroids and comets that's pretty interesting. The moon escaped from the Earth's crust or was the Earth's crust at the time. We have a tidal lock with the moon, meaning you can only see one side of the moon anyplace on the planet. Jupiter's moons are the most interesting. There's one, Europa, that has liquid water beneath its frozen surface. Perhaps we might want to go there if we blow ourselves up, but we'll have to remember to wear our union suits. Tyson also says there are thousands of asteroids in the Kuiper belt, and they're always crossing the Earth's path around the Sun. One of them killed the dinosaurs, which was rather helpful because the little mammals who survived were our ancestors. The dinosaurs would've eaten us. I almost forgot. Tyson is quite proud one of the asteroids is named after him.
The last chapter is about why we should care more about the cosmos. It will take quite a stretch for us to reach the nearest possible Goldilocks planet. He says things like: “The cosmic perspective finds beauty in the images of planets, moons, stars, and nebulae, but also celebrates the laws of physics.” It also makes us feel small, even insignificant, but so far we're the only self aware, fairly intelligent beings that we know of, so that's something to celebrate.
BTW, you space obsessed geeks out there who think we will eventually be able to go back in time should forget it. Tyson says that violates the law of causality, which is universal throughout the universe. Maybe this universe, but what if quantum mechanics is right about parallel universes. They say, “If you can imagine it, it's possible on some other universe.”
He does discuss Dark Matter and Dark Energy to an extent, but only to say that we don't know what it is. He suggests that it may have to do with gravity from a parallel universe, but that's pretty much it.
About the most interesting tidbits concern how light came to be, and why we won't be able to see what the universe looked like before 380,000 years after the Big Bang. You see, during those years photons were always crashing into electrons. After the 380,000 year mark, photons before to escape, leaving kind of a background fog; not enough photons had escaped, and they hadn't mated with electrons and protons to form atoms as of yet. This fog is called the Cosmic Microwave Background.
There's another section on moons, asteroids and comets that's pretty interesting. The moon escaped from the Earth's crust or was the Earth's crust at the time. We have a tidal lock with the moon, meaning you can only see one side of the moon anyplace on the planet. Jupiter's moons are the most interesting. There's one, Europa, that has liquid water beneath its frozen surface. Perhaps we might want to go there if we blow ourselves up, but we'll have to remember to wear our union suits. Tyson also says there are thousands of asteroids in the Kuiper belt, and they're always crossing the Earth's path around the Sun. One of them killed the dinosaurs, which was rather helpful because the little mammals who survived were our ancestors. The dinosaurs would've eaten us. I almost forgot. Tyson is quite proud one of the asteroids is named after him.
The last chapter is about why we should care more about the cosmos. It will take quite a stretch for us to reach the nearest possible Goldilocks planet. He says things like: “The cosmic perspective finds beauty in the images of planets, moons, stars, and nebulae, but also celebrates the laws of physics.” It also makes us feel small, even insignificant, but so far we're the only self aware, fairly intelligent beings that we know of, so that's something to celebrate.
BTW, you space obsessed geeks out there who think we will eventually be able to go back in time should forget it. Tyson says that violates the law of causality, which is universal throughout the universe. Maybe this universe, but what if quantum mechanics is right about parallel universes. They say, “If you can imagine it, it's possible on some other universe.”
July 13, 2017
Beartown
If you haven't read A MAN CALLED OVE, you've missed out. Fredrik Backman's second effort, MY GRANDMOTHER ASKED ME TO TELL YOU SHE'S SORRY is more of a fantasy, an acquired taste, shall we say. With BEARTOWN Backman is back on track as my new favorite novelist.
Beartown is a dying town assumably in the midst of the Swedish northern forest. All they've got is their semi-pro hockey team. In this instance it's the junior hockey team the townspeople are excited about. Peter, the General Manager, and David, the coach, have groomed an assortment of pups into a formidable unit that will play in the national semi-finals. The star player is Kevin Erdahl who is good enough to some day play in the NHL. This is a tough league. An opposing player will put Kevin in the hospital without his best friend, Benji.”the bravest bastard I know,” according to his coach. But they're slow. Sune, the A team coach, notices this kid who shows up at the rink early in the morning to practice his game. His name is Amat, and he will play in the semi-final game despite the fact that he's only fifteen.
But there's a party after the semi-final game, and a girl is raped. Complication, the rapist is the best player on the junior team and the girl is Peter's fifteen-year-old daughter, Maya. She waits a week but she eventually files a rape charge, just before the final game. Just about everybody in Beartown hates her and her father.
There's some pretty cool stuff in this book. Ramona, the owner of the local watering hole, tells one of the sponsors of the Beartown A-team: “We may not know the difference between right and wrong, but we know the difference between good and evil.”
Peter's wife is pretty cool, too. Her name is Kira; she wants to kill the boy who hurt her daughter, but she's a lawyer, so she'll use every ploy she can think of to hurt him and his family in other ways. The other mothers in kindergarten called her The Wolf Mother.
The ending sort of fades. Four kids bring the Beartown team back to prominence; two will play in the NFL, one will die. We know which one it is, but Backman doesn't tell us how he died. He has a secret, so maybe that was what finally got him, but you'll have to decide for yourself of write Backman a nasty letter.
Beartown is a dying town assumably in the midst of the Swedish northern forest. All they've got is their semi-pro hockey team. In this instance it's the junior hockey team the townspeople are excited about. Peter, the General Manager, and David, the coach, have groomed an assortment of pups into a formidable unit that will play in the national semi-finals. The star player is Kevin Erdahl who is good enough to some day play in the NHL. This is a tough league. An opposing player will put Kevin in the hospital without his best friend, Benji.”the bravest bastard I know,” according to his coach. But they're slow. Sune, the A team coach, notices this kid who shows up at the rink early in the morning to practice his game. His name is Amat, and he will play in the semi-final game despite the fact that he's only fifteen.
But there's a party after the semi-final game, and a girl is raped. Complication, the rapist is the best player on the junior team and the girl is Peter's fifteen-year-old daughter, Maya. She waits a week but she eventually files a rape charge, just before the final game. Just about everybody in Beartown hates her and her father.
There's some pretty cool stuff in this book. Ramona, the owner of the local watering hole, tells one of the sponsors of the Beartown A-team: “We may not know the difference between right and wrong, but we know the difference between good and evil.”
Peter's wife is pretty cool, too. Her name is Kira; she wants to kill the boy who hurt her daughter, but she's a lawyer, so she'll use every ploy she can think of to hurt him and his family in other ways. The other mothers in kindergarten called her The Wolf Mother.
The ending sort of fades. Four kids bring the Beartown team back to prominence; two will play in the NFL, one will die. We know which one it is, but Backman doesn't tell us how he died. He has a secret, so maybe that was what finally got him, but you'll have to decide for yourself of write Backman a nasty letter.
June 29, 2017
THE NIGHT COUNTRY
THE LAST NIGHT AT THE LOBSTER is one of my favorite books. The Red Lobster is closing in this New England town and O'Nan follows the various characters around. Sounds dull, right? This is fiction, but these people sound a lot more real than those in most novels. Ever since I've been looking forward to his next project.
That's not the case with THE NIGHT COUNTRY, which was first published in 2003. I started reading it once before but had trouble following what was happening and set it aside. It's about a car accident. A police officer tries to stop a car full of teenagers, and they wind up wrapped around a tree. Three of them died, two survived. The police officer, Brooks, can't forgive himself. His work suffers, his wife leaves him. One of the survivors, Tim, lost his girlfriend, Danielle, in the accident. He's in the back seat making out with Danielle when the accident happens, but he blames himself, too. He kept telling the driver, Toe, to slow down, but he wouldn't. Toe, Marco and Danielle die. Brooks pulls Tim out of the car. Kyle lives, but he's brain damaged. Tim and Kyle still work in the local supermarket a year after the accident. Toe, Danielle, and Marco return a year later as ghosts, on Halloween yet, to torment Brooks.
Marco is telling the story for the most part, but O'Nan will switch narrators in the middle of the page sometimes or he'll flashback without setting it up. Part of the problem is that Marco is a flat character. He might as well not be in the story. It took me a while to realize it was him. There's also an element of suspense. Why do they (except for Danielle) hate Brooks when he saved Tim? It's not to hard to figure out, and I wasn't wrong.
Another element of suspense is that Tim is planning something after he gets off work. He mentions Dylan Klebald, but doing what he did doesn't really make sense. We know what he's going to do. So does Brooks, and he's constantly checking up on Tim.
Toe also has these two buddies, Greg and Travis, who want to get even with Brooks by vandalizing his house. They might as well be Beavis and Butthead. If anybody was to blame it was Toe for trying to outrun a cop.
In essence the book isn't up to O'Nan's standards. The ghost thing is hard to bring off. There's not enough of a reason for them to come back, other than that Brooks never told the whole story. His life has already been ruined due to guilt. It's like kicking a dog for peeing on the floor when you haven't trained it not to.
That's not the case with THE NIGHT COUNTRY, which was first published in 2003. I started reading it once before but had trouble following what was happening and set it aside. It's about a car accident. A police officer tries to stop a car full of teenagers, and they wind up wrapped around a tree. Three of them died, two survived. The police officer, Brooks, can't forgive himself. His work suffers, his wife leaves him. One of the survivors, Tim, lost his girlfriend, Danielle, in the accident. He's in the back seat making out with Danielle when the accident happens, but he blames himself, too. He kept telling the driver, Toe, to slow down, but he wouldn't. Toe, Marco and Danielle die. Brooks pulls Tim out of the car. Kyle lives, but he's brain damaged. Tim and Kyle still work in the local supermarket a year after the accident. Toe, Danielle, and Marco return a year later as ghosts, on Halloween yet, to torment Brooks.
Marco is telling the story for the most part, but O'Nan will switch narrators in the middle of the page sometimes or he'll flashback without setting it up. Part of the problem is that Marco is a flat character. He might as well not be in the story. It took me a while to realize it was him. There's also an element of suspense. Why do they (except for Danielle) hate Brooks when he saved Tim? It's not to hard to figure out, and I wasn't wrong.
Another element of suspense is that Tim is planning something after he gets off work. He mentions Dylan Klebald, but doing what he did doesn't really make sense. We know what he's going to do. So does Brooks, and he's constantly checking up on Tim.
Toe also has these two buddies, Greg and Travis, who want to get even with Brooks by vandalizing his house. They might as well be Beavis and Butthead. If anybody was to blame it was Toe for trying to outrun a cop.
In essence the book isn't up to O'Nan's standards. The ghost thing is hard to bring off. There's not enough of a reason for them to come back, other than that Brooks never told the whole story. His life has already been ruined due to guilt. It's like kicking a dog for peeing on the floor when you haven't trained it not to.
June 20, 2017
Murder on the Red River
The main character in MURDER ON THE RED RIVER is Cash, a nineteen-year-old Native American girl originally from the White Lake reservation. But she's been in and out of several foster families since she was three.
Cash is spending her time in Fargo and the Red River Valley where she drives grain and sugar beet trucks most of the year, and hustles pool the rest of the time. She's carrying on an affair with a married man, Jim, her pool partner, but both know it's not going anywhere.
The other important character in the story is Sheriff Wheaton who pulled Cash out of a car wreck when she was only three. He treats her like a daughter. He trusts her instincts. She has a flair for law enforcement and also an almost clairvoyant intuition. For instance, an Indian man is found stabbed to death. Cash sees a roadside stand selling pine cones in a dream. She's seen that stand in her forays as a truck driver, and she knows who the man was.
Wheaton tells Cash she's too smart to drive a grain truck. He goes to Moorhead State University and gets her an application. Chippewas get free tuition and expense money if they maintain a “C” average. In the back of his mind he's thinking criminal justice degree and a great deputy.
Then there's another man killed, this time a white man Cash recognizes from an overheard conversation she listened in on at her favorite bar. She visits the crime scenes; she's got a bead on these guys, then she's kidnapped.
Author Marcie R. Rendon is a member of the Anishinabe Nation. This is her first novel, although she's won some awards for children's writing and has studied poetry at the Loft, a writing center in Minneapolis. But she makes some rookie mistakes. Cash spends more time smoking Marlboros and drinking Bud than she does investigating the case. That's a cliché and most mystery writers don't do it anymore.
The second problem I had with the book was the ending. Just when we thought Cash was turning a new leaf (she's already registered for school), she meets “Long Braids” who wants to hook up with Dennis Banks and Russell Means and the A.I.M. group. We don't know she's going to do that, but we do know she's not going to break up Jim's marriage. She's seen his three little towheaded daughters. Despite these two minor problems, Cash is a likable character with a sense of humor. She has long black hair like Crystal Gayle's. When she enters her local hangout the regulars bet on whether she's get it stuck in the door. Sometimes she does it on purpose so the same guy doesn't win all the time. I'll definitely check in on Cash again if this becomes a series.
Cash is spending her time in Fargo and the Red River Valley where she drives grain and sugar beet trucks most of the year, and hustles pool the rest of the time. She's carrying on an affair with a married man, Jim, her pool partner, but both know it's not going anywhere.
The other important character in the story is Sheriff Wheaton who pulled Cash out of a car wreck when she was only three. He treats her like a daughter. He trusts her instincts. She has a flair for law enforcement and also an almost clairvoyant intuition. For instance, an Indian man is found stabbed to death. Cash sees a roadside stand selling pine cones in a dream. She's seen that stand in her forays as a truck driver, and she knows who the man was.
Wheaton tells Cash she's too smart to drive a grain truck. He goes to Moorhead State University and gets her an application. Chippewas get free tuition and expense money if they maintain a “C” average. In the back of his mind he's thinking criminal justice degree and a great deputy.
Then there's another man killed, this time a white man Cash recognizes from an overheard conversation she listened in on at her favorite bar. She visits the crime scenes; she's got a bead on these guys, then she's kidnapped.
Author Marcie R. Rendon is a member of the Anishinabe Nation. This is her first novel, although she's won some awards for children's writing and has studied poetry at the Loft, a writing center in Minneapolis. But she makes some rookie mistakes. Cash spends more time smoking Marlboros and drinking Bud than she does investigating the case. That's a cliché and most mystery writers don't do it anymore.
The second problem I had with the book was the ending. Just when we thought Cash was turning a new leaf (she's already registered for school), she meets “Long Braids” who wants to hook up with Dennis Banks and Russell Means and the A.I.M. group. We don't know she's going to do that, but we do know she's not going to break up Jim's marriage. She's seen his three little towheaded daughters. Despite these two minor problems, Cash is a likable character with a sense of humor. She has long black hair like Crystal Gayle's. When she enters her local hangout the regulars bet on whether she's get it stuck in the door. Sometimes she does it on purpose so the same guy doesn't win all the time. I'll definitely check in on Cash again if this becomes a series.
June 14, 2017
The Burial Hour
THE BURIAL HOUR is very topical in that it deals with the refugee crisis in The Middle East. But this is Jeffery Deaver, so you know you're going to get a wild twist along the way.
The plot starts with this weirdo, hangman musician who is kidnapping people to use their dying gasps in musical compositions. Surprisingly Lincoln and Rhyme refer to him as “The Composer”. Naming serial killers in the press is supposed to be taboo, as they seem to revel in the attention.
Lincoln and Amelia get involved just in time for Stephan (We get his point of view along the way) to escape to Italy. Lincoln and Amelia use various forensic methods to track him and their next confrontation is in a refugee camp in Italy, where he kidnaps a Libyan. Stephan has these booby traps that gradually tighten a noose. He leaves a small version made out of cello strings at the various scenes. Lincoln and Amelia always seem to get their just in the nick of time, which should make you suspicious.
As in a lot of mysteries, a minor character, Ercole, a forestry cop, is the one we pull for. The Italian cop in charge of the investigation is impressed with Ercole's preparation, and he assigns him to the case. A villain in the form of an Italian prosecutor, named Spiro, seems awfully jealous of American intrusion in the case. He makes things tough for Lincoln and Amelia. We later find out why.
The Deaver twist has to do with a secret American intelligence group that needs to find a way around torture to find out where the next attack might be. Hint, Stephan is involved.
So then there's a definite theme. Even in Italy you have groups and people who oppose using Italy as THE BURIAL HOUR, which means the country is unwittingly bringing terrorist into the country disguised as refugees. When does it get out of control? This would be the Burial Hour. Others want to help the refugees. Deaver seems to be taking a swipe at the conservative take on the issue as a rich American is involved.
This effort is not up to Deaver's usual standards. Deaver is obsessive when it comes to research, and we usually learn something along with finding out what happens in the plot. In this one we learn a little bit about truffles. Ercole is working on truffle smuggling when he is called in to help with the Composer case.
The plot starts with this weirdo, hangman musician who is kidnapping people to use their dying gasps in musical compositions. Surprisingly Lincoln and Rhyme refer to him as “The Composer”. Naming serial killers in the press is supposed to be taboo, as they seem to revel in the attention.
Lincoln and Amelia get involved just in time for Stephan (We get his point of view along the way) to escape to Italy. Lincoln and Amelia use various forensic methods to track him and their next confrontation is in a refugee camp in Italy, where he kidnaps a Libyan. Stephan has these booby traps that gradually tighten a noose. He leaves a small version made out of cello strings at the various scenes. Lincoln and Amelia always seem to get their just in the nick of time, which should make you suspicious.
As in a lot of mysteries, a minor character, Ercole, a forestry cop, is the one we pull for. The Italian cop in charge of the investigation is impressed with Ercole's preparation, and he assigns him to the case. A villain in the form of an Italian prosecutor, named Spiro, seems awfully jealous of American intrusion in the case. He makes things tough for Lincoln and Amelia. We later find out why.
The Deaver twist has to do with a secret American intelligence group that needs to find a way around torture to find out where the next attack might be. Hint, Stephan is involved.
So then there's a definite theme. Even in Italy you have groups and people who oppose using Italy as THE BURIAL HOUR, which means the country is unwittingly bringing terrorist into the country disguised as refugees. When does it get out of control? This would be the Burial Hour. Others want to help the refugees. Deaver seems to be taking a swipe at the conservative take on the issue as a rich American is involved.
This effort is not up to Deaver's usual standards. Deaver is obsessive when it comes to research, and we usually learn something along with finding out what happens in the plot. In this one we learn a little bit about truffles. Ercole is working on truffle smuggling when he is called in to help with the Composer case.
May 30, 2017
Killers of the Flower Moon
The Osage murder spree is one of the least known outrages in American history. David Grann, author of the LOST CITY OF Z, insists that the FBI only scratched the surface.
The Osage Indians were one of the largest tribes in the Midwest. When events got intolerable in Kansas, they purchased land from the Cherokee in Oklahoma, 1.5 million acres at 70 cents per acre. It was worthless agricultural land, but beneath the ground was one of the largest oil reserves in the country. Be careful what you ask for, you might just get it. Many of the Osage began spending money like it was going out of style. Of course, whites were jealous and outraged. Soon most of the Osage were deemed too childish to handle their own affairs and given a guardian, usually a white businessman. That's when the poisoning started. Most were misdiagnosed, and sometimes the doctors were implicated.
Grann centers on the Burkhart family. Mollie Burkhart was a source and the only survivor. Three of her sisters and her mother were murdered, one of them was so frightened she convinced her husband to move to town where they built a big house. Soon after someone blew it up, killing them both.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Investigation and its new director, J. Edgar Hoover, got wind of the case. Hoover needed a win after earlier misfirings. The best thing he did was hire Tom White, a former Texas Ranger, to investigate the murders, some of which were more overt than the poisonings. For instance Anna Brown, Mollie's sister, was shot in the back of the head. The best thing White did was to hire former criminals to go undercover. They made inroads in what was still the wild west and some of the gangs that cause lawmen a lot of grief. That's when he began to uncover information that pointed at one of the elite businessmen in the area.
We need to go back for a minute. I think most people with an interest in history know that the government tried to get the Native Americans to assimilate into American society. They took children from their families and sent them to vocational schools as they did Jim Thorpe, one of the greatest athletes to ever play a game, was sent to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, which became a football dynamo. They also divided up a tribal society into 160 acre allotments. The danger there was that whites would cheat the Indians out of their land, and they did with the Cherokees. James Bigheart, wary of what had happened to the Cherokee in the Oklahoma land rush, negotiated larger allotments, almost a section for each member of the tribe, and insisted on keeping mineral rights, “the underground reservation.” The Osage might lose their allotments but it was impossible to steal their mineral rights, or so Bigheart thought. Indian women and some men married white spouses. Sometimes that person would be after the “headright” or mineral rights the woman or man owned. Some of the guardians had several Osage wards. Grann did research on what happened to them. In many cases, the ward died an early death.
Tom White got little recognition or appreciation from J. Edgar Hoover but he was picked to be the new warden at Leavenworth. A similar story is that of his father who was a Texas sheriff. As sheriff it was his job to serve as hangman when a criminal was sentenced to death. White's father asked the man if he could do anything for him before the sentence was carried out. The man asked for a new suit of clothes. White's father got it for him. Tom White learned from his father. When the two culprits who broke open the case arrived at Leavenworth he shook hands with them and treated them like any other inmate. Here was one Christian who truly lived by the golden rule.
The Osage Indians were one of the largest tribes in the Midwest. When events got intolerable in Kansas, they purchased land from the Cherokee in Oklahoma, 1.5 million acres at 70 cents per acre. It was worthless agricultural land, but beneath the ground was one of the largest oil reserves in the country. Be careful what you ask for, you might just get it. Many of the Osage began spending money like it was going out of style. Of course, whites were jealous and outraged. Soon most of the Osage were deemed too childish to handle their own affairs and given a guardian, usually a white businessman. That's when the poisoning started. Most were misdiagnosed, and sometimes the doctors were implicated.
Grann centers on the Burkhart family. Mollie Burkhart was a source and the only survivor. Three of her sisters and her mother were murdered, one of them was so frightened she convinced her husband to move to town where they built a big house. Soon after someone blew it up, killing them both.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Investigation and its new director, J. Edgar Hoover, got wind of the case. Hoover needed a win after earlier misfirings. The best thing he did was hire Tom White, a former Texas Ranger, to investigate the murders, some of which were more overt than the poisonings. For instance Anna Brown, Mollie's sister, was shot in the back of the head. The best thing White did was to hire former criminals to go undercover. They made inroads in what was still the wild west and some of the gangs that cause lawmen a lot of grief. That's when he began to uncover information that pointed at one of the elite businessmen in the area.
We need to go back for a minute. I think most people with an interest in history know that the government tried to get the Native Americans to assimilate into American society. They took children from their families and sent them to vocational schools as they did Jim Thorpe, one of the greatest athletes to ever play a game, was sent to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, which became a football dynamo. They also divided up a tribal society into 160 acre allotments. The danger there was that whites would cheat the Indians out of their land, and they did with the Cherokees. James Bigheart, wary of what had happened to the Cherokee in the Oklahoma land rush, negotiated larger allotments, almost a section for each member of the tribe, and insisted on keeping mineral rights, “the underground reservation.” The Osage might lose their allotments but it was impossible to steal their mineral rights, or so Bigheart thought. Indian women and some men married white spouses. Sometimes that person would be after the “headright” or mineral rights the woman or man owned. Some of the guardians had several Osage wards. Grann did research on what happened to them. In many cases, the ward died an early death.
Tom White got little recognition or appreciation from J. Edgar Hoover but he was picked to be the new warden at Leavenworth. A similar story is that of his father who was a Texas sheriff. As sheriff it was his job to serve as hangman when a criminal was sentenced to death. White's father asked the man if he could do anything for him before the sentence was carried out. The man asked for a new suit of clothes. White's father got it for him. Tom White learned from his father. When the two culprits who broke open the case arrived at Leavenworth he shook hands with them and treated them like any other inmate. Here was one Christian who truly lived by the golden rule.
