Ingrid Hall's Blog, page 10
July 4, 2015
Review of: All My Goodbyes by Jacob Mendelsohn
All My Goodbyes by Jacob Mendelsohn
Jacob Mendelsohn was born in Toronto, Canada into a religious organization that believed in the unity of Christ and Satan, though he is currently a follower of neither. He was raised in Chicago, Illinois where he weathered the harshness of winter cold and the bitterness of summer baseball. Upon reaching an age when he believed himself to be mature, he attended film school at New York University, which prepared him for a life of answering phones and typing letters. He currently lives in Brooklyn, New York, but is not overly-consumed by this fact.
Once in awhile a work of fiction comes along, and you say, “I wish I had written that.” All My Goodbyes is one of those books.
This is actually a collection of short stories that are nevertheless joined together by odd turns of phrase or repeated names here and there. And all with an elegant smartness that bespeaks good writing technique. Never predictable with a host of three-dimensional characters in each story, the collection moves at a brisk pace, sometimes using odd literary devices that should be off-putting (like the notes of a private investigator in the second story, set in a single column down the middle of succeeding pages).
In “Witnesses,” a ten-year-old black boy is brutally murdered, and the killer, a drifter, is himself later killed in a bar fight. But that subplot is not the main thrust of the story. Instead, it’s the interplay of other characters tangential to the plot that really carries the narrative. Then, in two subsequent chapters, echoes of underlying themes weave their way into different subplots, finally emerging as a connected whole.
A memorable passage from the first story, chapter three, about a robbery gone bad in a Dollar Mart:
“It was run by a guy named Mahmoud, an Iraqui who had helped the Yanks out during Desert Storm and was rewarded with a family-sized green card.”
And another: “After all she had gone through, Robin felt that she deserved to be at least a little pretty.”
In “Station to Station,” a young woman of mixed parentage is described: “She is the perfect hybrid, the person we will all look like in a thousand years, once our DNA has comingled into one grand multiracial post-human.”
The story “Travelers” is, like many of the other stories, about down-on-their-luck misfits who spend too much time in a bar or doing drugs. This story is a gritty one, but it has some memorable lines.
“The man’s voice is bleached from nicotine, bourbon, sorrow, and old hand-me-down guitar accompanies.”
“Before he died, the singer had been known for nocturnal riffs that pledged a shred of hope and shard of love.”
This book of short stories is often dark, exposing the soft underbelly of despair and loneliness that pervades so much of urban America. But the author doesn’t pull any punches, putting all the raw emotion he possibly can in the reader’s hands, often testing the outer limits of what’s comfortable in a lead character and your investment in him or her.
I give this collection five stars, and hope to see more from this talented writer.
June 29, 2015
Review of: Essex by Victor Allen
Essex by Victor Allen
Review by Carlton Rolle
This novel centers on a location known as Essex. This place is nestled inside a valley in western North Carolina. Effectively separated from the present times, Essex was originally the location of a mining camp. As time continued, issues begin to arise and people thought the place to be haunted. Eventually the area was abandoned and new people took up residence in the area.
The eerie energy comes from a malevolent spirit known as a Wendigo. This spirit engulfs people with madness or death. Inhabitants of Essex were lost to the madness. They had dirty tangled hair, Members filled their teeth to points and wore all black clothing garments; some of them were made of skin. Residents became hunters of humans and used all portions of the body. They were a basic village of cannibals.
Police officers stumbled into the area. They were killed by residents and used the body parts for various reasons. Upon discovering the site, a group of officers came to the village and killed most of the people that were there. Whoever wasn’t killed was captured and taken to a makeshift facility to assess them. When police officials of the case realized that the people wouldn’t be able to re-adapt to life, they were killed. All of the inhabitants of Essex were killed and buried in the village as a cover up. The officers involved in the massacre of the village either died within several months of the incident or carried the madness brought on by the Wendigo with them.
Many years later, a television producer named Austin Jenkins purchased the deed to Essex. While hearing rumors of being haunted, he pitched a reality TV show following the life of a family living in a house built in the area. Upon entering Essex, camera crew and workmen experienced the hauntings. There were accidents, video recordings, audio files of ghosts.
Casted for the show was Johanna, Bobby, and Alice. Each of whom were working on their own internal issues while trying to be a family. Johanna suffered from multiple injuries sustained in a car accident years back. Her son Bobby wants to attend college and take up a career as a movie producer. Alice was adopted by the family and looking to escape a dark past. The family is strained further by the recent murder of Johanna’s husband Collin. The prime suspect in the case is Alice’s father, Tommy. With little to financially lose and much to gain, the family moved into the built house. Shortly after moving in the Wendigo and spirits of Essex make themselves known to the family. It influences them to further fall into madness.
I thought this was an interesting novel. It created a linage to be able to understand the hauntings of Essex. The novel built towards the major events throughout the years leading up the most recent case in the area. The way Allen wrote the story made some of the scenarios truly come alive. One aspect that I would’ve liked to have expanded in the novel was from the residents of Essex itself. The book’s narrative, while from multiple perspectives were all outsiders’ sparse interactions with the community. That would’ve added further to the ghastliness of Essex if readers had more details about the inhabitants of Essex.
The story left room for twists in the narrative. Until the last page, I was on the edge of my seat, wondering what was going to happen next. Allen brought to life the hauntings of a place that is sure to follow me around for the next couple of weeks. If ever I find myself staring face-to-face with the Wendigo, surely I’ll know to expect madness to set in. Until then, the blood soaked land of Essex will remain imprinted in my mind.
June 26, 2015
Review of: Across the Sabarmati by Sriram Ananth
Review of Across the Sabarmati by Sriram Anath
Sriram Ananth is an activist and writer who leads a somewhat scatterbrained but politically-enriching transnational life between Canada, the US and India. Across the Sabarmati is his first book and he fully expects it to be denounced by religious fascists in India.
In Across the Sabarmati, a twenty-two-year-old Hindu from the large city in which he was raised in middle-class comfort visits Gujarat, recently trying to recover from brutal oppression and atrocities perpetrated on the indigenous population of Muslims, allegedly by the ruling Hindu government.
The protagonist, who seems to be an autobiographical stand-in for the author, is there as a relief worker, charged with interviewing victims of the genocide, and distributing relief supplies. During the course of the book, he falls in love with a co-worker, starts chain-smoking, begins heavy drinking, and generally transforms from a mild-mannered, upper-caste Brahmin into a vitriolic, left wing activist, with very strong views on everything from bigotry to the role of women in his society.
As a history lesson illustrating man’s inhumanity to man, the book gives compelling evidence in the way of first-hand interviews with victims of the atrocities and the frustration of the residents of a refugee camp left in the wake of the wave of violence that left thousands homeless and mourning their butchered family and friends.
As a story, however, the book plods along, with Jayram, the main character, becoming more and more self-absorbed, to the point that for the last third of the book I really disliked him. His immaturity and inability to focus on his obligations — to his “love”, Maria, and, to some degree to his friends and coworkers and their cause — robbed him of the reader’s sympathy and, frankly, detracted from what I believe was the book’s unstated aim: to promote awareness of the atrocities in that region of India, and to illustrate the corruption of the ruling party during that time.
It does show — vividly — what can happen to a young idealist thrown into the midst of a strife-torn area, as Jayram goes numb to the cause he signed on for and, to some degree, to his friends. Perhaps this was the author’s goal all along — to let the reader become invested in the central character and then tear him down to his bare, all-too-human essentials of callousness and hatred of himself. If this was the case, he succeeds, and the book becomes just another coming-of-age story, albeit set in a brutal environment.
Other mean-spirited reviewers have trashed the book, disputing the author’s portrayal of events in Gujarat. Indeed, a Google search of the term “Gujarat genocide” brings up different views on who was behind the killing and just how complicit the police and authorities were at the time. Nevertheless, the end-result remains the same: a tortured populace of beleaguered Muslims who must now make do with handouts and camp squalor — a sad situation for one of the world’s largest democracies.
I’m giving the book four stars because I believe it is a useful read that helps raise awareness of just what extreme bigotry and class warfare can do, even in a so-called “civilized” society. But if you’re looking for an action tale, or even a story that holds your interest for the full 264 pages of shrill, leftist rantings, this is not for you.
June 22, 2015
Review of: A Trip to the Hardware Store by Barbara Venkataraman
A Trip to the Hardware Store by Barbara Venkataraman
Award-winning author, Barbara Venkataraman, is an attorney and mediator specializing in family law and debt collection. She is the author of The Jamie Quinn mysteries; “The Fight for Magicallus,” a children’s fantasy; a humorous short story entitled, “If You’d Just Listened to Me in the First Place”; and two books of humorous essays: “I’m Not Talking about You, Of Course” and “A Trip to the Hardware Store & Other Calamities,” which are part of the “Quirky Essays for Quirky People” series. Both books of humorous essays were chosen as an “Indie Book of the Day”.
Have I told you the one about the hapless father of four girls, trying to fix a leaky hot water pipe so his girls can take a shower?
No worries! It’s the first one in A Trip to the Hardware Store and Other Calamities.
This is a quick read — only fifty pages — and it is guaranteed to give a laugh or at least a smile, even on your most troubled day.
Written in the style of the famous humor columnist Edna Bombeck, this small book offers a series of first-person remembrances and essays that will tickle your funny bone — even if you think you don’t have one.
In “Lazy Bones” she extolls the virtues of procrastination:
“Procrastination is an art. A person can dabble in it for years, and never become a virtuoso. Only a Master Procrastinator can leap from the precipice of putting things off into the whitewater of wasted time to swim in the sea of snide remarks without drowning.”
In “Where Did the Time Go?” she turns poignant about her aged father as they sit in a pizzeria together:
“At the same time, I realize we are mirror images of each other — the way we sit, the way we hold our pizza. I start to feel dizzy as the past, present and future spin together, pulling me into a swirling vortex.”
In “Suggestive Selling”, she recounts some choice stories about her days as a waitress, including a short stint at McDonald’s. These days, however, she’s an attorney, specializing in debt collection. She imagines the following conversation:
“Can you imagine me suggestive selling to my clients now? ‘I’ll prepare your contract right away. And would you like a lawsuit to go with that?'”
There are several hilarious stories about her girlfriends, and, of course, the good-natured needling of their clueless husbands, along with a few good anecdotes about the debtors she tries to collect money from.
This collection of stories would make a good gift item for someone who’s got the blues. In a world of literature overflowing with the F-word, it’s refreshingly G-rated.
I give this book five stars and hope there are many more stories to come from this author.
June 19, 2015
Review of Casting Stones by Laurencia Hoffman
Casting Stones by Laurencia Hoffman
Laurencia Hoffman was born and raised (with the exception of a few years in Canada) in Michigan. She has had a notebook in her hand since she was old enough to write. Becoming a published author has been a dream of hers for years, and she says she will continue to write books and hopefully entertain the world of readers for a long time.
Casting Stones is an imaginative story about a family of werewolves who must fight for their very lives when they discover that a serial killer is on the loose, specializing in werewolf clans.
The story is centered around Avery, a twenty-something young man who also happens to be a werewolf. His troubled past haunts him and he sometimes acts out his own frustrations within his dysfunctional family, causing problems in his relationships — particularly with Simone, his lover.
The story begins as the family is reviewing a DVD Avery made of himself before he died. Reactions are predictably mixed. Chance, his best friend and adopted brother, says it’s because no one ever took the time to get to know him. He’s right. Avery was a little hard to know intimately.
The story goes on to weave an intricate tale of complicated relationships and multilayered character development that leads to a rich and satisfying ending — though it is an unexpected one.
I liked the overall tone of drama tinged with real human emotions like guilt and fear. The characters play well off one another, and we get the opportunity to get to know each one — like them or not.
The werewolf angle was an interesting sidelight, but the story could have existed just as well without it. This is something of a murder mystery, after all, with plenty of romance and character interplay rolled into the mix.
I give it a solid four stars and hope readers enjoy it as much as I did.
June 18, 2015
Book Review: Pagan Portals: Hedge Riding by Harmonia Saille
Originally posted on The Haunted Palace:
Pagan Portals: Hedge Riding by Harmonia Saille
I have to make an embarrassing admission here, despite having read a couple of books on hedge witchcraft, I somehow never came across the term ‘Hedge Riding'; hedge diving – yes – but that is a different story (and I hasten to add, not one usually found in books on esoteric themes!) So it was with great interest that I picked up Harmonia Saille’s concise volume on that very subject (Hedge riding – not hedge diving – are you still with me?)
Anyway, digression aside, this is a very enjoyable and informative little book that packs a lot of useful and practical information into a small number of pages. A great jumping off point for further study, this book introduces the reader to the tradition of Hedge Riding – an important aspect of Hedge Witchcraft.
The author explains how Hedge Riding can be…
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June 15, 2015
Review of 28 Far Cries by Marc Nash
28 Far Cries by Marc Nash
Marc Nash has published four novels and three collections of flash fiction. He also works with digital artists to create non-linear narratives. He lives and works in London.
The collection of flash fiction entitled 28 Far Cries left me wondering if I was smart enough to review it.
Marc Nash is obviously a talented author who is also something of a word artist. In fact, that’s the closest analogy I can make: I feel as though I’ve been to a prestigious exhibition of modern art paintings by a new artist and cannot comprehend much of the work.
His careful interplay of words and images are often first-rate; and the stories DO have points, although sometimes as a reader you must hunt for them. They all jump right into a narrative, usually fully underway, leaving you feeling as though you just barely jumped onto the trailing car of a fast train, pulling out of a dark station without a clear destination in mind.
And some of the stories take place seemingly at the cellular level, where you must hack your way through jungles of microbes and nanobots to find the story’s true meaning.
But I am convinced the author isn’t much interested in whether the reader can fully comprehend each piece. Rather, again, like a good — and possibly great — artist, he has penned his stories with guile and a liberal smattering of arcane and truly unusual words and phrases as though he would be delighted to know his readers were having to re-read entire long passages to uncover the hidden meaning embedded therein.
I rather liked “The Road to Nowhere,” which chronicles the efforts of an unnamed people trying to figure out where a road goes. In the end, however, they stop exploring, afraid to see what lies beyond the seemingly endless horizon.
One phrase from that story, at the very end, is worth noting: “It kept them from wandering, from encountering the dark, unknown parts of themselves.”
In “Cop Aesthetic,” we seem to see two sides of a police officer, who begins the story by taking his daughter to a zoo, but ends by sitting across the table from a shackled, dangerous felon. The imagery evoked, regarding predatory animals, is chilling.
In “Still Ill,” a man who has been posing as a silver-painted mechanical man, apparently in a large city, has developed a reaction — possibly fatal — to his silver body paint. Best line from that one: “My mind focused in on emptying itself, devoted to harnessing the body to its strict oversight. And yet behind my paralyzed husk, my mind is free to roam.”
In “Type O Negative” the main — and only — character has been irradiated, subjecting her to bizarre speech patterns. At the end, she cries for help. But you can tell it’s too late.
Wikipedia defines flash fiction as fiction of extreme brevity. Works can range from three hundred words to a thousand. The genre has a notable past, stretching apparently into prehistory, and practiced by no less than Walt Whitman. No wonder these stories sometimes seem closer to long poetry than prose.
As I said, this sort of fiction is new to me and, while I’m not sure everyone will appreciate what Marc Nash has written down for posterity, I am convinced that he puts a lot of thought into his craft, and I applaud him for his artistry.
June 12, 2015
Review of Fallen Gods by T.W. Malpass
Fallen Gods by T.W. Malpass
T.W. Malpass was born in 1976 and lives in Staffordshire, UK. Malpass loves with the world of film just as much as literature. His taste are varied, but the most inspiration comes from the horror genre. Many of those that read his books, will find that his love for monsters is apparent. He loves them and believes that we all represent monsters in one form or another.
Fallen Gods: Sanctuary 12 is a horror / science fiction series surrounding a group of characters. While unknown amongst themselves, each one of them are guided towards meeting with others in a group. All of these people are connected by the voice of a girl, Celeste, who speaks to them telepathically. She is the influential leader of them even though she is in a physical coma. She was badly injured when young and required an overwhelming amount of technology to keep her alive. Her mission is to ensure the safety of a group and consul them on the next steps.
Jerrico is a social outcast. He witnessed his parent brutally murder and was tortured afterward as a child. As an adult is attempting to make sense out of life and sustaining. Through several experiences and a discussion, readers discover that he can manifest physical entities.
Stuart is a telekinetic boy who is bound to a wheelchair. Upon discovering his power, he practiced but kept it hidden. Running from protective parents, Stuart meets a dog named Barnes that guides him to meet the others.
Josie is a blind girl. Since her recovery from an accident, she has a premonition forecasting the person’s death whenever she touches them. Attempting to jump off a bridge to end the visions, Kaleb comes to prevent her from jumping. Kaleb is a sculptor who has the ability to heal living beings.
Another character that plays an important role is Evelyn. She is the widow of a farmer. For years she didn’t leave her house. Upon leaving she discovered that she controls a flock of crow known as the Unkindness. Martha is a thief running from the police and searching for a better life for her Brother and girlfriend. Vladimir is escaping the assassin, Duma, his mother hired. Heven is a guy with an influential father and family. He is wanted for several counts of murder.
The villain of this story is Charles Cradleworth. He looks like a middle aged suburbanite whose face was set smiling as wide as possible. Once close enough, his eyes became black pits full of deep space. Many found on their encounter with him to be eerie or terrifying to be around. Mr. Cradleworth is a menacing being focused on death and consumption.
Most of the book builds on character definition. Malpass crafted each person’s experience in a way that made the characters personality stand out. The presence of Celeste urged them all to come together to escape danger. Upon escaping their situations, some of the characters encounter Mr. Cradleworth. Fortunately Mr. Cradleworth isn’t interested in engulfing the characters or world just yet but preparing the individuals. Some are capable of escape, others witness blood and death.
The way the story is written had me guessing how these characters were all connected or when they were going to meet. The plot thickened 10 fold when characters are introduced to their true history and the interstellar war that is raging. It places an insurmountable weight on the situation. This doesn’t not even arise until the last several pages of the novel. I felt that it was quite jarring to end. I didn’t’ feel at piece with the placement which inevitably will have me reading the second novel.
One of the interesting aspects that I felt was that I agreed with was the aspect of going with your gut or the signs that are apparent. Sometimes in life, the only choice that offers any chance of survival is going on what’s ahead of you. One of the characters that emphasized this the most was Martha. It makes me wonder what happens to her and her placement within the group.
Another alluring aspect to the novel was the latent abilities of Jerrico. Through him readers discover that he creates two entities, Clover and flying monsters known as Urkers, which inflict damage to those around them. Both gruesome and mysterious, these creatures represent an almost artistic impression of how aspects of the world impact Jerrico.
Ultimately, every person within the novel is forced to look within themselves and analyze their life. They attempt to make sense out of their life and the situation as it unfolds. For some, their unique gift creates another barrier that they must learn and leap over. For others, it’s too much to manage. Readers of Fallen Gods: Sanctuary 12 will be immersed in a dark and confusing place. Characters that are flawed or misguided become the hero of the world and possibly the Universe. It leaves you wondering will they make it or does it matter at all? One way or another we’ll find out… Follow the voice.
June 9, 2015
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June 5, 2015
Review of Student Body by Rafeeq O. McGiveron
Student Body by Rafeeq O. McGiveron
Rafeeq O. McGiveron is a writer and educator with a knowledge of…well, writing and education, along with literature, cats, and other sundries. Holding a B.A. with Honor in English and History, an M.A. in English and History, and another M.A. in English, he spent the first 12 years of his career teaching English at places like Michigan State University, Lansing Community College, and Western Michigan University, while since the turn of the century he has focused on advising students at LCC.
In Student Body, the spotlight is on the main character, Rick O’Donnell — and that’s just the way he likes it.
O’Donnell is the main character in this 400-page tome about a teaching assistant at Michigan State University who has an affair with a student, then spends the majority of the book either recriminating about it or fantasizing about it — or worrying about his precarious position at the university and his relationship with his wife and three children.
The plot eventually receives a little spice when the student — now a colleague of O’Donnell — is killed and his problems go from imagined to very real as he becomes the prime suspect.
This is a book for lovers of the English language, and the author — who is himself a professor — liberally laces the text with adjectives and adverbs that often get in the way of the story. Honestly, I felt at times that he might have been paid by the word for this novel, as publishers used to do, so weighted down with prose was the text.
I really wanted to like and identify with the protagonist, who is achingly vulnerable and introspective to a fault. But his propensity for self-indulgence kept getting in the way of my developing any rapport with him. His insecurities shine through his cocky exterior and that, coupled with his tiresome need to recall sexual encounters — either with the student or with his wife — kept getting in the way of my enjoyment of what otherwise might have been a decent plotline.
Here’s a sample sentence, much shorter than most, yet indicative of the many similar passages:
“Perhaps there were no bangles or pearls or ornaments of jeweled, hammered gold, and yet if he could only make it through this class period, then soon, so soon, he would be with his darling as he truly longed, wrapped up again in her sleek white arms, in her juicy, split-peach interior, in the depths of her adoring soul.”
Again, overall I felt that Student Body — with its clever double-entendre title — was an overindulged exercise in literary fiction that never quite reaches its potential. I join with other reviewers in imploring the author to throttle back his desire to make every sentence an adjective- or adverb-laden portrait in verbiage and just tell a simple, straightforward story in his next novel. He’s obviously a brilliant man with an impressive command of the language.
I was given this book in exchange for an honest opinion.
