Sparrow: The Library: Chp 1 - 13

[Andrew, Wound Up]

***Open discussion of chapters 1-13 below, no spoilers needed. Be sure you have read through chapter 13 before reading! Note: if this is your first visit to this topic I recommend you read this post about discussion ideas, then skip down and post your initial response, then read and respond to other people's posts.***

At the very least check in here when you finish chapter 13 and tell us if you are enjoying the book. I'll post specific discussion ideas below, along with some general topics we'll see repeated throughout the book.

Chapter 1 - 13 discussions:

1) Author Kenneth Lewis' work has achieved some acclamation due to the realism he brings to his novels working as a police chief. In this first section of Sparrow were there any sections that you felt deserve this type of kudos? Were there any specific bits that felt extremely unrealistic?

2) What do you think or feel about how this novel has handled post 9-11 anxiety?

General Discussions:

1) Share your favorite quote(s) from this section.

2) Do you have a favorite or most intriguing character at this point in the novel?

Location reminder

If you are returning to this topic after having continued past chapter 13, here is a plot reminder:

Master ninja is about to meet with Russian mobsters in a parking lot.

GO!

[Andrew, Wound Up]

I had been anxious about understanding the plot since I hadn't read Lewis' other book. No need to worry since about 2/3 of the book so far has been rehashing what happened in the past.

Law Enforcement Realism? I think the struggles of a town suffering from budget problems and experiencing police cutbacks are highlighted realistically. The idea that a chief may have to focus his time on patrol is a reality in most smaller communities. Officers experience increased workloads when staffing is down and have to prioritize and change how they handle incidents.

On the flip side: I understood when Thud thought of some locals as "shitbirds" but found it unlikely that he would call them that to their face. This type of antagonistic approach would do nothing but create unneeded conflict between L.E. and citizens.

If Thud was going to be on patrol why would he have removed or not put his portable radio and taser on his duty belt? This was a convenient plot device but felt contrived.

My third and final Thud thought relates to the sentence Thud's first instinct when he saw the Chinese looking kid was to think Asian gang members. That seems like a very bizarre instinct unless there has been some Asian gang activity in the vicinity. This is a small town and the call is related to someone taking a magazine out of library without a library card. My first instinct is to think Thud is racist.

Finally Shoshanna... her two dispatches are odd mish mashes of style and content that really need to be cleaned up. Also, she should be irritated that the chief sends suspects to see her in the office for citations instead of taking 1 minute to note the pertinent info or say it over the radio.

9-11 Do HLS agents really fret about running into free roaming packs of "virgin-seeking Jihadi terrorists"? I understand that the job requires a level of suspicion but both Kearnes and Thud seem to have pushed past that into paranoia. The anxiety level feels more appropriate for 2005 then 2011.

Race and social categorization feel like they hold too prominent a position in how the characters immediately react to strangers.

Quotes: He had very large and pensive brown eyes that reminded Karnes of a nocturnal lemur peering warily and unblinking from the shadows of a jungle canopy and whenever an unpredictable bout of melancholy would come over Charlie his eyes looked oddly out of place in his finely sculpted, angular Italian face. Wow. That is a lot of sentence.

This novel needed a good copy editor. Typos are thankfully minimal but punctuation (especially commas) feels random. Grammar problems destroy my ability to get pulled into a story. His father, was standing right next to him! is an example. Why the random comma?

If the setting was closer to 1990 more comments would make sense, like referencing a blood bank emptying out in the middle of an AIDS scare.

Character Telephones. I haven't cozied up to any actual character in the novel so far but I am amazed at their general lack of talking to other people on the telephone. This was most apparent at the Kearne/Thud reunion when Kearne didn't even know about the couch fire or the library incident.

Overall I've found a lot to think about in the pages of Sparrow, even though the story has moved slowly and feels slogged down by all the explanations related to Whales. It's understandably hard for an author to find a balance with this type of info when dealing with sequels.

I'm worried that "bad guys", i.e. anyone not directly involved with law enforcement, all feel like shallow stereotypes. Ninjas, Russian Mobsters, hooligans, gang members, angry citizens, strict librarians. Also, is anyone else concerned with Homeland Security's hiring policy which says they will focus on hiring people suffering from severe post traumatic stress?

[Michelle, Overrun By Pets]

I felt like the interplay of law enforcement and city administration was realistic for our current economically depressed times in small towns. Many local small cities/towns are struggling to balance their budget and often times police departments are having to do more work with less people and equipment while still maintaining staffing and response levels. Although some city administration is in it for the wrong reasons, the level of criminal intent does not often arise to that of Cutter City Mayor Vernon Bouchet.

I thought some of the cons of being in law enforcement were discussed accurately including, potential for fragmented interpersonal relationships, PTSD, frustration in dealing with repeat offenders, ongoing stress from being in dangerous situations repeatedly. I appreciate that Kenneth R. Lewis has his characters seek mental health help in an effort to work through trauma.

Geography descriptions of the Portland area and Oregon coastal areas feels authentic.

The portrayal of level of criminal activity does not always seem realistic. While juvenile skateboarders can certainly be a nuisance, I don't often think of them as "skateboarding gangs" or a skateboarding leader as "he was the Jim Jones of the Cutter Point skateboarding community." I assume this reference is to the religious leader of the Peoples Temple responsible for the Guyana mass suicide, not the American rapper responsible for "We Fly High."

Although the book is clearly set in post 9-11 times, the tone reminds me of pre 9-11 with the characterization of Russians as bad guy mobsters, references to Japan, ninjas and many of the characters seeming to long for simpler/happier times. Even multiple movie references (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Rocky IV) are pre 9-11. Kearnes as a Homeland Security agent only works post 9-11, but so far his occupation does not seem like a primary component of the story. Homeland Security in general seems like a trendy fascination right now.

My quote choices for this section include "...watching a horizon of rain squall clouds coming in from the Pacific toward Cutter Point like a giant rolled up carpet being unfurled." I also liked "Delta Air Lines flight 1199 inbound from Kansas city lumbered into view in the late afternoon steel wool colored sky."

My favorite character so far is the crabby librarian Henrietta McElvey, "Henrietta had now outlived her own husband and her baby sister and she was still as mentally sharp as a tack. Or maybe even an ice pick." I liked her attempt to wave Thud down upon his arrival at the library "as she waved her arms frantically in the air like a referee at a football game signaling a major foul." I also like her territorial nature about all things related to the library and professional Sergeant Spenser Sparling's response to Henrietta "No ma'am, said Spenser. It's a crime scene right now. And that makes it my library."

I do have an outstanding stripper question. What is "latex nakedness"? Is this referring to partial nakedness and a skimpy latex outfit? Are the strippers so tan and slicked with oil that their skin appears as latex? I'm just not sure.