April 2018 - reading to ward off the April Fools

Kicking off April with my review of Tariq Ali's The Dilemmas of Lenin, which Cliff enjoyed a few months back.

http://www.librarything.com/work/18748216/reviews

Thanks for your reviews of both this and the Miéville. I think I’ll try to read October and maybe give this one a pass.

Been reading a lot of poetry as I continue with The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Diaz.
Right now I'm working on 99 Poems in Translation, a compilation by Harold Pinter and Anthony Astbury. This is an interesting selection that seems to emphasize poems with a kind of hard edge. Not a very typical anthology.
Sanskrit Love Poetry by W.S. Merwin and J. Moussaleff Masson are fragments of longer texts that work as individual poems. Loved this collection. So beautiful. One of the most unique poetry books I've ever read.
Also read The Shambhala Anthology of Women's Spiritual Poetry, very good until it reaches the 18th century. After that it's kind of meh.
Native American Songs and Poems: An Anthology, meh all the way.

Missoula – Jon Krakauer
Digital audio book narrated by Mozhan Marno and Scott Brick
4****

Subtitle: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town. Krakauer explores the issue of acquaintance rape (sometimes called “date rape”). While every young woman is warned about strangers, the dangers of being out alone at night, and being alert to her surroundings, crime statistics show that most rapists are NOT men in ski-masks hiding in dark alleys. In fact, many more sexual assaults take place between acquaintances. That young man you’ve known through work or school is much more likely to assault you than a total stranger is.

He focuses on one college town, and a couple of star football players, and the women who were their victims. The events he details began in 2010 and he follows the cases through about 2014, exploring how the assaults affected the rapists, the detectives, the women victims, their friends and families. It is at times a very disturbing book. But it is one that more people should read. This topic SHOULD make us uncomfortable, we should be enraged at the way in which the justice systems treats these women, and at the way in which the universities (and their all-important big-donor alumni) dismiss the women’s stories in favor of supporting the athletes.

Krakauer chose this particular state-run Montana university and the football players involved. But this story could just as easily have been based at a private college in the East, or featured rapists who were not star athletes.

The audio version is jointly narrated by Mozhan Marno and Scott Brick. Marno does most of the book, with Brick voicing the forward and the final chapter where Krakauer writes in first person. They do an exceptionally good job.

With Hemingway: A Year in Key West and Cuba – Arnold Samuelson
4****

In early 1934, Arnold Samuelson hopped a freight car and managed to get all the way to Key West, FL. He was inspired by an article or short story he’d read by Ernest Hemingway. Wanting to become a writer himself, Samuelson hoped to meet Hemingway for a few minutes and get some pointers. But Hemingway surprised the young man by welcoming him onto his staff, giving him a job aboard his new boat Pilar which included room and board. Samuelson spent a year with the Hemingways, traveling to Cuba for the marlin fishing season and absorbing all he could about writing and living.

What a wonderful memoir of one young man’s extraordinary year. I can definitely see the influence of Hemingway’s style, and yet Samuelson’s writing is all his own. My experience reading this really transports me to Key West and Havana in the mid-1930s. The way in which they spoke (including some disturbing racial slurs), their cocktails, the cringe-worthy way they treated women … all point to a testosterone-fuel uber-masculine life style. Not my usual reading at all.

There are complaints in reviews about the amount of typeface given to fishing. And I agree that it was somewhat excessive. But … Samuelson writes in a way that almost made me want to take up marlin fishing! I felt the excitement of a strike, and also the sheer boredom of hours spent watching your line do nothing.

Much as was the case with Stephen King’s memoir, On Writing, Samuelson’s work will likely help make me a better reader. When he recounts the words of wisdom Hemingway imparted … well, it made me look at the books I’m reading differently. Drew my attention to way a sentence might be crafted, a description fleshed out (or pared down), and action conveyed.

The Radium Girls – Kate Moore
Book on CD narrated by Angela Brazil.
5*****

Subtitle: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women

In the early 20th century, young women were hired to paint luminous paint on watch dials and, with advent of WWI, on instrument panels. The element that caused the luminosity was radium. The method they used was “lip, dip, paint” – pointing the fine paintbrushes they used by twirling the bristle ends in their mouths. But they didn’t know that they were being poisoned. And when they began to experience strange symptoms (loose teeth, brittle jawbones, etc) and tried to get some compensation for medical bills from the company, their claims were dismissed as “female hysteria.” That didn’t stop them. These brave women fought against the corporations, against doctors, against the government until they prevailed.

Moore is an Englishwoman who was hired to direct a play about the Radium Girls, These Shining Lives. As she did her background research she realized that no one had ever told the full story of the Radium Girls from the perspective of the women who were poisoned by their job duties. She was troubled that these brave women’s stories had been all but forgotten, and so she set out to right that wrong.

She did a marvelous job. Using diaries, letters, court records and other documentation, as well as interviews with the surviving descendants of the women who worked in the various companies that produced the luminous dials, she brings the story to life. The reader is in turns incensed and outraged, surprised by the ignorance and cavalier attitudes, and heartbroken by the pain and suffering these women endured.

Angela Brazil does a fine job of narrating the audio book. However, it took me a couple of discs to get used to her delivery. She seems to pause …. after every … few words. Eventually I got used to her pace, but I did read at least a third of the book in text format, because that was so much faster.

One of Us Is Wrong – Donald Westlake (writing as Samuel Holt)
3***

Samuel Holt is an actor and former small-town police officer. His role as private investigator Jack Packard in the hugely popular TV series has made him fairly wealthy, and although it’s no longer being produced, the show is still paying residuals while it’s in syndication. Trouble is, he can’t seem to get another acting job that isn’t for a private detective role. So, he takes his accountant’s advice to go investigate a potential investment opportunity. But on the way to the property, four “swarthy men in two Imapalas tried to murder me.” And we’re off …

Westlake/Holt’s crime capers are not great literature but they are loads of fun to read. Fast-paced, likeable characters, some funny dialogue, a great sidekick (I need a “Robinson” in my life!), leggy ladies, handsome leading man, car chases, guns, and crazy coincidences.

In the early- to mid-1980s Donald Westlake began to wonder “Could I do it again today?” He had great success as a writer of crime fiction, particularly with his comic crime capers starring John Dortmunder. So, he entered into a contract with his publisher to use a protected penname – Samuel Holt. No one but he, the publisher and his agent would know the author’s real identity. On the release date, Westlake was surprised to see a display of the Samuel Holt books in the window of his local bookstore, along with a sign proclaiming that Holt was, in fact, Westlake. The publisher had let their sales force in on the secret; and encouraged them to spread the word. There goes that experiment.

Fortunately, we still have the four Holt books that Westlake had contracted for.

The Nest – Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney
Digital audio performed by Mia Barron.
3.5***

Four middle-aged siblings have to confront expectations, disappointments, half-truths, obfuscations and down right lies. The impetus for their meeting is that oldest brother Leo has used “the Nest” – a trust fund left by their long-deceased father for them to share equally – for rehab and to pay damages to a teen-aged waitress he injured in an accident while high on cocaine. But the other three have counted on that money, want that money, NEED that money -
– to save a failing business or pay off a mortgage on a too-large house, or cover tuition at a private college.

This is a wonderful debut novel, a character-driven tale that explores sibling relations, family dynamics, and a host of other issues that require open communication … something the Plumb siblings have never learned to do. I got drawn into their dynamic fairly quickly, but I think Sweeney was a bit too ambitious. There are so many issues she touches on – from homosexuality to undocumented immigrants to pressure put on children by their parents to get into a top university to grief and mourning – and Sweeney uses different characters in addition to the four Plumb siblings to explore these issues. The result is that I felt lost at times.

This was further complicated by the fact that I was listening to the audio. Don’t misunderstand … Mia Barron does a fine job. She has a great pace, clear diction and enough skill as a voice artist to make each character unique. But when point of view suddenly shifts it’s difficult to reconcile what’s happening without the text in front of you.

I’ll be interested to see what Sweeney does in her next novel.

Murder At the Bad Girl’s Bar and Grill – N.M.Kelby
3***

From the book jacket: Take a slasher-movie actress, a Scottish circus clown, an FBI school dropout, a blind heiress, a junk-food-loving millionaire developer, and a Buddha-quoting bluesman, add a couple of murders in a normally sedate retirement community in south Florida … It all goes down as easy as a Key lime pie martini, the signature drink of the Bad Girl’s Bar & Grill.

My reactions
Reminds me of Carl Hiassen, but not quite so well written. Still it’s a fun, ridiculous romp of a tale that kept me entertained and engaged despite its total outlandishness. Frankly, none of these characters made sense to me, and the plot was completely unbelievable. But I did laugh out loud a few times and it was a fast read.

If you’re looking for a cozy mystery… well this is more gristly than that. If you want a hard-boiled crime novel … well this is too quirky for that. It doesn’t fit the bill for a suspense thriller either, because there is little suspense. The biggest mystery, as far as I’m concerned, is how Kelby came up with this crazy story.

Like Hiaasen, Kelby does impart a message about husbanding the natural environment and about the greed of developers.

Trains and Lovers– Alexander McCall Smith
Audio book read by Robert Ian MacKenzie
3***

I love Alexander McCall Smith. I love the way he puts together an ensemble of characters and slowly reveals their everyday lives and the little (and big) dramas hidden in plain sight.

In this novel – not part of any series – four strangers meet on a train bound for London from Edinburgh. As they get acquainted their stories come out. David, a middle-aged American businessman, sees two men saying good-bye at the station, and is reminded of the young man he met in his own youth. A young Scot, Andrew, reveals how he captured the attention of a co-worker when he noticed a problem with a painting that’s been credited to an early-seventeenth century artist. Kay relates how her parents met, married and ran a train station in the Australian Outback. Hugh missed his stop one day on the train, and met a woman he let into his life.

Each story offers some insight into the many ways that love finds us, enriches us, or disappoints us. For some of these characters the love is in the past, for others it shows promise of continuing into the future.

The audio book is masterfully performed by Robert Ian MacKenzie. He has clear diction, a good pace and is a skilled voice artist, able to differentiate the many characters.

Just finished reading Into the Wood with Chris. It was pretty good; lovely writing style. Not a typical mystery.

Old Heart – Peter Ferry
3.5***

From the book jacket: Tom Johnson has turned 85 and has suffered a few “events,” though he knows his mind is still sharp. His adult children want to move him out of the homestead lake house and into a retirement home. But Tom resists in a most clever way. He slips away from his remaining family and sets out to find the only woman he ever loved, a woman he met in the Netherlands where he was stationed during World War II.

My reactions
If it hadn’t been for an F2F book club I probably would never have come across this little gem of a novel. I loved these characters (or loved to hate … in a couple of cases). In a short work the author addresses issues of aging, marriage (good and bad), lost opportunities, holding on to one’s dreams, taking chances, being responsible, and the meaning of love.

We were fortunate to have the author present for our discussion and a number of interesting points were brought up that had me rethinking some of my reactions. Our multi-generational group had some decidedly different points of view depending on our own ages. (Those characters I loved to hate at first now seem to have a few redeeming qualities.)

Birds Of a Feather – Jacqueline Winspear
Digital audio performed by Kim Hicks
3***

The second book in the Maisie Dobbs series has Maisie’s private investigation agency established with an office, and a full-time assistant, Billy Beale. She’s proven herself to Inspector Stratton of Scotland Yard as well. But when Maisie is asked to track down a missing heiress she begins to find clues that point to a connection between her case and Stratton’s murder investigation.

I like this series. Maisie is a resourceful, intelligent, assertive young woman, who listens carefully and seeks advice from her mentors. She’s also astute in noticing problems, and compassionate in helping others confront their demons. Billy is a wonderful sidekick and I like that Winspear includes some after-effects of his service in WWI (i.e. “The Great War”). This gives Maisie some additional chance to use her training in psychology. I also appreciate the growing relationship between Maisie and Stratton. I’ll keep reading this series.

Kim Hicks does a fine job of voicing the audio book. She has good pacing and is skilled at using the various dialects and accents required for this series.

So Brave, Young and Handsome – Leif Enger
Audiobook narrated by Dan Woren.
3***

Monte Becket has had one greatly successful novel published, but he cannot seem to write another book. He lives with his wife, Susanna, and son on a farm in Minnesota, and keeps promising his publisher that he’s working hard on the next novel. Then one day he notices a man rowing a boat while standing up. Spurred by his son, Monte befriends Glendon, and the older man confesses to regret at abandoning his wife some two decades previously. When Glendon decides that it is time for him to go back to Blue, he asks Monte to come along, and with Susanna’s guarded acquiescence, Monte agrees to go along.

I was caught up in the road trip. The story takes place in 1915, when automobiles were scarce, and more people lived in the rural area of America. As Monte and Glendon head West and South, the landscape virtually becomes a character in the novel.

I really like the relationship between these men. Glendon is an admitted outlaw, and even spent some time at Butch Cassidy’s Hole in the Wall retreat. But that was decades ago, and he’s spent years in relative hiding, building boats and living simply in a converted barn. Monte is drawn to Glendon, but disturbed when he learns the truth of his new friend’s background. And yet … when push comes to shove, his loyalties lie with the Glendon he has come to know on this journey.

Enger gives the reader a relentless pursuer in Charles Siringo – a former Pinkerton detective who is determined to track Glendon down and bring him to justice.

In many respects it reminds me of the old traditional Westerns. And I think it would do well translated to film.

Dan Woren does a marvelous job of performing the audio book. I almost felt as if I were listening to a master storyteller around a campfire. Part of this is Enger’s way of writing the tale, but Woren’s narration really brought the story to life. I really liked the way he voiced the many characters, but particularly Monte and Glendon.

Lucky Jim – Kingsley Amis
1*

From the book jacket: Jim Dixon had accidentally fallen into a job at one of Britain’s new red-brick universities. A moderately successful future in the History Department beckons – as long as Jim can survive a madrigal-singing weekend at Professor Welch’s, deliver a lecture on “Merrie England,” and resist Christine, the hopelessly desirable girlfriend of Welch’s son Bertrand.

My reactions
Terrible. Maybe I’m too far past my college years. Perhaps it’s the dry British humor. Or the 1950s setting and writing style (first published in 1954). But I just don’t see the humor in this. I struggled to finish and did so only because I had committed to a buddy read.

Jim’s troubles are all of his own making. He hates his job, postpones doing any real work, spends most of his time in the pub drinking, lies constantly about what he’s doing, and tries (unsuccessfully, need I say) to toady up to his boss. Meanwhile, the women – “desireable” Christine included – seem to be just waiting around for a man. I don’t see what THEY see in Jim, either!

Finished an especially long sojourn, Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life. I'd anticipated more speculation but Jon Lee Anderson did an amazing sleuthing job, obtaining key interviews and access to unique documents. He was able to compose a birth-to-death portrait, and even ended by assisting with finding Che's remains, since exhumed and entombed in Cuba. A fine model for all biographers.

Such a strange mix in this man, of love for the 'everyman' that led to enormous self-sacrifice, and utter hatred for 'the enemy' that would have had him pushing the button on the Cuban missiles had they been in his power.

The Swans of Fifth Avenue– Melanie Benjamin
Digital audio book read by Cassandra Campbell and Paul Boehmer.
4****

Benjamin turns her attention to New York City’s social elite in the 1950s and 1960s. These were women who were wealthy, coiffed and manicured and expertly made up, wives to powerful men, and patrons of the arts. They graced the pages of Vogue and Vanity Fair magazines, and their exploits were reported in the society pages weekly. Then Truman Capote became “best friends” with Babe Paley, the leader of this group of women whom Capote quickly dubbed his “swans.” He lunched with them, attended their cocktail parties, vacationed at their summer homes or on their yachts, entertained them with his outlandish gossip and listened attentively to the stories they shared. His star burned bright, culminating in the fabulous Black and White ball he gave in the early ‘60s. But Truman was a troubled man; and desperate for another bestselling book, he committed the unpardonable sin of betraying confidences by using the stories he had heard in a novel.

I was completely entranced and immersed in this deliciously gossipy tale. I vaguely knew some of the story (I was just a child, but I remember seeing magazine coverage of the Black and White ball), but not any of the details. Benjamin really puts the reader into this glittering celebrity world. I could almost taste the caviar and champagne.

Despite their wealth, beauty and fame, I felt sorry for these women, surrounded by “friends” (frenemies?) but mostly alone, lonely and unhappy. Capote and Babe Paley apparently had a special relationship. But he was so self-destructive he could not help but ruin everything. What a sad ending he had.

The audiobook is masterfully narrated by Cassandra Campbell and Paul Boehmer. They are accomplished voice actors who bring all these characters to life.

Dispatches From the Edge – Anderson Cooper
Book on CD read by the author
3***

Subtitle: A memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival

This is Cooper’s memoir of how he came to be a senior anchor for CNN. The chapters are divided according to various memorable assignments covering war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, famine in Niger, a tsunami in Sri Lanka, and culminating with his coverage of Hurricane Katrina and that storm’s effects on New Orleans and the gulf coast area of Mississippi. Throughout he recalls his early childhood, as one tender or distressing scene brings back memories of his family.

He’s a talented journalist and one thing that makes him so is his ability to distance himself from what he is reporting. And yet, it’s clear that he is deeply affected by what he witnesses.

I think this may be especially evident when listening to his audio performance, and I think that added to the experience for me. Having Cooper read his own memoir really made it feel as if I were listening to him relate stories from his life while sitting in my own living room.

He’s a trained television journalist, so his delivery is clean and moves along at a good pace. However, I was struck by how frequently he swallows syllables at the end of a word. I expected a crisper diction, I guess.

The text includes photos from his childhood and the memorable assignments covered in this book.

At the Water’s Edge – Sara Gruen
Digital audio performed by Justine Eyre
2**

From the book jacket - After disgracing themselves at a high society New Year’s Eve Party in Philadelphia in 1944, Madeline Hyde and her husband, Ellis, are cut off financially by his father, a former army colonel who is already ashamed of his son’s inability to serve in the war. With his best friend, Hank, Ellis decides that the only way to regain his father’s favor is to succeed where the Colonel once very publicly failed – by hunting down the famous Loch Ness monster. Maddie reluctantly follows them across the Atlantic, leaving her sheltered world behind.

My reactions
Maddie gives “hysterical women” a bad name. Jimminy Christmas but she’s annoying. Ellis is a manipulative sociopath, a spoiled kid who must have his own way. What a stereotypical villain! Hank is the hapless, and probably clueless, sidekick.

The most interesting characters are a couple of the women who work at the inn where the Hydes are staying. They have some real issues to deal with – losing loved ones in the war, trying to stay fed and healthy. At least Maddie finally gets some gumption and begins to assert herself – but only when Ellis is away chasing the monster without her.

Of course there’s a major love interest in the war veteran innkeeper, Angus. Tall, strong, handsome, virile – everything Ellis is not. But he’s tortured by his past.

Gruen can write better than this. Still, I was mildly entertained and kept listening.

That may have been due to the fine job that Justine Eyre did on the audio. She kept the pace moving and has the skill as a voice artist to give all the characters unique voices. I loved her Scottish brogue! 4**** for her performance.

We Band of Angels– Elizabeth M. Norman
5*****

Subtitle: The Untold Story of American Nurses Trapped on Bataan by the Japanese

Norman details the personal stories of the nurses and civilians as well as the historical events that led to their interment. These women had signed on for an “exotic” duty station in the tropics. When they applied for transfers to the Philippines they expected – and got - clean, spacious housing units, interesting work in military hospitals, and a lively social life of dances, sports events, concerts, etc, They were treating some wounds – mostly incurred in vehicular or training accidents – but mostly handled the sorts of things that civilian hospitals manage – hernias, appendicitis, infections, as well as maternity and pediatric issues of the military members’ dependents.

Then the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the American military bases in the Philippines and suddenly the medical staffs were consumed with combat wounds. They were cut off from regular supply channels and had to move to increasingly primitive “hospitals.” At one point the wards of wounded were nothing more than hundreds of bamboo beds and pallets arrayed in the open jungle. And the medical staff added tropical diseases and malnutrition to the problems they addressed (and that they, themselves, suffered).

When the US surrendered Bataan and then Corregidor to the Japanese, the women were interred in a camp at the former Santo Tomas University campus in Manila. They spent three years there until finally rescued by the American forces.

But their ordeal was far from over. Brought back to the US as heroes, they were nevertheless slighted when it came to military decorations and honors. And they all suffered continued health problems throughout their lives as a result of their experiences. History all but forgot all about them.

Norman did extensive research and was able to interview a number of the surviving nurses as well as the families of others who had passed on. Their story is gripping and inspiring. Brava!