Becky's Books –

This is basically a novel of post-modern existentialism  –  I guess.    The men portrayed are all at different points in lives in different months of the same year –  and realizing that life is meaningless,  although some fight that idea.   If the major contention of existentialism (as we’ve known it) is that  the individual has to choose – we create our own lives –   very few of these men choose to change, although they all have the opportunity to do that.   Some would like to,   some don’t want to at all,  and some look like they maybe want to but ….    I think a few of the nine do change.  Of course,   it’s too late for the last two.  A  couple of the men are somewhat sympathetic,  most aren’t.   Several stories overlap in small ways.   The stories could be stand-alones,  but the whole is so much bigger than the parts that I see it as a novel.

******
All That Man Is
by David Szaylay
2016 / 369 pages
read by Sean Barrett, Mark Meadows, Huw Parmenter –  13h 20m
Rating:  9.25  /  contemporary fiction 
******

Another overarching metaphor (or conceit or something) of this book is that we are all on life’s journey.   All the men are traveling –  and for the most part –  away from home for the at least a part of the story.   They are all white,  English speaking,  European men who travel in Europe for various reasons.  The age of the men progresses from 17 to 80-something.  The social classes differ from very wealthy to very poor.

They all have jobs and relationships with women.  None of them has any kind of religion or practicing spirituality.

I did make some notes on each chapter:  

According to Szalay,  it appears that all men,  of all ethnicities and from young adult to very old,  are made up of obsessive desires for money and sex.  Period.  The title says “All”  so that’s it, folks.  The narrative shows several different men at different stages of life in the same year,  going through the motions of living,  but really only thinking about sex and money.   These yuk-birds are an assortment of druggies,  drunks, sex-addicts, and money-grubbing workaholics.   Not one was sympathetic at all –    I guess they’re looking for love in all the wrong places.    Those were my first thoughts at any rate – and I wasn’t real happy with the novel.

******
All That Man Is
by David Szaylay
2016 / 369 pages
read by Sean Barrett, Mark Meadows, Huw Parmenter –  13h 20m
Rating:  4  (for the writing)
******

On second reading though I really picked up on a lot more.  How similar the nine European men are who do their life journeys through this novel – or a portion of them anyway –  a passage part.   This is 21st century post-modern existentialism.  They aren’t just “searching for meaning”  they realize there is none.   Well – the first story in which our protagonist,  Simon, who is only 17 years old,   is searching – the others have found it (Christian)  or lost it (Murray and Alexander)  or never did think much about it ( Bernal and Balázs).

It’s basically post-modern existentialism –  I guess.   They’re also at times of life changes –  coming of age,  falling in love,  getting into a permanent relationship,  Every story has some power-driven arguments.   Several overlap in small ways.

The overarching metaphor (or conceit or something) of this book is that we are all on life’s journey.   All the men are traveling –  and for the most part –  away from home.   –

I really needed to read this one twice.

Notes on second reading –

This has looked intriguing for several months so after pruning my Audible wish list (which still has 188 books on it) I went back to it.   Settling in it felt like just what my inner librarian ordered.   A good juicy English mystery.  –  HA –  it’s a LOT more than that.
This book will make my Best of Year  List for sure –  maybe not overall,  but in the Crime Section anyway.

*******
Magpie Murders
by Anthony Horowitz
2017 /  501 pages
read by Samantha Bond & Allan Corduner / 15h 47m
Rating –  8.5  /A++   literary crime 
*******

An editor in the current day is reading the proofs of  the latest installment of  the Atticus Punt series by Alan Conway.   She’s safe and comfy,  alone in her old Victorian house.  Magpie Murders is the name of the novel she’s reading and she warns the reader that the book changed her life.  The book-within-a-book begins:

Part 1 –   Sorrow
July 23,  1955

Chapter 1
A funeral and a grave in the fictional village of Saxby-on-Avon – somewhere near Bath.   It was the economy package and there were only a few actual mourners for Mary Elizabeth Blakiston –  April 5 1887 – to  July  15, 1955.

Chapter 2
Rev Robin Osborne in the vicarage considering Mary Blakiston’s death –  everyone knew Mrs Blakiston.    Henrietta Osborne,  the vicar’s wife.   Mary was “a part of the village.”  She lived and worked as a housekeeper at Pye Hall,  making goodies and arranging flowers.   She was actually somewhat of a busy-body.   Osborne remembers.

(For more of this type of summary see:  ( https://beckylindroos.wordpress.com/102017-2/magpie-murders-by-anthony-horowitz/  )   As you can see the book opens with an editor in contemporary London reading a manuscript and Chapter 1 is a part of the manuscript itself so there are two main threads.

But I really can’t go on with this review without what would be, for me, a major spoiler. I will say that the characters and plot twists are, for the most part,  quite well done –  the manuscript drawing me in more than the frame story.   And the writing and language are nice enough for good reading although mainly straightforward and unadorned so as to keep firmly within the crime genre.  The literary part is probably the structure and the general subject-matter of a book within a book type of thing.

All that said,  Magpie Murders will likely be making my Best of Year in Crime Fiction unless I really strike it rich with rare wonders.  lol

Happy Reading –

So I was just in the mood for something light and this turned up in the Audible Daily Deal – okay – I wasn’t expecting great lit or great crime and after listening to the sample I knew it wouldn’t be either,  but the little summary sounded pretty good and the reading on the sample was great.

Overall the book had more action in it than I expected,  a bit more vulgarity,  and it was also pretty funny in places.   The bare hint of romance didn’t ever detract from this  crime novel but  just in case,  I checked the reviews and romance didn’t seem to be any major part of it and the reviewers seemed quite positive about the narrator,  so … whoosh… click and downloaded.

The story is set in a small town in contemporary Kilbane, Ireland where Siobhan O’Sullivan is running her family’s business called Naomi’s Bistro.  For a 22-year old orphan with 5 younger siblings to raise, thanks to a car wreck killing their parents,  that’s quite a job.    It’s an even bigger job when a man,  Nialle Murphy, whose brother is suspected of drunkenly killing the O’Sullivan parents,  is found murdered in Naomi’s  – stabbed with some pink advertising scissors from a local beauty salon.  These scissors were given away to people all over town.

*******
Murder in an Irish Village
by Carlene O’Connor
2016 / 304 pages
read by Caroline Lennon 10h 3m
rating:   B+ / cozy crime
*******

The eldest sibling,  James,  is widely suspected of being the murderer.  Well, that’s a bit much for Siobhan because although James might be a drunk,  “He’s not a murderer!”

But it looks very bad on James who has no alibi due to being in a drunken blackout at the time.  And then there’s the blood on his shirt.  So begins the amateur detection career  of Siobhan O’Sullivan, surreptitiously, of course.

The lead character,  Siobhan,  is great – she’s fierce, intelligent, loyal and funny.  Although the tale is not told in first person,  it’s definitely from her point of view and we’re privy to her thoughts and feelings.  She’s quite tenacious,  but sometimes her tongue starts up prior to thinking.

Macdara Flannery, the top cop involved, is brusk and smart and protective of the young family of orphans,   but he’s also attracted to Sioban who confides in him and tries to get information in return.

There are plenty of nicely drawn suspects – there’s Sheila the beauty shop owner for one,  whose advertising scissors were used,  her husband with whom there is some strife,   and there’s an American stranger in town.   Actually,  almost everyone in town including John Butler, the undertaker,  is a suspect because Nialle was not a nice guy and he was likely involved in something seriously illegal – he’s been needing a lot of money.

The tension building is well done and includes a riveting final scene or two which kept me listening – all ears.  I also appreciated that it takes place in present-day because the technology from smart-phones with video and the internet is vital.  It really made the whole thing  seem much more realistic to my life.

Finally,  the narrator is perfect – accent and speed and character differentiation and suspense or humor where needed.  I think I might go look and see what else she’s read.

I tried to read some Sherlock Holmes at about age 11 or so and only read a couple stories before I just settled for Nancy Drew and then Agatha Christie with the more recognizable world and a language which was more familiar.    Now,  having spent some time in the Victorian classics,  I’m trying Sherlock Holmes again and finding him … well …  nicely of the age with interesting mysteries and .  And very different from oh Harry Bosch (Michael Connelly)  or Travis McGee (John D. McDonald) – oh to say nothing of V.I. Warshawski.  lol

*******
The Hound of the Baskervilles
by Arthur Conan Doyle
1902 – 116 pages (Kindle)
read by Grahame Stevens
rating –  A+  / classic crime  
*******

Not only does this take place in December,  but it’s one of those “dark and stormy night” books with a death and strange happenings out on the moors.

And the book prior to this one in the Sherlock Holmes series had Holmes being killed off by his nemesis Doctor Moriarity.  But due to the popularity of Holmes,  Doyle brought him back and wrote a couple more novels and many stories about him.

So –  The Hound of  the Baskervilles –   In London one Dr. James Mortimer goes to see Sherlock Holmes and his side-kick Dr. John Watson.  Holmes and Watson both think of themselves as scientists who use logic to solve the issues in which they are interested.

Mortimer presents them with the problem of his friend’s death by heart attack which he believes was by some other means.  He reveals his thinking.   But it’s science and reason against superstition which plays a huge part.

Holmes and Watson interrogate and visit the scene and do experiments to test ideas.   An application of logic is used and voila,   the mystery is solved.  There is only one thread and it’s told in linear sequence,  but some time is spent on descriptive material which creates a nice spooky atmosphere with a good amount of tension.   At a couple points Watson writes letters to Holmes explaining his thoughts and actions.   He feels like he’s in a really primitive world out in the rural parts – he writes of neanderthals.

Holmes tries to use the latest in scientific evidence – of the era.   He was assessing footprints and using phrenology (the study of head sizes which Doyle was in part pooh-poohing) and even the idea of detection was rather new at the time –  developed by the criminal-turned-cop Eugene-Francois Vidocq in the 18th century and took hold of the imaginations of both police and authors like Wilkie Collins, Poe,  Doyle,  etc.   The history of detection goes right along with who-done-it mysteries – police procedurals and amateur sleuths.

The Hound of  the Baskervilles,  like most of the Holmes stories,  is told from the 1st person point of view of his side-kick Watson and to consider there even might be the slightest shade of an unreliable narrator will get a reader way off the track.  I think Watson may be one of the most reliable 1st person narrators in all of literature.  That’s his job – heh.

Doyle writes better than I remembered – or maybe it’s just that I’m older.    The reader,  Grahame Stevens,  helps a lot although he reads a bit fast so it’s a good thing I had the book.

(* This was filed under August and I never got it reposted on  the blog.  I read it in August 2017 – while I was in ND)

Oh,  I’ve wanted to read this for a long, long time.  I saw the movie when I was about 14 years old and loved it – loved Audrey Hepburn, loved Moon River – cried in my popcorn all the way through.

*******
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Truman Capote
1958 / 194 pages 
read by Michael C. Hall
rating:  9.5 –  classic fiction 
*******

So here I am,  50+ years later finally reading the book.  I read In Cold Blood and very much enjoyed it,  also read some gossipy thing by Capote and his Christmas book.

At only 125 pages this is a novella really,   one of those in which every word counts.  More than a short story, but less than a full novel with a one-thread plot and great characters .  It’s like Daisy Miller by Henry James in several ways –  a flirtatious young woman alone in an exotic place where the 1st person protagonist watches her and reports.  There are a few more similarities,  but that’s enough – the stories are both exceptional,   but they’re basically quite different.

Holly Golightly lives in an apartment in New York and meets a neighbor who narrates the story.  It turns out that Holly is more than a bit flighty – I supposed she lives up to her name – and she’s involved in some illicit activities,  making money where she can,  and so on.   She’s come a long way from some tragic beginnings but will she find love and happiness doing what she’s doing?

Good book!  And one of those narratives where the Audio format actually improves things because Gaskell included a fair amount of 19th century, lower class Manchester dialect, using appropriate phonetic spelling.  It makes for fairly difficult reading – especially for a 21st century California girl, but with a good recording artist – like  Juliet Stephenson – it’s  wonderfully and easily comprehensible.    Yes,  I read and listened to this and it took me 4 days because it’s pretty rich stuff – besides,  I really did NOT want it to end.

Margaret Hale, age about 17 or 18,   is the only daughter of  the Vicar and Mrs Hale,  but has been staying at the Shaw home in London for the last ten or so years.   Edith is Margaret’s best friend as well as her cousin.  While there, she was groomed for the life of a lady,  but when her Edith married Captain Lennox and left home for Corfu (an island in western Greece). Margaret went back to her parents in Helstone,  southwest of London.
Margaret is a less stereotypical example of the “Angel of the House” than is found in Dickens.

******
North and South
by Elizabeth Gaskell
1854 / 302 pages
read by Juliet Stephenson 18h 18m
rating –   10
(read and listened)
******

Within a short time after Margaret’s return,  Mr Hale had a crisis of religious conscience about changes in the Church and felt he had to resign his job.  The family moved to Milton, a small industrial (and dirty) town similar to Manchester at the time.  There Mr Hale was employed as a tutor to the local businessmen or whomever wished and could pay him for the services.  Although not a lucrative job, this was apparently  a respectable occupation and appropriate for an ex-vicar.

After a few months in Milton,  Mrs Hale is stricken with some ailment which, due to her tendency toward snobbishness,  we’re let do believe might be a bit exaggerated.  It’s not.  She dies.  Lots of people die in this novel so there are some very sad parts.

Also early on in her  life in Milton,  Margaret is offended by the rough talk of the people she meets,  but there is one who interests her for some reason – not romantic.  This is Nicholas Higgins a widower with a young daughter named Bessy.  Nicholas works in the mills and is a true union supporter down to strikes if necessary but he’s not a hothead.  Gaskell uses language appropriate to Nicholas’ station in life and she writes it out phonetically with the result that it’s rather difficult for a 21st century California reader to decipher.   Also,  some of the words are archaic or colloquial for the times,  “clem” or “clemming”  for instance – it’s the pinch in a person’s stomach when they are very hungry – close to starving.

Meanwhile, there is a man who is interested in Margaret – that’s  Mr. John Thornton,  the owner of one of the main textile factories.   He’s also one of Mr. Hale’s students.   He and Margaret have a huge experience dealing with the union and this ties them.  His family, comprised of  himself, his mother and his sister, is one of the “first” families.  The Thorntons are quite rich,  but Mr Thornton is almost in awe of the Hales’  education.  It might be noted that Thornton is in competition for one of my very favorite male characters in all of fiction.  Truly.

There are several other interesting characters,  none totally good or totally bad – John’s mother,   Mr Bell who is Margaret’s godfather,  Mr Lennox who is a relation of Margaret, Dixon who is Margaret’s maid,  Mr Hale who is her father,  even Bessy who is Nicholas’ daughter and Mr Thornton’s sister, Fanny.   Margaret’s brother remains shadowy – as well he should.

The plot goes about it’s business simmering and stewing in a couple or three threads and with surprising twists to increase the tension within the thematic oppositions:   North/South environments;  home/outsider;  union/owners;  money /poverty (& class structure);  health/illness (dying); banquets/ starving;  love/loathing; pride/humilty;  parents/children; conscience/ruthlessness;  sexual roles,  etc.  And of course there’s the possible happy ending romance which keeps the reader guessing until the very last page.

Although this was first published by Charles Dickens in serial form in his magazine,  “Household Words,” AND in the same year as Dickens’ own novel “Hard Times” AND about the same basic troubles,  there are many differences between the two authors and these books.  Gaskell’s  plot is far more carefully thought out than the soap-opera of Dickens’ in Hard Times and North and South is less polemic about the social issues than Hard Times,  – etc.    It’s still the same setting though, and Gaskell’s sympathies are generally in line with those of her publisher.

Cleave Books  

Dr Roger Stanton is on trial for malpractice –  or was what he did murder?  It seems the good doctor’s hand might have slipped while performing a laminectomy on Philip Corrigan and cut an aorta instead.   Stanton went to Jake Lassiter for his defense and Lassiter found that Stanton himself was slippery guy,   not always telling the whole truth.  For instance,  Stanton and the widow of the patient, the ex-stripper Melanie Corrigan, had been having a little affair and Stanton was truly smitten.   Smitten enough for a motive to kill?   And then there’s Susan Corrigan,  Philip’s daughter by his deceased wife – what’s she got to do with it?  A large inheritance, for one thing.

*******
To Speak for the Dead
by Paul Levine
1990 / 307 pages
read by Luke Daniels  10h 7m 
rating:  A  crime (legal thriller) 
*******

Jake Lassiter is the protagonist of about a dozen  courtroom thrillers by Paul Levine and we’re being introduced in this first of the series.  (I love good legal thrillers.)

Continuing with the plot –  the patient didn’t actually die until about 12 hours after  the otherwise successful laminectomy.  The widow sues for malpractice anyway and the doctor hires Lassiter for his defense.  Easy case – Lassiter wins – and then the action begins because if it wasn’t the operation,  what and who was it that killed Corrigan?  And, of course,  why?

There’s a fascinating character named Dr Charlie Riggs who is very helpful to Jake and I think he’ll be regular character in the series.  Charlie is a retired medical examiner who says it’s his job  “to speak for the dead,”    And Lassiter’s grandmother enters the picture, a funny little back-home character.

Lots of fun –

I got 2/3 of the way through the book and realized I wasn’t picking up on everything basically because I had expected fast-paced suspense as was hyped in the ads as well as displayed in the Prologue   But alas,  after that action packed Prologue,  the tension starts rather slowly and not until about the 1/2 way mark – maybe even further and it only picks up sporadically.

This is not a book of suspense, at all  – it’s a book of human relationships,  family, longing, missing people,  feelings with a little plot of hunting down a missing man as a kind of sideline.  But … it made several lists of best mysteries of 2017,  fwiw.   (Why?  Because it’s a lovely and well-written book with a little mystery in it?)

*******
Celine
by Peter Heller
2017 / 353 pages
read by Kimberly Farr  11h 20m
rating:   8 – B   /  literary – crime
*******

For lit lovers,  there is an overarching theme in the loss of family, especially of fathers, but also of mothers and children and siblings.   But when that high emotional content is coupled with a specific missing person crime crime case and a couple of aging detectives  the effect might spoil both genres.  The crime reader is going to get bored with the lovely descriptions and the insights in human nature while the reader of literary fiction is going to get irked by the action.   I love both and although I love a wonderfully well written novel with interesting metaphors and challenging themes plus engaging characters it doesn’t belong in the middle of what could be a rip-roaring suspense tale.

The hype for Celine intrigued me :

“From the best-selling author of The Dog Stars and The Painter, a luminous, masterful novel of suspense–the story of Celine, an elegant, aristocratic private eye who specializes in reuniting families, trying to make amends for a loss in her own past.”  –  https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/545212/celine-by-peter-heller/9780451493897/

A kind of thriller hook is set up in the Prologue,  a standard technique these days. This time it happened long before the main events in the story.     Gabriela Ambrosio Lamont  first lost her mother Amana,  a young and beautiful Brazilian woman,  in a drowning accident when Gabriela was about 8 years old – in 1967 or so.   (If she was born in 1959 she’s now – in the 2002 setting   – 43 years old.    Ten years later,  her father Paul Lamont, a photographer for National Geographic and part time spy,   simply disappeared somewhere just outside of Yellowstone National Park.   Some more years later,  in 2002 to be exact,  and as an adult,  Gabriela  enlists Celine Watkins to help locate her father.

Things had happened in the 68-year old Celine’s life but she’s now married to Pete,  and has a son, Hank,  from a prior marriage.  She has a complicated history and now has many years sober  in Alcoholics Anonymous which is where she met Pete.   She and Gabriela are from the same upper class society and are both alumni of Sarah Lawrence.   An alumni newsletter is how Gabriela found her.

Most of the book is character development for Celine –  I really liked Celine,  I fell in love with Pete,  I admired Hank,  and I had a lot of sympathy for Gabriela.   I think my reactions were in line with the author’s intent.   But the story line – which is compelling in its own right – gets a bit lost with all the background stories.  Is this about the hunt for Gabriela’s father or is it about Celine’s own issues with absent parents?   –  Hard telling because the threads are so interwoven it interferes with the story.  In the middle of some action Celine is reminded of when her son Hank …   (sigh)

Another thing which really got me messed up was the time changes.  The frame story takes place in 2002 but there are backstories within backstories with ages and dates – 1933,  1948,  1967  – sigh.

Back to the plot:   The official investigation determined that  Paul was eaten by a bear,  but the paperwork was completed very quickly so Gabriela has always been suspicious about it.   When Celine hears about it she’s suspicious, too.   It’s a case which is right up her alley.   The road trip starts in Chapter 6 –  Celine and Pete work out of an old camper named Benny while Hank does helpful research in New York,  along with his own little project. .  Pete is quite surprising in the background information he gathers on Paul and Gabriela.

The language is lush and careful,  especially when describing the western setting.  There are some really funny lines in the dialogue – Pete is a kick.

(Salvador Allende –  supposedly committed suicide but he was surrounded by military –  it was investigated and he did commit suicide –  imo – he made his explanation in the radio broadcast just prior.)

*******

I read this long ago and enjoyed it, so when the 4-Mystery Addicts group chose it for discussion I thought I might reread (re-listen).   I’ve read the first 4 of  the series and I guess I must have tired of them,  but I did enjoy the first few and as a reread it was, perhaps,  even more enjoyable (although I did pretty much remember the thread endings).

The Amelia Peabody series was written by Barbara Mertz –  a noted Egyptologist – under the pen name of Elizabeth Peters.  There are 19 more in the series which ended in 2006 with one finished (by Joan Hess) but published in 2017,  following Michaels’ death in 2013 (at age 85).

*******
The Crocodile on the Sandbank
by Elizabeth Peters  
1975/ 272 pages
read by Barbara Rosenblatt – 9h 51m
rating:  A-  / historical crime (cozy)
*******

The year is 1884-85 and Amelia Peabody, a plain but well-to-do, recently orphaned and single,  31-year old woman has decided to set off on a trip to Egypt.  Miss Peabody is the star of the show here –    our first-person heroine puts on the airs of a chatty,  old-fashioned snob even for her era in Victorian times.  She’s hilarious and Rosenblatt reads her to perfection.

In Rome she becomes acquainted with a young woman who has been disowned by her grandfather and jilted by her lover with the result that she is destitute and totally alone. This is Evelyn Barton-Forbes and Amelia takes the poor thihg under her wing with the result that Evelyn becomes her companion and good friend.   Evelyn is bright and beautiful and very loyal to Amelia.  But Evelyn’s cousin, Lucas, shows up and offers to marry her  – that idea doesn’t work out too well – a main plot thread as he’s an obvious fortune hunter.

The two ladies travel to an archeology dig near Cairo where Amelia begins to indulge her passion for Egyptology.   The two also meet the archeologists Walter and Radcliffe Emerson.  Walter has a strong attraction for Evelyn,  but she’s deliberately cool – ashamed of her history.

The pair travels on to Amana, Egypt and a series of adventures including a robbery and the appearance of  a wandering and malicious mummy which is apparently connected to a poisonous cobra.  As the group tries to solve the mysteries the tale almost becomes a thriller complete with guns and snake-bites.

Lucas shows up again and both he and Walter are interested in Evelyn – rivals, jealousy, etc..   Amelia approves of Walter,  but Evelyn is hesitant while Radcliffe may be too encouraging – for his own gain?  There is much jealousy there while Evelyn is convinced Amelia is also in love in some way but how would Amelia know?

There are a few village natives involved here, too.  Michael, Abdullah,  and a small crew of laborers.  They’re pretty interesting – the characters are the real strength of this novel –  mainly because it’s the first novel of the series and that’s when characters are established.

Amelia is quite smart and a natural born amateur detective.  She’s also independent to a fault with a sharp tongue and a Victorian snob but with a heart of gold.  When she and Evelyn team up with the Emersons the plot definitely thickens.

There is really quite a lot of romance in this book,  but for some reason it works for me –  Amelia is just too charming.

http://www.thcreviews.com/cgi-bin/vts/book_review.html?book_review_id=142

There is a LOT going on in this novel – mostly the angst and alienation of mid-20th century men,  but there’s also the old South of New Orleans,  Christianity (Catholicism),  movies,  women,  fishing,  making money,  Mardi Gras,  families,  mental and physical illness,  death,  etc.  Mostly it’s a search for identity by someone who refuses to be “identified”  or maybe who identifies with everybody/thing.

*******
The Moviegoer
by Walker Percy
1961-  254 pages
read by Christopher Hurt  6h 35m
rating:  10   /  classic US
(read and listened)
** CHAPTER NOTES ** 
*******

I read Percy’s book,  The Second Coming many years ago and wanted to read The Moviegoer ever since.   I was so engrossed this time I even took chapter notes.  Still,  I had to go back and reread those parts where I thought something had changed in the characters.

Basically this is the story of eight days in a young man’s life.  He’s an unmarried, and financially successful businessman and the days are those preceding Mardi Gras as well as his 30th birthday.     Jack (Binx) Bolling is on  “search”  for the reality of being human,  but at same time seems like he’s trying to avoid it.

Jack is our first-person hero,  a veteran of the Korean War with a war injury,  his father is deceased and his mother remarried and now has several more children.   Binx lives in one neighborhood of New Orleans while his Aunt Emily, her husband and Emily’s step-daughter Kate,  live in another, more fashionable section.  Binx is a nice guy – a gentleman of sorts,  of his own times, maybe.  But he is truly rootless and doesn’t know what he wants to be or to do.

He likes to go to movies quite a lot,  he turns his secretaries into lovers , and drives his little red sports car to the coast.  And he’s always thinking  –  he has a “search” going on.   His search is for meaning in what seems like a meaningless world.  Movies have more meaning – they’re more real.   And he’s looking for his authentic self – the real Binx Bolling, by using his detached observations.

The story opens over Mardi Gras time in New Orleans which is not a good setting in which to find reality but that’s really not the point although it adds to quite a lot of it.

His cousin-by-marriage,  the beautiful but seriously insecure (or depressed or whatever)  Kate Cutrer, needs some real help.   Her step-mother, Aunt Emily,  wants Binx to at least take an interest – perhaps marry Kate.   The two are birds of a feather in some ways – both are bright and beautiful,  rebels against the traditions of the place and times,  and both somewhat screwed up.  Binx can talk to Kate and she’ll listen (usually).  She is under a doctor’s care for her condition.

Binx is escaping emotional connections by observing rather than interacting with his environment – he lives aways away from his family and has serial secretaries.  He lives in a boarding house and tends to use public transportation in town.  He can certainly afford his own home considering he’s making $30,000 in about 1960. (And what cost $30,000 in 1958 would cost $246,981.92  in 2016.  But he’s rootless – has no religion,  no political persuasion,  no career he’s proud of (he sells stocks and bonds).  He likes making money but doesn’t feel it’s terribly “meaningful.”

He is attached to the sounds and smells and people of New Orleans and protests greatly when his uncle sends him to Chicago during Carnival.   He’s has problems with virtually every other part of his identity.

Kate has been depressed since her fiancé died several years prior.  She’s now engaged to a nice enough guy named Walter,  but it’s not doing her much good.

Binx also has a step-brother named Lonnie who is very ill.  It seems as though the only people Binx really interacts with are Kate and Lonnie.

Binx has two alternatives – one,  the very material Southern tradition of his Aunt Emily,   or two,  the Catholicism of his mother.    Percy was a converted Catholic as well as an existentialist –

When I first read the ending from the vantage point of a cynical 21st century reader I thought – “Yeah,  how long will that last?”   Reading the book from the pov of Walker Percy I think a happy ending is what is intended.

I’ve read a number of Coban’s books (8 I think) and the ones narrated by Scott Brick are almost over-the-top with suspense what with Coban’s storytelling talents and Brick’s ability to make any string of words sound suspenseful, but they’re usually fun.

In this one from 2008 (which makes it a bit dated in terms of the technology involved) the interwoven threads revolve around children and families and what parents will almost always do to protect them.   The story opens with the vicious murder of a woman whose body is then left in the back alley of a red-light district – she’s dressed the part of a hooker.  The cops won’t suspect who she really is.

*******
Hold Tight
by Harlan Coben
2008 / 444 pages
read by Scott Brick 12h 3m
rating:  A   / crime-suspense
*******

Next we get a scene switch to the comfortable home of Dr Mike Baye, his wife Tia (an attorney), and their children Adam and Jill,  ages 16 and 10 respectively.   Adam’s friend Spenser has recently committed suicide so Mike and Tia are worried about Adam.  They put a tracker on his computer.

Then there are the parents of the boy who died.  His parents are filled with incredible grief – Betsy Hill can’t/won’t get over it.   Other scenarios include a girl and her single father – the girl has been dissed by a teacher at school;  the teacher’s wife and family;  a very ill young boy whose parents are seeking an organ donor for him;   another dead woman and her family;  the murderers and their problems;  the cops who are looking for the murderers;  a teen-age hang-out and its proprietors.

For a crime writer who uses quite a lot of violence, Coben creates some really good characters,  but there are so many of them they’re  hard to keep straight.  On the other hand, by the time I did get them straight, I I didn’t want the story to end.   Also he takes on some themes in his writing – the interwoven threads are connected by children and their parents who desire to protect them.

And with all the intertwined plot threads the tension stays way up and there are some real corkscrew twists all the way to the end.

I guess it may not be his best novel but it’s a goodie.

I’ve been meaning to get to this book for a long time.  I’ve read quite a lot of books which deal with the history of  Christianity because it’s so fascinating from an historical point of view – especially early Christianity and the formation of the Church and establishment of the Bible as it is plus the Protestant Reformation and its many ramifications.

Early Christianity can be quite a muddle but … I usually read Bart Ehrman or Karen Anderson (linked on this site)  or  Diarmaid MacCulloch  and other religions, too,  but I’ve read a Pagels or two as well.  Pagels is some kind of Protestant (maybe “gnostic”),   while Ehrman and Anderson don’t seem to be anything particular and their writings geared toward the historical.

*******
Beyond Belief
by Elaine Pagels
2003 / 272 pages
read by Cassandra Campbell – 6h 9m
rating: 8 / nonfiction history of Christianity
(read and listened)
*******

The book concerns the way the Biblical Canon –  especially the Gospels – were chosen to be the front-and-center writings of the New Testament.

The Gospels according to Matthew Mark and Luke were not problematical at all.  But John’s account was far more controversial.  The problem was the Gospel of Thomas which was available until some time after 325 AD. His ideas clashed dramatically with those of John.     Actually,   it may be as much about a man namedIrenaeus, the Bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul,  as it is about Thomas or John because Irenaeus and his followers supported John over Thomas and realized an “official” collection of the writings as a whole, of those available,  needed to be established.  The bulk of the book concerns how Thomas got left out of the Gospels in favor of John.  (And then the documents were hidden for a couple thousand years.)

There’s a certain amount of background which discusses the Didache, one of the very first documents which outlines the basic principles of Christianity,  ethics, the Lord’s Prayer, a few sacraments, and the organization.  This was available prior to most other writings.

But there were lots and lots of writings and Irenaeus  thought one solid system for Christianity was needed –    a Bible (meaning Bibliotech).   He disliked the ideas of Thomas and emphasized the ideas of John so he villainized the Thomasites and sanctified the Johannites (and Paul).    John’s message became orthodox and the other writers (Phillip and Valentinius and others –  many more than just Thomas) were banished,  only to become found and recognized in 1945 and later.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nag_Hammadi_library

Pagels writes very nicely but the book is quite dense so at 3/4 through I thought – I need the Kindle version here! lol!  Dear Reader,   I started over with the more immersive and enhanced experience of “read and listen”  where I can go back and relisten to passages,  note how names are spelled,  Google for more info,  check the Notes sections,  etc.

I got so entranced I made CHAPTER NOTES –

I’d been seeing this around and put it on my wish list so I nominated it for the All-Nonfiction reading group and it got selected.   I was glad and looking forward to reading it.   As usual, though,  I put off reading until closer to the date of the discussion – Oct. 1.

First,   according to Woodward in the Introduction,  “Americans have been deeply divided since the days of Jamestown and Plymouth,” and  “All of these centuries-oldcultures are still with us today and have spread their people, ideas, and influence across mutually exclusive bands of the continent.  There isn’t and never has been one America,  but rather several Americas” (pp 75-76)

According to Woodward,  the United States is comprised of eleven distinct different nations which have their own history and cultural identities (language, religion, ethnic origin, history) religious and political ideas, even  if they don’t have their own “states.”  The traits of these nations are outlined In the excellent Introduction:

*******
American Nations:  A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America
by Colin Woodward
 2011 / 384 pages
read by Walter Dixon –  12h 52m
rating: 9.5
(read and listened) 
*******

• Yankeedom
• New Netherlands
• The Midlands
• Tidewater
• Greater Appalachia
• The Deep South
• New France
• El Norte
• The Left Coast
• The Far West
• First Nations

Each of these nations has a chapter or two (founding and spread)  but presented in chronological order of European settlement interspersed with major historical developments such as the “Six Wars of Liberation” and “Immigration and Identity.”

There is a superb article and map at:
http://emerald.tufts.edu/alumni/magazine/fall2013/features/up-in-arms.html

I didn’t quite finish the chapter summaries,  but I got all but Part IV:  (see: https://beckylindroos.wordpress.com/092017-2/american-nations/american-nations-notes/

I had mixed feelings about reading this book –  on the one hand I looked forward to reading it because I so enjoyed Richter’s Solomon Gursky Was Here a few years ago.  On the other hand,  St Urbain’s was first published in 1971 and I’ve had problems with other novels of that era.    That said – it’s the book chosen for the October discussion in theBooker Prize group so …

*******
St Urbain’s Horseman
by Mordecai Richler
1971 / 502 pages
read by Robert MacNeil 13h 36m
rating –  7 –   1970s lit    (I loved the ending)
******* 

Main premise:   What’s a good upright middle-age and upper middle-class Jewish guy to do when his buddies from the hood seem to all be taking advantage of the new sexual freedoms and getting it on with whichever young thing has big boobs and a pair of legs?   Ach –

But I started and sure enough – by Chapter 3  I was tuning out  the 1970s sexist lingo.  I had to read through a couple of reviews to see if I’d continue.   I did,  but it was out of loyalty to the group and the fact I’d actually bought the book rather than any interest.

Our angst-filled protagonist,  Jake Hersch,  is a 36-year old man,  married with children,  from Montreal,  but living in London where he works as a director/producer in the film and television industry.  The years were contemporary with the publishing –  the very late 1960s , maybe 1971 – the times they were a changing with sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll. And poor Jake wants in on the action but … he’s got principles and  old Jewish ties.

Jake is a moral man, in love with his wife and very much a part of his own generation. He feels like he was born too late to be a part of the WWII generation and too early for the day’s hipsters.   He’s squished into the middle,  wanting the sex and freedom of the young folks –  but the security of wife and family.   He wants his family honor as well.  He’s deeply envious of the lifestyle a few of his friends seem to be pursuing.  Still,  he’s not certain he wants to (or can)  let go of the values he was raised with.

So his problem is really existential – how to be manly and free without losing your ideals  in 1971?    I see the satire, but it’s dated  in the same way Playboy bunnies are dated.   And the book just goes on and on and on to where Jakes seems to get a bit angry and somewhat mean-spirited in places.

** But that’s the point –  Richler is saying that this “new age” (of hip, slick and cool – of sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll)   is vulgar and ugly.  For a reader who experienced something different in 1971 that’s a huge turn-off.   Jake wants to be able to fight this nonsense the same way his cousin Joey fights for truth and justice re the Nazis and the Spanish Civil War.  (But in reality,  Joey is not pure either.)

When the story opens Jake is involved in a court case due to the shenanigans of a con-artist he’s befriended named Harry Stein.

I think I was supposed to hold Jake Hersch in some respect and sympathy – I didn’t quite get there even though he didn’t actually participate in the wrong-doings of his friends.  I felt kind of sorry for him – the way I feel sorry for the characters of Graham Greene and their religion vs sex themes.    I don’ t think Richler or Jake is very clear about why Jake does not succumb.

Much of the story is made up of a series of backflashes to when he was growing up  in  lower class Montreal with his little Jewish gang of buddies.  The stories then move to later in his life.  Sometimes they deal with what his older cousin Joey might be doing – Joey is Jake’s deeply flawed personal hero and the eponymous “horseman.”   But his heroics  are all in Jake’s imagination.  He’s supposedly chasing Joseph Mengele in Israel among other places.  – (Living in days of old imo.)

Some of Jake’s friends are sexist to the point of misogyny and this novel is supposedly “realistic.”   The women are generally true to an outline of young,  long-legged, sex-objects with important breasts, etc.  who throw their panties around and are generally the object of the men’s desires.   There are some places where the narrative is just plain gross talking about defecation and nose buggers and other matters.   Only Nancy,  Jake’s wife,  is a “nice lady” and that comes across as being about as life-like as cardboard.

Richler writes nicely although so much is “tough-cool”  slangy dialogue it feels like a 1940s novel.  Published 15 years later,  Solomon Gursky Was Here had far more appeal,  It was funnier.  This seems like a specific coming-of-age story while Solomon Gursky was more of a generational saga.

Richler and Timothy Leary – in Google Books:
http://tinyurl.com/y94yc4gy

There also seems to be some anti-Semitism  in that although yes,  Richler is Jewish but the book is plumb full of Jewish “jokes” and pointed satire which doesn’t really sound right – it’s off in some way even if Richler says it’s satire and no one is safe.   Might be a sign of the times a’changing and what was ok,  is now not.

And this was on the same shortlist as Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor.  (sigh)  Fwiw,   V.S. Naipaul’s In a Free State was the winner of the prize that year.   (I need to read that.)
Wikipedia list

https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/scl/article/view/7928/8985

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/29/AR2006032902528.html

http://www.robertfulford.com/2007-09-18-richler.html

https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/IFR/article/viewFile/13162/14245

It was really all because of Finn Harrington messy past life as a spy that Hailey Portman, a bright and well behaved 15-year old and Finn’s neighbor,  went missing.   She had been gone from her home in Geneva for several days when her very worried parents,  feeling it was more than what the police called a “simple runaway,”  contacted Finn to see if he could help.   By this time in his life Finn had created a new life as a writer of popular history books.  But Hailey’s mother was friends with Finn’s partner,  Adrienne and who had mentioned that Finn had some kind of spying experience and was “very smart.”

*******
The Traitor’s Story
by Kevin Wignall
2016 / 384 pages
read by Simon Vance 10h 2m
rating:  A+ 
*******

Finn’s interest is piqued by the fact that it really doesn’t look like Hailey was abducted,  but rather,  she carefully and deliberately planned her own disappearance.  Yes,  a runaway,  but to Finn,  with some possibly more sinister ramifi-cations. –  First,  he’s got reason to be nervous about his own security and,  second,  he’s possibly a bit paranoid.   There may be people still after him and he doesn’t like these kinds of situations.

So we naturally have the backstory of Finn’s experience in the spy biz – what got him in trouble six years prior,  and why he’s now trying to lay low.  The thread dealing with his past pops in every once in awhile to add some texture and the requisite background.

Jonas,  Hailey’s incredibly smart friend and neighbor,  provides quite a lot of information and Finn puts a lot of it together with his own suspicions.  It seems the teenagers have hacked the computer network of yet another neighbor named Gibson who was,  indeed,  keeping an eye on Finn for other people and that thread leads to some very interesting shenanigans.

http://lizlovesbooks.com/lizlovesbooks/the-traitors-story-kevin-wignall-interview-and-review/

I should never have even bothered.  Even if it was on sale.  Even if it was recommended by a friend (and got on my wish list).   Even if it did get good reviews.   The premise sounded good –  true crime writer investigates the crime in her own background.   Alas,  I knew it was “romantic suspense”  after only about 30 minutes.   Sigh.   And then I saw it on the reviews.  Sigh.  But I persevered because it sounded promising.   –  yes and no.

*******
In the Waning Light
by Loreth Anne White
2015/ 432 pages
read by Tanya Eby 13h 28m
Rating:  C–  (too much romance)
*******

Meg Brogan, our protagonist,  writes very popular true crime books,  but after a TV interviewer challenges her to write about the murder of her sister which put her own father in jail she finally succumbs and begins her own search for truth.

Working out of a shabby camper (her office) in the yard of her old fire-damaged and abandoned family home,  Meg revisits the summer of 1995 (?)   when her teenage sister went missing.  The Brogans are a nice family who live in a nice enough suburban home,  Sherry was getting ready to go to Stanford but was having a last summer fling in spite of the bad weather.  The sisters were supposed to have gone to the movies, but no one had seen them for hours.   A search is on.   Thirteen-year old Megan was last seen, alone,  by Blake Sutton,  who has a crush on her,  taking the boat out into the bay in spite of the weather.  She returned safely.   Sherry was found raped and dead.   Now,  18 years later, Megan is investigating what happened to Sherry although her father went to prison for the murder of her rapist and he died two years prior.

Through interviews and document searches Megan teases out most of the truth – and the chase at the end solidifies it all.  The reader knows a bit of what is going on because some scenes are between the conspirators.  And then Meg thinks she’s starting to remember something.  Blake is willing to help as is her aunt who now lives in assisted living ever since the house burned.

All those years ago,  Sherry was supposedly raped by Tyson Mack and Meg’s father blew up at the idea and in a rage shot Tyson –  Dad died in prison.   That’s the story.  That’s the lie.  There are a lot of secrets.   But her mother,  according to Aunt Edith,  never did believe her husband did it and she kept notes found after the fire.   Meg finds the notes and starts digging – there’s a lot of animosity in town about her digging around in the past.  There are certain people who seriously need to keep it all covered up.  And it gets complicated.  Mom committed suicide in the aftermath.  But don’t believe everything is as it looks.

It’s a pretty good story,  albeit padded with romance and repetition,  and White keeps the tension up nicely.  Still the romance stuff interferes from time to time –  and it gets graphic (sigh).   Fortunately I was able to ignore it, as much as possible, for the sake of the crime story.