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The Spies
of Warsaw by Alan Furst Random House 2008
Rating - 8
It was 1937 in Warsaw and the city's restaurants and clubs were over run with
German, French, Polish, Czech and Russian diplomats all operating under the
cover of their diplomatic passports to spy on each other. Everyone knew
that a massive war machine was being built in Hitler's Germany. It was
their task to find out exactly what, when and how the leader of Nazi Germany
planned to use it. In the French embassy, posing as a military attaché,
Colonel Jean-François Mercier, a hero from the first world war and an eligible
bachelor. made the social round, rubbed shoulders with the right people and
quietly spied on the activities of the German military as they made their plans
to invade France. Meanwhile the German "Diplomats" in town, aided by
thugs from the SS, were kept busy trying to plug the leaks as disaffected
Germans fled the country armed with state secrets which could be exchanged for a
new identity and a ticket out of Europe. Alan Furst is well practiced in
the writing of this type of intrigue, his novel is very carefully set with a
background of the historical events leading up to WWII. The novel is
garnished with a couple of Russian spies, who discover they are about to fall
foul of the endless Stalinist purges, a German officer of the Sicherheitsdienst
- SS who has a personal bone to pick with Mercier after the Frenchman spoiled
one of his actions, and the lovely Anna a French lawyer of Polish ancestry
working for the League of Nations in Warsaw. All-in-all not a great novel
but an honest novel, very well written, enjoyable and who knows . . . maybe
close to the truth.
Reviewed by Dennis August 2008
The Reluctant Fundamentalist
by Mohsin Hamid Harcourt Inc. 2007 Rating 7
A young bearded Pakistani meets an American man in Lahore Pakistan and
strikes up a conversation with him. The Pakistani, who's name is Changez,
proceeds to relate the story of the past four and a half years of his life which
were spent in America. He graduated top of his class at Princeton
University and was one a a select group of graduates hired by a prestigious New
York Company. The year is 2001, he loved New York and its fast paced life,
he loved his job, the sense of accomplishment it offered and the relatively
comfortable lifestyle it afforded him, and he loved Erica, a Princeton graduate
he had met who had recently lost her childhood sweetheart to cancer. His
cautious, tender approach to her seemed to be winning her injured heart.
Then came the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11.
New York and all its apartments, offices and vehicles were suddenly bedecked
with American flags. Suddenly, he realized that not only was he not an
American, but he was one of those who was regarded warily on the street and
selected for special attention every time he went to the airport and even at
work, his boss suggests he consider shaving off his beard. His world was
changing around him, New York was not his town any more, Pakistani cab drivers
were being beaten up, mosques were being raided by the FBI. Back home,
Pakistan's long lasting feud with India was heating up, armies were massed on
the border and it was clear that America was not on the Pakistan side. To
make it all worse, his love life was not progressing as he had dreamed it would.
He begins to find he objects to America's stance on affairs international,
objects to its incursions into Korea, Vietnam and now Afghanistan, neighbor to
his homeland and he objects to the way he is being treated at airports.
Slowly he comes to realize that there are things which are more important to him
than the fancy job and New York lifestyle. It was a realization which
would change his life. The story of this chapter in Changez' life is
related to the stranger during one evening while they drank tea and ate dinner.
It is a very readable story, and like the one reviewed here below, beautifully
written in English by a man whose first language is not English. The
dialogue seemed to me at times to be somewhat unreal, and at the end I was left
wondering to what extent the changes in his life were prompted by his cultural
disconnect as opposed to his unrequited love for Erica. However it is a
good read and I can recommend it to you.
Reviewed by Dennis January 2008
A Thousand Splendid Suns
by Khaled Hosseini Riverhead Books 2007 Rating 10
Another wonderful novel by Afghan-born Khaled Hosseini. It is the story of
Mariam the illegitimate daughter of the wealthy merchant Jalil and his servant
Nana, and of Laila the daughter of Fariba and Hakim, and of Laila's childhood
sweetheart, Tariq. The story is set against the background of the last 40
tumultuous years in Afghanistan from the days in the 1960's before the Soviet
invasion, through the years of the warlords, the Taliban and eventually the US
invasion to route the Taliban following the attack on the Twin Towers.
Mariam and her mother live a life of poverty in a small hovel outside of the
town of Herat. Although her father loves the child, and comes regularly to
visit her, he elects not to publicly recognize her or permit her and her mother
to live in the big house in Herat. From her village on a hill side, she is
able to look down on the town of Herat and wonders about the life of relative
luxury which is enjoyed by her half brothers and sisters in the big house.
Laila lived a relatively happy life with her parents in Kabul until after the
Soviets left and the warlords fought to establish control, raining rockets down
on the town making life miserable for the inhabitants. Hakim and his wife
finally decide to leave and move their family to Peshewar in Pakistan until the
fighting is over. As they are packing their belongings to leave, cruel
fate intervenes and their lives are forever changed. Khaled Hosseini has
told this tale beautifully, and endowed it with the rich culture of Afghan life.
It is a story which is at once beautiful and terrible, a story of selfless
undying love and of hatred and unbelievable cruelty, and all the time you know
that this was the way it really was. This book tells one of the most absorbing
and interesting stories I have ever read and I shall read it again after a
while.
Reviewed by Dennis January 2008
Suite Française
by Irène Némirovsky Alfred A. Knopf 2006 Rating 9
This novel bridges the divide between fact and fiction and as such is just
my cup of tea. Irène Némirovsky, a successful Russian born novelist, was
living in Paris at the start of the second world war - 1939. Although of
Jewish parentage, she was in fact a Catholic, married and with two small
children. By 1940 it was clear that France would be overthrown and Paris
would be occupied by the Nazis. The Parisienne, and particularly the
Jewish citizens of Paris, on hearing the guns of war outside their city, then
proceeded by the thousands to flee, and make for the rural communities of France
hoping to avoid the wrath of the Nazis. In the case of the Jews, to save their
lives. Némirovsky and her family fled to a small town in central France
and she began to write the first of what she planned to be a series of four or
five stories about the French experience during the war. She had completed
her drafts of the first two of these, when she was discovered by the German SS
and sent immediately to a concentration camp. Within a month, at the age
of 39, she was executed. After a relatively short time her husband
suffered the same fate. The children were taken by a friend and hidden
from the Nazis for the duration of the war, and survived. They took their
Mother's manuscript into hiding with them and some 60 years later, it was taken
by Némirovsky's daughter, Denise Epstein to a publisher. It was published
first in France, where it has already been very successful, and with a fine
translation by Sandra Smith, now in English. The first of the two stories,
"Storm in June" tells of the mass, panic exodus at the eleventh hour from
Paris, where families, some of them used to a life of luxury, and most used to a
degree of comfort and pleasure, were thrown into a situation in which they had
no control over their circumstances, and where real friends were distinguished
from the fair-weather kind. Some of them found tolerable accommodation,
some eventually returned to Paris, and some died under the guns of German
fighter planes. The second story, is titled "Dolce" and it
continues from the first in telling of life for the evacuees in a small rural
village, occupied by German soldiers. Some of the French accommodated themselves
to the soldiers and adapted a lifestyle in spite of them, some never accepted
their presence, some resisted, some collaborated and some died. These are
not great stories, but they are told with a sensitivity which could only come
from the pen of a very good writer. Unfortunately, she never had the
opportunity to review and polish them and the translator has faithfully
translated leaving what errors there may be in place. There are two
appendices in the book, the first containing the author's notes, the second
contains her correspondence at the time. They add a considerable measure
of poignancy to the stories, and in fact, I recommend that you read them first.
It is a wonderful story, hailed in Europe as a French "Anne Frank". I
heartily recommend it to you.
Reviewed by Dennis September 2006
Arthur & George
by Julian Barnes Alfred A. Knopf 2006 Rating 10
The publisher calls it a novel, but there's as much fact as there is fiction
in this story about Arthur and George. Which means that its right up my alley.
The story spans the last quarter century of the Victorian era and the first
thirty years of the twentieth century. Arthur is Arthur Conan Doyle,
famous English gentleman, Physician, Knight of the Realm and author of the Sherlock Holmes
detective stories. George is George Edalji, son of a vicar living quietly
in the English midlands his mother from a long line of Scottish ancestors, his
father a Pashteen from India. Arthur grew up in Edinburgh, the genteel
capital of Scotland, went to university and became a Physician. He studied
in Vienna and Paris and eventually opened his own office in Devonshire Place in
:London. He had an examining room and a waiting room, but he observed that
in fact both rooms were waiting rooms as he waited for the patients who did not
come. So he occupied his idle time writing and soon it was writing which
became his life's work. His initial fictional character, Sheridan Hope,
became the renown detective Sherlock Holmes and although this was not the type
of writing to which Doyle originally aspired, it made him rich and famous, the
friend of queens and ministers, writers and sportsmen all over the world.
It was a lifestyle which fit perfectly to his outgoing personality. George
Edalji was a quiet unassuming fellow, even shy. Bright but not brilliant.
George lived a sheltered life in the vicarage, avoided social contact and was
given to taking long walks alone. He wanted nothing more than a modest
life as a solicitor, living quietly and riding the train each morning to his
office in Birmingham. Then fate entered George's life, a series of
unimaginable happenings which at once frightened and bewildered him. It
was those events and their consequences which brought these two very different
lives together, and they remained linked for the rest of their lives. It
was a massive mis-carriage of English justice which put George's face on the
front page of newspapers all over the world and caused Arthur to leave his
writing desk, put on the hat and the cloak, and assume the role of Sherlock Holmes
himself. The story is basically true, no doubt colored and embellished by
Julian Barnes' incredible skill as an writer. Barnes comes from the Midlands,
being born just a stone's throw from where I grew up. He has been richly
praised for his work and is one of the few English writers to have been
recognized with an award of the French Order of letters. Arthur & George is one
of the most absorbing books I have ever read, it is well recommended.
reviewed by Dennis February 2006
The Lincoln lawyer
by Michael Connelly Little, Brown & Company
Rating - 8
Mickey Haller is a street-wise criminal defense attorney working the courts
in Los Angeles and serving a motley bunch of clients from con artists and bikers
to drunk drivers and drug dealers. He just assumes they are all guilty and
his skill is the art of negotiation. His goal is to get them the best deal
he can and collect his fee. His office is the back seat of a Lincoln
Towncar and the main tool of his trade is the cell phone. His great
fear is that one day he'll find himself defending an innocent client. He
thought that day had arrived when he was retained by a rich Beverley Hills
playboy to defend him on a charge of attempted murder. The case seemed to
him like a slam dunk, and the fee was the type defense attorneys dream about.
Before it was over, he was wishing he was a cab driver. Then it got worse.
Michael Connelly is a skilled writer, a former journalist. He has written
several best selling detective novels and assembled an impressive collection of
awards. This story is very well constructed by a writer who clearly knows
his way around the court system. Its a great read for a winter weekend and
it will hold you until the last pages.
Reviewed by Dennis February 2006
One Hundred
Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez Harper &
Row 1970 Rating - 10
If you go to Amazon dot com, there are 422 reviews of this book, even Gone with
The Wind has only 590. This is surely one of the great books of the 20th
Century and so far as books by South American authors are concerned, its in a
class by itself. A story of several generations of the Buendia family in
Macondo, a village founded by José Arcadio Buendía and occupied by
his descendants, all
having variations on their progenitor's name: his
sons, José Arcadio and Aureliano, and grandsons, Aureliano José, Aureliano
Segundo, and José Arcadio Segundo. It is at once a
tragedy and a romance, it is magical and deeply philosophical. This is not
a novel you will breeze through on a summer afternoon, it is not an easy read
and in fact it warrants more than one read. I first read this novel over
20 years ago and lost the book (or maybe I gave it away). My daughter
bought a copy for me from the recent Library book sale in Waynesville and I have
just completed reading it again. It was time well spent, and I will not
lose it this time.
Reviewed by Dennis August 2005
War Trash by Ha Jin Pantheon
Books 2004 Rating - 8
This is my kind of book, an historical novel. However aside from that,
its quite unique among the books on my library shelves. Its about the
Korean War, I don't have a single book, fiction or non-fiction about that war.
Furthermore its written from the viewpoint of the other side. Its the
story of Yu Yuan a young Chinese army officer, one of many sent by Chairman Mao
Zedong to support the North Koreans fighting the Americans who came to the aid
of the South Koreans in the early 50's . . . and having said all that, its not
really about the war at all its about life in a POW camp. By page 40, Yu Yuan finds himself a POW
sitting in an American Jeep. So the remaining 310 pages are all about his
time in captivity in American POW camps. From that perspective and through the
person of Yu Yuan, the author proceeds to tell the story of Chinese soldiers,
held captive by Americans on Korean soil and he tells it very well. He
says that while this is a work of fiction and all of the main characters are
fictional, most of the events and their details are factual. It is a story
of the interaction between prisoner and prisoner and between prisoner and captor,
and tells a lot about the Chinese mentality. Although the subject matter
is rather tame, it is extremely well written. Why is it titled "War
Trash"? well, you'll have to read the book to find that out.
This is another book, written by someone who's mother tongue is not English, yet
someone who demonstrates an unusual skill with our language.. In this instance,
it should not be a surprise, the Author is Professor of English at Boston
University.
Reviewed by Dennis January 2005
The Reader by
Bernhard Schlink Pantheon Books 1997 Rating - 9
Michael Berg was just 15 years old when he met Hanna Lynch, a woman more than
twice his age, she thought he was seventeen. She helped him when he became
ill outside her apartment. He later went back with flowers to thank her,
and found himself intensely attracted to her. She seduced him and so began
a strange sexual relationship between the two. It was in post-war Berlin
and the living was hard. Michael was totally infatuated with the woman,
however as much as she encouraged and desired the relationship, she seemed to
remain somewhat aloof, maintaining control of their relationship. Except
for telling him that she had been in the Army during the war, she discussed
little or nothing about her personal life. Their relationship continued
from the Spring into the Summer of that year when she took the unusual step of
visiting him at his school. That visit resulted in a misunderstanding and
she fled without a word. The next day she had disappeared, quit her job
and left her apartment. It was years before Michael saw her again, and
then it was in a courtroom.. He had completed law school and as a part of
his final year of study was required to participate in a seminar concerning Nazi
law and to attend a court case involving Nazi war crimes. Hanna Lynch was
a defendant in that case. So began the second phase of their relationship,
it was to last for many years and reveal more about Hanna than what was
disclosed in the courtroom. This is an excellent novel, beautifully
constructed. It was a run-away success in Europe with little or no
publicity years before it was published in America. As well as relating
the story of this unusual relationship, it also deals with Germany's conscience
and the relationship between the parents who supported the Nazi regime and their
children who suffered its consequences. The author was born in Germany in
1944, he is a Professor of Law at Berlin University and has written several
successful crime novels. This book is a little hard to find, I found my
copy at ABEbooks.com, if you can find one I can heartily recommend it to you.
Reviewed by Dennis December 2004
The News From Paraguay
by Lily Tuck Harper Collins 2004 Rating - 9
Emma Lynch was a young and beautiful Irish woman, living the high life in Paris
in 1854, when she caught the eye and captured the heart of Francisco Solano
Lopez, then the son of the dictator of Paraguay, soon to become his successor.
He romanced Emma, bought for her the horse she wanted so much and became her
lover. She followed him back to Paraguay and was established in Asuncion
as his mistress. In that city and in a land at once both primitive and
lusciously verdant, Tuck weaves a wonderful tapestry of the people and lifestyle
of that South American land where European and American adventurers mingle with
the old Spanish aristocracy and the indigenous Guarani native people at a time
of turmoil and uncertainty. "Franco," now the undisputed Dictator of
Paraguay, with grandiose schemes to take control of all of South America, drags
his unwilling country into a war which will bleed the wealth and the lifeblood
from the country and leave it in ruin. Emma, with their children, stands
squarely behind him, even following him to the battlefields. This story is
beautifully told, with a wealth of imagination and detail about the culture and
custom of Paraguay and its people. It is populated with a host of
Diplomats, Generals, Family members, Friends, Physicians, Housekeepers and Wet
Nurses all of them given richly developed characters. Lily Tuck has
written a superb novel. She writes in the Author's Notes that when
wondering what is fact and what is fiction, "whatever seems most improbable is
probably true", however she also admonishes the reader that "nouns always trump
adjectives" and when considering a work of historical fiction it is important to
remember which word is which. I understand that the book has recently been
awarded The National Book Award for Fiction.
Reviewed by Dennis December 2004.
Angels & Demons
by Dan Brown Atria Books 2000 Rating 8
Another great read from Dan Brown. Actually, he wrote this one before
he wrote The Da Vinci Code. This one is not quite as good as Da
Vinci code, but nevertheless a very readable book which scores high on the CPID
(can't put it down) scale. Harvard Professor Robert Langdon is stunned and
bewildered by an image of a dead body, sent to him on his fax machine, and
agrees to go immediately to the person who sent it at the famed CERN research
laboratory in Switzerland. Langdon is an expert in ancient symbology, and
the image he received contained a symbol which belonged to ancient secret
organization he thought was long dead. The organization was the ancient
brotherhood know as The Illuminati, the sworn enemy of the Catholic Church.
The dead man was a famed scientist of strong Christian beliefs who had been
working at CERN. Langdon quickly learns that a massive time bomb has been
hidden somewhere in the Vatican, and so begins his hectic race to try to prevent
the murder of more prominent Christians and locate the bomb before the Vatican
and all of its art and treasure are reduced to rubble. If you have read
The Da Vinci Code, you will quickly recognize Brown's style of quick moving
action and constant suspense. If you have ever been to Rome and visited
the Vatican, you'll find it very hard to put down, I think I read the book in
three days. I did not rate this book as high as The Da Vinci Code,
which I think is a more scholarly work, and because I was somewhat disappointed
in the ending, but I can't say more than that.
Reviewed by Dennis August 2004
Bel Canto by Ann
Patchett Harper Collins 2001 Rating 10
In the Vice President's mansion of a South American country, diplomatic guests
from several countries are assembled for a birthday party for Katsumi Hosokawa.
Hosokawa is the chief of a major Japanese company and the party was arranged in
the hope that his company would establish a plant in the South American country
bringing jobs to its sad economy. Hosokawa, however, had no such plans and
would not have gone near the party had it not been for the fact that the hosts
had arranged for the world's greatest soprano, Roxane Coss, to sing there in his
honor. Hosokawa had been an opera lover since his youth and Roxane Coss
was, in his mind, an opera diva to be worshipped. So he went, with his
multi-lingual translator, Gen Wantanabe. No sooner had the Diva sang, than
the mansion was invaded and taken over by a large group of heavily armed
terrorists intent on capturing the country's President. Mr. Hosokawa,
Roxane Coss and all of the hundreds of guests were made to lie flat on their
backs and remain silent while the terrorists took control of the building.
The terrorist act did not go as planned, and what resulted was a stalemate which
lasted much longer than was expected. In the course of the long wait, the
behavior of both
terrorists and the hostages changed. Relationships developed between hostages and between hostages and terrorists, and for some of them, what
began as terror, developed into bliss. Ann Patchett, who was showered with
awards for this work of fiction, has indeed written a wonderful novel. I
have waited a long time for a story matching the scope and beauty of de
Bernieres Captain Corelli's Mandolin to come along. This book has well
justified that wait, its a wonderful story, beautifully told by a young woman
who lives not far from here in Tennessee. I plan to read it again
sometime.
Reviewed by Dennis May 2004
The No.1
Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
Anchor Books 2002 Rating 7
Mma (Preecious) Ramotswe is a private detective, in fact the only female
private detective in Botswana in Africa. She has an office with a
secretary, two desks, two chairs, a phone a typewriter, a teapot with three cups
and an old white van to get around in. "What else does a Detective
Agency really need?" Her father had worked hard and at the time of his
death was the proud owner of 180 cattle. That summer the rains had been
good and the cattle well fed, they looked good and she sold them for a good
price. With the money from the sale she set up the No.1 Ladies Detective
Agency. She had read the book on how to be a Private Detective, hired a
secretary, hung up a sign and waited for the first client to arrive. After
a slow beginning, Mma Ramotswe did very well as Botswana's first and only female
Private Detective, she adopted some unusual but usually very effective ways to
solving her clients' problems. This is a wonderful little book about the
life and loves of Precious Ramotswe as told by Alexander McCall Smith, Professor
of Medical Law at Edinburgh University. The author was born in Zimbabwe
and taught law at the University of Botswana. He has written over 50 books
on a wide variety of subjects including children's' books and one entitled "Portuguese
Irregular Verbs" a collection of short stories. Its a delightful, easy
to read book, ideal for a rainy weekend. The book was voted one of the
International Books of the Year by the (UK) Times Literary Supplement.
Reviewed by Dennis May 2004
The Birth Of Venus
by Sarah Dunant Random House 2004 Rating - 9
This book, as the Brits say, is "right up my alley". An historical
novel about a fascinating time in the history of the world, and beautifully
told. Alessandra Cecchi is the teenage daughter of a prosperous merchant
and prominent family in Florence in the late 15th century - a child of the
Renaissance, schooled in classical literature and languages and deeply
interested in art. Florence had bloomed under the patronage of Lorenzo de'
Medici. Painting, sculpture and poetry had flourished under his
generosity. It was the time of Boccaccio, Dante Alighieri and Alessandro
Botticelli, and the Cecchi family's business in expensive cloth flourished.
Lorenzo de' Medici died in 1492, and so ended the private governance which the Medici's had
long exercised over Florence. In his stead came Girolamo Savonarola, Prior
of San Marcos monastery, who claimed to speak with God, hated all things
decorative, regarded Medici's artists and sculptors as "pagans' and called for
the "bonfire of the vanities", in which all things artistic and decorative were
to be turned over to his band of followers and brought to the town square to be
burned in a huge bonfire which lasted several days. It was at the time of
Lorenzo's death that Alessandra's father, Poalo Cecchi brought to the house a
young artist he had discovered in the north, to paint the frescos for the
family's chapel. Alessandra became deeply interested in the young painter,
but conventions of the time forbade her having any direct unchaperoned contact
with him. Life in Florence changed rapidly under the increasingly
repressive rule of Savonarola and his followers, and in the face of an expected
invasion by the King of France and his army, Alessandra's parents insist that
like all other young virgins, she either enter a convent for the protection of
her virtue, or she marry the older man whom they have selected for her who could
also give her that protection. In this deeply flawed marriage and against
the backdrop of the turbulence in Florence, Alessandra was able to more easily
make contact with the young painter. This is a wonderful tale by this new
English novelist, flawed only by a couple of surprising appearances of
occasional 20th
century American vernacular into the otherwise Florentine dialogue. If
they are edited out in subsequent printings, it will only serve to make my first
edition more rare. It is a book I can wholeheartedly recommend.
Reviewed by Dennis April 2004
Paranoia by Joseph Finder
2004 St. Martin's Press Rating - 5
Adam Cassidy is a low level, lack-luster underachiever in a high tech
company. His forté seems to be that of a scam artist and accomplished
liar. He hated his job in the California company and moved there from
Manhattan only in order to take care of his Father who is suffering with
end-stage emphysema. A Father incidentally who hates everyone, complains
about everything and treats Adam, his only child, like dirt. Out of the
blue, it seems, Adam decides to indulge in a little cyber crime by way of
invading the company's computer system to get access to spending accounts to do
what? Why . . . to throw a high energy and expensive going-away
party, paid for by the company, for an old loading dock worker. Needless
to say, he got caught, tried to lie his way out, nearly succeeded and so
impressed his bosses by his braggadocio that they decide to gussie him up to
appear to be a hot-shot Product Manager type and get him planted as a mole into
the upper echelon of their number one competitor, from whence he could then feed
back strategic information. So begins then this tale which proceeds into
the rarified upper atmosphere of the high-tech corporate lifestyle embellished
with Beluga caviar. Georgio Armani suits, Porsches and penthouse apartments, and
by page 50 Adam is in his new job as corporate spy. Its not a serious
book, I can't think of a single quotable line, but Hey! they can't all be
literary masterpieces and besides, there is no gang violence, no murder, no
rape, incest or other mind-bending wierdo bazooko. One thing I can't
figure is why is it titled "Paranoia"? So if you have a couple of
days off with nothing to do, your taxes are filed, its too early for spring
cleaning and you don't need a new intellectual challenge right now, then give it
a shot. Otherwise if you're busy, wait a couple of months, by Summertime
they'll be selling the book at five bucks apiece on ABE Books.
Reviewed by Dennis February, 2004
The da Vinci Code
by Dan Brown 2003 Doubleday Rating - 10
This is really a wonderful book. I have thoroughly enjoyed a three day
read of this novel which I really could hardly put down. Not only did I
have to consciously stop myself from peeking at the end of the book (which is
really never a problem for me), but I dare not even look at the next page (and
that's hard). The elderly Jacques Sauniére, curator of the Louvre Museum
in Paris is shot down by an assassin in the Grand gallery of the world's most
famous art museum, Robert Langdon, Professor of Religious Symbology at Harvard
University is in Paris at the time as the result of a request from Sauniére to
meet with him that day. French Police Captain Bezu Fache, who is referred to by
his own subordinates as le Toureau ( the Bull) takes charge of the case
and "carries himself like an angry ox". To his dismay, Sophie Neveu, a
cryptologist, who is not only an attractive young female, but also one trained
in England, arrives at the scene of the crime to help unravel the many cryptic
messages left by Sauniére as he was dying. So begins this wonderful
mystery and the reader is taken on a 48 hours roller coaster ride through Paris,
London, Rome and Scotland. It is a wonderfully constructed tale, full of
wonderfully constructed religious symbology, some of which you have probably
heard before however, but don't allow that to scare you off. I found it absolutely
fascinating. If you have been to the Louvre since the glass pyramid
was added, or to Westminster Cathedral, this book will be even more fascinating
for you. I had to go to the attic to bring down our print copy of da
Vinci's Last Supper to see if I could see the same thing that Brown said
was there, and I can't wait to go back to Westminster Cathedral. Its a
great read. So why did I not give it my top score of 10, after all, its
been on the New York Times best seller list for 44 weeks? Well, I think a
really great book, in addition to all of the other qualifications, is one that
you can read again and again, and enjoy it every time. This book does not
quite meet that test. I can maybe read it once more, but not with the same
suspense or excitement.
Well I have now read it a second time, and found it again a very good read.
In fact its more than that. After 106 weeks on the NY Times best sellers list,
its really one of the great books of the decade. I have upgraded my rating
to a 10.
Reviewed by Dennis January, 2004
Our Lady Of The Forest
by David Guterson 2003 Alfred A. Knopf Rating -
7
I have read David Guterson's two previous novels, Snow Falling On Cedars
and East Of The Mountains and found the first excellent and the second
very good. I found this one only "fair". Obviously a very skilled
writer, Guterson does his usual fine job of developing his characters, giving
them not only flesh, but also personas, personalities - "Hey! I know somebody
like that" . . . and he does that well. However, the story, for me,
lacked some credibility from the outset. Unless a tale is clearly a
fantasy, and them I don't read anyway, it has to be somewhat credible, and this
one came up short for me. The idea that Ann, a sickly, homeless,
child-like teenager who had had two abortions by the time she was sixteen, and
Carolyn, an older pot-smoking mushroom picker living in a van, could capture the
attention of the young Parish Priest and cause thousands of "the faithful" to
believe their dubious story, was for me, too much to swallow. However, I
hung in there, David Guterson is a good writer. He stuck with his
characters, and developed others. The book is really quite readable,
Guterson has a skilful way of establishing relationships between his characters
and making that work for the story, and as the tale went along my skepticism
mellowed. Usually, if a novel hasn't "got" me after a hundred or so pages,
I put it down and never pick it up again. This book, I decided to go with
and see what would happen. Well, I never write about the end of a book,
and I won't now, except to say that it came right out of left field, was
certainly not one of the possible endings I had wondered about. The ending
of Snow falling On Cedars also came out of left field and took me by
surprise, but in that case it was cleverly constructed and entirely believable.
This ending was not so well constructed, left me somewhat puzzled, not about the
story, but about the writer . . . why did he decide to end it that way when
there were so many other better possibilities? What I hope is that he just
needed to get this book off his chest in order to write the book he really wants
to write, because he's a very good writer and I will buy his next book no matter
what its about.
Reviewed by Dennis December 2003
The Kite Runner
by Khaled Hosseini 2003 Riverhead Books Rating
- 10
This is a truly magnificent book! Without a doubt one of the very best
stories I have ever read, not just because it is so beautifully written, but
also because it is an important story. It takes place during the last
thirty years of turbulent history in Afghanistan, and deals with a family and
their love for each other and for their country. Author Khalid Hosseini no
doubt has drawn heavily on his own life experiences to bring us this story.
He was born to a wealthy family in Kabul Afghanistan and came to America as a
political refugee in 1980. In The Kite Runner Amir is the son of a
prominent Pashtun family, his best friend, Hassan is the son of their servant
man and a Hazara, a much hated ethnic minority. Despite their ethnic
differences, Amir and Hassan are close friends throughout their childhood, both
of them always mindful of Hassan's servant status. The two boys grow and
learn, one of them privileged, the other deprived, both of them secure in the
bosom of a prominent Pashtun family, both loved by the patriarch of that family,
while the winds of change blew ceaselessly over the Afghan landscape. This
story traces the lives of Amir and Baba his proud Father, and of Hassan and Ali
his Father and faithful servant to Baba. In July of 1973, the people of
Afghanistan woke to learn that while their King Zahir Shah was away in Italy,
the Afghan monarchy had been ended in a bloodless coup led by the King's cousin
Daoud Kahn. For a while there was peace in their lives but it was not to
last. Before the end of that decade came first the Russians with soldiers,
tanks and helicopter gun ships, and when they left, came the years of wanton
destruction by the countless tribal war lords. This was to be ended, they
thought, mercifully, by the arrival of the Taliban, who at first brought order
to the chaos, but later proved to be the most ruthless of killers. Amir
and his Father left Afghanistan when the Russians arrived and came to America to
settle in an Afghan community in San Francisco. However, the ties to their
homeland and to the family they had left behind were to haunt them for years.
One day, Amir received a telephone call from a friend in Pakistan and decided he
must return. What he found there was a revelation of the awful changes which had
been brought to his homeland and his people since his childhood.
Don't buy this book because it is about that part of the world which changed our
lives, don't buy it because it is a story about Muslims, don't even buy it
because it is in a way a modern "Gone With The Wind" a story of a strong family
in turbulent times. Buy it because it is a wonderful meaningful story,
beautifully, sensitively written, by a man whose first language was not even our
language, but who has mastered it as few of us have, and who has shown an
unusual understanding of the workings of the human mind in times of great mental
and physical stress.
Reviewed by Dennis August 2003
Atonement
by Ian McEwan 2002 Nan A. Talese, Doubleday
Rating - 9
Ian McEwan was born in England in 1948, he lives in Oxford. He
has written several novels, one of them Amsterdam was awarded the Booker
Prize in 1998. This novel, his latest, is set in
rural England, the "Home Counties" outside of London, it is 4
years before the outbreak of WWII.. It is an England of class
divisions, accentuated by the horrors of war soon to come.
The Tallis family lives in relative luxury in a country estate which they
inherited from Jack Tallis' father. Jack works in the Government in London
and seems to spend a lot of nights away from home. Emily, the mother is a
sickly woman, given to frequent debilitating migraine headaches. On the
hottest day of summer 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis sees her
older sister, Cecilia, strip off her clothes and step
into the fountain in the garden of their country home. She is watched by Robbie
Turner, childhood friend and ward of Cecilia’s father and who, like Cecilia, has
recently returned from Cambridge University. By the end of that day the lives of
all three will have been changed forever. What follows
is a story of lies and deception, of war and misery, of shame and guilt, of
anger, atonement and the difficulties of forgiveness. It is a story of
quite exceptional depth, exploring the very foundations of human emotions.
McEwan is a master storyteller and weaves a tale which
is at once eloquent and very readable. In 2001 this novel was short-listed
for the Booker prize.
Reviewed by Dennis May 2003
The Corrections
by Jonathan Franzen 2001 Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Rating - 8
This is the book all the fuss was about a couple of years ago. It won
(I think) a Pulitzer prize for fiction in 2001, and Oprah Winfrey selected it
that year as an "Oprah Book Club Book" or whatever she called them.
Franzen reportedly regarded that as a dubious honor, shunned Winfrey and
declined to attend her party to honor him. Well, its a good book, but not
a great book, at times less than credible and at times, brilliant. It
deals with a Midwest Family from the nineteen fifties, three children now, in
the nineteen nineties, all grown and each dealing poorly with their individual
calamities, Mother vainly trying to hold on to the Family traditions of their
childhood, Father steadily decaying from the effects of Parkinson's disease.
On this canvas, Franzen paints the individual portraits of Gary once a
successful stockbroker, now suffering severe depression and trying to convince
even his own Wife that he is not. Chip, who dipped his pen in the company
inkwell while he was a professor, lost his position, and proceeded to flounder
like a fish out of water; and Denise, who's marriage has broken, is apparently
very good at the restaurant business, but can't make up her mind if she's
straight or lesbian and gets fired from her job for the most unusual reason. All
the while, Mother Enid is trying to get them all together for a family Christmas
"like we used to have". While I was reading it, I couldn't help relating
Enid to Hyacinth - Mrs Bucket on the English TV comedy "Keeping Up Appearances".
It is a good novel, in fact I will read it again, and I do recommend it to you.
Reviewed by Dennis April 2003
The Secret Life of
Bees
by Sue Monk Kidd 2002 Viking Rating -
8
This, Sue Monk Kidd's debut novel, is a splendid telling of a teenaged
girl's tormented life. Dominated by an abusive Father and haunted by
uncertain memories of a tragic childhood, Lily Owens is raised by Rosaleen a
black field worker whom her Father plucked out of his peach orchard to cook and
care for the child after her Mother died. One day in 1964, having heard
about the passage of the Civil Rights Act, Rosaleen decides to take Lily and
head into town to register to vote. On the way she runs afoul of the law
and both of them end up in jail. Lily's Father bails her out and takes her
home for punishment, leaving Rosaleen in jail and at the mercy of white
roughnecks. At this, Lily finally throws off the shackles, departs her South
Carolina home, springs Rosaleen from jail and takes to the open road headed for
Tiburon South Carolina, a name written on the back of the only photograph she
had of her Mother. They wind up in the home of a trio of black
beekeeping sisters. What follows is a wonderful telling of Lily's gradual
healing in the bosom of this loving family while she tends the hives and learns
of the importance of replacing a dead queen bee.
reviewed by Dennis February 2003
Red Rabbit
by Tom Clancy 2002 G.P. Putnam & Sons
Rating - 5
This latest from the pen of Tom Clancy is likely to wind up under many
Christmas Trees next week. I hope the Clancy fans won't be too disappointed.
I have read several previous Clancy novels and enjoyed them all, but this one
does not measure up to his usual level of action and excitement. The story
covers an earlier period in the life of Clancy's character, Jack Ryan. Its
1980, long before Clancy crashed a jet plane into the US Capitol building, blew
up Denver stadium , captured a Russian submarine and eventually made Jack Ryan
President of the United States. Ryan is working as a CIA Analyst in
London. On his first day at work, he comes across a communication which he
finds very disturbing. In Moscow, the KGB, the great enemy of that time,
find the same document and reacts as he expected. So the stage is set for
the battle of the "spooks", as Clancy calls the American, English and Russian
spies. However, it takes Clancy 350 of the 600 plus pages of this book, to
get the story moving. I had the impression that Mr. Clancy had to deliver
600 pages to his publisher, and the result is that this novel has, for him, a
high percentage of inert ingredients in order to make the goal. It does
eventually become a real Clancy thriller and does for a while, reach the "I can't put this
book down right now" level, but the first half of the book was frankly
boring with far too much emphasis on worn out clichés about the English way of
life (most of which, by the way, are no longer true).
Reviewed by Dennis December 2002
The Lovely Bones
by Alice Sebold 2002 Little, Brown & Co. Rating - 8
This book begins "My name is Salmon, like the fish,
first name Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973."
It is indeed the story of Susie Salmon a ninth grader, about to attend Fairfax
High in rural Pennsylvania, but brutally murdered on December 6, 1973. It
is the story of her murder and of the days and years that followed and indeed
it is written by
Susie herself from her vantage point in heaven. When I first heard of the
story of this book, I bought it because the story is so unusual, and because it
had been 10 weeks on the New York Times best seller list.
After I'd read the first chapter, which, by the way, is not gruesome, I really
wondered if I would finish this book. However, after a while, this story
reaches out to grab you and by the time I was half way through, I couldn't put
it down. From her place in "her" heaven, Susie is able not only to watch
her Family and friends as well as her murderer, but also to know their thoughts.
She watches her Father's dogged determination to find her killer, and her
Mother's despair. She marvels at the strength and courage of her
Sister Lindsey and the undying love of her friends Ruth and Ray. Alice Sebold skillfully introduces you to her characters one by one, and slowly
weaves her tale of their disbelief, sorrow, recovery and finally, triumph.
Its a very readable book, I don't plan to put it on my top shelf, but I did
spend a couple of very pleasant afternoons with it, and for that I thank Ms.
Sebold.
Reviewed by Dennis September 2002
A Thousand Acres
by Jane Smiley 1991 Alfred A. Knopf Rating
- 6
This book had been suggested to me for reading by at least three people,
furthermore, it won all kinds of prizes including Pulitzer when it was published
ten years ago. So how could I ignore it? Its a good, readable story
about the aging patriarch Larry and his three daughters,
Ginny,
Rose and Caroline who live and farm in Iowa. Its a
dysfunctional family to begin with and when Larry decides to divide his property
between the daughters and Caroline the youngest won't go along with it, it gets
much worse. It peaks with a monstrous storm after which Larry descends
into madness. . . . Sound familiar? . . . How about Lear, and his
daughters Goneril,
Regan and the
unconforming Cordelia,
along with storms, madness and
division of property, a famous story told by one William Shakespeare? Jane Smiley made no
secret of the fact that she had written a modern version of King Lear. She
even alluded to it in the dust jacket notes. She threw in child
molestation, attempted murder and suicide to spice it up. I repeat, its a
good, readable story, I enjoyed reading it, but Pulitzer prize worthy it is not,
not by a long shot. At times, its frankly boring, lets face it, how
excited can you get about a struggling Iowa farm. So there is ample
opportunity for the author to develop and define the characters, and she does.
However all of the main players in the tale then turn around and do things
completely out of line with the characters developed for them and one wonders
"Whoa, wait a minute, why did she do that, did I miss something? "
Predictably they all fell apart at the end, not with a crash, but a whimper, and
I put the book down with a certain measure of disbelief.
Reviewed by Dennis August 2002
A Confederacy of
Dunces by John Kennedy Toole 1980 Louisiana State
University Press Rating - 9
In this wonderful book, John Kennedy Toole has created some of the most
memorable characters I have ever encountered all in one book, and placed them in
the back streets of New Orleans. There's Gus Levy the owner of Levy Pants
and a henpecked husband, there's Mrs. Reilly, a single Mum and doting mother
and Santa Battaglia who's always trying to get her fixed up. There's
Patrolman Mancuso of the New Orleans Police Dept. who can't get it right,
Gonzales and Trixie the most unlikely employees of Levy Pants. There's
Lana Lee the shady proprietress of a sleazy bar, who's got something going on
the side, Darlene who pushes drinks there for her but really wants to be a
stripper and there's Jones, a masterful character whom Toole has created and
endowed with immense wit. Finally there's Ignatius Reilly, Toole's
piéce de résistance. An obese, perverse, intelligent, devious, lazy
slob, given to gargantuan episodes of gastro-intestinal problems.
Toole then places these characters into situations which defy imagination, but
makes it believable. Its a novel which is at once a comedy, . .
.several times I almost collapsed with laughter while reading it . . . and a
tragedy. Its greatest tragedy is that the Author committed suicide in 1969
at the age of thirty two, thus depriving us of more of this quite brilliant
work. It was his Mother who persisted for ten years and finally got this
wonderful story published, and in 1981 it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for
fiction.
reviewed by Dennis August 2002
The Testament
by John Grisham 1999 Doubleday Rating - 5
An aging multi-billionaire with a penchant for pretty women, is facing his
ultimate demise. Wheel-chair bound, and surrounded by his motley crew of
descendents by various mothers, he contemplates the last of his many "Last will
and Testaments". His children and their children are a bunch of losers,
who have all squandered their coming-of-age endowments. The Lawyer who
will eventually take center stage is a three-time loser, an alcoholic, divorced,
misguided individual who is under investigation by the IRS. I'm telling
you, this book has everything, alligators, deadly snakes, airplane crashes and a
whole bunch of crooked lawyers. Its only Grisham's ability to write that
saves it. However, if you're taking a couple of days off, its a holiday
read. I spent a couple of really lazy days on the porch with it. Its
a diversion, does not require you to think, and doesn't offend the senses.
Don't spend much money on it, my copy was given to me by a good friend.
Reviewed by Dennis August 2002
The Blind Assassin
by Margaret Atwood 2000 Nan A. Talese Rating -
8
The tale begins with a death in 1945 and 571 pages later it ends the same way.
In the pages between them, Margaret Atwood tells the story of Iris Chase and her
sister Laura, daughters of a well-to-do, self made, Canadian industrialist. It
covers the period from the 1930's through the 1990's, but its no ordinary tale,
and Atwood is no ordinary storyteller. One soon realizes that there's a
story within this story, a very creative, fascinating story, which draws from
the characters in the main event. Margaret Atwood is indeed a wonderful
storyteller, her characters are fully developed and richly detailed. The
story alternates between the present and the past, and cleverly between the main
event and the sub story, but one is regularly brought back to the narrator in
present time, as she ages and struggles to relate the story which she needs to
tell. This is a book which needs to be read twice, and when winter arrives, I'll
dig it out again.
Reviewed by Dennis July 2002
The Human Stain by
Philip Roth 2000 Houghton Mifflin Rating
- 9
This is the latest from one of America's master storytellers. He tells
the story about Coleman Silk, retired College Professor and Dean of Faculty at
Athena College. It is the year 1998 and the country is occupied with
impeachment of the President and the sleazy details of his encounters with
Monica. In a small New England College town, 71 year-old Professor Silk
had quit in anger after 20 plus years teaching Classics at the University level.
Anger at the accusation made against him by his colleagues, which had sullied
his reputation at the end of an otherwise stellar career, and which, he said,
brought about the death of his wife. Maybe it was defiance which caused
him to embark on a secret affair with a thirty-five year old woman, an
illiterate janitor at his former College. However, that was not the main
secret in Coleman Silk's life. He had another one, a doosie! A
secret he'd even kept from his late wife and their four children throughout
their lives. Author Roth even kept the secret from the reader for 100
pages. Roth is able to paint a very detailed and descriptive portrait of
his characters, and after 100 pages I thought I knew this Professor so well that
when the secret was revealed to me, I had to go back and re-read the first pages to be sure I hadn't missed
something. The story is beautifully written and quite captivating. I
did not rate it a ten only because the story itself, not the telling of it, does
not quite rise to the level set by
Louis de Berniéres
Corelli's Mandolin. In Roth's
novel I could remain a passive observer, whereas in
de Berniéres story, I
really felt anger, fear, joy and sorrow. It is, nevertheless, a
splendid novel and I can heartily recommend it.
Reviewed by Dennis February, 2002
Close Range, Wyoming Stories
by Annie Proulx 1999 Scribner
Rating - 8
Annie Proulx hales from Wyoming, and these eleven short stories are about people
in and of her home state. Ranchers, Truckers, Bull riders and Bronco
busters, Cowboys and Fools old and not old. They are all people living
pretty close to the ground, in stories of desperation, loneliness, hopelessness,
occasional irrational violence and several instances of unwholesome love.
These are hard and sometimes very raw stories, played out in the rugged
magnificence that is Wyoming. It's clear that Annie Proulx loves her home
state, only that way could she know these people and their ways so well.
As a writer she has few peers, and these stories, in spite of the down and out
characters painted in them, are made fascinating because of her brilliance.
Reviewed by Dennis January 2002
In The Fall by Jeffery Lent
2000 Atlantic Monthly Press Rating -
7
Like "Cold Mountain", this books begins with a soldier, wounded at the
end of the Civil War, walking back home. This time it's a Union soldier who walks
back to Vermont. Like the other book it's also a first novel for its author.
Perhaps the publisher, Atlantic Monthly Press, which also published Cold Mountain, thought
they had another run-away best seller on their hands because the first print run was much
larger than the other book. However, while this is a very readable book, it's not of the
same caliber as Cold Mountain. It covers a time frame of great significance in
American history beginning at the end of the Civil War, and covering the years of
prohibition, the turn of the Century, the emergence of the automobile and the early days
of the Great Depression. It relates the life stories of Norman Pelham, his son Jamie
and Grandson Foster. Norman's war wound is tended by a runaway black slave, whom he
falls in love with, marries and takes back to Vermont to run the family farm. After
many years and having raised a family, she makes a trip back to her former North Carolina
home to seek and face the "demons from which she fled" many years before.
It's a journey which changes both her life and that of her Family. Grandson Foster
eventually makes the same trip, to find what happened in Sweetboro North Carolina many
years before, that his Grandmother would not speak about. The book is an interesting
tale, however given occasionally to lengthy passages of irrelevance. Author Lent
fails to adequately develop the characters of some of the key people around the central
characters, to the point where the reader is occasionally puzzled by their behavior.
When a character is well developed, their words and actions are understood, perhaps
even expected, when not so well developed however, then the authors needs to explain why
certain things occur. When neither is done, the reader is occasionally left somewhat
puzzled. Not a major shortcoming, but something which differentiates a great book
from a good book.
Reviewed by Dennis December 2001
The Shipping News by E. Annie
Proulx 1993 Charles Scribner Rating
- 9
Quoyle, who's other name we never learn, was "born in Brooklyn and raised in
a shuffle of dreary upstate towns". He was pretty much of a disaster in
everything he tried to do, and he knew it. After a seemingly endless series of personal
and professional failures, he finally agrees to join his Aunt, and together with his
daughter, travels back to Newfoundland, the old Family seat. She told him "you
can be anything you want with a fresh start" He goes back into the newspaper
trade there, the only trade he knows, however this time,
instead of minding the presses, he's writing the "Shipping news" column for the
local newspaper. Annie Proulx' unique writing style takes us rapidly through the
ensuing years of Quoyles' life in the harsh environment of coastal Newfoundland.
In the
process, she develops a rich collection of wonderful characters. This book is
beautifully written, and for it, Proulx was awarded a Nobel Prize for literature in 1994.
It will soon be released as a major motion picture.
Reviewed by Dennis November 2001
Prodigal Summer by Barbara
Kingsolver 2000 HarperCollins Rating - 7
This is another fine Kingsolver novel, in fact, three stories in one, all taking place on
one mountainside in Southern Appalachia. Central to each of the stories is the theme
of preservation of the wilderness, a theme richly served by Kingsolver who has an advanced
degree in Biology. High on the mountain, Deanna, a Biologist, lives alone in a
rustic cabin, striving to protect the wildlife and particularly the Coyotes which, to the
consternation of local farmers, are returning to the wild. Close to the base of the
mountain, Lusa, newly widowed, struggles to create a new life as a farmer among her
husband's surviving family members, while preserving her independence. Nearby two
elderly farmers, Nannie Rawley and Garnett Walker live in a state of rural armistice as
she strives to maintain an organic environment in spite of by the pesticides and
insecticides on the farm next door. Inevitably, these three stories merge, but the
final chapter, while cleverly conceived, was not completely satisfying.
Reviewed by Dennis November 2001
Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de
Berniéres 1994 Pantheon Books Rating
- 10
This is really one of the best books I have ever read, I really hope that they
have done it justice with the movie. So many people remember a story not because of
the book, but because of the movie, and this story deserves to be remembered. I have
read the book twice, and enjoyed it more the second time. So I'll read it again
sometime . Its the story of Doctor Iannis, his daughter Pelagia, their friends, and
neighbors on the Greek island of Cephallonia, and Captain Antonio Corelli of the occupying
Italian army. It begins in the late 1930's and ends fifty years later. Thus it
encompasses the occupation of the island during the second world war, first by the
Italians, who were kind and fun-loving, poor soldiers but good people, and later by the
Nazis, who on the Island of Cephallonia, were barbaric murderers. In writing this
story, the author says he has tried to be as faithful as possible to the real history of
the Island. Its a story of love, a story of war, a story of a Family, of bravery and
cruelty, of pride and of pathos. It is beautifully written, at once humorous and
heartbreaking. I hope you will sometime have the opportunity to read this book
Reviewed by Dennis September 2001
The Stone Diaries by Carol
Shields 1993 Viking Penguin Rating
- 9
The first chapter of this wonderful novel is entitled "Birth", the last,
"Death". In the 350 pages between them, Carol Shields weaves a magnificent
tapestry of the life of Daisy Stone Goodwin. Born in Manitoba, Canada in 1905,
Daisy's story is told like an autobiography, complete with photographs. Through
marriage, childbirth, motherhood and eventually, old age in a nursing home in Florida.
This story is beautifully told with inspired imagination and one even gets a sense
of the author's gentle concern for the main character when she reflects upon her inner
feelings.
Reviewed by Dennis. July 2001
Eye of The Needle by Ken
Follett 1978 Harper Collins
Rating - 6
The action in this spy thriller takes place in England between 1939 and 1944, during the
second world war. British Military Intelligence had largely neutralized the German
spy network in England except for the master spy known as Die Nadel, (the needle) who was
also a ruthless killer. If Die Nadel is able to uncover the great deception being
planned by Winston Churchill, and communicate back to Germany the real military plans for
the invasion of Normandy, the entire Allied operation known as "Overlord" will
be jeopardized. Its a fast moving action tale, however, not without weaknesses in
the plot. Its an easy 380 page read for a long weekend, it does not aspire to be a
great literary work, and isn't.
Reviewed by Dennis, July 2001
Larry's Party by Carol
Shields 1997 Viking Penguin
Rating - 5
Carol Shield's incredibly elegant descriptive writing is evident in this story about the
life, loves, marriages and divorces of Larry Weller a floral designer from Winnipeg
Canada.. However, Larry is not a very interesting chap to start off with and my
interest in him diminished as the story went along. It chronicles a 20 year
period starting in 1977, covering his marriages, firstly to Dorrie, a used car saleswoman,
and secondly to Beth, who is preparing her doctoral dissertation on Women saints, during
which time, Larry becomes an authority on Mazes! Frank Sinatra once made a bet that
he could make a hit out of any song written, and someone said "How about Old McDonald
had a Farm", well you know the outcome of that. I think Carol Shields is about
the same, she couldn't write a bad book, but she could have picked a better tale.
Reviewed by Dennis. June 2001
Cold Mountain by Charles
Frazier 1997 Atlantic Monthly Press Rating
- 10
The Confederate soldier, Inman, had been wounded at the battle of Petersburg, and ended up
in a hospital where he was left to essentially take care of his own wound or die. It
was there that he realized he'd had enough and decided to desert and walk back to his
boyhood home on Cold Mountain, close to Waynesville in Western North Carolina. On
Cold Mountain, his sweetheart, Ada, who had led a sheltered life before the war, was
trying to scratch out a living from the small farm left to her when her Father died.
So this story, a literary triumph for Frazier, chronicles Inman's journey homeward,
staying off the beaten track to avoid the bounty hunters; and Ada's struggle to stay
alive. Charles Frazier's beautiful prose reveals his love for and knowledge of the
forest and mountain life, and is also evidence of his unique insight into Man's
relationship with nature and the beauty of solitude.
Reviewed by Dennis. March 2001
The Poisonwood Bible by
Barbara Kingsolver 1998 Harper Collins
Rating - 9
In 1959, Nathan Price, an Evangelical Baptist Preacher, leaves his rural Georgia home and
with wife and 4 daughters, goes to the Belgian Congo to take over a Baptist Mission
there. Their arrival coincides with the Congo's struggle to free itself from
centuries of Belgian Colonialism, and the resulting internal struggles for
leadership. Uniquely, the tale is narrated alternately by Price's Wife Orleanna and
each of the four children, who, having grown up in the segregated South, were not without
prejudice. The fact that Barbara Kingsolver had lived in Africa, and the fact that
she was trained as a Biologist, coupled with her masterful ability as a story teller,
contribute in no small way to this wonderful novel, covering 30 years of triumph and
tragedy in the lives of the five women.
Reviewed by Dennis. March 2001
The House of Spirits by
Isabel Allende 1985 Alfred A. Knopf
Rating - 7
Its the story of the Trueba family, through several generations, beginning in a South
American Country at the turn of the century. Clara de Valle, who will become the matriarch
of the family is endowed with unusual abilities, among them, the ability to read fortunes,
predict the future and will inanimate objects to move. She marries Esteban Trueba, a
well to do but stern man, who builds for her a magnificent mansion, into which she invites
her unusual friends. The waning of the twentieth century brings with it significant
changes in South America, and the Truebas become tragic victims of sweeping social change.
A very good novel.
Reviewed by Dennis. February 2001
Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas
by James Patterson 2001 Little, Brown
& Co. Rating - 3
This book has been at the top of the NYT best seller list, however, I guess its not my cup
of tea. I didn't even get through the first chapter of "Message in a Bottle"
but I did get through this book even though I did skip from time to time when it
became too sugary for me. Its about a 30 something single professional woman in New
York who falls in love with the man of her dreams and thinks she has landed in heaven on
earth and won the love lottery. Then he walks out, leaving her a diary to read,
which of course breaks her heart. A very light-weight story with little or no
character development, a blatant attempt at a tear-jerker which fails to jerk. Mr.
Patterson should go back to his shoot-em-up detective novels, or whatever he previously
was making his living at.
Reviewed by Dennis. August 2001
Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow
1974 Random House Rating 10
Back in 1974, when this novel was first published, I had just taken a job as
European R&D Director for a large American Multi-National company, and didn't
have a lot of time for reading novels. So I just read
this book a few weeks ago, what a wonderful
novel. I felt as though I'd discovered a great literary treasure and then realized
that everyone else has known about for years. Have you ever had that feeling?. Its
an historical novel, my favorite reading, dealing with the first 15 years of the 20th
Century in America. Woven into this tale are some of the most famous names of the
time, Harry Houdini, Henry Ford, J.P. Morgan, Sigmund Freud and others. With these
characters, the Author, with his enormous talent, wove the historical events of the time
into a magnificent tale which for me, was really hard to put down.
Reviewed by Dennis July 2001
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