Friday, January 31, 2020

The Star of Istanbul by Robert Olen Butler

This historic thriller by Robert Olen Butler opens on board the Lusitania during its final fateful journey. The infamous sinking of that passenger liner by a German U-boat in 1915 is well known; the reader waits in trepidation for the inevitable.

Other aspects of the inevitable in this book are certain well-used tropes. Our American narrator is a tough guy hero. A knowledgeable war correspondent and journalist, this polyglot son of an actress mother has been recruited as a spy.

For the sake of his country, he finds and follows his quarry. While doing so, he meets and makes love to a mysterious and beautiful actress, then saves her life when the ship goes down. And there's more...

The story turns on the idea of acting -- people and situations keep changing, getting Kit Cobb into a lot of tight corners as they do. Kit is good at thinking, but he's learned from covering wars that 'nobody can think fast enough to live in an emergency - thinking is how you die.' In an emergency, the only way to survive is to react.

This story is well-researched and full of contemporary references to the geopolitical situation a century ago. Journalist Kit speaks of how Woodrow Wilson "invaded Mexico last spring to kick out a tin-pot dictator and to protect American oil interests." After "avidly talking neutrality in Europe," he'd expedited "ongoing sale and shipment of American arms to Britain." Will the sinking of the Lusitania bring America into the war, Kit wonders? [It did.]

This author's language is fresh and irreverent, his ironic portrayal of British cultural rituals memorable. Arriving at the Waldorf in London, Kit comments that "we who survived the Lusitania would be checking into its immobilized doppelganger, as if we'd in fact all drowned on Friday and this was a meticulously bespoke purgatory." His relentless description of the gourmet meal he shares with Mr. Metcalf is downright grotesque.

In a different tone, channeling Mark Twain or Stephen Leacock or both, he likens the profusion of minarets in Galata to that of "smokestacks in Pittsburgh." Hilariously, he states that the German helmet called the Pickelhaube protects "very little except the feelings of inadequacy of the officer beneath it." The villain's smile is "part irony, part taffeta."

As the plot gallops forward, the author brings in a lot of history. I was surprised to learn that the Orient Express -- famed for its Paris to Istanbul passenger service -- ran over a line that was part of a longer project of railway building. The narrator calls the "vaunted" Berlin-to-Baghdad railway, which would pass through the Mosul oilfields, "the great umbilical of Germany's nascent Asian empire." The geopolitical conflicts touched on in the story are chillingly similar to the ones we witness around us today.

Butler's description is evocative -- the ancient city of Istanbul rises before the reader, with its hilly narrow streets crowding along the blue Bosporus, replete with all manner of sights, smells, and sounds. In that teeming city, along with besuited and befezzed Turks, we see and hear Sephardic Jews, Armenians, and Greeks, as well as plenty of bored European tourists who dine and drink and go to the theatre in close proximity to the touristic and Frenchified Pera Palace Hotel.

In the company of the philosophical narrator, we navigate "the deep currents of history." It is, he says, the "manifesto of any band of nationalists" -- few, unfocused, disorganized and "accustomed to repression" though they may be -- that a single isolated act can change everything. Indeed, says Kit, "an anonymous, undersized Bosnian teenager with a nationalist cause and a sandwich in his hand started the war with two bullets."

We are also asked to confront "the murderous inertia humans are capable of." With Kit Cobb, we enter a Turkish coffee house where heartfelt and genuinely friendly Merhabahs are exchanged with him over coffee and tobacco -- the "infidel" is after all, a fellow human. Along with him, we consider the remarkably similar history of Christians and Muslims: "marching into countries where a bunch of folks thought differently about you and God and you ground your religious heel into their throats."

Robert Olen Butler teaches graduate fiction at Florida State University. In addition to his novels and short stories, he is the author of a book about the creative process, From Where You Dream.

The historic and luxurious Pera Palace Hotel is still a going concern. The deluxe Golden Horn room starts at 167 Euros per night. History and buffs can splash out and book the Mata Hari suite, film fans can choose the Greta Garbo corner room or the Alfred Hitchcock suite, and literary types can stay in rooms commemorating Agatha Christie or Ernest Hemingway, who also stayed there.

Sunday, January 26, 2020

The Word is Murder, and the genre is?

This highly unusual mystery by Anthony Horowitz is hard to describe. In an accomplished work of metafiction, the author is a character, conveying his plot through his own eyes as narrator. Horowitz leaves the reader wondering where fact ends and fiction begins. When he's not adding to the stock of highbrow literary references, he's happily exercising some time-worn tropes.

Against the stern writerly advice given in the guide by the hilarious Mittelmark and Newman, he has his articulate villain not only indulge in "a retirement speech," but also "improbably recount" all "his [or her?] evil deeds."

The possessor of enormous numbers of publication credits, this author plays with genre. His creations include youth and adult fiction, plays, journalism, TV series and films.

Well-known for Foyle's War, he is also the author of more than forty books, including new James Bond and Sherlock Holmes books commissioned by the estates of those authors.

In this page-turner, I found it unsettling to read the narrator's take on certain character who "was sitting there with that strange energy of his, that mix of malice and single-mindedness that made him so hard to read."

Every scene that features author/narrator Horowitz and (fictional) ex-policeman Hawthorne reflects their contrasting characters and approaches. Taking place near the end of the book, this description of Hawthorne's first visit to Horowitz's home is a telling revelation of the tension between the two men. Says Horowitz, "it struck me that he was completely in control of the situation, and this might as well have been his flat as mine. Hawthorne certainly had a magnetic personality. Although, of course, magnets can repel as well as attract."

In a conversation with another member of the police force, the narrator is told about "the murder manual." The existence of this book was a revelation to me. No doubt it's a boon for crime writers.

I particularly loved this fascinating glimpse into the author's writing process:

"I could see the books piling up in front of me. Sometimes, when I'm sitting at my desk I feel as if there's a dump truck behind me. I hear the whirr of its engine and it suddenly off-loads its contents...millions and millions of words. They keep cascading down and I wonder how many more there can possibly be. But I'm powerless to stop them. Words, I suppose, are my life."

Thank you, Anthony Horowitz, for the many wonderful creations you have made with your words.

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Mukherjee reflects contemporary issues in historic mystery

Abir Mukherjee has done it again. This tale of London and Calcutta a century ago is fresh, astute and current. In the Author's Note, he says that Death in the East was not the novel he set out to write, nor did he intend to set so much of it in London. But he felt circumstances gave him little choice. He comments that around the world, "the rise of populism has seen the growth of anger, extremeism, fear of the other, and the erosion of tolerance and decency."

Yet this, he says, "is not the Britain I know and love, and it is not the Britain which offered sanctuary to the Jews of Eastern Europe between 1880 and 1914," going on to list more times when his native country behaved with mercy, tolerance and decency to people arriving from outside, whether they came as refugees or simply relocated to seek better lives for their families.

As he goes through a cure for opium addiction in an Assam monastery, Sam Wyndham has to look at himself a little more closely. He must face and come to terms with his weaknesses, as well as employing goodwill, empathy and effort to preserve an important friendship. Sergeant Bannerjee, he realizes, is no longer the shy boy he was when he first reported to his superior officer.

While Surindranath ignores disapproving looks and peruses the menu at the Jatinga Club, Sam contemplates the "inordinate amount of time and energy" the British waste on "petty hierarchies and bureaucracies," and the difficulty of maintaining the "middle ground of mutual respect" as Gandhi's peaceful protests cause politics to flare and polarize in India.

In London, a police Inspector muses on the cynical twisting of truth employed by hack journalists who stir up readers with inaccurate information to encourage them to blame others. Thus do they sell papers. Describing a female murder victim in London, Sam is well aware that her sex and lowly birth are "twin misfortunes." Unfortunately, "the gift of intelligence had only made matters worse."

I salute Mukherjee for highlighting the social problems we still see around us, even as he tells a cracking good story that frequently invokes rueful laughter at our history and society.

In the Afterword, Mukherjee states that he wanted this novel to be one of hope, expressing the belief that his native country will remember itself and "live up to those standards of tolerance and decency and fair play" that he identifies with Great Britain. To that I say Amen.

Monday, January 13, 2020

Disclaimer by Renee Knight

This intricately plotted novel presents various points of view. By manipulating the reader's sympathies, the author demonstrates how quickly and automatically we judge and blame others, then reveals how misguided those judgments can be. Why are the narrative perspectives so different and who is reliable? Is it human or forgivable to take out one's own grief on an unwitting child? Do the bereaved spouses unconsciously whitewash the character of their son?

The book raises troubling thematic questions as well. In an effort to protect our families from emotional trauma, is is appropriate to keep secrets from loved ones? What does it mean to trust someone? What past errors are forgiveable, and how can we choose who to believe? Are we responsible for our own suffering? A gripping read, this story offers no easy answers to these vexing questions.

Friday, January 10, 2020

Finished at last!

Behind the missing pieces, I sense the malign hand of Jarvis. There's also one piece that fits neither gap! But now that the puzzle is done, we can take the Christmas tree down.




 

Monday, January 6, 2020

Jigsaw fashion on the French Riviera

 
The pieces are varied in size and oddly shaped - perhaps in the French style? The image is coming together, a seafront scene with boats at Nice, on the Riviera. At 1250 pieces, this takes time!


Friday, January 3, 2020

The Reading Edge: Books Read in 2019

In 2019, I read 124 books, beating my 2018 total of 109. In 2017, I read 126.

January
James Clear                       Atomic Habits
Lilia Momple                    Neighbours, the Story of a Murder
Anna Burns                       Milkman (CD)
Jordan B. Peterson            Twelve Rules for Life (CD)
PM Forni                            Choosing Civility (skimmed and made notes)
Mark Cote                          That Lucky Old Son
Alexander McCall Smith    The House of Unexpected Sisters
Kagise Lesogo Molope        This Book Betrays my Brother (re-read in order to teach at SFU)
                                                                                                                                         
February
Alexander McCall Smith    The Colors of All the Cattle
Derek B. Miller                  The Girl in Green
Diana Athill                       Alive, Alive Oh! and other Important Matters
Tana French                      The Likeness (CD)
Diana Athill                       Midsummer Night at the Workhouse and other Stories
Iain Reid                            Foe

March
Tana French                      The Trespasser (CD)
Diana Athill                       Somewhere towards the end
Lisa See                             Dragon Bones
Donna Leon                       Through a Glass Darkly (relistened for SFU course)
Sue Grafton                       X (relistened, for SFU course)
Jack Knox                         On the Rocks with Jack Knox
Charles Cumming             The Moroccan Girl
Alan Bradley                      The Golden Tresses of the Dead (CD)
Ian Rankin                        Watchman (quit partway through)
Diana Athill                       Instead of a Book
Diana Athill                       Stet
Tana French                      The Secret Place                
Gloria Steinem                  My Life on the Road (Audio)
Ross Macdonald                The Ivory Grin (a Lew Archer novel) (Audio)
Henning Mankell               Chronicler of the Winds (skimmed last of this tragic allegory)
Sarah Waters                     The Night Watch (Audio)                                                               

April
Michael Kluckner              Julia (graphic novel about Julia Henshaw)
Lisa See                             The Island of Sea Women (CD)
Sally Rooney                      Normal People (audio)
Sheila Kohler                     Once we were Sisters
Alexander McCall Smith    The Good Pilot Peter Woodhouse
Abir Mukherjee                  A Necessary Evil
Jhumpa Lahiri                   The Namesake (audio)
Val McDermid                   Forensics
Jhumpa Lahiri                   Unaccustomed Earth (audio)
Abir Mukherjee                  A Rising Man                                                                          

May
Ann Patchett                     State of Wonder (CD)
Anne-Marie Drosso            Hookah Nights
Anne-Marie Drosso            Cairo Stories
Jhumpa Lahiri                   The Lowland
Nathaniel Brandon            The Six Pillars of Self-esteem
Alain de Botton                  The Course of Love
Ovidia Yu                           The Frangipani Tree Mystery
Victoria Zackheim ed.        Faith: essays from believers, agnostics and atheists
Peter Robinson                  Careless Love
Daniel Kahneman              Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow (audio)
Abir Mukherjee                  Smoke and Ashes (audio)                                                               

June
Diana Athill                       Instead of a Letter
Elif Shafak                         Black Milk
Maureen Medved               Black Star
Gail Honeyman                  Elinor Oliphant is Completely Fine (skipped over last bit)
Alain de Botton                  A Week at the Airport
Alain de Botton                  Status Anxiety
CS Lewis                            The Silver Chair CD
Graeme Simsion                The Rosie Result
Val McDermid                   Insidious Intent
Val McDermid                   Trick of the Dark
Josephine Tey                    The Daughter of Time
Rupert Sheldrake              Science and Spiritual Practices
Peter May                          The Blackhouse
Fred Vargas                       Wash this Blood Clean from my Hand
Colin Cotterill                    Six and a Half Deadly Sins (CD)                                                       

July
Ariana Dagnino                 The Afrikaner
Jennifer Robson                The Gown (CD)
Edna O’Brien                     The Little Red Chairs (Audio)
Manuel Matas MD             The Borders of Normal 
Rachel McMillan               The White Feather Murders (didn't finish)
Mike Simmons                   Episodes from Iceworld 
Terry Fong                         Princeton: a Love Story
Edna O’Brien                     The Love Object (CD) [heard first 8 CDs only]
Iona Whishaw                    Death in a Darkening Mist
Edward Gibbon                 The Rise & Fall of the Roman Empire I (Audio)
Gianrico Carofilio              The Past is a Foreign Country
Gianrico Carofilio              Involuntary Witness
Ian Hamilton                     The Disciple of Las Vegas
Derek B. Miller                  Norwegian by Night
Josephine Tey                    Sands of Time
Kate Atkinson                    Big Sky
Ann Shortell                      Celtic Knot                                                                                

August
Qiu Xiaolong                     Shanghai Redemption
Jess Kidd                           Himself
Peter Carey                        True History of The Kelly Gang                                            

September
Peter Carey                        Illywhacker (finished at home in October)
Chris Cleave                      Incendiary
Jane Harper                      The Dry
Jane Harper                      Force of Nature (CD)
Dervla McTiernan              The Ruin
Adrian McKinty                 The Chain
Adrian McKinty                 The Cold, Cold Ground
Ovidia Yu                           The Betel Nut Tree Mystery
Iona Whishaw                    A Killer in King’s Cove                                                               

October
Elly Griffiths                      The Dark Angel
Iona Whishaw                    It Begins in Betrayal
Iona Whishaw                    An Old Cold Grave
Iona Whishaw                    It Begins in Betrayal
Iona Whishaw                    A Deceptive Devotion
Shelley Wood                     Quintland Sisters (Audio file)
Peter May                           The Chessmen (CD)
Adrian McKinty                 Police at the Station and They don’t Look Friendly (CD)
Richard van Camp             Moccasin Square Garden
Maude Barlow                   Whose Water is it Anyway?                                                
JoJo Moyes                       Still Me (CD)
Adrian McKinty                 Police at the Station and they Don’t Look Friendly (CD)
Adrian McKinty                 I Hear Sirens in the Street (2 of Troubles Trilogy)       
Adrian McKinty                 In the Morning I’ll be Gone 
Adrian McKinty                 Gun Street Girl                                                                       

November
Adrian McKinty                 Rain Dogs (CD)
Jakob Arjouni                    Brother Kemal
Jane Harper                      The Lost Man                    
Kate Atkinson                    Transcription
Adrian McKinty                 Hidden River
Nicola Upson                     An Expert in Murder (first one featuring Josephine Tey)
Jacqueline Carmichael      Tweets from the Trenches
Dervla McTiernan              The Scholar (CD)                                                                   
Ben Macintyre                   Operation Mincemeat (CD)
Jennifer Egan                    Manhattan Beach                                                                  

December
Derek B. Miller                  American by Day
Renee Knight                     Disclaimer                        
Mark Manson                    Everything is Fucked: a Book about Hope
Kevin Barry                       Night Boat to Tangier
Naomi Wood                     Mrs. Hemingway (didn't finish)                                                

Wednesday, January 1, 2020

How the mind plays tricks - missing jigsaw pieces again

Christmas is jigsaw time. The mind with its beliefs and expectations is powerful, and I appear to be carrying some subconscious mental baggage about completing jigsaws. It's not a conscious view, but since a few recent experiences with missing pieces, I seem to have internalized the belief that there will always be a missing piece. For the puzzle on the left, we found that piece under the coffee table. The other one has not turned up yet, and it leaves a glaring gap in the wall of the Chateau Frontenac. This is an affront to one of Canada's most venerable and impressive hotels.