US Mid-Atlantic – MostlyFiction Book Reviews We Love to Read! Sat, 28 Oct 2017 19:51:27 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.4.18 ALL OUR NAMES by Dinaw Mengestu /2014/all-our-names-by-dinaw-mengestu/ Thu, 13 Mar 2014 12:57:05 +0000 /?p=25115 Book Quote:

“I had thirteen names. Each name was from a different generation, beginning with Father and going back from him. I was the first one in our village to have thirteen names. Our family was considered blessed to have such a history.”

Book Review:

Review by Betsey Van Horn  (MAR 13, 2014)

Mengestu’s third book—another about the immigrant experience—is his most accomplished and soulful, in my opinion. He returns again to the pain of exile and the quest for identity, as well as the need for a foreigner from a poor and developing country to reinvent himself. In addition, he alternates the landscape of post-colonial Uganda with the racially tense Midwest of the 1970s, and demonstrates that the feeling of exile can also exist in an American living in her own hometown. The cultural contrast of both countries, with a narrative that alternates back and forth, intensifies the sense of tenuous hope mixed with shattered illusions.

“I gave up all the names my parents gave me,” says the young African man, who moves to Kampala in order to be around literary university students. He has left his family in one country to seek his idealism in another. He meets a young revolutionary, an anti-government charismatic young man, who starts a “paper revolution” at the university. Neither is a student; both seek to realize their ideals. They become friends, and eventually, cross the line into danger and confusion.

The alternating chapters concern Helen, a white social worker in Missouri, who has never traveled far, not even to Chicago. One of the young African men, named Isaac on his passport, travels to the US, allegedly as an exchange student. Helen is his caseworker. Isaac’s file is thin, and Helen knows nothing about his history. They embark on a relationship that becomes more intimate, but yet creates an elusive distance. Mengestu explores the hurdles they face, as well as examining how these obstacles relate to Isaac’s past.

The restrained, artless prose penetrates with its somber tone, and the emotional weight of the story and characters surge from the spaces between the words. Mengestu’s talent for nuance was evident when, days after I finished the book, it continued to move me.

AMAZON READER RATING: from 9 readers
PUBLISHER: Knopf (March 4, 2014)
REVIEWER: Betsey Van Horn
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Wikipedia page on Dinaw Mengestu
EXTRAS: Reading Guide and Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Read our review of:

Bibliography:

]]> THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS by Elizabeth Gilbert /2013/the-signature-of-all-things-by-elizabeth-gilbert-2/ Thu, 05 Dec 2013 13:00:36 +0000 /?p=23527 Book Quote:

“Alma Whittaker, born with the century, slid into our world on the fifth of January, 1800.”

Book Review:

Review by Betsey Van Horn  (Dec 5, 2013)

From the opening pages, it is evident that Gilbert can write with lyricism, confidence, and substance. I was afraid that her mass popularity would lead to a dumbed down book with pandering social/political agendas or telegraphed notions. I am thrilled to conclude that this was not the case. Gilbert is a superb writer who allows her main characters to spring forth as organically as the natural world that they live in. This is a book of well-considered people of the times, who are emblematic of daring and discerning ideas, as well as an absorbing story that will keep the pages flying. The 18th and 19th century comes to life, and botany keeps the composite parts anchored to the earth. It is a both beautiful and intermittently appalling story of humanity and nature.

The book begins with British ex-pat Henry Whittaker, a boy of humble origins, who, by the time he is an adult in the 19th century, turns himself into a captain of industry in the botanical and pharmaceutical industry, particularly quinine. As a boy, he pilfered from the Royal Botanical Kew Gardens and sold to others, and showed his mettle as an entrepreneur. The director, Sir Joseph Banks, eventually apprehended him. Whittaker’s penance was to be sent on faraway travels, in order to prove himself worthy and edify himself in the realm of plants.

When Whittaker returned, he made it his life’s work to eclipse Banks and become a wealthy self-made industrialist of the natural world. He got himself an educated Dutch wife, left Europe for good, and settled in Western Pennsylvania, where he built an elaborate estate that truly did rival the Kew Gardens, called White Acre. All alike envied his ostentatious mansion on the hill, and were impressed by his breathtaking, unparalleled gardens. He sired one daughter, Alma, and adopted another, Prudence. Whittaker became one of the richest men in North America, or anywhere. But, more important than riches, to him, was the power to command others, and the talent and skill to master your work. Education was the tool to that end. Therefore, his children received a scholarly education at home.

Henry’s prominence on the pages segues into his daughter’s, Alma. The beautiful Prudence becomes an outspoken abolitionist, while Alma grows into a scholarly, tall, large-boned, homely, and privately carnal woman who becomes the flourishing main character. I would list her as one of my favorite protagonists of contemporary times, as unforgettable as Teresita Urrea of The Hummingbird’s Daughter, although of polar sensibilities. Alma is so fleshed out that I can smell her, and every moment in her life is organically rendered. As she becomes her father’s daughter as a scientist, (but with a gentler disposition), the reader is taken ever further into her inner and outer journeys. She is not just a botanist and taxonomist, but in many ways, a philosopher, a noble thinker, with a sexual and sensual hunger.

Gilbert doesn’t portray Alma as flawless or unbelievable. Rather, Alma is a construct of her environment and her gifted mind. She is also metaphorically imprisoned by the life of a proper woman in the 19th century. However…

Alma’s portrait is the fruit of this elegantly written, lyrically cadenced, engrossing tale. Gilbert braids in the enigma of life from botany to the human body, and folds in science, mysticism, spirituality, psycho-sexuality, all in a vibrantly flowing historical novel. Some of the characters make a brief or lucid appearance, and then fade, but Alma grows more luminous with each passing chapter. A few sections focus on scientific philosophies and the question of creationism and evolution (the way a discussion would happen in the 1800’s), but it fits radiantly into this story. But, mostly, it is Alma who pollinates this ripe and exhilarating tale. I still see her bending over a leaf, or examining moss with a microscope, or hunched over her scholarly tomes and writing her books on the mysteries of plant life. Being at her father’s beck and call, but carving out a solitary but teeming life.

The title of the book refers that all life contains a divine code or print, and was put forth by a 16th century German cobbler and early botanist, Jacob Boehme, one rejected by the Whittakers, for the most part, as medieval nonsense. He had mystical visions about plants, and believed there was a divine code in “every flower, leaf, fruit, and tree on earth. All the natural world was a divine code.”
You can see it in a curling leaf, a nesting bird, and when the stamens of one plant stick it to its receptacle. Every unique living creature, according to Boehme, contains the eponymous title. Alma meets an orchid painter who embodies this belief, and who pulls her into the world of mysticism. As an explorer and thinker, she is compelled to understand this notion.

Alma’s professional and personal life leads her to contemplate the “struggle for existence.” As the reader follows Alma on her odyssey of the natural world and beyond, the wonder of life becomes ever transcendent–that “those who survived the world shaped it—even as the world, simultaneously, shaped them.”

This exquisite novel feels like a gift to humanity. It has heart, soul, and earthiness. And Alma.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-0from 407 readers
PUBLISHER: Viking Adult; First Edition edition (October 1, 2013)
REVIEWER: Betsey Van Horn
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Elizabeth Gilbert
EXTRAS: Reading Guide and Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Read our review of:

Bibliography:

Nonfiction:

]]> LONG DRIVE HOME by Will Allison /2011/long-drive-home-by-will-allison/ Wed, 18 May 2011 13:29:28 +0000 /?p=18057 Book Quote:

“Liz and I might even have paused to remark on how lucky we were, as we were inclined to do, but at no point would we have considered the possibility that we’d dodged a bullet that day, that we’d come this close to our lives veering permanently off course. That’s the kind of thing you see only in hindsight.”

Book Review:

Review by Bonnie Brody  (MAY 18, 2011)

It’s rare that I start a book that is such a page-turner that I almost have a panic attack if I have to put it down. Long Drive Home by Will Allison is just such a book. It starts with a bang and the explosives just continue. It’s not that the book is a thriller, per se, though there is that element to the novel. It is just that Will Allison is a born story-teller and he gets the reader in his grips from the first paragraph. And he does not let go.

Glen Bauer is a married father with a six year-old daughter named Sara. He is driving Sara in his car when he sees a police officer go through a red light. He gives the cop the finger and thinks all is over. However, there is a tough guy in front of Glen who thinks that the finger was intended for him.  The tough guy stops his car, comes over to Glen and makes sure that Glen can see the gun protruding from inside his jacket. He demands an apology and, by God, he gets it. Glen is thoroughly furious now. His day has been ruined and he’s not such a calm driver to begin with. He leaves this scene only to be cut off through three lanes of traffic by a teenager speeding along in a Jaguar. Glen is not a happy camper. He lives in Montclair, New Jersey, a quiet little burb and things like this just don’t happen to him. He thinks he has seen the last of the Jaguar but he’s wrong. It makes a u-turn and heads back towards Glen just as Glen is about to turn into his driveway. Glen decides to mess with the Jaguar driver – he’s furious. He turns his wheels to get in the same lane as the driver as if to play chicken and at the last minute, pulls away. Meanwhile, however, the driver of the Jaguar loses control of his car and hits a huge Sycamore tree, turning the vehicle over and over. Jamal, the sixteen year-old driver of the Jaguar is dead.

Now Glen is in a moral dilemma. If he tells the truth, he could be arrested as an accomplice to a killing. He also realizes that he put his six-year old daughter, Sara, at risk by his shenanigans. He decides to lie about what happened and say that he was just pulling into his driveway when Jamal lost control of his car. The police investigate and one very perspicacious detective, Rizzo, thinks that Glen is hiding something. Also, the evidence contradicts Glen’s story. His tire tracks are several feet beyond his driveway. If, as he says, he was pulling into his driveway, the tracks should end before his driveway starts. Rizzo is on Glen like white on snow.

As Glen begins to tell one lie after another, or omit one fact or another, in order to cover up what happened, his life starts to unravel. His marriage begins to crumble in the wake of fear – fear of litigation or imprisonment, and his wife’s sense that Glen is not telling the truth. Glen’s moral dilemmas get worse and worse. In fact, he realizes that Sara knows the truth and he wants to keep her as far away from Detective Rizzo as possible. He thinks he can get away with things but the situation keeps getting more and more out of hand. Glen also thinks that if certain situations had not occurred prior to Jamal’s accident, he never would have acted like he did. He becomes obsessed with finding someone or something to blame for Jamal’s death other than himself.

Jamal’s mother hires a lawyer in consideration of a wrongful death suit, Rizzo won’t get off Glen’s tail and Sara inadvertently speaks to Jamal’s mother about the accident. Glen and his wife separate, ostensibly to keep their assets separate, but in reality their marriage is becoming a sham.

The novel is told in first person by Glen and also as a letter he is composing for his daughter, Sara, to give to her when she is eighteen. It would have been nice if there had been more of the letter included in the novel as the letter really gets into Glen’s head and his rationalizations and truths regarding the accident.

This book is a moral thriller and a good look at today’s society. What constitutes a lie versus a lie of omission? Where does truth end and lying begin. When is it right to lie and when does lying take its toll on others’ greater freedoms. Allison examines all these issues in a book you won’t soon forget. Don’t plan on doing anything else once you start this novel. If you’re like me, you’ll give up eating and sleeping until it’s finished.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-3-5from 22 readers
PUBLISHER: Free Press; Original edition (May 17, 2011)
REVIEWER: Bonnie Brody
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Will Allison
EXTRAS: Reading Guide
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Another if you like this one:

Aftermath by Brian Shawyer

Bibliography:

]]> NUDE WALKER by Bathsheba Monk /2011/nude-walker-by-bathsheba-monk/ Fri, 18 Mar 2011 15:03:12 +0000 /?p=16812 Book Quote:

“It would take us a long time to see that this war was not being fought with bullets, it was fought with money. And when you’re up against the almighty dollar, there isn’t much you can do about it. ”

Book Review:

Review by Poornima Apte  (MAR 18, 2011)

The Nude Walker in Bathsheba Monk’s entertaining read is Barbara Warren, a schizophrenic who tends to walk around downtown Warrenside in the buff when she’s off her meds. The Warrens were once the industrial scions in Warrenside, a fictional town in Pennsylvania. As the town, which used to be the center of the booming steel industry, gradually went into decline, so too rusted the fortunes of the Warrens. These days, Barbara isolates herself in the past, clinging on to memories of the glory days and worrying (because nobody else will, she says) that by 2012, European Americans would be the minority in town.

That’s because the town is rapidly being taken over by a whole range of ethnic minorities; the new “Warrens” in town are Lebanese Americans, the Asads. The patriarch of the family, Edward Asad, is a scholar of Arabic literature but has made his money by buying up dead real estate around town and converting them into profitable ventures, including a strip bar called Lucky Lady.

Even if the Asads belong to the Maronite Church, they are viewed with suspicion by the town residents. To help prove the Asads’ fealty to their adopted country, Edward’s son Max, joins the army. As the novel opens, Max is stationed with the 501st battalion in Afghanistan and he serves there as liaison between the U.S. forces and the local Afghanis. It is in Afghanistan that Max meets Kat Bineki-Warren, who is coincidentally, Barbara Warren’s daughter.

Somewhat predictably, Max and Kat fall madly in love despite knowing the negative reactions their relationship will garner in their individual families. In Max, Kat sees “a man strong enough to see poetry in life and who knew how to make me hear my own.”

Back home in Warrenside, Edward has already arranged Max’s marriage to the beautiful daughter of a fellow Lebanese expat. Edward does not take news of Max’s new relationship lightly and insists that his son’s love for Kat is nothing more than a childish infatuation.

Kat, too, has baggage of her own she has shed to be with Max. A fellow serviceman, also from Warrenside named Duck, is Kat’s childhood friend and it was pretty much a given that the two would marry soon. Needless to say, Max’s entry on the scene does a lot to stoke Duck’s anger and envy at this “foreign” intruder.

As the two families battle it out, their crisis rises in the same pitch and pace as a flood that threatens to cause substantial damage in town. The local Catawissa river has breached its shores and the 501st battalion, having just reached home after being granted a brief vacation, is pressed into emergency duty.

The clash between Max and his father, Edward, reminded me of a typical Bollywood movie where too, forbidden love often forms the backbone of the narrative. While Nude Walker stays shy of much of Bollywood’s melodrama, there are portions in the book where outcomes do seem a touch predictable, if not necessarily melodramatic.

A few other characters—including a Lenape Indian—populate the novel and Monk does a good job of having everyone’s lives intersect in interesting and meaningful ways.

Even if Nude Walker has a strong love story, it tells a more powerful tale—that of the changing face of America. In a town taken hostage by economic concerns, the locals don’t take to the new immigrants easily. Barbara Warren, for one, totes around a book written by her grandfather, which describes the good old days when the steel flowed hot and constantly. “The book was about much more than building a house,” Barbara remembers, “it was about a way of life that he cherished, that of a steel industrialist, with all its privileges and sweet responsibilities and power—of course power was a big part of it—that was rusting over.”

Nude Walker is a sound addition to recent literature about the slow decline of American manufacturing and the subsequent transformation of the socio-economic landscape. “If Warrenside was so great, why would its scions voluntarily join the army?,” Monk writes. “It’s the myth that keeps you going, that you have somewhere to go back to, a cool town whose residents can hardly wait for your return. In truth you have lost your place in a cruel game of musical chairs.”

In that sense, this book shares a lot with one of my favorite recent novels, American Rust, which is also set in America’s slowly rusting steel belt. The scarcity of jobs, worries about the future, and a sense of hopelessness among Warrenside’s residents mean that toxins like bigotry and hate can find safe harbor here. It doesn’t take much to kindle a roaring fire with these poisons. And the scars that follow are a permanent feature of the town’s collective psyche. As the Lenape Indians will tell you, history sadly does repeat itself.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-5-0from 8 readers
PUBLISHER: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First Edition edition (March 1, 2011)
REVIEWER: Poornima Apte
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Bathsheba Monk
EXTRAS: Reading Guide and Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: More on the changing American economy:

Bibliography:

]]> THE GIRL IN THE GREEN RAINCOAT by Laura Lippman /2011/the-girl-in-the-green-raincoat-by-laura-lippman/ Wed, 19 Jan 2011 17:49:47 +0000 /?p=15529 Book Quote:

” ‘I’m being held hostage,’ Tess Monaghan whispered into her iPhone. ‘By a terrorist. The agenda is unclear, the demands vague, but she’s prepared to hold me here for at least two months. Twelve weeks or eighteen years, depending on how you look at it.’

‘Nice way to talk about our future child,’ said her boyfriend, Crow….”

Book Review:

Review by Eleanor Bukowsky  (JAN 19, 2011)

Laura Lippman’s The Girl in the Green Raincoat is a takeoff on Rear Window, the film in which Jimmy Stewart, who is laid up and bored, eavesdrops on his neighbors. Thirty-five year old Tess Monaghan, private investigator, is pregnant and on forced bed rest. Although her boyfriend, Crow, has been patient and accommodating with his irritable partner, Tess is restless and annoyed that she cannot go about her business, which includes conducting surveillance, enjoying alcoholic beverages, and eating her favorite junk foods. She decides to use binoculars to help her do some sleuthing. On a number of occasions, Tess has observed a girl wearing a green raincoat walking her Italian greyhound. Suddenly, the girl disappears, and Tess observes the dog running around by himself, his leash dangling. Anxious to get to the bottom of the mystery, Tess prevails upon her employee, Mrs. Blossom, and her best friend, Whitney Talbot, to look into the matter. Their mission is to find out if fifty-three year old Don Epstein, the husband of the missing woman (whose two previous wives died under mysterious circumstances) has done away with wife number three, Carole Massinger Epstein.

This is an amusing romp, in which Lippman’s lighthearted tone keeps us from taking the thin, busy, and sometimes silly plot too seriously. Tess is snarky and short-tempered, but inwardly, she is terrified of motherhood. Will she mess up her child for life? How can she care for a baby and continue doing the work she loves? Does Crow, who is six years her junior, still want to marry her? Tess has far too much time on her hands, and her imagination is running wild. Tracking down a murderer is just the distraction she needs. Whitney, who is up for anything, has a great time going undercover, as does the free-spirited Mrs. Blossom.

There are laughs a-plenty here. When Tess gets custody of the abandoned dog, she finds out that he is a bit like the Hound of the Baskervilles. He relieves himself at will, chews everything in sight, and snarls at anyone who approaches him. Tess makes some phone calls and finds out who purchased the dog—the aforementioned Mr. Epstein, who happens to live in an extravagant home and owns a chain of check-cashing businesses. Before the story comes to an end, Tess realizes that she may have miscalculated. Instead of delivering a criminal into the hands of the authorities, she has managed to endanger her life. Although no one would consider this 158-page long novella a threat to Hitchcock, The Girl in the Green Raincoat is cute and fun, and has some meaningful messages about parenthood, marriage, and the wisdom of counting our blessings.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-0from 89 readers
PUBLISHER: Avon A; Original edition (January 18, 2011)
REVIEWER: Eleanor Bukowsky
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Laura Lippman
EXTRAS: Reading Guide
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Read our review of:

And these featuring P.I. Tess Monaghan:

Bibliography:

Tess Monaghan series:

Standalone Novels:

]]> PHILADELPHIA NOIR edited by Carlin Romano /2011/philadelphia-noir-edited-by-carlin-romano/ Sat, 15 Jan 2011 14:27:33 +0000 /?p=15416 Book Quote:

“Philadelphia noir is different from the mood, the sensibility, the dimensions of noir encountered in more glamorous American cities…In Philadelphia, we do ordinary noir – the humble killings, robberies, collars, cold cases that confront people largely occupied with getting by.” –Carlin Romano

Book Review:

Review by Chuck Barksdale  (JAN 15, 2011)

Akhasic Press’ new collection of  noir stories is Philadelphia Noir, with 15 stories based in various parts of the city and one neighboring town (Narberth, PA). Finally, after many US and foreign cities already having a collection or some cities having two, one of the US oldest, and darkest cities has a collection of its own.

The stories are provided in one of four sections – City of Bursts, City of Otherly Love, The Faker City and Those Who Forget the Past. The best section is probably the last as each story, as the section implies, has some part that is historically based. Duane Swierczynski’s “Lonergan’s Girl” seemed to stay with me the most and is my favorite in the collection. While an off duty policeman, John Lonergan rides the cold unheated one-year old Frankford El in January, 1924, he becomes worried about a female rider that he believes will need his help. However, things turn out differently when another man enters their car and asks “Wallets and purses.” Another excellent story in this section was “Reality” by Cordelia Frances Biddle where a current day re-enactment in the Old City section of Philadelphia finds the author realizing the characters from her Martha Beale series had come to life. The other two stories in this section “The Ratcatcher” by Gerald Kolpan and “Ghost Walk” by Cary Holladay are also excellent, although my distaste for rodents probably kept me from really appreciating “The Ratcatcher” and the talents of the main character in collecting and training rats. In “Ghost Walk,” a modern day tour guide tells a story of a man who collects dead bodies in his basement who becomes interested in a woman and her daughter.

“Devil’s Pocket” by Keith Gilman is one of the best stories in this collection as is “A Cut Above” by Laura Spagnoli. “Devil’s Pocket,” from the City of Bursts section, is a first person story of ex-Policeman Seamus Kilpatrick. When he finds out Millie Price, the woman who asked to meet with him to help with a problem, has been murdered, he begins his own investigation into her murder. “A Cut Above” from the City of Otherly Love section has Beth realizing how easy it is to steal from her friends and co-workers to provide her and her new boyfriend Alex some needed fun in their lives, although things may not be as fun as she thought.

Johnny Temple, the publisher and founder of Akashic Books, was honored in November, 2010 at Noircon in Philadelphia. As part of one of the panels, he was interviewed by Tim McLouglin (the editor of Akashic’s first noir collection). The panel discussion provided interesting background about Johnny Temple (part of a punk rock group Girls Against Boys) and why he founded Akashic Books. The publication of Philadelphia Noir was scheduled for Noircon and a separate panel was held with Carlin Romano, the editor and author of one story and several other authors who had books in the collection, including Meredith Anthony, Duane Swierczynski, Dennis Tafoya and Jeff Zervanos.

All of the authors have spent some time in the city and some have been lifelong residents. As a result, I think, the authors avoided the obvious references that most people not from the area would recognize, such as talking about cheesesteaks (probably referenced once) or the Phillies (referenced a few times, but that’s understandable…) Carlin Romano mentions this in his introduction:

With apologies, you won’t find the obvious here. Having served as literary critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer for twenty-five years, and written more stories on “Philadelphia Literature” than anyone living, I thank my contributors for their very limited references to hoagies, cheesesteaks, water ice, soft pretzels, and waitresses that call their customers “Hon.” There’s no glimpse of Clay Olenburg’s Clothespin or the rowers by the Waterworks, and only one passing mention of Rocky. Truth is, we don’t talk much about those things. We just live our lives.

Interestingly after just reading this introduction, I felt the first story, “Princess” by Aimee LaBrie, which was otherwise an interesting and enjoyable story, seemed to start with a few too many Philadelphia references. Nonetheless, these references are fortunately very few throughout the collection.

Since I was at Noircon and as a Philadelphia area resident for my entire life, I was very interested in reading this collection. Although I had heard of a few of the authors in this collection, I had actually never read anything significant by any of the contributors. After sitting through the panel discussion at Noircon, I was most interested in those authors that were present, especially those that stayed for many of the other panels, such as Duane Swierczynski and Dennis Tafoya. Although never a city resident, I’ve worked and attended college in many different parts of Philadelphia over the last 50 years. However, I still am not familiar with many parts or the specific names of the sections of the city. Each story is based on a section (neighborhood) of the city and marked under the title and marked on a helpful, although perhaps not exactly accurate, map of the city.

As is now more customary in short story collections, this book also included a short biography and photo of each author at the end of the book. Since many of these authors are not that well known it was helpful to learn more about them and where to get even more information.

Overall, this collection was excellent, but left me wanting more. Many sections of the city were overlooked and with two exceptions, the neighboring suburbs were not mentioned. Hopefully, Carlin Romano and Akashic press will be up for another collection. After all, smaller cities, such as Boston and San Francisco have already had several collections.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-5from 2 readers
PUBLISHER: Akashic Noir Series (November 1, 2010)
REVIEWER:
Chuck Barksdale
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Wikipedia page on Carlin Romano
EXTRAS: Akashic page on Philadephia Noir
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Read our review of:

Moscow Noir

San Francisco Noir 2

New Orleans Noir

Mexico City Noir

Boston Noir

Bibliography:

Books in the Akashic Noir Series (Alphabetical Order):

]]> I’D KNOW YOU ANYWHERE by Laura Lippman /2010/id-know-you-anywhere-by-laura-lippman/ Tue, 17 Aug 2010 19:30:13 +0000 /?p=11446 Book Quote:

“Dear Elizabeth,
I’m sure this is a shock, although that’s not my intention, to shock you. Up until a few weeks ago, I never thought I would have any communication with you at all and accepted that as fair. That’s how it’s been for more than twenty years now. But it’s hard to ignore signs when they are right there in front of your face, and there was your photo in Washingtonian magazine, not the usual thing I read, but you’d be surprised by my choice of reading material these days. Of course, you are older, a woman now. You’ve been a woman for a while, obviously. Still, I’d know you anywhere.”

Book Review:

Review by Bonnie Brody (AUG 17, 2010)

Laura Lippman knows how to write about terror, both the subtle, covert, shadow type and the more acute, stomach-wrenching, in-your-face type. This is a book about acts of terror, specifically kidnapping and rape. It is primarily about the kidnapping and rape of 13 year-old Elizabeth Lerner in 1985 and the 39 days she spent at the hands of her kidnapper and rapist, William Bowman, a serial killer.

Eliza Bennett is currently living the life of a suburban mother in an upper middle-class area near D.C. She has recently returned to the states after 6 years in Great Britain, following her husband, Peter’s, job opportunities. She has two children, Iso (Isobel) 13, and Albie, 8. She and Peter, along with her immediate family members, are the only ones privy to the secret that Eliza Bennett is really Elizabeth Lerner. After the kidnapping, Elizabeth shortened her name to Eliza and when she married Peter, she took his last name. There is no reason that people should suspect Eliza Bennett and Elizabeth Lerner are one and the same.

The book goes back and forth in time from the present to the time of the kidnapping. It very subtly divulges more and more information about Elizabeth, Walter, and the other girls that Walter kidnapped. The novel shows what Elizabeth felt like in Walter’s hands. Her fear was primal and she felt that to stay alive she needed to obey Walter’s every wish. She not only obeyed him, but she always told him the truth, often entertaining him in a Scheherazade-like manner. In fact, she is the only one of Walter’s victims who has lived to tell about it. Elizabeth was the star witness in the trial whereby Walter Bowman was given the death sentence by the State of Virginia. As the book opens, Walter sits on death row.

Eliza is a good mother, but reticent to make friends and prone to nightmares about the other “ghost children” that Walter kidnapped. She knows that life is not safe and that trust is a false god. One day, out of the blue, she receives a letter from Walter, through an intermediary, that has an enclosed picture of Eliza and Peter at a gala. The letter says, “I’d know you anywhere.” So begins Eliza’s nightmares once again. Walter wants to be in phone contact with her and Eliza knows from experience that Walter is not happy if he does not get what he wants. It is here in the novel that I had trouble suspending belief in order to enjoy the rest of the book, for what Eliza does is get a phone just for the purpose of receiving Walter’s collect calls. She decides that it’s better to do what Walter wants than to get him angry. I can think of many other alternatives at this point but Eliza could not.

The story progresses and the reader gets to know Walter and Eliza very well. I was even able to suspend belief later in the book as I felt more compassion for Eliza and could empathize with her character differently and more fully. Knowing her better helped me understand her reasons for talking to Walter.

Laura Lippman is a master at keeping suspense up and of keeping the reader enthralled. Her writing is intelligent and emotive. She does terror so well that I had to put the book down at times because it was too much. However, that never stopped me from picking it up again.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-3-5from 212 readers
PUBLISHER: William Morrow (August 17, 2010)
REVIEWER: Bonnie Brody
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Laura Lippman
EXTRAS:
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Read our review of:

And these featuring P.I. Tess Monaghan:

Bibliography:

Tess Monaghan series:

Standalone Novels:

]]> HUSBAND AND WIFE by Leah Steward /2010/husband-and-wife-by-leah-steward/ Thu, 17 Jun 2010 20:34:14 +0000 /?p=10158 Book Quote:

“The fight went on from there, to such places as whether it took longer to do the laundry (my job) or the dishes (his). If there’s anything we’ve learned from the endless parsing of everything, it’s that nothing is ever about what it seems to be about….There’s a subtext to the subtext, every argument a rabbit hole. Do you we know why we’re angry? Do we know what we’re fighting about?”

Book Review:

Review by Eleanor Bukowsky (JUN 17, 2010)

The first person narrator of Leah Stewart’s Husband and Wife is thirty-five year old Sarah Price, who has been married to Nathan Bennett, a fiction writer, for four years. They are the doting parents of an incredibly precocious three-year-old girl, Mattie, and a baby boy. Sarah, who was once a promising poet, is now a busy mother who has a full-time job as a business manager for the Department of Neurobiology at Duke University. She is perpetually worn-out, but considers herself to be relatively fulfilled. One day, Nathan throws a monkey-wrench into their relationship when he confesses that his new book, Infidelity, is not completely fictional. Nathan morosely admits, “I cheated on you.” These four words shake Sarah’s faith in her marriage, leading her to microscopically examine every facet of her life with the man she thought she knew.

Sarah and Nathan somehow go on (they have responsibilities, after all), but Nathan’s betrayal makes it difficult for Sarah to act as if nothing has happened. Although she freely acknowledges that Nathan is “a good stay-at-home parent” who “did a lot around the house,” she becomes increasingly agitated and even slightly unhinged. Although Nathan may feel better for having unburdened himself, he may have also destroyed Sarah’s self-esteem (“I looked fat in my dress, and I wasn’t a poet anymore”) and her ability to trust him.

Stewart is an accomplished writer who capably examines the rocky terrain of modern marriage. There is so much pressure on young couples to balance parenthood, a profession, and a social life. As a result, they may become too preoccupied with the minutiae of their day-to-day routines and forget that love needs constant nurturing. The author, who is a married mother of two, knows this terrain well. Stewart understands that Sarah, who breastfeeds, entertains Mattie, bathes and diapers her son, and goes to work every day, has become so frazzled that she is ill-equipped to deal with so much domestic drama.

Although Husband and Wife has its strengths, it would have been far more effective had Sarah showed even a semblance of maturity. Instead of dealing with her problems constructively, Sarah wallows in self-pity and makes herself and everyone she encounters miserable. She has an irresistible urge to hurt Nathan: “Who doesn’t want to punish the person who’s punished them?” Although he is not a flawless human being, Nathan is intelligent, funny, and sensitive. He is also an involved and devoted father who loves his wife and is committed to saving their marriage. Sarah, on the other hand, admits that she “was a child of the good times” who does not handle disappointment well and, as a result, panics when she encounters the inevitable bumps in the road. This novel is both entertaining and irritating. We grow to care about Nathan and Sarah, but at the same time, we want to shake them for taking one another for granted and being so stupidly narcissistic.

Editor’s Note:  This would be a great pick for a book club… see the link below for the Reading Guide and the long list of discussion questions.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-0from 19 readers
PUBLISHER: Harper; 1 edition (May 4, 2010)
REVIEWER: Eleanor Bukowsky
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Leah Steward
EXTRAS: Reading Guide and Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: More husbands and wives:

On Beauty by Zadie Smith

Marriage: A Duet by Anne Taylor Fleming

Perfect Life by Jessica Shattuck

Bibliography:

]]> CAUGHT by Harlan Coben /2010/caught-by-harlan-coben/ Tue, 23 Mar 2010 18:06:09 +0000 /?p=8412 Book Quote:

“Who’s there?”

Suddenly there were other people in the room. A man with a camera. Another with what looked like a boom mike. And the female with a familiar voice, a stunning woman with chestnut brown hair and a business suit.

“Wendy Tynes, NTC News. Why are you here Dan?”

I opened my mouth, nothing came out. I recognized the woman from the TV newsmagazine…

“Why have you been conversing online in a sexual manner with a thirteen-year old girl, Dan? We have your communications with her.”
…the one that sets up and catches pedophiles on camera for all the world to see.

“Are you here to have sex with a thirteen-year-old girl?”

The truth of what was going on there hit me, freezing my bones. Other people flooded the room. Producers maybe. Another cameraman. Two cops. The cameras came in closer. The lights got brighter. Beads of sweat popped up on my brow. I started to stammer, started to deny.

But it was over.

Book Review:

Review by Chuck Barksdale (MAR 23, 2010)

Dan Mercer’s life very quickly changes for the worst as TV newswoman Wendy Tynes catches him going to a meeting with a thirteen-year old girl she pretends to be to lore pedophiles like she thinks Dan is into her trap. Dan is vehement in his innocence and as the reader knows, he thought he was going to help a young girl not to have sex with her. However, in this case, despite the evidence against him, Wendy starts to have some doubt, especially when Dan’s ex-wife and her husband seem so willing to defend him. Dan’s slick lawyer is able to use some legal technicalities to get Dan off from the crimes charged against him, but the community still feels Dan is guilty and he is forced to go into hiding.

At around the same time, 17-year old Haley McWaid a smart, athletic and apparently happy teenager does not return home. Very little is found about her disappearance until evidence points to Dan Mercer when Haley’s phone is found in Dan’s hotel room months after Haley’s disappearance. The phone is found right after Wendy Tynes sees Dan murdered by the father of a child who also claims Dan abused him. Although Dan’s dead body is not found, the police are able to find Dan’s hotel room with the missing phone under his bed.

Wendy’s uncertainty of Dan’s guilt is lessened once Haley McWaid’s cell phone is found in Dan’s room. However during her investigations of Dan’s background, she does talk to some of Dan’s former friends including his Princeton college roommates. Wendy discovers that Dan had lived in a suite with 5 other people all of whom have fallen on hard times, with most having potentially unfounded but damaging claims against them. These unusual circumstances, along with the possible guilt of ruining an innocent man, make Wendy look further to see if Dan is really the guilty pedophile he seems to be.

Caught is told primarily in the third person perspective usually from the perspective of Wendy Tynes. However, the book does start in the first person as Coben gives the reader a chance to see into the mind of Dan Mercer before he is caught by Wendy Tynes. Mercer comes across as someone who truly cares about the youth he spends most of his time helping, adding, at least to the reader, more doubt about Dan’s guilt.

Caught is Harlan Coben’s latest standalone book, the first since Hold Tight (2008) after last year’s latest Myron Bolitar book, Long Lost. As typical of Coben’s books, most of the action in this book takes place in northern New Jersey near where he grew up and not too far from where Coben now lives.

As I mentioned in the Long Lost review, I’ve read all of Harlan Coben’s Myron Bolitar books, but only one prior non-series book, Tell No One. I thought that Tell No One was better than any of the Bolitar books and was really looking forward to Caught. Although at first, I thought Caught was even better than Tell No One, that feeling did not last throughout the book and by the end although I was not disappointed, I did not think it held up as well. Caught certainly has the great suspense and twists but I was less surprised at the end than I thought I would be. This is not to say that the book was not good or that the ending easily determined, just that a twist was expected. Overall, though, this was a very good book and one that keeps you interested from the beginning to the end.

One thing that is not very prevalent in Harlan Coben’s standalone books is the humor that is a key part of the Myron Bolitar series. Of course Caught is a serious book that also addresses serious issues about missing children and child molesters so the chance for humor is limited. However, look for a friend of Myron Bolitar who  is fun and enjoyable to make a cameo appearance.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-0from 272 readers
PUBLISHER: Dutton Adult (March 23, 2010)
REVIEWER: Chuck Barksdale
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Harlan CobenWikipedia on Harlan Coben
EXTRAS: Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Read our review of:

From the Myron Bolitar series:

Bibliography:

Myron Bolitar Series:

Mickey Bolitar (young adult series)

Movies from books:

]]> A FRIEND OF THE FAMILY by Lauren Grodstein /2010/friend-of-the-family-by-lauren-grodstein/ Sat, 06 Feb 2010 02:43:26 +0000 /?p=7687 Book Quote:

“This is something about himself that Alec still doesn’t know: how much he was wanted, how difficult it was to have him. And during some moments of adolescent rebellion, and again during the wars over his dropping out of Hampshire, when he would scream that he wished he’d never been born, Elaine would grab his flailing arms, hold him still, and say, You can never say that. That’s the one thing you are never allowed to say.

He was born at Round Hill Medical Center on July 4, 1985, nine fifteen at night. As we held Alec for the first time, the town fireworks began to whiz and boom, celebrating 209 years of democracy in America and also, Elaine and I were certain, our son’s long-awaited arrival.”

Book Review:

Review by Sudheer Apte (FEB 5, 2010)

Just like her earlier debut novel Reproduction is the Flaw of Love, Lauren Grodstein’s new book, too, is written from the point of view of a morose male protagonist. The hero in A Friend of the Family is Peter Dizinoff, a doctor living in a very comfortable New Jersey suburb.

In the beginning of the novel we find Dizinoff unhappy and separated from his family, but we are not told why. Flipping between flashbacks, we learn that his son Alec, on whom all of his fatherly expectations are laden, has disappointed his father by dropping out of a promising school. Not only is Dizinoff worried about his son’s life and career, but he is also worried that his wife Elaine seems much more blasé about how their son will manage, content to just love him and trust that he will find his own way.

Why can’t Alec be more like their best friends’ children, two of whom went to MIT? There are plenty of bad examples on hand to beware of: the same best friends’ eldest daughter got pregnant a few years ago as a teenager, was suspected of having murdered her baby after birth, and left home for years to escape the scandal. In fact this girl, Laura, now thirty years old, is back home now, and the much younger Alec is taking an alarming interest in her.

The central dilemma of the novel is a father’s love for his son and how far he is willing to go to protect him from approaching horrors. This kind of story is tricky to write: make Peter Dizinoff too sympathetic a character, and you veer into tragic melodrama as bad things happen to an innocent person; yet if you make him too flawed, the reader is apt to stop caring what happens to him.

Grodstein does a good job balancing these tensions, although your reaction to the novel will depend on how much Dizinoff’s character repels you. The man has no empathy for others. He is quick to judge people and to interfere in his son’s life, all the while offering elaborate justifications to himself for his own actions. Always a bit off, he gradually becomes more and more socially conservative, starting to take an interest in his Jewish heritage. He desperately wants his son to talk to him but is unable to relate to him. What prevents Dizinoff from becoming a Bollywood movie dad is Grodstein’s use of the first person, so that we see his life through his eyes. He is also a somewhat unreliable narrator; gradually his perspective becomes more and more skewed, while the past and present become more and more intertwined.

What I liked about the novel was its fast pace, especially toward the end when the mystery is revealed. Grodstein’s minute observations of everyday life, and her insight into a middle-aged father’s mind, also make this novel enjoyable. With well-researched medical terminology and some excellent lines, this should make for a good feature film—I can already see Robin Williams in a white coat.

AMAZON READER RATING: from 287 readers
PUBLISHER: Algonquin Books; 1 edition (November 10, 2009)
REVIEWER: Sudheer Apte
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Lauren Grodstein
EXTRAS: Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: More on Fatherhood:

Bibliography:

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