THE MISSING OF THE SOMME by Geoff Dyer
When I first read just the title of this book — THE MISSING OF THE SOMME — I thought perhaps it was an historical novel about World War I, or possibly a linear history of some of the men who had never come home from the fields of battle. Then, reading the Vintage description of Geoff Dyer’s slim volume, I banished those ideas in favor of curiosity about a work that “weaves a network of myth and memory, photos and film, poetry and sculptures, graveyards, and ceremonies that illuminate our understanding of, and relationship to, the Great War.” Did Dyer ably marry these diverse elements and create a memorable contribution to WWI literature?
August 15, 2011
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Judi Clark · 
One Comment
Tags: Geoff Dyer, Real Event Fiction, War Story · Posted in: Facing History, World Lit
THE ASTOUNDING, THE AMAZING, THE UNKNOWN by Paul Malmont
THE ASTOUNDING, THE AMAZING, THE UNKNOWN by Paul Malmont is a celebration of science fiction’s golden years via the pulp magazine ethos. Taking place in 1943, it recounts a story partially based in fact about how the guiding lights of science fiction’s heyday were brought together by the military and tasked with making science fiction real in order to defeat the Nazis. Virtually all the authors who were the mainstays of science fiction and fantasy from 1930’s through the 1960’s are there.
July 22, 2011
· Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: 1940s, Real Event Fiction · Posted in: Alternate History, Facing History, Mystery/Suspense, Speculative (Beyond Reality)
KAMCHATKA by Marcelo Figueras
He calls himself “Harry” now, after his new hero, the famous escape artist, Harry Houdini, hoping that one day he, too, will be a successful escape artist. Discovering a book about Houdini, hidden in the room that will now serve as his bedroom, the ten-year-old boy finds a new source of inspiration. Only the day before, and without warning, his family had to leave their comfortable house in Buenos Aires with nothing but the bare essentials. An abandoned country house has to serve as their temporary shelter. Harry already misses school, his friends and his board game Risk. With his routines disrupted, his sense of dislocation is further heightened when papá tells him and his little brother that they all have to take on new names and forget their former ones: it is too dangerous. Set in 1976, against the backdrop of what has become known as Argentina’s “Dirty War,” that left thousands of people as desaparecidos – disappeared without a trace -, Marcelo Figueras takes us on a moving and intricate journey, through hope, devotion and betrayal, through human frailty and strength, through loss and perseverance.
July 11, 2011
· Judi Clark · Comments Closed
Tags: 1970s, Argentina, Real Event Fiction, Time Period Fiction · Posted in: Facing History, Latin American/Caribbean, South America, Translated, World Lit
THE END OF EVERYTHING by Megan Abbott
There’s one thing you can count on with author Megan Abbott, you can never predict which direction her novels will take you. Abbott’s first novel, DIE A LITTLE is set in 50s Hollywood and is an exploration of the strange relationship between two women. Then came THE SONG IS YOU, based on the unsolved disappearance of actress Jean Spangler. This novel was followed by QUEENPIN, the story of a female book keeper who works for a glamorous, hard-as-nails mob-connected woman. Abbott’s next novel, BURY ME DEEP, set in the 30s, is a fictionalized account of a real-life murder. And that brings me to THE END OF EVERYTHING, a deeply engrossing book in which Abbott explores the relationship between two 13-year-old girls. I don’t care for a child narrator, but there are hints that this tale is told by Lizzie in adulthood years later.
July 7, 2011
· Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: Megan Abbott, Missing Children, Murder Mystery, Real Event Fiction · Posted in: Facing History, Mystery/Suspense, US Midwest, y Award Winning Author
THE BLIND CONTESSA’S NEW MACHINE by Carey Wallace
For a book that focuses on a blind contessa, this is an extraordinarily visual novel. It’s filled with vivid descriptions: afternoon sun streaming through the scarves in windows, stars that flare into full suns or disappear altogether, bright flashes of bird wings, wicks blazing in chandeliers, colorful marzipan fashioned into the shape of lemons, grapes, apples, and roses, glorious dresses in rich hues of blue watered silk with scarlett ribbons.
The beauty of THE BLIND CONTESSA’S NEW MACHINE is that the young author, Carey Wallace, shows us exactly what is lost when Carolina Fantoni, an eighteen year old Italian contessa, gradually loses her eyesight.
June 29, 2011
· Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: 19th-Century, Blindness, Real Event Fiction, Time Period Fiction · Posted in: Facing History, italy
THE SOLDIER’S WIFE by Margaret Leroy
The quotation shows Margaret Leroy at her best, describing the ordinary routines of everyday life, in a strongly realized setting, and an acute emotional sensitivity. The place is Guernsey, one of the British Channel Islands nestling off the French coast between the arms of Normandy and Brittany. The time is 1940, when the islands came under German occupation, after being more or less abandoned by the British as indefensible. The sadness comes from the fact that man of this little farm has been one of the few inhabitants killed in the bombing that preceded the invasion. One of the very few, actually…
June 28, 2011
· Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: Life Choices, Morality, Motherhood, Real Event Fiction, Time Period Fiction, War Story, WWII · Posted in: Facing History, United Kingdom
