First Wednesday Book Review Club

Dad circa 1955

I am a big Larry Watson fan and LET HIM GO did not disappoint. It is a great followup to books like WHITE CROSSES and MONTANA: 1948.

After their adult son is killed in an accident, his widowed wife marries again and leaves the Blackledge's home to go with her new husband to Montana. She takes their grandson with her, of course, and therein lies the problem.

"With you or without you," Margaret Blackledge insists, and at these words George knows his only choice is to follow her.
 
George takes to the road with Margaret by his side, tracking down the Weboy clan quickly. When Margaret tries to convince Lorna to return home to North Dakota, bringing little Jimmy with her, the Blackledges find themselves mixed up with the entire Weboy clan, a horrific family determined not to give the boy up without a fight. It's more about possession than love with a family like this. 

This slim volume contains a heart-pounding story, unforgettable characters, terrific atmosphere and some of the most beautiful prose you will ever read. I liked it almost as much as MONTANA: 1948, making it still one of my favorite books. Oh, to write like Mr. Watson. 

For more reviews, go to Barrie Summy's blog

First Wednesday Book Review Club: LOTS OF CANDLES. PLENTY OF CAKE

This is a well-written review of the author's life-which corresponds fairly well with mine in terms of general themes. But Anna Quindlen's book LOTS OF CANDLES, PLENTY OF CAKE seemed too much like a series of columns or essays strung together to be very enjoyable to me. And it also seemed like a book that could have been written by almost any college educated woman of our generation. Her observations, although true, were mostly trite and repeated all too often. Well-written, pleasant, yet but all too familiar.

What I had hoped to read was an insightful book on being a writer and/or on growing old. Not a fairly standard one on being a baby boom generation woman. So perhaps it is my fault for looking for a book she did not promise.

I also began to resent how determined she was to put a good face on everything--as if her readers would steer away from any really deep look at the problems of aging in the 21st century.

I have enjoyed several of Quindlen's novels but this book seemed specifically designed to appeal to please. Should the story of one's life be about that?

For more reviews, see Barrie Summy. 

First Wednesday Book Review: BREWSTER, Mark Slouka

Mark Slouka's BREWSTER takes place in the blue-collar town of Brewster, NY in 1968. But as he makes a point of saying in a wonderful interview with Edward Champion on the BAT SEGUNDO podcast, 1968 was very different for blue-collar teenagers in a blue-collar town than for those slightly older at that time and of more means. Only gradually does the outer world work its way into the story of four kids in upstate New York.

Its the inner world that Slouka is concerned with here anyway. It's the past not the present that has a enormous affect on these lives.

Jon Mosher has always felt like an outsider in his town because of his parents’ roots as German-Jewish émigrés and the accidental death of his older brother. The death of his brother has destroyed his family and especially his mother, who like the mother in ORDINARY PEOPLE seems to hold him responsible for being the one who survived. Spending your life dodging your mother's distain for you takes its toll.

He begins to run track on his high-school team and becomes friends with Frank Krapinski, a Christian and talented athlete; volatile Ray Cappiciano, who comes to school bearing the bruises of constant fistfights; and Karen Dorsey, who falls for Ray.

Ray’s alcoholic father, a WWII veteran possessed of a raging temper takes an interest in Jon. And Jon's damaged mother has a fondness for Ray, confounding both boys.

The four teens bond in their desire to leave their damaged lives and working class town behind. It is only gradually they see that you can never leave the past behind. This book is especially about the solace, the support, and the gift of friendship and loyalty among teens who feel they are powerless.

This was a hard book to read in many ways and it is certainly more noir than more books touted as noir.  But every moment felt real. Highly recommended. 

For more book reviews, see Barrie Summy.

First Wednesday Book Review Club: THE SEARCHERS: THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN LEGEND

Most western- lovers would rank this film among the top five westerns of all time. And THE SEARCHERS: THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN LEGEND by Glenn Frankel does much to help you understand why.

Frankel begins his story with the real life story of Cynthia Ann Parker. In 1836 Cynthia Ann Parker was kidnapped by Comanches in East Texas. Other family members were killed but Cynthia was taken and spent years among the Comanches, never really adjusting to the life of a white woman after her return.

Frankel goes on to explore Comanche culture, the fate of the Texas families who came into contact with the Comanches and the story of the particular people who took Cynthia Ann, in particular.

He then turns his focus to Alan Le May, the author of the novel that told the story, providing a nice biography of his career and how he came to write this book.

And finally we come to John Ford and the movie. He paints an interesting picture of Ford, of Hollywood at the time, and of course, of the movie's star, John Wayne. He explains to us why the film is such a great one. And how Wayne created such an indelible impression in it.

This is a terrific book. The author has a knack for telling you exactly as much as you want to know and presenting it in a interesting way. I have read books like this one before--how they made CASABLANCA for instance. This is by far the most erudite and comprehensive study of a movie I have read. Highly recommended.

Check for more book reviews with Barrie Summy. 

Book Review Club, July 3, 2013

AFTER VISITING FRIENDS, is the story of Michael Hainey's attempt to find out exactly how his father died at age 33 in 1970. His uncle awoke the family that morning to say his father had been found dead after visiting friends on a city street in Chicago. No police visit, no hospital call. It was too unofficial of an announcement not to disturb his son when he was old enough to think about it. 

For years the idea of who those friends were haunted Michael Hainey. Michael was only 6 when his Dad died and he had little memory of him. His father, a reporter too, worked at night so his time with his kids was scant. His mother didn't seem to much question the oddity of the story. Who were these friends her husband was visiting? She immediately undertook what was necessary to support her sons and left the events of that night alone.

By the time, Michael's search is underway many of the players are dead and those alive are very secretive or protective about his Dad. Most advise him to forget about it since there is no question of the cause of death, but he can't. Although Michael eventually comes to an understanding of what happened that night, he also is looking for facts about his Dad. It is not until the very end of the book that we learn what perhaps formed the man he was.

This was a very well- written and compelling book. Highly recommended. 

Now here is the question that comes with it. Did you parents keep secrets or was their marriage and their past an open book?

I didn't find out until I was fully grown with children of my own that my parents separated after he  returned from the war for quite a long time. There were other secrets too.

First Wednesday Book Review Club: PINES

Wayward Pines, Idaho, seems like the mythical, perfect small town. Ethan Burke, a federal agent, arrives in search of two missing agents. After a violent accident lands him in the hospital, Ethan comes to with no ID and no cell phone. 

The medical staff seems friendly enough, but something feels off. Something also feels off with the sheriff, the waitress in the bar, and pretty much everyone Ethan meets.

As the days pass, Ethan's investigation into his colleagues disappearance turns up more questions than answers. There are so many oddities about Wayward Pines. He can't seem to make a call beyond its borders. In fact, leaving the town proves to be almost impossible. More than one person seems to have arrived in much the same manner, Ethan did.

Back home, his wife and son struggle to learn his fate too.

To say much more, would ruin this story's twists and turns.I read this in one day-which almost never happens with me.

Clearly it is the first book in a series and will also be a TV show. I can see why. Mr. Crouch knows how to create suspense. For more reviews, see Barrie Summy.


Kevin and Spongebob. You should see his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. 

First Wednesday Book Review Club: BURIAL RITES, Hannah Kent

It it nearly impossible to believe that a 27 year old Australian graduate student wrote this book, so mature and polished is the writing. 

BURIAL RITES, based on the last execution of an Icelander, is the story of Agnes Magnusdottir, a woman found guilty of the murder of two men in 1828. The story begins when she is brought to a rural farmhouse to await her execution. The family is appalled at having a murderess among them, but there is no other place for her to await her execution. At least she will serve as an unpaid servant in the interim. She proves useful to the family and community more than once.

A young minister is brought in to counsel Agnes in the months before her death. It is mostly he, a good man who's more than a little in love with her, who hears most of her story. Although in the close quarters of the farmhouse, the family hears her tale too. 

Kent uses the Icelandic language here and there and summons up great authenticity by her incredibly well researched details into what everyday life was like in Iceland in the1820s. We never doubt the sense of place or the rightness of what the characters say and think. 

It is never a happy story for any of the characters, but the pages turned quickly because the writing is that good. HIghly recommended. This is sure to be one of the big books of this sumer and fall.

For more book reviews, check with Barrie Summy. 

First Wednesday Book Review Club: Beautiful Ruins, Jesse Walter

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BEAUTIFUL RUINS by Jesse Walter does a very smooth job of juggling multiple narrative set in multiple time periods. We always know where we are and whom we are with. The prose is elegant, the scenes in Italy inviting. If that small village doesn't exist, it should thanks to the writing here.

The disaster that was CLEOPATRA was being made in the main narrative. A young actress in the film, believing herself to be dying, comes to a remote island where she is tended to by Pasquale, a young Italian hotel owner of a hotel so small that she is the only guest. Other stories intersect with this one.(Richard Burton is a minor player that we never see without a bottle in his hand. Surely we have something else to learn about him).Pasquale is being shaken down for protection money, but this story is also not developed.

Unfortunately many of the other minor characters in BEAUTIFUL RUINS didn't capture my interest and I was anxious to get back to the primary story rather than these less interesting ones.The book I would have loved would have focused on the young actress, the young hotel owner, and the circumstances of 1962. Of course it was not my story to tell.

We see the actress at various points in her life, but because they are not chronological it is often hard to invest in them. We also come to know her son, an producer's assistant, a writer trying to pitch a story, the producer himself who meddles again and again to disastrous consequences. Flash forward into the future and the romanticism of that small island in Italy is lost. If Hollywood is supposed to come alive, it never does. We know just how venal Hollywood is from so many other examinations. And the scenes in Spokane are even less involving.

This was certainly far from a bad book. But the pages didn't turn effortlessly.
I listened to this on audio. Perhaps that distanced me.

For more book reviews, see Barrie Summy. 

I WAS GONE WHEN MYSTERICALE debuted. My story BLESSING YOU AND YOUR FAMILY is in there along with lots of other good things to read.  

First Wednesdays Book Review CLub

Although you will find this in the mystery/crime section, it is hardly a mystery at all. Oh, yes, there is a crime solved by Edinburgh Detective, Fin Macleod, on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. But is is more the story of his childhood there and how the events of his last years there affected his life forever. No character is either black or white-not one.

This beautiful book excels in creating a place, a time, and memorable characters. If you are looking for a high body count, or countless interviews between MacLeod and suspects, there is little of that. But if you seek a book full of atmosphere, lovely writing and an introduction to a very different place, you will enjoy this as much as I did.  Highly recommended. Check out Barrie Summy for more reviews.