I spent my month’s vacation reading. And more reading. I down loaded books and fell into them, sitting on the patio or at the beach. Most of the books were delightful and insightful. Only two were clunckers and I left them for the end of this piece.
Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk. The controversial Polish writer gives us another wonderful novel after winning the International Man Booker Price for her novel, Flights. This book starts with a murder mystery. Several bodies are found near a remote Polish village. An old woman, the narrator of the story, tries to find the answer as she meditates on feminism, the lives of animals, the wild nature of her surroundings and the poems of William Blake.
Olga Tokarczuk
Yoga for People Who Can’t be Bothered to Do It by Geoff Dyer. A memoir of a wanderer, a slacker, a drug taker, a friend of depression, boredom and loneliness, an intellectual who immerses himself in literature and lets you know it. He picks up women in various quarters of the world and her dialogue is as wry and rarefied and literature-laden as his. But all in all, his mesmerizing writing allows us to follow our flawed protagonist on his travels. The chapters on the Burning Man and the decay of Detroit are especially good. He is a travel writer with a good eye and a capacious mind.
Tonto and the Lone Ranger have a Fist Fight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie. A brilliant book composed of twenty-two interlocked stores told in poetic mesmerizing prose. Alexis depicts the struggle of Native Americans whether living on the reservation or in the city. His characters use dreams, surreal stories, flashbacks, ceremonies, and sheer cunning to survive.
The Dance of the Sea Gull by Andrea Camilleri. Brutal mafia killers protect a smuggling operation involving high-ranking Italian officials. The popular Camilleri police procedurals feature Inspector Montalbano who tries to remain honest while caught between corrupt politicians, annoying police bureaucracy and the Mafia. Enjoyable light stuff, perfect for a vacation.
The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante, book two in the Neapolitan Quartet
and Those Who Leave and Those who Stay by Elena Ferrante, book three in the Neapolitan Quartet. In the first book in the Quartet, Ferrante charts the friendship of two girls, Elena and Lina, growing up in Naples, Italy. In the next two in the series, Ferrante follows their lives as they grow and change. Elena manages to leave the brutal world of her childhood but she keeps in touch with Lina who stays. As adults, both experience the misogyny, the violence, the fear or violence that marked their early years. These are seering books which depict the meaning of friendship, the passions of love, motherhood. marital violence and the brutality of the criminal world, against a background of political upheaval.
Days Without End by Sebastian Barry. Thomas McNulty flees a starving Ireland for the United States but there, still starving and ragged poor, he joins the army. He finds a buddy, Jack Cole, and the two eventually become lovers. The book follows their treks with the military from the Indian wars of the western frontier to the civil war. In the west, their job is to protect the settler, who will massacre the Indians in order to conquer their land. McNulty and Cole, barely surviving themselves, have to deal with their brutal past.
The Last Supper By Rachel Cusk. Cusk is the author of the acclaimed novels: Transit, Outline and Kudos. In my opinion, she is one of the foremost writers today. The Last Supper is non-fiction, an account of the journey she and her family took to Italy. It is very different from the usual travel book. Instead, it is a Cuskian mediation on existence, art, travel, rootlessness and home.
Treasure Hunt by Andrea Camilleri , one of Italy’s most famous contemporary writers, and one of the funniest mystery writers, gives us another tale of Inspector Montelbano who must hunt for a kidnapped woman while, at the same time, he is pestered by silly anonymous notes that leave clues to the crime. As irascible as ever, Montelbano must convince himself he is not too old for the job while overeating wonderful Italian food and attempting to stay on good terms with his girl friend.
Significant Other by Armistad Maupin. I have read and enjoyed most of the Maupin books, which introduce us to a group of Gay friends living in San Francisco. They love, they quarrel, they break up, they marry surrounded by the death shadow of the AIDS epidemic. However this book, which promised comedy was interesting but not very funny.
Twisted Twenty-Six by Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum, New Jersey bail bond agent learns her beloved granny married an old friend who dropped dead the day after the wedding. So another wild and crazy Stephanie Plum mystery begins. Still trying to decide between two hot boy friends, and still barely coping with her job, Stephanie has to protect Gramma from her ex’s enemies who believe a lot of money should come to them.
Swan Song by John Galsworthy from the Forsyth Saga. I read a lot of Galsworthy when I was a teen-ager but missed the conservatism, classism and ultra nationalism that weight down the series with lard-like pomposity. This month I read it for the history: this version deals with the 1920’s. For four decades, Galsworthy kept churning them out, focusing on the various members of an ever expanding Forsyth family. The characters constantly muse about change, the English character. They believe in blood – ie her French blood leads her astray and so on. They are nailed to their concept of class. One character refuses to prosecute an old school friend who swindles him because they are both gentleman and were at school together. In the general strike, the Forythe's take the government side and see themselves as representing England. The strikers obviously are not English in their view.
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. Book club book long on emotion and descriptions of a marsh in North Carolina where the story takes place. It starts off with a teaser chapter: the body of a murdered young man. The killer is not revealed until the last pages. Meanwhile the plot, all backstory, is not believable. Dialogue clunky. Some talk “southern” but others not. A seven year old girl is abandoned by her parents and grows up alone in the marsh where she manages to survive on her own. A young boy teaches her to read. When she is older she spurns him for the town jerk. She collects feathers, shells etc and reads all about them until she has educated herself, becomes a botanist, an expert of marsh flora and fauna and writes the definitive books on the subject. Come on.
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. Like the Crawdads book, mentioned above, this book club favourite also starts off with a teaser for a first chapter. An arsonist has set little fires which burn down the house of a well-off family. We are left without explanation until the end. Instead, again like Crawdads, we are dropped into the back story, and into backstory of back story. Once again the young woman spurns the good guy and goes for the bad boy. Backstory, backstory. The girl’s mother has a secret. (Back story etc). Somewhere in the saga of a dysfunctional family, I realized I no longer cared.
Andrea Camilleri died this year in July 2019. He was 93. He was considered one of Italy's most accomplished authors. He turned to writing detective novels when he was in his 60's.
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