Been on a cold streak lately - not a lot of recent reads have made the long-term list.
Robin Adair, Death and the Running Patterer - a murder mystery set in 1850s Australia among the transported convicts. It sounded good, it looked good, it started well - detailed and well-imagined with just a touch of humor. But it rapidly became clear that while the author knew a tremendous amount about the era, he shared it too frequently and too ham-handedly, often inappropriately shoved into dialogue that then sounded unnatural ... and worse, that the characterizations and plot were a distant second to the erudition. Now, I was prepared to enjoy that, too, because I found the details remarkably interesting (unlike Chevalier, in the previous set of reviews, who buried her details within the story and thus dulled their sparkle with the story's bland brush), but when the main character suddenly changed personality two-thirds of the way into the story, and then the denouement ... charitably put, stretched credibility ... well, it was too much. Sorry to say, I can't recommend this one.
John Updike, Rabbit, Run - I couldn't make it more than fifty pages into this one. It had the same flavor as The Catcher in the Rye, a book I personally can't stand - all depressed and down-trodden and gloomy and oh, what a dreadfully dull and hopeless place this world is. Not my thing, not in the least.
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Hotel Transylvania - The first Saint-Germain novel is still the best. She was nowhere near as bogged down in historical detail, or in overly complex and intricate plots, as the later books, and Saint-Germain was still an enigmatic and exciting character, with few of the repetitive tropes that characterize the later books.
Elizabeth Peters, The Last Camel Died at Noon - I share Peters's love of the works of H. Rider Haggard, and this takeoff on Haggard's style was a lot of fun. The characters stuck in a completely new environment added an extra edge to their adventures, and it brought the author's inventiveness to the fore. My favorite of the series (after the first one).
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Monday, July 02, 2012
book reviews
Godfrey Hodgson, A Great and Godly Adventure: The Pilgrims and the Myth of the First Thanksgiving - It's an interesting idea, tracing the development of what we consider "Thanksgiving" from the earliest days of the landing at Plymouth and adding a firm grounding in the changing definitions and ideas of Thanksgiving over time, but overall I found it dryly written and not particularly engaging.
Tracy Chevalier, Girl with a Pearl Earring - Chevalier's writing is pretty, sprinkled with carefully described detail and heavy on setting. But in the end, it's like a play you go to for the props and costuming and scenery and not for the acting or the story, because Chevalier provides little in the way of plot or characterization. Her main character, the maid Griet, has no particular personality. Chevalier strives to create one by means of the simple detail of the maid covering her hair at all times, but since we never see the unfettered creature Griet might become if she let her hair down, the conceit has little impact. Vermeer is painted as an unbelievable creature - in complete dominance over the household, yet in so little control that he can't even step in when Griet is accused of a transgression that is obviously his fault in many ways. In the end, the denouement is trivial, even for the times, and Griet's personality remains a cipher. Overall, this appears to have been a book written because Chevalier wished to use the setting, and she created a thin story to support her descriptions.
Elizabeth Peters, The Deeds of the Disturber - A refreshing departure from the Egyptcentric first four installments of the series, this one placed the Emersons in London, in a fascinating exploration of how their typical skills and attitudes are altered in the more genteel atmosphere of what they considered "civilization." One of her better efforts, I thought.
Freeman, Mary E. Wilkins, The Revolt of Mother and Other Stories - A set of stories about homely women, and their strength. Sometimes it's hidden strength, shown in their defiance of those who want to change their lives, or their stubborn clinging to their views of the right way to do things, and other times it's overt, as in the title story when the woman takes over her husband's new barn instead of living in the dilapidated house he's never taken the time to improve. They are simple stories about simple people, but the more powerful because of their simplicity.
Tracy Chevalier, Girl with a Pearl Earring - Chevalier's writing is pretty, sprinkled with carefully described detail and heavy on setting. But in the end, it's like a play you go to for the props and costuming and scenery and not for the acting or the story, because Chevalier provides little in the way of plot or characterization. Her main character, the maid Griet, has no particular personality. Chevalier strives to create one by means of the simple detail of the maid covering her hair at all times, but since we never see the unfettered creature Griet might become if she let her hair down, the conceit has little impact. Vermeer is painted as an unbelievable creature - in complete dominance over the household, yet in so little control that he can't even step in when Griet is accused of a transgression that is obviously his fault in many ways. In the end, the denouement is trivial, even for the times, and Griet's personality remains a cipher. Overall, this appears to have been a book written because Chevalier wished to use the setting, and she created a thin story to support her descriptions.
Elizabeth Peters, The Deeds of the Disturber - A refreshing departure from the Egyptcentric first four installments of the series, this one placed the Emersons in London, in a fascinating exploration of how their typical skills and attitudes are altered in the more genteel atmosphere of what they considered "civilization." One of her better efforts, I thought.
Freeman, Mary E. Wilkins, The Revolt of Mother and Other Stories - A set of stories about homely women, and their strength. Sometimes it's hidden strength, shown in their defiance of those who want to change their lives, or their stubborn clinging to their views of the right way to do things, and other times it's overt, as in the title story when the woman takes over her husband's new barn instead of living in the dilapidated house he's never taken the time to improve. They are simple stories about simple people, but the more powerful because of their simplicity.
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