The Risk of Darkness (Susan Hill)

Hardcover

This is the third in the series of five (so far) "Simon Serailler" novels by Hill. I read the first two and, obviously, thought they were good enough to continue -- but this book may have just changed my mind. There's nothing wrong with the writing and I rather like feeling in-the-know about these characters. See, although the book wouldn't lose an audience who don't know what's gone on before, there's plenty of backstory referenced throughout to make me feel rewarded for having been faithful through the first two.

My problem isn't with style, it was with content, which was downright ugly. I have little patience for sensationalism and, frankly, that's what this felt like. Sure, Hill pulls punches when it comes down to the nitty-gritty of how, exactly, several children went from happy kids to piles of bones in a cave -- but I don't know why she bothered. I think it would've been easier to read that then to spend pages in the company of a dangerous madman searching for his dead wife in every poor woman who wanders into his line of sight. Even as I'm typing this, I'm getting annoyed remembering how I felt -- just icky.

I guess the truth is that I don't find Simon Serailler compelling enough of a character to wade through a distasteful story for.

C

Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro)

Hardcover

Our narrator is Kathy H., who reveals the story in conversational flashback -- often starting an anecdote only to bounce back to an earlier time to explain pertinent pieces of the story she's telling. If I didn't like Kathy or if her words felt in any way stilted, this book would've been awful, but the author has a real ear for dialogue and for the way that young people are with one another. The relationships actually reminded me strongly of my own childhood...I couldn't help but wonder if it was because I, too, spent my adolescence and teen years in a rather sheltered environment. More likely it's that MOST teenagers talk this way and the recognition just made it seem more personal than it was.

Anyway, I guess it's obvious that I was blown away by the believability factor, something that's even more remarkable given that the subject is far beyond anything existing in reality. Too bad that this thing of beauty wraps up so unsatisfactorily. The final bit of action is just so ridiculous. I *think* it was supposed to be some big reveal, but it was pretty much the equivalent of a parent having "the talk" with their 16-year-old. Mom or Dad might fill in some blanks, but the kid's already beyond a huge speech.

The end of a book has got to be the WORST place for an author to lose his way and that's just what happens here. The last couple of scenes clunked so pathetically that when I closed the book, my overwhelming feeling was one of disappointment in the handling of the final scenes rather than the content.

B-

The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen (Jacques Pepin)

Hardcover

I've never seen any of Pepin's television programs nor have I read any of his cookbooks, so I brought nothing to this reading other than a slight familiarity with Pepin's name. I actually don't know if that colored my opinion of the book for good or ill... I guess it's possible I would've liked it more if it felt as though I were reading the history of an esteemed acquaintance; or perhaps I would have felt a keener disappointment at its barely-scratching-surface anecdotes.

It's not a difficult book to read, but it was very episodic "when I was x, this happened" (2-3 pages), "when I was x I did this" (2-3 pages), "I worked at this place for a chef that wasn't as charming or smart or good-looking as I" (4-5 pages -- but tweaked and pressed into service for several different job situations), and on and on. He's obviously an innovative chef with an interesting career behind him, but he's also vain and petty. His "me vs. him" narratives seem to assume that readers are in his corner by default.

The recipes included are probably the best part of the book, even though the one I've tried so far (Eggs Jeannette) was just OK -- I'll probably stick with the much-less complex but more flavorful deviled eggs in future. I have copied and plan to make a couple of the other dishes, but that doesn't mean I want to hear any more about the guy behind them.

C

The Diviner's Tale (Bradford Morrow)

Hardcover

Cassandra is a dowser -- walking land with a forked stick divining for the landowners where water might be hiding. While she's working a job in an empty valley alone, she comes across the hanging body of a teen girl. If only it'd still been hanging there when Cass returned to the spot later with the police...

Such a strong beginning! I was immediately drawn in, wondering if it'd been an apparition or if the killer, hiding nearby, had cut the girl down to hide her. Problem is, I seemed more interested in the girl than the author was. He got off on tangents and packed Cassandra's life far too full with "stuff": dead teenage brother, father succumbing to Alzheimer's, religious mom who looks down on the family divining, twin 11-year-old sons who call their mother "Cass" -- oh brother -- speak like pretentious college students and who were conceived during the first of a two-night stand with a married man, a platonic affair with her former fiance and currently married town sheriff who also happens to be her twins' godfather, and (I'm getting so completely bored of this serious issue being trotted out with such regularity) a childhood rape.

It just needed to be tightened up and the heroine given a bit more backbone. Also, the author should've spent at least an afternoon with pre-teen boys so that his attempts at their lines of dialogue might've resembled something that occurs in nature.

C-

Headlong (Michael Frayn)

Audiobook

This is one of those if it CAN go wrong, it DOES stories.

It starts off well enough. Our "hero" Martin is a family man with a little country home, down for a vacation with his wife and infant daughter. Because both Martin and his wife work in art, their neighbors the Churts -- privileged landowners down to the bottom of their money barrel -- ask them over to get their opinions about some of their paintings. And it's there that Martin first spies the painting that will become an obsession for which he will risk almost anything to possess. You know, it actually continues well enough too. It's often funny and, although he digs himself deeper with every comment, action, and scheme, Martin isn't ridiculous. His decisions make at least some sort of sense...enough so that I couldn't help but root for a couple of them to finally work rather than backfire on him.

The biggest problem was the fact that a good third of the thing was dry-as-dust art history and iconography and just plain-old-regular history. Ugh. I listened to this in the car and I'm just grateful I didn't fall asleep during those frequent lectures.

C-

Swamplandia! (Karen Russell)

Hardcover

The Bigtree family is going through a rough patch, to say the least. They own the tourist park of the title and, in good times, mother Hilola did a high-dive "swimming with the Seths" routine (Seth is the family's annoyingly overused nickname for every single one of their gators), Dad (or "Chief") wrestled gators for the crowd, their grandfather and founder of the park was part of the family, and the three kids sold tickets, gave guided tours of their makeshift Bigtree museum, and sold overpriced snacks and souvenirs.

Now Hilola's dead of cancer, Grandpa's gone senile and has been shipped off to a nursing home -- sorry, nursing boat, and the new attraction on the mainland is stealing all of the tourists away. So, how does the family cope? Well, big brother decides to move out and get a job at the rival attraction, Dad leaves his two teenage girls on their own while he disappears on a "business trip," the older sister decides to leave young Ava (age 13) to marry her long-dead ghost boyfriend, and Ava goes searching for her sister with The Bird Man, a strange guy with a feathered coat.

In short: the book's got some decent prose, but the story is all over the place and the people SUCK. What kind of a father leaves his girls in a swamp to fend for themselves, especially when he knows one of them has begun to show signs of mental illness? I also hated that the story line that held a bit of magic was brutally blown away without warning to reveal the disappointingly overused non-surprise of child molestation. By the end, I felt like I needed a shower more than the neglected filthy girls in the swamp.

D+

Case Histories (Kate Atkinson)

Hardcover

I'd love to see a movie of this story get made. Erm -- on second thought -- they'd probably just cock it up, so forget that.

I was sucked in immediately, then shortly put off when it looked as though this might be a collection of short stories, and then happily re-engaged when an earlier character popped back up after a few chapters. I like short stories well enough, but I was so interested in the initial situation that I needed to know what was next and was so glad that I was going to get an answer...or at least more information.

British private eye Jackson Brodie acquires a few new clients asking him to look into cold cases: a decades-old missing child case, a seemingly random murder, and tracking down an adopted child, now an adult. While juggling his new clients, an ex-wife, and an impossible long-standing client, he's also dealing with constant tooth pain and what seem to be deliberate attempts on his life. All of this sounds way over-the-top, but it's so wonderfully written that it doesn't matter in the least. Somehow it just worked and I ate it up.

There are currently three more novels featuring Jackson Brodie and I'm adding them all to my "to read" list.

A-