For the love of language (and politics), plus comments on a few of the latest books I've read

I find myself compelled to point out that Sarah Palin is suffering from "Aleutians of grandeur."

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I just finished a few books sent to me by my brother, lent by friends, and some that I even purchased (that should make the authors happy, though if they only knew how many books I have, they might forgive my current quasi-moratorium on buying more). These recently-read books include Hitler's Peace by Philip Kerr, which was not as engaging as his most engaging books, and at times seemed awkward or forced, but was compelling, nonetheless, and ultimately both illuminating and intriguing. OK, that doesn't sound like a ringing endorsement, but remember that this is a favorite author of mine who reaches the highest standards in most of his books, if not quite in every case. However, I encourage you to read Hitler's Peace, both for the excitement and for the window on a fascinating time in history.

Prior to that, a selection of what I read includes Vicious Circle by Robert Littell, The Mayor of Lexington Avenue by James Shehan, much of Collapse by Jared Diamond (still reading it), and the single volume containing the novels Fatherland and Enigma by Robert Harris.

Here are a few additional recent reads: Water Touching Stone by Eliot Pattison (excellent), Spook Country by William Gibson (judged by the highest standards, very good), and The Painter of Battles: A Novel by Arturo Perez-Reverte (see below).

Collapse is a fascinating book that can be read in bits and pieces, or straight through. I'm still filling in the parts I skipped over, aided in my journey by never using a bookmark and continually starting up in random places (a Dadaist approach, perhaps, but don't you feel the Dadaists need a little more attention now and then?). Collapse offers a lot of hope while also documenting many monumental failures of societies throughout history; it comes from the author of the highly touted Guns, Germs and Steel, also touted (and toted) by my high school age son. I haven't read Guns, Germs ... yet.

The other books I listed are all very good or better, though The Mayor of Lexington Avenue is excellent for 95% of the book, and just OK for the other 5% (don't hold me to the numbers, these are impressionistic statistics, if there are such a thing). Still, The Mayor of... is quite an amazing first novel, with outstanding characters, plot and setting that stretch over two generations, from the poor to the rich and powerful, and from New York to a Florida backwater. I think that if the author had grappled with one less issue or subplot, the book would have remained uniformly outstanding. Nevertheless, it is highly recommended.

Although I've read all of Littell's other books except one, I had made a conscious decision not to read Vicious Circle. I felt the same way when The Little Drummer Girl by le Carre' came out- at the time that I just couldn't handle the subject matter (the Middle East conflict) as "entertainment," though, of course, the book is far deeper than that comment implies. I know this because, after about ten years, I broke down and read John le Carre's take on a part of the Middle East conflict, and was glad I did, and, after my brother sent me Vicious Circle I broke down again and read it as well.

Littell writes so well that I found myself laughing out loud in the middle of very tense scenes. As always, his wonderful language and characters are brilliantly crafted. Still, Israeli and Palestinian people and their many issues are not an easy thing to read about, especially when they are kidnapping, murdering, torturing and negotiating for peace (simultaneously, if not all by the same individuals). I felt that Littell was extremely balanced in his treatment of all sides, and the book is gripping from start to end. Unfortunately, I cried a lot more than I laughed, but that comes with the territory in this case.

The novels by Robert Harris left me a bit flat, Enigma more so than Fatherland. I have to say that the premise of Fatherland is very clever and brilliantly executed, and was used to build up a remarkable, alternative universe, though one where the truth will out. The premise is that Germany won WW2 and, among many other consequences, no GI's liberated any concentration camps. The storyline itself isn't quite as strong as other aspects of the book, though it serves as a good thriller with chilling revelations. Enigma perhaps simply wasn't the book I was expecting- I kept looking for that book on each page and coming up empty. It is definitely worth reading, however, and is another WW2 thriller, with an associated murder mystery.

The Painter of Battles by Perez-Reverte is an unusual book. It is by far the shortest book by the author, as far as I know, but it took me an unusually long time to read. There are a lot of pithy sentences and analyses of paintings and warfare, from ancient to modern. Not that this is a textbook by any means; it is a psychological thriller, and the tension can reach high levels, but it's also a no-holds-barred examination of modern morality, warfare and societies. The language demands an attention to detail that I could not always provide (say at the end of a long day) and I wasn't always alert enough to grasp the point, though I rarely have this problem with books (or with the books I choose to read, in any event). I'm not sure I'm erudite enough to grasp all of this novel, either. My knowledge of art history is fairly spotty- I've seen a lot but haven't studied it, so I tend to forget the details. Nevertheless, the stories within the novel are well worth reading since they are based on real events, more or less, events that were highly significant to the participants and some of their observers, but were probably given little thought by most other people. As with quantum physics, we see here that the observer changes the "experiment" or experience, and here the consequences can be tragic. I'd label this short novel a "must read"!

That's it for my capsule summaries and other comments of the day.

© 2008 James K. Bashkin

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Too Tough on Philip Kerr?

I wrote a while back about a "commercial" phase where I didn't like the books, which was a big shift since I think of Philip Kerr as a favorite author. In looking more closely, this assessment really comes from just two books: The Grid, which I did not like very much, and Esau, which I enjoyed most of the way through, but which I wouldn't call a great book. So, I'll leave it at that: The Grid seems like a typical US mass market summer reading thriller, only it didn't engage me the way the best thrillers do. Read everything else by Kerr (I only mention books I've actually read). Dark Matter is very good- my copy is dog-eared because it took it with me everywhere while reading it. Sir Isaac Newton as detective- the game's afoot in London! "Philip Kerr"

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Philip Kerr: that's Philip with one "l", thank you very much

The only thing worse would probably be to say, "sorry, Phil." Yes, his last name has one "el", not two. I'd fire my fact-checker if ... Yes, well, we see one disadvantage of reviewing or commenting on books without physical access to them any more (can't find anything around here). However, "Dark Matter" is around the corner, and Google is at my finger tips, so "my bad" as they say.

The first thing I read by Mr. Kerr was A Philosophical Investigation. This was at a time, 1994 (I checked!), when one of the many waves of the genetics revolution was washing over us, or over me, and the premise of the book was fascinating. At some point in the near future, a murder gene (or, say, single nucleotide polymorphism- an inheritable mutation by any other name) had been identified, and the whole population of England had its DNA sequenced to identify those who might have a tendency to commit violent crime or murder. The names of unfortunate individuals were inscribed on a secret list (on a computer, back when we thought they might keep secrets), the list to be consulted only when a murder took place that correlated with the location of an "obvious suspect", or something like that. But, the secret list was compromised, taken, by a serial killer who began preemptively knocking off the people and presumably enjoying it. Of course, these now doubly-unfortunate souls only had a heightened tendency toward violence and murder, there was no certainty that they would ever commit a crime. They were, at the time of their murders, usually entirely innocent. The writing immediately pulled me in, and I read with gusto, as someone with unusual computer skills and a high capacity for planning and deception was clearly involved in sparing with the female lead investigator. It seemed to me that there was one minor error in the edition I had (hardcover- those were the days): a medical acronym was not given the correct full name. I can't remember what it was, and maybe I wasn't even correct. Something like a PET scan (for Positron Emission Tomography). The thing is I felt guilty for years because I never wrote to the author correct this. How many books make you feel anything for years? Well, in my case, more than one, as you'll know from reading below, but I'm writing about many of my favorite books first. I wonder if that kind of revelation will still be appearing in a few weeks. OK, this is not about me (or not supposed to be). The point is that A Philosophical Investigation is a very good book, and I think some of it was over my head, in the mental game playing and philosophy arenas, but not in a condescending or demeaning way... and I was a lot younger then.

So if you like your serial killers to be brilliant, and you want to read about them engaging in a deadly game of 4-D chess with nearly fanatical female detectives who can match each calculated move in time and space, you've come to the right book. It immediately sent me looking for more by Mr. Kerr and I read the three Berlin detective stories that I could find. One was pre-WWII, one was right at the start of the war and one was a bit post-war. They are available as three books (March Violets, The Pale Criminal, A German Requiem) or collected in one volume (the Berlin Noir I've already referred to). These are not happy books, though they are not without some victories for truth, but it is obviously odd to imagine a police detective investigating the crime of murder when genocide was being planned and executed, and when the World itself was at war. But, as these detectives will tell you, they are "just doing their job, ma'am." This is, of course, true, though the compromises necessary for survival complicated any sense of justice as the rapid approach of the war and its long aftermath gripped Europe (and the Pacific). Nevertheless, our man was on the job. The way he pursued the investigations without regard for his own safety turned out to be dangerous for friends, but also for enemies. It is easy to find villains in that world, but Kerr gives us a man we can live with through the troubles, and who demands some respect, even as he is at least somewhat complicit in the larger, terrible picture of that time. They were human beings "on the other side", following Hitler, which is why it can be so incomprehensible. As Martin Amis said, they got it so wrong that, if the Germans had done exactly the opposite of what they did, it would have been the right thing. The human qualities were repressed enough in most, by a certain point, that they might never have existed at all.

So the verdict? These are gritty and suspenseful historical fiction, where justice tries to prevail and the backdrop is ultimate evil. Read them now, read them and weep.

Thanks for your patience while I rode the untamed scripts tonight. The JAVA was too hot to handle at times.

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All posts have been updated- more links and text

Please note that I have copy edited all posts, improved content and added promised links (along with new-found links). Thanks for all the continued feedback. I guess blogs don't really work this way, so I'll have to start getting it right the first time, but given the state of things, there will be a few more global updates. The Skull Mantra (Eliot Pattison) and The Murder Room (P. D. James) and Nick Hornby's reviews remain the only work that has received long(ish) treatment, with text added on Robert Wilson, Philip Kerr, David Lodge and Lawrence Durrell, among others.

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Murder in Scotland, Spain, Portugal, West Africa and Berlin

We have to add key books and people to the discussion right away, so I'm publishing without all the links that should be added (I'll edit them in later):

1. Ian Rankin, whose Inspector Rebus novels like Fleshmarket Alley (Fleshmarket Close in Britain) are truly excellent. I can't say the same about the Jack Harvey novel Blood Hunt- I found it to be pedestrian. But, nobody is perfect, and we should be thankful that Rebus is on the prowl in Scotland. I also know too much about the chemical and agricultural issues that formed the foundation of the crimes in Blood Hunt to find their treatment very satisfying in the book. But, hey, this just shows the danger of too much learnin'. Read it and enjoy! Perhaps enjoyment, or at least suspension of disbelief, will be easier if your aren't an industry insider.
   
   
2. The Blind Man of Seville, A Small Death in Lisbon, The Company of Strangers and The Vanished Hands represent one type of Robert Wilson's work, the intricately plotted, remarkably dark stories of murder, family, betrayal, pride, patriotism, spying, manipulation, secrets, weakness, love and pain. Pretty good territory for a rainy day, eh? These are works of literature,* though I wouldn't lend them to my kids. The Vanished Hands seemed to me a little weaker than the others, but it was married to political and social messages about repression in South America (by South Americans and the US) that needed to be published, so I give it some leeway. The first three I listed here are strong stuff, and are nothing short of brilliant. Rarely do I react as viscerally to the printed page, and rarely am I so engaged in the puzzle, as when I read this side of Wilson's writing.
   
   The other part of Wilson's work that I am aware of is the series of Bruce Medway novels, including The Big Killing, A Darkening Stain, Blood is Dirt, and Instruments of Darkness, all of which should be read. Soon. These books are less ambitious than the first set is some ways, and somewhat less satisfying, but still excellent. Although frequently violent and filled with betrayals and much sadness, there is a bit of optimism in these books, if seen through the boozy haze. The brotherhood of mankind has not completely broken down. Also, with the books being shorter, the characters are less fully developed (we don't know about three generations or more for each person's family, including all lateral genealogy, nor all GPS waypoints in everyone's lives for the past 85 years- just teasing a bit, here!), and the depths of depravity are somehow slightly less horrifying than in, say, The Blind Man of Seville.
   
   I'm not complaining about the characters at all: Medway and Co. form a terrific ensemble cast that sometimes stays a step ahead of crooks, sometimes a few steps behind, but mostly survives, to drink too much, another day. They ply their trade in West Africa, which is fully as foreign to me as any distant locale.
   
   Actually, it is a difficult to decide why the violence is less horrifying here, in Medway's world, than say in Inspector Falcón's world, because it really isn't. I hope the different affect is because somehow everything is less personal, life being painted with a broader brush in the Medway books, making events easier to accept and move on (to one's own life). However, it must be difficult to craft a great read in one third the number of words of the other books, so I'm not trying to be a jerk here, because they are great reads, and we should all know more about West Africa (at least where I live). It's not that I don't respect the Medway books in the morning, it's that I don't think about them as much in the morning, or find myself haunted as much by them at night, as I do with Seville, Lisbon, et al. "Bruce Medway"
   
   I strongly recommend reading each subset of Wilson's books in the order of their publication, given that aspects of character development can carry over from one story to another. I believe that the books are written by the same person, but the two have really nothing in common. That both sets of novels are very successful is impressive.
   
   
   *Did I just break a Nick Hornby rule? Or am I about to? See here. "Nick Hornby"
   
   
3. Philip Kerr is a cypher to me, or perhaps not, maybe I grok his fullness. What I can say is that he has written some of the best murder mysteries ever (see Berlin Noir), but he seemed to "go commercial" a while back and I don't connect too well with him any more in a consistent manner, though I don't deny the man his right to make a living. So where do I draw the line and why? I guess on another day."Philip Kerr"
   
   
   Question: is Philip Kerr coming back into the fold?

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