[Book Reviews] Exiles, jails, spies, and space
I was delighted to see an uncensored version of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's "In the First Circle" in print in English. Solzhenitsyn censored the original text himself to get it to publication. While the changes to the text were mostly omissions of chapters, there is one major change. In the version that I originally read, the fateful phone call at the beginning was to warn a doctor friend of the caller. In this version, the caller warns the American embassy that a Soviet spy is about to steal their plans for the atomic bomb. That radically changes the tenor of the book and its central debates about morality -- warning a friend or professional that the secret police will look dimly on them is different from trying to defeat a major act of international espionage, and raises different questions of patriotism and ethics. The characters and their allegorical loads were essentially unchanged from the book that I remember, and I enjoyed reading it somberly both as historical document and as commentary on the various ways that people justify their treatment of each other in cases of fear and resource starvation. Four and a half forbidding prison camps out of five. Also, I share.
thewronghands: Do you want the Solzhenitsyn when I'm done with it? It's a slow read full of philosophy, which I like and I'm not sure if you will.
ilcylic: I like Solzhenitsyn. Though I might save him for the Spring.
thewronghands: Yeah, it is kind of grim. I am going to read a book about horses and rainbows or something next.
ilcylic: Hahahahahahaha. "Ms. Kitty Goes To The Beach"
thewronghands: Right. [giggling] I have a book about the genesis of Genghis Khan... surely that will be cheering!
ilcylic: No. No, it will not.
thewronghands: (I know.)
Had I known that the author of the "Dangerous Book for Boys" was also responsible for "Genghis: Birth of an Empire", I might have skipped it, love of historical fiction or not. That would have been rather a mistake. Iggulden does a marvelous job of telling a reasonable origin story for Temujin, who will later become Genghis Khan. The Mongolian steppe setting is presented non-exotically, and I'd love for my friends who know more about Mongolia than I do to tell me how well that was rendered. The hero and his brothers are believable, complex characters who develop well over the course of the novel, and I particularly liked the presentation of Borte. (Given what I know of her later role in history, there was plenty of cool foreshadowing.) Temujin is harsh when he needs to be, and the abandonment of his family by their tribe reminded me that should I ever seize power and become an evil warlord, to not leave my enemies alone to die. Doesn't work out so well for you. Three and a half stooping falcons out of five.
I've been on a short story kick lately, but "Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction From the African Diaspora" outdoes itself in excellence. While I didn't like every story in there (one never does), I think I got a better list of authors to find and follow from this book than of almost any anthology of comparable length in years. Outstanding contributions include W. E. B. Du Bois's "The Comet", which I had somehow not encountered before, George Schuyler's "Black No More" (terribly disturbing, doubly so when you consider it was written in 1931), Leone Ross's "Tasting Songs" (lyrical fantastic mixed with a very commonplace suburban setting), Nalo Hopkinson's "Greedy Choke Puppy" (I always love her), Samuel Delany's "Aye, And Gomorrah" (it's a genre classic for a reason), Octavia Butler's "The Evening and the Morning and the Night" (she's probably my favorite sci-fi author of all time, and her take on genetic health care here and one's duty to make a difference in the world is thought-provoking, full of dramatic tension, and just all around excellent), and, best in the whole collection, Derrick Bell's "The Space Traders". That last is a first contact story, where aliens show up and offer America a big pile of gold and advanced environmental technology in exchange for all our Black people, to be exchanged in two weeks, no explanation given. There are a number of ways that that story could be badly told, but Bell does it with the touch of an artist. His characters are flawed and deeply believable, the political wrangling and justificatory reasoning that goes on is horrifyingly familiar, and it's disturbing social commentary that manages provocative without preachy. I wasn't able to listen to CSPAN for two weeks afterwards without thinking of this story; well done. Five UFOs out of five.
I enjoyed Yasutaka Tsutsui's short stories, so when I saw that he had a story available in manga format, I figured that I'd give it a go. Sadly, I was disappointed in "Telepathic Wanderers 1". I am unsure whether that's my dislike for the format, or whether it's this particular adaptation -- I really haven't read a lot of manga. (At the speed I read, it's far too expensive of a habit to get into. That'd be $5 for about fifteen minutes.) But the hilarious wrongness that I appreciated so much in the shorts was completely absent here, the storyline seemed contrived, and the social commentary that I was hoping for just wasn't present. This should have been my "Ms. Kitty Goes To The Beach" book, but it wasn't even that cheerful. In comparison to his novels, it seemed shallow. I'll go back to his literature and try "Hell" instead. One bubbleheaded telepath out of five.
I picked up Trevanian's Shibumi because I wanted to read about Go, and I often retain information better if I have the context of a story to place it in. I was encouraged that the Washington Post said it was great. Unfortunately, what I learned was that the author is a terribly arrogant jerk, and that I wished profoundly to set him on fire. He is unapologetically racist -- in the first ten pages, he managed to drop my jaw five times. At first I was hoping that he was just making out the point-of-view character to be a big jerk, but no, the whole book is full of that kind of thing. Ugh. The whole thing reads like a military wank spy fantasy for troglodytes aspiring to be an international man of mystery. The author can't get over how clever he thinks he is. His press declares that everyone should stop writing spy novels now, because he's written the best one possible and therefore the genre is done. (Even if that is meant tongue in cheek, still not funny, just obnoxious.) I had to make myself finish the book and I actually felt bad about putting it back in the pool of books for my paperback swapping club. Zero "goatherd"s out of five. Grr.
I picked up the recommendation for Barbara Neely's mystery series from the comments in one of rosefox's discussions, and I'm glad I did. "Blanche on the Lam" is funny, witty, full of Southern sass, and an engaging mystery. Neely excels at characterization, and her thoughtful heroine immediately has the reader rooting for her. She does a brilliant job of "show, don't tell" storytelling, there's more than enough material to make further books in the series interesting, and after finishing this one, I went and ordered all the other Blanche books I could find just so that I know what happened next. Well written and highly recommended if you like mysteries -- I can see why it won three of the four major awards in that genre. Four and a half tell-tale mops out of five; I only wish it had been longer.
Another mystery/spy novel recommended was Dorothy Gilman's "The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax". Like "Blanche on the Lam", it's also quite short, but it's mostly silly fun. You follow a respectable suburban grandmother as she signs on for courier duty with the CIA and gets into trouble. Naturally, she can't resist sticking her nose where she oughtn't, and naturally (since this is fiction!) that mostly turns out well for her rather than the contrary. This is sort of in the airplane book category for me -- I enjoyed it, I'd read more of the series if I happened across them when I was looking for something light, but I'm not going to make a great effort to seek out the rest. Three touristy knickknacks out of five.
I discovered Barbara Hambly's Benjamin January series through her short story in "New Orleans Noir". That was one of the best stories in the volume, and I was delighted to find that there was more written in the same universe. "A Free Man of Color" is the first. Hambly's characterization and sensitive lush rendering of New Orleans in the 1830s are first rate, and she integrates her plot with her setting well without letting the social tensions of the setting drive the story entirely. The mystery keeps you guessing right up until the end, though I did guess one of the major plot twists in general if not in particular. (And, in fairness, I thought it was probably wishful thinking on my part, so I was delighted when the author actually had included that little bit of historical detail.) Excellent historical fiction, deeply researched, and I'll definitely be seeking out the rest of this series. Five forensic analyses out of five.
It took me half the book to get into the flow of Arundhati Roy's "The God of Small Things". Like my first encounter with Tom Robbins, it took me a while to sift through her style and decide if I liked her or not. But once I synced with the looping, skipping nature of the book, I realized that I liked her very much indeed. She does a really vivid job of reviving the microcosmic dramas and strong imaginative ideas of childhood, and her twin protagonists serve as foils for the changing society around them. I found it hard to believe that this was her first novel -- it's so good, and has such a powerful voice and presence. She handles multithreaded related plotlines really well, too, weaving them in and out of each other and not allowing any one to effortlessly dominate the others. Four pickle jars, slightly leaking, out of five.
thewronghands: Do you want the Solzhenitsyn when I'm done with it? It's a slow read full of philosophy, which I like and I'm not sure if you will.
ilcylic: I like Solzhenitsyn. Though I might save him for the Spring.
thewronghands: Yeah, it is kind of grim. I am going to read a book about horses and rainbows or something next.
ilcylic: Hahahahahahaha. "Ms. Kitty Goes To The Beach"
thewronghands: Right. [giggling] I have a book about the genesis of Genghis Khan... surely that will be cheering!
ilcylic: No. No, it will not.
thewronghands: (I know.)
Had I known that the author of the "Dangerous Book for Boys" was also responsible for "Genghis: Birth of an Empire", I might have skipped it, love of historical fiction or not. That would have been rather a mistake. Iggulden does a marvelous job of telling a reasonable origin story for Temujin, who will later become Genghis Khan. The Mongolian steppe setting is presented non-exotically, and I'd love for my friends who know more about Mongolia than I do to tell me how well that was rendered. The hero and his brothers are believable, complex characters who develop well over the course of the novel, and I particularly liked the presentation of Borte. (Given what I know of her later role in history, there was plenty of cool foreshadowing.) Temujin is harsh when he needs to be, and the abandonment of his family by their tribe reminded me that should I ever seize power and become an evil warlord, to not leave my enemies alone to die. Doesn't work out so well for you. Three and a half stooping falcons out of five.
I've been on a short story kick lately, but "Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction From the African Diaspora" outdoes itself in excellence. While I didn't like every story in there (one never does), I think I got a better list of authors to find and follow from this book than of almost any anthology of comparable length in years. Outstanding contributions include W. E. B. Du Bois's "The Comet", which I had somehow not encountered before, George Schuyler's "Black No More" (terribly disturbing, doubly so when you consider it was written in 1931), Leone Ross's "Tasting Songs" (lyrical fantastic mixed with a very commonplace suburban setting), Nalo Hopkinson's "Greedy Choke Puppy" (I always love her), Samuel Delany's "Aye, And Gomorrah" (it's a genre classic for a reason), Octavia Butler's "The Evening and the Morning and the Night" (she's probably my favorite sci-fi author of all time, and her take on genetic health care here and one's duty to make a difference in the world is thought-provoking, full of dramatic tension, and just all around excellent), and, best in the whole collection, Derrick Bell's "The Space Traders". That last is a first contact story, where aliens show up and offer America a big pile of gold and advanced environmental technology in exchange for all our Black people, to be exchanged in two weeks, no explanation given. There are a number of ways that that story could be badly told, but Bell does it with the touch of an artist. His characters are flawed and deeply believable, the political wrangling and justificatory reasoning that goes on is horrifyingly familiar, and it's disturbing social commentary that manages provocative without preachy. I wasn't able to listen to CSPAN for two weeks afterwards without thinking of this story; well done. Five UFOs out of five.
I enjoyed Yasutaka Tsutsui's short stories, so when I saw that he had a story available in manga format, I figured that I'd give it a go. Sadly, I was disappointed in "Telepathic Wanderers 1". I am unsure whether that's my dislike for the format, or whether it's this particular adaptation -- I really haven't read a lot of manga. (At the speed I read, it's far too expensive of a habit to get into. That'd be $5 for about fifteen minutes.) But the hilarious wrongness that I appreciated so much in the shorts was completely absent here, the storyline seemed contrived, and the social commentary that I was hoping for just wasn't present. This should have been my "Ms. Kitty Goes To The Beach" book, but it wasn't even that cheerful. In comparison to his novels, it seemed shallow. I'll go back to his literature and try "Hell" instead. One bubbleheaded telepath out of five.
I picked up Trevanian's Shibumi because I wanted to read about Go, and I often retain information better if I have the context of a story to place it in. I was encouraged that the Washington Post said it was great. Unfortunately, what I learned was that the author is a terribly arrogant jerk, and that I wished profoundly to set him on fire. He is unapologetically racist -- in the first ten pages, he managed to drop my jaw five times. At first I was hoping that he was just making out the point-of-view character to be a big jerk, but no, the whole book is full of that kind of thing. Ugh. The whole thing reads like a military wank spy fantasy for troglodytes aspiring to be an international man of mystery. The author can't get over how clever he thinks he is. His press declares that everyone should stop writing spy novels now, because he's written the best one possible and therefore the genre is done. (Even if that is meant tongue in cheek, still not funny, just obnoxious.) I had to make myself finish the book and I actually felt bad about putting it back in the pool of books for my paperback swapping club. Zero "goatherd"s out of five. Grr.
I picked up the recommendation for Barbara Neely's mystery series from the comments in one of rosefox's discussions, and I'm glad I did. "Blanche on the Lam" is funny, witty, full of Southern sass, and an engaging mystery. Neely excels at characterization, and her thoughtful heroine immediately has the reader rooting for her. She does a brilliant job of "show, don't tell" storytelling, there's more than enough material to make further books in the series interesting, and after finishing this one, I went and ordered all the other Blanche books I could find just so that I know what happened next. Well written and highly recommended if you like mysteries -- I can see why it won three of the four major awards in that genre. Four and a half tell-tale mops out of five; I only wish it had been longer.
Another mystery/spy novel recommended was Dorothy Gilman's "The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax". Like "Blanche on the Lam", it's also quite short, but it's mostly silly fun. You follow a respectable suburban grandmother as she signs on for courier duty with the CIA and gets into trouble. Naturally, she can't resist sticking her nose where she oughtn't, and naturally (since this is fiction!) that mostly turns out well for her rather than the contrary. This is sort of in the airplane book category for me -- I enjoyed it, I'd read more of the series if I happened across them when I was looking for something light, but I'm not going to make a great effort to seek out the rest. Three touristy knickknacks out of five.
I discovered Barbara Hambly's Benjamin January series through her short story in "New Orleans Noir". That was one of the best stories in the volume, and I was delighted to find that there was more written in the same universe. "A Free Man of Color" is the first. Hambly's characterization and sensitive lush rendering of New Orleans in the 1830s are first rate, and she integrates her plot with her setting well without letting the social tensions of the setting drive the story entirely. The mystery keeps you guessing right up until the end, though I did guess one of the major plot twists in general if not in particular. (And, in fairness, I thought it was probably wishful thinking on my part, so I was delighted when the author actually had included that little bit of historical detail.) Excellent historical fiction, deeply researched, and I'll definitely be seeking out the rest of this series. Five forensic analyses out of five.
It took me half the book to get into the flow of Arundhati Roy's "The God of Small Things". Like my first encounter with Tom Robbins, it took me a while to sift through her style and decide if I liked her or not. But once I synced with the looping, skipping nature of the book, I realized that I liked her very much indeed. She does a really vivid job of reviving the microcosmic dramas and strong imaginative ideas of childhood, and her twin protagonists serve as foils for the changing society around them. I found it hard to believe that this was her first novel -- it's so good, and has such a powerful voice and presence. She handles multithreaded related plotlines really well, too, weaving them in and out of each other and not allowing any one to effortlessly dominate the others. Four pickle jars, slightly leaking, out of five.