The Devotion of Suspect X

Flower, hi.

I've got a problem. It's The Devotion of Suspect X. I adore that title. Why? Not sure. It's mysterious and comforting at the same time? The problem is that I did not love the book itself.


In some mysteries and suspence novels there is the Oh No Don't Do That Moment. The moment when as an onlooker you know that what a character is doing is a really bad idea. The kind of bad idea that will snowball into a full on police investigation. In these kinds of mysteries if it's the victim that does this thing you can accept that the ball got rolling and move on. When it's the main suspect? That's not so good and that's the beginning of The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino.

Divorced, single Mother Yasuko thinks she has escaped her brutal ex-husband and his nefarious activities. She and her daughter are living a simple, quiet life. She works in a local take away restaurant and is enjoying a peace and independence she never thought she would have again. She is also being stalked by the brilliant but socially awkward mathematics teacher next door, Ishigami. Back into her life one day comes the vicious ex-husband. He's not making any overt demands but his presence alone threatens Yasuko. She is terrified that now that her past has caught up with her, she and her daughter will be victimized all over again. Then.... then comes the Oh No Don't Do That Moment. It defies logic and reason and it sets up the murder mystery/police procedural storyline.

Oh well.

The novel is set in Japan and there is enough local color and slang to satisfy the armchair traveler in you but there is nothing about this story that makes it specific to Japan. The Devotion of Suspect X could be set anywhere. There are a few very interesting characters in Devotion: the evil ex-husband, the primary dectective, the expert the police bring in Dr. Manabu Yukawa and especially the neighbor Ishigami. However Yasuko and her daughter are bland, annoying and ultimately I could not get past Yasuko's plot device misstep and enjoy everything that played out afterward.

Happy

Annabel

Good Evening Flower!

I didn't come down with last night's rain or just fall off the turnip truck. I have Been Around. I have experienced Life. I have traveled. Hell I've eaten sushi and where I come from that qualifies me for Algonquin Round Table level of sophistication. But. I never thought that in all my born days I would be able to say that I have read not one but two novels about hermaphrodites. Two, my friend, two because I am just that worldly.

Hermaphrodite novel number two is Annabel by Kathleen Winter. Annabel is more commonly known as Wayne. He was born to Treadway and Jacinta in a remote coastal town in Labrador, Canada. The secret of Wayne's birth is known only to his parents, the doctor and the neighbor, Thomasina. It is Treadway and the doctor who decide that the neither fully male or female baby will be raised as his son, Wayne. The doctor physically sews up Wayne's female areas (So it's a craft book too.) and what's done is done as far as Treadway is concerned. Wayne spends his young life confused about many things and unhappy at not being able to live up to his Father's expectations. In his inner life, Wayne acknowledges his more girlish interests and shamefully thinks of that part of himself as Annabel, Thomasina's nickname for him.

Prior to Wayne's birth Treadway and Jacinta's lives were the same as their neighbors and their parents before them. Treadway is gone for long stretches of time hunting and trapping and Jacinta takes care of all things domestic. The couple is as ill suited to one another as Wayne/Annabel is to his body. Treadway and Jacints are intellectually and emotionally unprepared (Would anyone not be?) to raise their unique son but each tries their best to solve the problem of their son's identity. Treadway attempts to immerse Wayne in traditional masculine pursuits and his way of life in hopes of burying anything feminine. Jacinta loves her son but mourns the daughter she lost to Treadway. Jacinta and Thomasina secretly feed Wayne's female side. When Wayne hits adolescence and his body betrays itself he must take control.

Annabel was on the short list for the 2010 Giller Prize and it is easy to see why. Kathleen Winter's extraordinary writing tells a bizarre, almost science fiction like story without melodrama, camp or pity. Her writing has a poet's color and a documentarian's precision. She has made all of the main characters three dimensional. Each of them has a duality of identity that mirrors Wayne's. There are instances when Winter can be a little preachy but overall Winter's novel about identity, acceptance, morality and love is a powerful reading experience.
Can I compare Annabel with hermaphrodite novel #1, Middlesex? Sure why not. They are both extremely well executed and interesting novels, but...I'm giving the win to Middlesex. I liked Calliope/Cal better than Wayne/Annabel. Middlesex has all the novel upholstery that I adore: big families, long histories and storytelling all over the place.

However. The covers? A complete out of the park, grand slam home run for Annabel! The U.S. cover is one of the best I've seen in quite a while. It's alluring and repellent without being over the top or too geared toward appealing to a specific gender. The Canadian cover has a slightly mysterious quality but it's too pretty, too tame. The cover of Middlesex is a horror show. In technical publishing jargon it's Boring.

Happy

The Mulberry Empire

Fower!

Way, way back a long time ago before the Holidays (Yikes! Remember the Holidays? Now there's some historical fiction, my friend) arrived I read  The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensler and loved it. If I were an energetic enough person to make a Best Of The Year or a Top Ten List, The Northern Clemency would have been on it. Before I even finished reading it I called my local and ordered a copy of an earlier Hensler novel, The Mulberry Empire.


The Mulberry Empire is a historical novel (Surprise, right?) about "The Great Game" in general and the British invasion of Afghanistan in 1839 in particular. Knowing only that, it pushes all my buttons. The Great Game referrers to the rivalry between Great Britain and Russia for control of Central Asia in the 1800's. Rivalry is a very tepid word for wars that killed thousands of soldiers and civilians and destroyed cultures but that's what happened back in the days when it was expected that powerful countries would take over foreign territories or remake the politics of other countries for their own good.

The novel's protagonist, Sir Alexander Burnes was a real person as are many of the other characters in the book. Burns was the Marco Polo/Nathan Hale of his time. As a soldier stationed in India he was sent into Afghanistan with presents for a local ruler and was then allowed to travel within the country. Very little about Afghan's interior was known to the British at the time and his information and subsequent bestselling book about his adventures filled in a lot of gaps.

I don't know enough about Afghan history to tell you how accurate Hensler's retelling of the major events depicted in the novel may or may not be. However if you like this kind of fiction then you know going in that you are not reading a textbook so do not consider yourself a scholar of the period when you turn the final page. I do know that three years after the British Soldiers entered Kabal, deposed the Amir and installed the ruler that the British government wanted to be in charge that 20,000 British Soldiers, citizens and camp followers were forced out of Afghanastan and that of that group only one person made it back to India alive.

The plot of The Mulberry Empire is global. Hensler takes us into the major governments and societies involved in leading up to this war. His best writing in the book is when he is describing these far away, long ago places and their many diverse enclaves of foreigners, soldiers and politicians within. It is then that you really see Afghanistan and empire building as the main characters. Hensler creates the time and mood of the period on an individual level and with a world view and both are fascinating. As with the very best historical fiction you are enlightened and educated when all you feel like is entertained.

What isn't as successful is the cast of thousands. Aside from a small handful of them it's too much and too under developed. They are from every single level of society and they do and say very interesting things but they are rendered more like cameos than characters. Hensler did excellent work with the large list of characters in The Northern Clemency so I have no doubt that if he had paired down the populace in Empire he would have fared better. You are barely given the opportunity to root for anyone, hiss at anyone or enjoy their company before they are hustled off the page to make room for the rest of the empire. That's disappointing given how amazing the events are in this story.

The Mulberry Empire is not for anyone in the mood for stories about Queens you never knew existed or dressmakers from the slums who rise to great heights. It is for anyone who would like to immerse themselves in a complex political situation and a world and a time that can be unfathomable, dense, horrific and exotic.

And now please excuse me while I go order more of Philip Hensler's books.

Happy

Flower. Flower. Flower.

I think I may have had a breakthrough or maybe a realization.


Horrible events are the backbone of historical fiction. I guess that makes me a kind of a misery collector. Oh well. I'm sorry that millions have suffered over the centuries so that I can enjoy a story. Yikes. Between that and the trees that have been put down to make the vehicles for these stories there ought to be an international war crimes commission investigating me.

I think I'm going to go put my head down on my desk now for a little bit.

Happy, but at what cost?

Bad Blogger, Bad

Oh Flower.

I forgot!! How does that happen when it's so wonderful? In my post The Anatomy of Ghosts joy I neglected to tell you that not only does the book open with a map but it then has a list of characters.

 

~~sigh~~

 

Complete catnip for me. Those things intrigue me. They build my anticipation. They are novel foreplay.

 

Happy, really.

The Anatomy of Ghosts

Hi Flower!

With 30+ published novels and many awards and honors to his credit you would think that I would have come across or been handed something by Andrew Taylor by now. Where the heck have I been? Or is it that Mr. Taylor's been avoiding me? hmmm....


Anyway. I have started Taylor's books at the end and I will happily work my way backwards through his list. My beginning was his most recent book The Anatomy of Ghosts and why wait three paragraphs to say it? Anatomy it is a page-turning delight from beginning to end. It was fun, interesting, exciting and very engaging.

The Anatomy of Ghosts is a historical murder mystery set at Cambridge University in 1786. The only child of Lady Anne Oldershaw, Frank, is a student at Jerusalem College at the University. For reasons that no one can or will explain, Frank, heretofore a strapping and lively youth (to use the vernacular), has had a breakdown. In fact he's gone mad. Prior to his illness Frank claimed to have seen the ghost of the recently downed Sylvia Whichcote and has been placed by friends under the care of the sinister Dr Jermyn. Desperate to discover what happened and seek a cure for her son, Lady Anne hires a down on his luck bookseller named John Holdsworth under the ruse of ascertaining the condition of the library at Jerusalem but actually to find out what really happened to Frank. The choice of Holdsworth as private investigator for her Ladyship is the result of his treatise, The Anatomy of Ghosts. His literary debunking of apparitions from the afterlife might make him Frank's best chance.

Despite the setting and time period Holdsworth is a classic modern detective. I don't mean to imply that his techniques are not true to the 1780's. Not at all. Taylor has clearly done his research and uses is to wonderful effect. You don't need to be told that the year is 1786 it's there on every page in the details and the speech. I mean that like 99% of the detectives since 1930 Holdsworth is the tortured loner with issues.

Andrew Taylor has striped away the gravitas of Cambridge and reveals the dog eat dog struggle of it's academics, teachers and administrators. In The Anatomy of Ghosts Cambridge is the only game in a company town. This poisonous atmosphere is crawling with suspects. There are creeping servants, dim masters, doctors medical, philosophical and religious with hidden agendas, parasites, secret societies with unsavory leanings, unhappy wives and cunning scholars. With so many choices Holdsworth has his hands full and we have fabulous entertainment.

The Anatomy of Ghosts has it all: terrific writing, a strong mystery, marvelous characters and lots of surprises. Get a copy and when you start it be prepared to carry it with you everywhere. You'll want to use all those odd moments you have during the day to keep reading!

Happy

The Still Point

Happy New Year Flower!

If I knew then what I knew at page 150 I would not have  read  The Still Point and that would have been dumb of me. I would have missed out on a very, very good first novel. Why would I have given Still Point a pass? The story all takes place over the course of one day. One day. To my small and quick to judge mind One Day equals a tiny cast of characters, low page count and (Mrs Dalloway aside) boredom. I was right and I was wrong. I was right that there are few characters in Still Point and I was right that it isn't very long. It's only 320 pages.(Apologies to author Amy Sackville. I'm sure 320 pages seems just right to her.) But Boredom? Not at all, just the opposite. Good thing I didn't read the synopsis carefully before I started reading the book.


The Still Point is the story of two marriages. Julia and Simon have a seemingly enviable life. He goes off to work and she dawdles through the ancestral home. Appearances though... Sometime in the last few years of their ten year marriage Simon and Julia started keeping secrets from one another. Simon is all restless irritation and helpless to close the growing distance between himself and his wife. Julia has Barbara Cartland ideas of love and is operating just this side of depression. She is supposed to be archiving the papers and property of her great-great uncle, Edward Mackley. Uncle Ed was a famous turn of the century explorer. The second marriage of the novel is his and Emily's. Two weeks after their vows Edward left for the North Pole and Emily never saw him again.

Julia was brought up on family stories of Edward's bravery and sacrifice. She does view him as a heroic figure but it is the left behind Emily that really captures Julia's imagination. As Julia begins to catalog Edwards relics and read his journals she romanticizes their marriage all out of proportion. Two weeks after their marriage Edward left on his expedition and Emily went to live in what is now Julia and Simon's home with Edward's brother and his wife. While Edward's short life was filled with possibility and misadventure, Emily's long life was much quieter. She waited to hear from Edward and then waited to hear of his death but both of their lives were a mental struggle to survive.

My outline of the basic events in The Still Point make it seem like a straightforward, contemporary bad marriage story and it is that but it is also more than that. The study of one marriage that may be ending and another one that never got started is juxtaposed against the individuals in each of these relationships. Edwards reckless quest verses Simon's 9 to 5 office life and Emily's unfulfilled hopes verses Julia's squandered opportunities. Sackville is wonderfully inventive in using Julia's girlish ideas of love to unify both couples stories.

Sackville does step outside of the domestic drama in The Still Point. Through Edward's journals she takes us along on his expedition. We know the end of his trip before Julia ever opens the diaries but that doesn't lessen the vigorous reading experience that Sackville creates. This physically puissant part of the story works well as another opposite to the restrained and secretive lives of Simon and Julia and Emily's life after Edward.

I'm thrilled that I did not let my preconceptions about the whole One Day thing get in the way of reading The Still Point. It was a wonderful novel. The kind of novel that carries you along until suddenly insignificant things start to have new meaning. Amy Sackville's writing is a pleasure to read. If you have missed the great Carol Shields you should give The Still Point a try. It would also make an first rate book club choice.

Happy
 
P.S. What do you think of the covers? This is the U.K. edition and above is the U.S. hmmm... I think that are pretty and that they both reference Victoria Shadow boxes is appropriate ---caged relics of the past---but a little boring and predictable I say.