The Sisters Brothers

Flower old pal.

Westerns have changed and not changed. Names in Westerns are different. They used to be generic to the point of pointless as in the townspeople all named "Johnson" in Blazing Saddles. Then came Lonesome Dove. Now when there is a Western the names are mundane words piled together into eccentric names. So instead of Deputy Johnson there is Deputy Ruby Tulip Crow.


Racial stereotypes have disappeared from Westerns. That's not to say that racism no longer exists in Westerns but when it is there it's an illustration of the attitudes of the time and/or a plot device. No longer is it an acceptable representation of the popular view.

A Western staple that hasn't changed is the journey from self righteous negativity to rebirth and redemption. The hero or more often the antihero goes from a single-minded, selfish purpose to a more community viewpoint of what is important. The gunslinger who hangs up his six shooter, the cowboy who stands up to the cattle baron, the Native American who abandons his plans for revenge, the whore who sacrifices herself for the sheriff. These are all standard Western characters who routinely undergo some sort of crisis that takes them out side of their own needs and causes them to change their evil ways.

Over the last twenty or thirty years newly published Western novels have become few and far between. The obvious reason why is poor sales but as to why tastes changed and sales slumped? I don't know. In larger bookstores you occasionally still see a Western Section but it's very small and usually made up of reissues and a couple series that have new titles monthly. Nothing to match other genres like Mystery, Romance and Science Fiction. So it is something of a very pleasant surprise when one of the major publishing house in the U.S. puts out a new Western in hardcover. The publisher is HarperCollins ecco and the book is The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt.

The Sisters brothers are Charlie, the older and Eli. They are young but experienced, brutal, hired guns. Right now they work for the Commodore. Who exactly the Commodore is and what his agenda might be are unknown but he pays the bills so he's the boss. Henry Morris, another employee of the Commodores' gives the Sisters their orders. The Commodore wants them to kill Hermann Kermit Warm whose last known address was San Francisco. The trip from Oregon City to San Francisco and beyond will be a long one filled with saloons, women, mines, frontier towns, trappers, schemes, friends and foes that all wraps up with a realization and a twist.

Charlie and Eli are well made creations. At the start of the novel their actions define them but as deWitt takes them on their journey to find and kill Hermann Warm deWitt leisurely draws out their personalities. The conversation and the rivalry between the siblings is sometimes funny, sometimes frightening but always realistic.

Patrick deWitt has used his research well. He makes it a part of the story without allowing it to bury the story or characters. His 1850's California is a harsh and dangerous day to day experience and every man's potential goldmine. A place where a small weakness can be a death sentence or an unexpected second chance. Although there is a great deal of action in the novel, Eli's matter of fact manner of narration keeps the story from feeling like one long continuous stunt.

Who knows maybe The Sisters Brothers will start a resurgence in Western novels. It's certainly good enough to do just that.

Happy

P.S. How much do you love that cover?

The Tragedy of Arthur

Hi Flower.

There are a whole lot of Arthurs in The Tragedy of Arthur. There's the author, Arthur Phillips, the main character, Arthur, his father Arthur, King Arthur and a long lost Arthur. That last one is the second of the two tragedies of Arthur. In that list there's the lost Shakespearean play about King Arthur and the tragedies of all the other Arthurs who appear in the novel. Got it? Good because it's worth getting.

For the moment let's concentrate on the character Arthur. He was raised by a forger, conman father, Arthur. The kind of man who can make you believe anything he wants you to but as a father leaves everything to be desired. There were three constants in Arthur's life growing up: his love for his twin sister Dana, his family's' attraction to Shakespeare and the decades his father spent in prison. Both Arthur and Dana are influenced by Shakespeare as children. Dana becomes an actress and part time Shakespearean scholar and Arthur becomes a writer. Who knows maybe he becomes the other Arthur Phillips?

When Dad has finally done his time, his stretch, paid his dues and exits jail an old man he tells Arthur his great secret. A lifetime before he had stolen an original quarto from a British Estate. He claims that the quarto is a lost play by Shakespeare, "The Most Excellent and Tragical Historie of Arthur, King of Britain The Tragedy of Arthur". The play itself is a potboiler that follows the basic Arthurian legend. It's not great Shakespeare but does that matter if it's Shakespeare? Dad wants to get it authenticated and published--with his son's help. Could this be true or Dads' masterpiece con? The two Arthurs are finally able to come together, to bond over this play. Son Arthur even forgets for a moment that he's not Dad's favorite. For a moment.

It's a Father-Son novel! It's a memoir! It's a literary investigation! It's a play by Shakespeare! It's a lie, it's the truth. The Tragedy of Arthur is a cut from whole cloth creation about invention and forgery or maybe invention verses forgery. Phillips, the author, uses Shakespeare as his device to write about what artists invent, how we invent ourselves, how the media (in this case Phillip's publisher Random House) try to invent events, and what may be invention or forgery in all things Shakespeare.

The obvious comparisons to The Tragedy of Arthur are Nabokov's Pale Fire and A.S. Byatt's Possession. In both of those novels the author created works attributed to another writer and then built a novel around their discovery and critique. Phillips does all that and then takes that idea two steps further by bringing the unreliability of memoir and a populist sense of skepticism into the mix. His contrivances hit all the serious notes and still entertains.

The Tragedy of Arthur is exceptional skill on dexterous display. I have no doubt that for every reference the plot makes to one of Shakespeare's play that I caught there were fifty others that I missed but blame on my own educational laziness and not the author's wit and knowledge. Arthur Phillips uses humor, creativity and smarts in a way that dazzles in this novel. The Tragedy of Arthur is a completely accessible, virtuoso performance by a very talented, smart writer.

Happy

Just Don't Bother

Oh Flower.

I've had two duds in a row. Good thing I can bounce back.

I don't like to use this word but in this instance it's perfect. The American Heiress is ...meh. This novel defines the word average. It's the story of a wealthy young American woman from a socially ambitious family at the turn of the 20th century who marries the poor but titled English heir to a great house. Do I even need to tell you anything else?


Wait a minute. Yes. I do. The main character's name? The young woman with the bankroll? Cora Cash. Cora Cash, my friend.

If Mad Libs had an Edith Wharton/Judith Krantz edition author
Daisy Goodwin could have used it to write The American Heiress and saved herself many fruitless hours at her desk.
 
Happy

The Kitchen House

Oh Flower, Flower, Flower.

Sometimes a writer can make melodrama hit the spot and sometimes the relentless piling on of horrifying situations, evil doers, innocents ill-used and sexual abuse become merely a laundry list of really, really bad luck. This is what happens in The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom.


In 1791, seven year old Lavinia arrives in the U.S. She is an immigrant. Her parents died on the ship on the way over from Ireland (Not Good), she is separated from her brother (Bad), she is made an indentured servant at the tobacco plantation Tall Oaks by owner Captain Pyke (Worse) and at the plantation she is sent to work in the kitchen and to live with the slaves (She's a goner). Lavinia's strength and willingness eventually earn her the affection of the other kitchen slaves, especially Belle. Belle is the illegitimate, biracial daughter of Captain Pyke. Their regard for and loyalty to one another will be tested many times over the years.

At Tall Oaks----I have to interrupt here. Tall Oaks? Really? Did the author or the editor never read or see Gone With The Wind? Hello? Twelve Oaks? Is it a smart idea to constantly remind people as they read your book that it's not as good as Gone With The Wind ?---- Lavinia is ever the outsider. Among the slaves she is white and among the whites she is a slave. Grissom effectively uses this slight twist to bring a different perspective to the usual goings on in an antebellum novel but it's not enough to raise The Kitchen House up into anything special.

Kathleen Grissom rounds out this predictable melodrama with a vicious overseer, the laudanum addicted Mrs. Pyke, a psychopathic heir, an understand and heroic neighbor and slaves struggling to survive without drawing attention to themselves. There are escapes, betrayals, violence, yellow fever, rape and secrets, secrets, secrets. Occasionally some interesting moments in The Kitchen House show up and the books moves along at a quick pace but that doesn't make up for underdeveloped characters and a storyline that would be old in a Mary Pickford movie.

Happy to be moving onto the next book
 
P.S. That cover? zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..............

The Rice Mother

Hello Flower.

There is nothing new about a storyline that takes a woman with no education, no experience in the world who winds up either a widow or with a wastrel husband, a brood and no means of support for her family. It's been done by male and female writers, it's been played out in every possible kind of setting and time period from ancient Roman households to Mayberry. So as an author if you're going to take that crumbly old plot and make it the center of your novel you had better be able to pony up some good writing to make it palatable. In the novel,
 The Rice Mother, author Rani Manicka does just that.


Lakshmi is the Mother in this multi-generational story. In the early 1920's she is married off and leaves her native Ceylon with her husband, Ayah, for Maylasia. Once in Maylaysia Lakshmi learns that her 37 year old husband had borrowed a gold watch and a servant in order to convince her Mother that he was rich and marry her. In reality he's a clerk who lives a hand to mouth existence. However what's done is done. She is now a fourteen year old wife, housekeeper and stepmother. It isn't long before it's clear to Lakshmi that although Ayah is basically a good man and loves her that he is incapable of supporting them. By the time she turns nineteen, Lakshmi has in quick succession given birth to six children. It is only her sheer force of will that keeps her family together. For the family the worst is yet to come with WWII and the occupation by the Japanese. It is a brutal and faith testing time that leaves them scarred forever.

Although larger than life as all matriarchs are in these kinds of novels, Lashmi is a believably flawed person. Her evolution from happy teenager daydreaming about her future to an embittered, hard, angry, able to make the tough decisions that may cost her children's love woman is honestly depicted through her experiences and circumstances. Author Manicka moves the novel forward through Lakshmi, her children and her grandchildren with mutilate family members (living and deceased) taking their turn telling the story. The characters limited choices, weaknesses and their temptations are successfully detailed against fifty years of Malaysian history.

The Rice Mother is a big novel with some first time novelist missteps. The book is a little too cluttered with sometimes too convenient plot twists and one or two of the characters are cartoonish in their evilness. That said it is also a well written, interesting dissection of a world and a time that most of us know little about. Manicka's obvious knowledge of and affection for the culture and beauty of Maylasia is evident throughout the book. The Rice Mother is a journey into a family whose difficult lives and small victories enrich the rest of us.
 
Happy

The Clothes On Their Backs

Flower!

The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant was short listed for the Man Booker in 2008. Three years ago. 2008. Yeah, I'm not quite up to date on my reading. This excellent novel had been allowed to fall into the Read It Or Remove It nether world that surrounds my home. What feckless behavior on my part.

An impulsive decision to revisit a former place of employment before it goes out of business affords Vivien Kovaks the chance to examine a time in her youth that set the stage for the rest of her life. As the daughter of immigrants in some ways Vivien's life has been a series of closings. Her parents, Ervin and Berta, came to England from Hungary in 1938. Upon arriving one of the things they closed the door on was their Jewishness. They showed their gratitude to their new homeland for taking them in by living a barely breathing kind of life. They work, they sit at home and they go to bed. They live without being noticed. When Vivien is born they have her baptized and are thrilled to have the record of the baptism as proof of their belonging, their safety. They will assimilate and homogenize at any cost.

In 1963, at age ten, Vivien finds out about an Uncle she never knew she had. To a child's eyes Uncle Sandor is a glamor puss relative. The family views Sandor as a black sheep and worse but he is also seductive in his zest for life. When Sandor's behavior threatens their quiet life, Ervin bans Sandor from their home. Shortly thereafter Sandor is arrested. During his trial the press headlines him as "The King of Crime" and "The Face of Evil". He is a slum lord and an unrepentant one at that. Sandor's life prior to coming to England was a brutal, forced labor camp existence so as bad as he treats others in his mind they still have it better than he did.

When Uncle Sandor is released from prison Vivien visits him on the sly. Her behavior thrills her and she is more and more powerfully drawn to Sandor's daring. At first Vivien sees her parents joyless, narrow existence and Sandor's excesses as her only lifestyle choices. In a way Sandor's behavior offers Vivien justification for the excesses she experiments with as a young woman. She is taking her first steps outside of her parents timid existence. She gets a job in a dress shop and through it exposure to a wider variety of people and more freedom than she has known thus far in her life. When Sandor offers to hire Vivien to help him write his memoirs she agrees. Vivien sees Sandor's reminiscences as a chance to get the answers to her questions about her family's past that her parents are too reticent to give.

In Linda Grant's hands Vivien's scrutiny of her younger self makes for a fascinating novel. Vivien's constant search for an interesting past, present and future and her own identity is a journey we all make but Grant makes that commonality anything but commonplace. Vivien's emergence from a cloistered life into the morally questionable but enticingly alive world of Uncle Sandor leave her open for tragic heartbreak and abuse. Ping-ponging between the extremes of her family also help her to discover her own strength, voice and moral compass. Grant takes us there and back again with expressive, commanding writing. Even better she lets us recognize for ourselves the power in Vivien's odyssey toward adulthood rather that hit us over the head with it. I was impressed.

Happy

P.S. The cover? The cover has that crazy, got to have it voodoo magic that certain images create for me. In this case it's the mannequin. Doesn't matter if it's clothed or naked, a mannequin or a dressmaker's dummy, there is something about a human form that can wear clothes but isn't a human that is a show stopper. Some clothing items have that same appeal. Shoes without feet in them (but never, ever, ever feet with no shoes on), gloves and dresses come to mind.

Daniel O'Thunder

Flower, hello.

This novel was pure crack for me. The A+ cover easily got my attention. The book's setting, Victorian England, meant the two of us were half way to the register and when I took a little taste of it in the store, where it was free, I was instantly hooked. That meant having to take it home which wasn't free but who cares? I got to read a wonderful novel! Daniel O' Thunder by Ian Weir.


Daniel O'Thunder is also known as 'The Hammer of Heaven'. He's is a retired soldier and boxer turned defender of the downtrodden. He is their spiritual and physical champion. It's not a job where one makes a great deal of headway. Vice it seems will be victorious. Daniel comes to the realization that he is battling Satan and that Satan can only be defeated one way. Daniel must get back into the ring. He needs to duke it out.

Weir's Victorianna has all the tourist hotspots. There are brothels, manors, a sewage filled streets, the muddy Thames and rat infested everything. The novel is populated by the proverbial motley crew if ever there was one. Every page is packed with prostitutes, ne'er-do-wells, thieves, reporters, gin-swillers, addicts, sinister aristocrats and various special guest star appearances by urchins, beggars and all manner of the Victorian oppressed.

Daniel O'Thunder is fabulous storytelling. Several of Weir's characters tell their version of the events. Since none of the narrators are very reliable or honest there are divergent viewpoints and many discrepancies for the reader to enjoy and sift through. Weir has put together a terrific novel with a page turning mystery at its center. He has married menace brilliantly with perfectly constructed Victorian England.

Happy