REVIEW Hillerman, Anne Shadow of the Solstice

 

Hillerman, Anne Shadow of the Solstice

The summer solstice is the day in June that contains the most daylight of the year. Even with that length, Anne Hillerman’s Shadow of the Solstice just barely manages to encompass the slightly over-complicated plot. It begins with the potential arrival of a high government official to Shiprock, a promotion of Lieutenant Jim Chee to Chief of Station when a heart attack fells the current head. Chee then needs to take up the slack and work with the FBI on the identification of a body just inside the fence at a no-go nuclear waste site. Before you catch up on this apparent murder, a strange Jim Jones-style cult that preaches love through abusive violence is deemed dangerous enough to need on-site monitoring by Chee’s wife, Bernadette Manuelito. Shortly after that, Bernie’s not always reliable younger sister, Darleen, who is now employed as a home health aide, gets embroiled in the disappearance of an elderly client and her grandson. They have been whisked away to Phoenix in a scam that is sold as a program to treat drug and alcohol abuse among the native population. It  bills the government for providing programs that do not exist and sends its addicted clients off onto the city streets, often worse off than they were before.

What saves the book from being buried in its multiple plot lines is that the major characters, Chee, Bernie, Mama, and Darleen are already well known to readers of the Hillerman father and daughter franchise. They need little addition to character development or to the overlay of Navajo customs, history, and land. The climax does neatly pull all the threads together. It all feels like you are slipping your feet into a pair of well-worn hiking boots. First-time readers might find themselves a bit more at sea.

4 out of 5

 

 

Fedarko, Kevin A Walk in the Park

 

                                  “The true story of a spectacular misadventure in the Grand Canyon”

                 Fedarko meets his potential readers at multiple interest levels. If the history of the human occupation of the canyon interests you, it’s there. If the long-term geology of the chasm floats your boat, it is covered in detail. If you have a penchant for exploring the environmental changes caused by the contemporary commercialization of one of our largest and oldest national parks, you can get full coverage of the various arguments. .

If you are just an adventure hound who revels in reading in great detail about the trials and tribulations of long-distance hiking in one of the world’s most inhospitable locations, you will be satisfied in spades. Although the walk described is long, dangerous, and accompanied by real pain, and several miscalculations, the ability of the human body to continue to push a dream is beautifully portrayed. 

Fedarko’s nice sense of descriptive humor is always on tap to help you over the hardships. For instance, as he and his trail companion sit down to a  dehydrated dinner of Shepherd’s Pie, he comments, “It tasted like somebody tore up a cereal box and poured ketchup on top.”

In dealing with the ancient peoples who lived in the canyon, he says, “I found myself confronting, for the first time, the notion that any understanding of this landscape that fails to embrace the story of these people and their descendants is fundamentally incomplete.”

And literally every step of his journey confronts the nature if the layers of rock that the river has cut through. That stone occasionally helps but mostly impedes the dedicated walker.

The environmental works of Edward Abbey are often cited—from Dessert Solitaire for instance, “when traces of blood begin to mark your trail, you’ll see something, maybe.”  When the day’s noise is put to rest, the author concludes, perhaps they weren’t meant to see or learn anything. Perhaps, they were just supposed to listen.  “What “we were meant to hear was silence.” He ends by citing his father, a Pennsylvania coalminer, who believed that any day spent outdoors walking, even if it was on spilly piles, was a good day . . .”

It is a slog at over 400 pages and some may find the preamble takes up too many pages. I still had a hard time putting it down once the group was out and walking.

I give it a good solid 4.

 

 

Eleanor by Alice Loxton

How about some more walk books? When I was eight or nine, I remember being enthralled reading about the journeys of Marco Polo. Much later, I reveled in Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods.  That one even had a movie starring Robert Redford made about it. And then, there was the pride and lost shoe leather that goes with putting together the two editions of my own book--London Theatre Walks. It should not be surprising then that my eyes perked up when this title appeared on the new publication shelf at the Marion library.

Eleanor, by British writer Alice Loxton, is subtitled “A 200 mile walk in search of England’s Lost Queen.” In 1290, when Eleanor of Castile not Aquitaine, the wife of England’s King Edward I died, her embalmed body was carried from Lincoln to London before its burial in Westminster Abbey. At each of the twelve overnight stopping places on the route, her devoted husband decreed that a stone cross be built to commemorate the journey. Few of these so-called “Eleanor Crosses” have survived, but Loxton put on a stout pair of boots and decided to make an on-foot pilgrimage along the entire cortege route. Her impressions of the towns she passed through, their ancient and current history, the people who accompanied her or met on the way, and the English weather she faced because it was December in the midlands, make for a sort of modern Canterbury Tales. There is trial and tribulation, flooding and sunshine, humor, and above all, a fine historical portrait of an almost forgotten Queen. You can even enjoy this book if you aren’t a history buff, because it is filled with some lovely fellow hikers and quirky citizens of the mainly small towns along the way. One little nugget I remember was about the two rival inns in a tiny town called Stony Stratford (a place where a bridge of stones forded the river Strat). It had two rival inns across from each other on the high street. One was called the Cock and the other the Bull.  Both were hotspots for local gossip and each became famous for their, sometimes wild, embellishments of the stories. Thus, we have the true origin of “a cock and bull story.” Can’t leave without noting that the photo reproduction is pretty shabby, but the book is blister-free.

I give it a four out of 5.

Book of Forbidden Words by Louise Fine

 

Book of Forbidden Words by Louise Fine

Book of Forbidden Words by Louise FineThe Book of Forbidden Words is what I would label a Cozy, Dan Brownish, mystery, romance.  Ms. Fine tells her story in alternate chapters that move back and forth between Paris in the 1500’s and Levittown NY, during the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and McCarthy Red Scares of the 1950’s. Her choice of times quickly reveals her theme--the continuing problematic status of women throughout the ages.    

In the sixteenth century, Paris was aflame with book burning and heretic hunting as Protestant ideas were spread via the new medium of printed books. A former nun, Lysbette Angiers, brings a revolutionary manuscript written in a strange code to the printing establishment run by another woman--Charlotte Guillard. Angiers is brutally murdered shortly after she turns the manuscript over and the female printer comes under suspicion of printing heretical material.

In New York in 1952, Milly Bennett, an English war bride, is having a hard time adjusting to her role as an American housewife. Her husband, who was an American pilot in the war, is now a successful businessman who departs each day from their Levittown house, leaving Milly at home to keep house, shepherd the children, interact with other local housewives, and provide dinner for the family when he returns each evening.

A complication develops when a strange older man turns up bearing a 16^th manuscript that is beautifully illustrated but written in a strange code. We now learn that Milly was a math whiz, who was recruited to Bletchley Park to help break the German codes during the war. The visitor catches the eyes of neighbors and Milly calls him an old relation because the British Official Secrets Act still prohibits her from mentioning anything about her war activity. The visitor is actually her former commanding officer at Bletchley, who is now an antique bookseller. He wants Milly to use her old skills to decipher an old manuscript written in a code. Milly jumps at the opportunity to alleviate her current boredom. She is successful and the knowledge leads her into a writing career under an assumed name. It doesn’t take long for her identity to be discovered and that turns into more serious problems with America’s McCarthyites.   

The author’s evocation of American life (She is a Brit.) is not completely convincing, but she does do a good job of connecting the status of intelligent women in multiple ages. The explanations of code breaking are well done without being overly technical and the style is   straightforward without much color or imagery. All told good, but far from great.

I give it a 3 out of 5.

The Lost Language of Oysters by Andrew McCall Smith

 

I am particularly fond of Alexander McCall Smith’s Professor Dr. Von Igelfeld novels because they are imbued with delightful satire about college professors. These are the kind of people who can have long arguments about whether there is a case for the development of a new linguistic tense called the “past-trivial”, which would refer to things so unimportant that they should be forgotten immediately.  

The Lost Language of Oysters is set in a fictional hidebound German university, and the lead character is the good Professor Dr. Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, whose claim to academic fame rests upon the publishing of his seminal and highly regarded study of Portuguese irregular verbs. His coveted Chair is so august that it has no required teaching responsibilities and “almost unlimited funds for conference attendance.”

His friend, and also rival, is Professor Dr. Detlev Amadeus Unterholzer. Their coffee lounge sparring is constant, but goes astray when two female American scholars arrive for a visit. One of them is an avid motorcycle rider, and Professor Von Igelfeld develops quite an interest in her—so much so that he lets her take him for a ride on her rented bike. This unusual behavior is so out of character for him that Professor Unterholzer believes his colleague has gone insane. This allows him to suggest to higher authorities that Von Igelfeld should be sent to a rest home for treatment. This, by happenstance, would also allow him to take over Von Igelfeld’s plush and much envied office space.

These events could be the basis for major interpersonal warfare or even lead to a fine murder mystery,  but this is Andrew McCall Smith, and all the skirmishes end pleasantly amidst a full measure of amusement and gentle chuckles. Pick this little volume up for a quick, and enjoyable read.  There will be no need to ponder the great issues of life.   

I give it a solid four out of five

---

 

 [JDY2]

Theater Kid by Jeffery Seller

 

Theater Kid is a newly published theatre memoir and Jeffery Seller is the almost perfect person to write this show business miracle story. He was adopted, ping ponged between a hard-working mother and a mentally unstable philandering father, and was gay. Although his early sexual awakenings were unrecognized, salvation came in the form of a love for the theatre and a literal worship of musicals. This culminated in a deep desire to make theatre happen.  

He goes to New York after graduating from the University of Michigan and gets a job in a booking agency. From there, he learns show business from the bottom up, finds boyfriends in spite of the scourge of AIDS, and ultimately captures the golden ring by producing Rent. That opens the floodgates of success and he follows up with Tony Awards for Hamilton, In the  Heights, and Avenue Q.

Yes, all this, can be in your future too, but little time is spent on reminding the myriads of wannabees that Broadway Roulette, like all gambling operations, produces far more losers than winners.   

4 out of five

 

Review: Andrew Shaffer, Hope Rides Again

 

It’s bit early for a beach trash novel, but Shaffer’s Hope Rides Again earns a spot on the list. As Joe Biden is feeling out running for the presidency, he visits Barack Obama in Chicago. Obama’s Blackberry goes missing and the two men set out to solve the crime. There are improbabilities galore and lots of inside political jokes about Chicago and both men. It is occasionally funny, but mostly it is confusing and lame. Save your money. Go swimming at beach and take this book in the water with you.