Child 44

Reviewed by A.L. Harper

Imagine living in a place where even suggesting there has been a crime is a crime. A crime against the state punishable by, at best, being sent away for a life of hard labour in a deserted frozen wilderness, and at worst, execution without a fair trial. Where your neighbours can turn on you and name you as a traitor and the police can search your home for any reason at any moment. A life where no one, not even your own family, can be trusted.

No, this isn't modern day America, but 1950's Stalinist Russia. It is the setting for the new crime thriller, Child 44, by Tom Rob Smith.

Security Ministry Officer Leo Demidov is a determined, charming anti-hero of sorts. A good whose patriotism has led him to commit heinous acts against his fellow citizens “for the greater good” or so he tells himself. Lies, spying on friends and family, manufacturing evidence, even torture and murder are all acceptable as long as they help ensure the survival and security of Stalin's “workers' paradise”.

On the surface Leo is an idealistic war hero with a deeply held belief in the superiority of his country and the communist way of life. As he realises he is nothing more than an instrument of a fundamentally flawed, deadly, and unstoppable totalitarian regime, a crisis of conscience ensues. Slowly his beliefs decay and he loses the strong moral conviction that the innocent must sometimes be punished so no enemy of the state will escape.

When his wife, Raisa, is a victim of the system for which he was a most diligent drone, his life begins to unravel. When he refuses to denounce her as a traitor, he is demoted and humiliated. Even his parents are punished for his crime. He and Raisa are sent away from Moscow to the wastelands of the newly industrialised city of Voualsk.

It is in Voualsk that Leo discovers a true criminal, but how does a disgraced and politically persecuted man prove there is a serial killer on the loose, killing children across Russia? Leo and Raisa must work outside the law to find a killer in a political culture that doesn't even admit they exist, and already wants him dead.

Child 44, Smith's début novel, is a stunning success. Based heavily on the life and crimes of Andrei Chikatilo, the Butcher of Rostov, this is a tale that has everything: plot twists, political intrigue, unimaginable violence, and even cannibalism. Smith very expertly weaves a completely believable tale that hints broadly at the true horrors under the surface, only occasionally exposing you to them directly.

The violence is more implied than stated. When it is realised, the violence is uncompromising and unapologetic, but never excessive. One of Smith's talents lies with his ability to be absolute, honest, and raw. He is never grandiose, overwrought, or declamatory. Smith’s ability ensures that Child 44 maintains a feeling of utter believability throughout. This is undoubtedly one reason why Ridley Scott has already bought the film rights, and is working on adapting this intrigue-filled novel for the big screen.

In Child 44 Smith paints a bleak, frank picture of life in communist Russia. So real, so frighteningly vivid are the images of this time and place it would be easy for you to believe that Smith is himself a survivor of that era. In truth, this 28-year-old Englishman is probably only just old enough to remember what the cold war was like at full chill. That doesn't stop him from writing a complex and deeply layered novel that is startling and chilling in equal measure.

Unlike many crime novels Child 44 has a flavour of true literature about it, penetrating and richly textured, with none of the glossed over plot holes or depthless superfluous characters that other such novels in this genre can suffer from. Nor does it weigh itself down with overdone or obvious political commentary. Smith's writing is always austere and elegant - the literary equivalent of simple, clean lines and great open spaces.

Child 44 is stark in more ways than one. Every word seems perfectly placed, meticulously considered for it's brevity and weight, and yet you never feel overawed or confounded. Each thought, motion, action, and phrase is chosen as would be an ornament in a minimalist’s living room.

This novel is the first of three (according to Smith), the second of which he is currently working on. Let's hope he finishes it soon, for he surely has a winner on his hands. Child 44 was released in the UK and Europe in March, and will be released in the US on April 29th.

Posted by nbennett at 05:53 PM

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Near Death On The High Seas

Reviewed by El Bicho

“…that sense of the full awfulness of the sea,” a line taken from Melville’s Moby Dick, is on full display in this anthology from Vintage Books. Contained within is a group of excerpts from sailing-disaster stories throughout the years, presenting a greatest hits collection of dangerous ocean tales complied by Cecil Kuhne, former whitewater rafting guide and author of nine books.

Near Death on the High Seas opens with Steven Callahan’s Adrift, a record of his being lost at sea for 76 days. It boggles the mind of a landlubber like myself on how to handle an ordeal like that. I can’t even fathom going to sleep alone on a boat as it continues sailing let alone waking up as Callahan did to “a deafening explosion” that leads to his being “thrown into the path of a rampaging river.”

Not that having someone by your side is a guarantee of safety. In Gordon Chaplin’s Dark Wind he and his girlfriend Susan sailed to the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Their journey was romantic in the beginning as they found paradise together. Unfortunately, they decided to stay in their boat rather than go ashore as a typhoon hit. They both ended up floating in the ocean, holding onto each other as large waves crashed down on them. One minute they seemed fine. Then, they were underwater and Susan drifted away into the darkness. Chaplin describes his helplessness to do anything about it: “...the next wave curled around me, wrapped me up, and did what they wanted with me.” It’s not clear what happened and likely he wasn’t fully aware himself even though his survivor’s guilt caused him to replay the events repeatedly.

The most famous sailing story in the collection is Kon-Tiki. Norwegian ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl who, along with a small crew, attempted to take a raft from South America to Polynesia in an effort to explain archaeological evidence that linked the two locations. A documentary of their trip won an Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1951.

Some sailors created their own adventures like Sir Francis Chichester who in 1966 at the age of 65 tried to be the first man to circumnavigate the globe west to east in Gipsy Moth Circles The World. Others took part in organized races, like Pete Goss who in 1996 was competing in a nonstop, single-handed round the world race when he risked his life and headed into a hurricane to rescue fellow competitor Raphael Dinelli, which he details in Close to the Wind.

Most of the excerpts read more like newspaper accounts as the writing is very matter of fact and economical. That’s not to say the stories aren’t compelling because they are, but there’s almost no insight into these men’s minds for those of us who don’t understand what drives them. For non-nautical types the boating jargon might be a little tough to understand but it gives an authenticity to the writers’ voices.  A glossary would have been ideal, but they are easy to look up. While not as many, there are women who participate in sailing; however, none are heard from in this book for some reason.

The most amazing part of the book is that none of the writers exhibit bitterness towards God or fate or nature at what has befallen. They readily accept the circumstances as par for the course. Steven Callahan might best explain their logical acceptance in his perfect description of the ocean: “...she is merely there, immense, powerful, and indifferent.”

…High Seas offers a great series of adventures for readers who sail and those who sit in the comfort of their armchair.

Posted by nbennett at 05:52 PM

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Hidden Letters

Reviewed by Mel Odom

When you read Hidden Letters, the book is going to leave a mark. It’s going to hurt down deep and leave you thinking about things long after you’ve finished the book. After receiving the book, I admit to approaching the book warily. The subject matter is brutal, and it’s devastating to anyone who’s a parent.

First, a little history on the book. The letters that comprise the human narrative within the pages were discovered in Amsterdam in 1997. They were written by an 18-year old Dutch Jew named Philip “Flip” Slier. He was sent to a Dutch labor camp in 1942. When first sent there, Slier believed he was going to be treated humanely, though restricted. He didn’t know the horror that awaited him, or that he would soon be dead.

At the time Slier first went to the work camps, letters shipped regularly between the families and the restricted men. As I read the letters, I was stunned by the naïve manner that Slier exhibited. He honestly thought he was only going to be there for a short time, and that his experiences there would be nothing more than what he would endure during some summer camp.

As a father of five, I know how innocent kids can be. They think they know so much, but they’re blind to so many things. They often don’t know they’re in over their heads until it’s much too late.

And that’s what happened with Slier.

I felt somewhat guilty while reading his letters, almost voyeuristic into a world of pain and innocence. The letters are inane and even cheerful. At times Slier obviously felt he was on some grand adventure. At other times I could see that he was putting on a front for his parents, acting brave while he was scared to death, or at least mightily confused by what was going on around him.

That human element, and that innocence, is what is going to haunt me about the book. Slier also took a camera with him. He took several pictures and sent them back home to his parents and friends, and those people managed to hang onto them throughout the blackest days of World War II. I saw his face, and I saw how much of a kid he still was. He aged decades in months, and he finally got killed.

That’s one side of the story, but the authors added a tremendous amount of historical materials to further the reader’s understanding of what was going on in this area at this time. More pictures and maps fill the book. On one hand, Hidden Letters is a short journal of tumultuous times in a young man’s life, but on the other hand the book is a great historical record. I love history, and I equate it with the story of people rather than names and dates. But Philip Slier’s story truly brings home the fact that history is made up of people more than dates or events.

Hidden Letters is going to satisfy the armchair historian’s perusal of the time period, and will give some sense of people and what was going on to genealogists who have discovered they’ve got family members in these camps at the same time. For either of those groups, I’m sure the book would be a beneficial addition.

The parents saved those letters all those years. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to pull them out every so often and read the last words of their lost son.

Posted by nbennett at 07:45 PM

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The Lucky Strike Papers

Reviewed by Big Geez

A little over a year ago, I wrote a piece about the early days of television that I titled Did Rock and Roll Kill Your Hit Parade? I'm not sure I actually provided much of an answer at that time, but that's just one of many questions that are covered in an outstanding new book by Andrew Lee Fielding, The Lucky Strike Papers.

As you might guess from the secondary title of the book, Journeys Through My Mother's Television Past, Fielding has a unique perspective, and he also has an insider's access to many of the people and materials from the early TV era. But don't make the assumption that this is just a sentimental tribute to his mother, even though his affection for her memory - and pride in her career - are obvious. It is instead a treasure trove of early TV history.

Sue Bennett was a featured singer on several early TV shows in addition the one in the title, The Lucky Strike Hit Parade (Your Hit Parade). Her son - who is a professional journalist with features in some of the biggest Eastern newspapers - has spent many years crafting what is obviously a labor of love.

Beginning with his own childhood memories and drawing on those of his mother, he also had access to some of her memorabilia and gradually added more from various sources. In addition, he found that his mother's name allowed him to interview many early TV personalities - including some pretty big names - in their retirement years. Merv Griffin, Morey Amsterdam, Mike Douglas, and many of the stars of Your Hit Parade are among those who took time to reminisce.

The result is a rich history of the early days of TV, complete with lots of pictures and trivia, and a number of delicious inside stories - some that will surprise you, even if you think you might remember a lot about an era when DuMont was both a TV network and a manufacturer of television sets.

Suzanne (Benjamin) Fielding, performing as Sue Bennett, was never a major singing star, but she was a featured singer on several early TV shows and along the way garnered quite a bit of respect for her musical talent. (Song sample here.*) She was also an eyewitness to the early history of television.

In the late 1940's, TV was still very new to the American public, and those new-fangled TV sets were few and far between. In a poll taken in 1949, over 56% of respondents had never even seen a TV, and they were so expensive - with prices up to $1000, a year's salary at that time - that they were often only found in places like bars. But people were fascinated by TV, and over the next few years prices started coming down and the private ownership of sets skyrocketed, even though it was still a major purchase for most families.

Young Sue Bennett, fresh from college and with a desire to sing professionally, began to appear on some of those early programs originating in New York, including one hosted by bandleader Vincent Lopez. An even bigger name provided her first starring opportunity when bandleader and entertainer Kay Kyser brought his College Of Musical Knowledge to TV and she became one of the main singers. He'd been a huge star for years, and his orchestra and comedy bits were customer favorites, especially his routines with comedy sidekick, Ish Kabibble (whose real name was Merwyn Bogue). One of the interesting inside facts in the book that came to light via the author's later interviews, is that Kyser and Bogue were not on speaking terms offstage for most of their years together.

Sue's career included singing on some other shows too, but it was her time spent on Your Hit Parade that provides much of the material for the book. The TV program was modeled on the successful radio version, but with an important difference. As the top ten tunes were performed by the singers each week, they also acted out a little mini-play or story about the song. TV historians have called it the forerunner to MTV.

Sue was not one of the main stars - names such as "Snooky" Lanson and Dorothy Collins come to mind - but in the early days of the program she was one of the featured singers, often performing solos. She was also part of the group singing and sometimes filled in for Dorothy in the Lucky Strike "bullseye" that opened the show.

But again, the book is not really about Sue as much as it is about early TV, and it contains an amazing amount of information that includes not only facts and trivia, but also backstage gossip and examples of professional jealousy and feuds that were still alive even in retirement. Early TV was a fascinating world, and reading about it is the next best thing to having been there.

*Sound sample courtesy of Lost Gold Entertainment, Inc.

Posted by nbennett at 07:37 PM

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Armageddon In Retrospect

Reviewed by Lisa Damian

On the anniversary of his death, Kurt Vonnegut's son, Mark Vonnegut, released this latest collection of the famous author's early short stories, as well as an essay, a speech, and a letter to his parents written from a prisoner of war repatriation camp in France towards the end of World War Two. Armageddon In Retrospect opens with an introduction written by Mark Vonnegut, providing a brief glimpse into the writing habits and lifestyle of Kurt Vonnegut.

The book includes a written copy of Vonnegut's speech presented at Butler University's Clowes Hall. Always a joker, this speech provides a taste of some of the vintage Vonnegut sense of humor.  In the speech, he provides advice to new writers: "Don't use semi-colons!"

Perhaps the most moving sample included is a simple letter, written by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. to his parents, after he was released as a prisoner of war during World War Two. During this time period, Vonnegut witnessed the fire-bombing of Dresden by American troops. These two events, being a P.O.W. in WWII and witnessing American troops bomb Dresden, seemed to be the primary pivotal events that shaped and influenced much of the recurring tone throughout Vonnegut's writing. They provide some of the framework for Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions, among others. The short stories included in Armageddon In Retrospect are further examples of the impact of these themes throughout Vonnegut's work. They serve as his early attempts at creating tales from his memories of these tragic events.

The occupying Russians, when they discovered that we were Americans, embraced us and congratulated us on the complete desolation our planes had wrought. We accepted their congratulations with good grace and proper modesty, but I felt then as I feel now, that I would have given my life to save Dresden for the World's generations to come. That is how everyone should feel about every city on Earth.

A couple of the short stories included in the book, specifically Great Day and Armageddon In Retrospect (for which the book is named), venture into Vonnegut's more whimsical fantasy or science fiction settings.

Although perhaps not the best examples of his work, this collection does provide a framework for some of Vonnegut's recurring underlying themes. I would venture to guess that one reason Vonnegut did not seek publication for these stories during his lifetime was that most were early exercises in honing his own voice. For someone new to Vonnegut's work, I would recommend starting with one or two of the novels that better represent both his writing style as well as his satire, such as Slapstick or Sirens of Titan.

I expect that this book would be appreciated by loyal Vonnegut fans as further insight into the work and musings of the author who experienced much in his 84 years and felt compelled to write about his, as he put it, "disgust with civilization" in a way that caused many of his readers to seriously reflect yet still laugh about the dismal state of affairs.

Posted by nbennett at 04:45 PM

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Fish: A Memoir of a Boy in a Man's Prison

Reviewed by Steven van Lijnden

In the context of Parsell’s book, Fish: A Memoir of a Boy in a Man's Prison, the term “fish” means first-timer or new arrival in prison slang. It is the story of the truth behind all those “dropping the soap in prison” jokes, and the memoir of T.J. Parsell, who was locked up in 1978 for a couple of years when he was a fairly naive 17-year-old boy.

Parsell's family was poor and uneducated. His crime -- robbery with a fake gun -- was misguided and stupid, more than anything else; but even if his crime had been more severe, he did not deserve to be gang-raped early on during his stay and systematically forced into sex throughout his time in prison.

Many years after his release, Parsell was the president of Stop Prisoner Rape and he is currently a consultant to the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission. His experience in prison is rule rather than exception; that much is clear from the beginning of the book.

Lock up a rowdy group of men together without a sexual release and they turn into sexual predators, the strong preying on the weak. 'Boys' are forced to find a 'man' to protect them in return for sex. This is not loving sex or erotic sex; it is a business-like transaction at best, a violent transaction at worst. If they don't find a man to protect them, they are more likely to be assaulted and raped on a regular basis. Both straight and gay 'boys' find themselves pushed into this role, or 'turned out' (to stay with prison terminology).

Parsell's story becomes more complex because he was starting to realise that he was gay around the time he was locked up. Just as he was beginning to be aware of sexual feelings for men, he was forced to act on them against his will. For a long time he stayed in the closet however, as there are odd double standards in prison.

Effeminate gay men are seen as precious commodities, as they are the closest a lot of the inmates will get to a real woman until they are released. If you are known to be gay, flamboyant or not, it is assumed you won't mind having sex with pretty much any guy, meaning you are fair game. Following this logic, a heterosexual woman would want to have sex with any and all men she encounters.

Boundaries between gay and straight blur in prison. Most straight men there do not mind getting a blowjob from a guy or being on top, and do not consider this to make them gay in any way. They are simply taking care of a basic need. It is a very 'down low' way of thinking.

To be on the receiving end of oral or anal sex, or to masturbate a guy, would make you gay and would be a blow to your manhood and reputation. Therefore the 'boys' who have been 'turned out', be they straight or gay, are seen as fundamentally lacking in masculinity because of what they do. Two 'boys' having sex together would not be seen as a threat to their men because it would be seen, in a deeply twisted way, as 'lesbian' sex.

Parsell's story is well written and gives a fascinating glimpse into the world of sexual politics in prison. The story gets more complex as things turn semi-romantic with his 'man'. Later on in the book, Parsell falls in love for the first time with another 'boy'. Racial relations and well-intentioned but illogical laws also factor into the story.

The memoir has a somewhat open ending, stopping at a point that makes narrative sense, but leaves you wondering what happened during the last years in prison. There is a short follow-up, telling us what the most important people from the memoir are up to these days, but the last years in prison remain a blank spot. There is also a bittersweet correspondence between Parsell and his first real lover, and a short explanation of the reason why Parsell decided to drop his previous career to become the poster child for prison rape.

What I missed was a more extensive update on the state of affairs in prisons these days, many years after Parsell's incarceration. From what he does say, however, the things he wrote about still go on because the guards are lacking in numbers or turning a blind eye, and because sexual offenders are not prosecuted. People's psyches are still being violated and not just their minds: rates of HIV infection among prisoners are estimated to be five to ten times higher than outside of prison.

Parsell's book serves its purpose, both as a gripping read and a call to action. Let's hope the people in charge will be able to get over their secondhand shame, stop averting their eyes, and start facing the problem.

Posted by nbennett at 04:44 PM

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Dark Summit - The True Story of Everest's Most Controversial Season

Reviewed by Friend Mouse

Mount Everest is Earth’s highest point: 29,028 feet at the summit. It is a brutal place where temperatures at –50F are common; where fingers, toes and noses can quickly freeze solid, and where there is only one-third of breathable oxygen available as there is at sea level; where the cold and hypoxia can lead to madness, coma and death. It takes months to acclimate your body to attempt the climb, and it can cost tens of thousands of dollars to hire the right guides to help you survive a summit attempt. But despite the danger and the hardship, climbers flock to Everest from around the world, determined for whatever reason to reach “the roof of the world.”

In 2006, Mount Everest claimed the lives of eleven people, the highest number of on-mountain fatalities since 1996: three Sherpas, Tuk Bahadur (a Sherpa kitchen boy), Vitor Negrete (Brazil), Tomas Olsson (Sweden), Sri Kishan (India), Jacques-Hughes Letrange (France), Thomas Weber (Germany), Igor Plyushkin (Russia), and David Sharp (England). A twelfth, Australian Lincoln Hall, was left for dead but managed to survive overnight at 28,200 feet with no shelter or food.

Some of these deaths were immediately recognized as accidents -– falls, or people succumbing to pulmonary or cerebral edema. Others were viewed more suspiciously: some other climbers near Thomas Weber at the time of his death believed that his guide took too long to respond to Weber’s distress; later investigations suggested that Weber may have climbed Everest as a means to commit suicide.

The saddest story was that of David Sharp: a solo climber, not affiliated with any of the big outfitters and purposely attempting the ascent without oxygen, Sharp died alongside the trail as reportedly forty other climbers trudged past him on their way to the top. While the rest of the world erupted in outrage that no one rescued Sharp, the reaction of most high altitude climbers was that it was all most of the other climbers could do to keep from dying themselves, much less drag another sick climber down to safety.

Lincoln Hall should have been another tragedy. After failing to reach the summit, Hall became very sick, delusional and exhausted. His team of Sherpas tried for nine hours to bring him safely down to camp, finally leaving him when he lay on the snow, completely unresponsive (the Sherpas were snow-blind and nearly dead themselves when they returned to camp, having been above 28,000 feet for more than twenty-two hours). By some miracle, Hall was found the next morning -– alive but crazy and badly frostbitten -- by a team of ascending climbers.

A climber himself, author Nick Heil first wrote about the devastating 2006 Everest season for Men’s Journal. After the article was published, however, it was evident that there was much more to the story, and this book is the product of his investigation. While not quite as compelling as Into Thin Air (Heil was not a first person observer/participant as Jon Krakauer had been in 1996), Dark Summit is a fascinating and horrifying book.

I do not in any way share the compulsion these high altitude mountaineers have to struggle and suffer so in reaching such great heights. I do not understand why it is worth nearly killing yourself to stand for twenty minutes at the top of the world. At the end of Dark Summit, the author confesses that he doesn’t understand it either, but his own compulsion to bring the stories of the people who survived and who perished on Everest in one of its harshest seasons, is well worth reading.

Posted by nbennett at 04:42 PM

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Six Frigates - The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy

Reviewed by Miriam

Fans of Patrick O'Brian's Jack Aubrey series will love Ian W. Toll's Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy. It is beautifully written non-fiction that reads like an adventure novel, and covers a very crucial period in our nation's early history.

The founders of the new nation were strongly opposed to creating a navy, realistically fearing becoming embroiled in Europe's perpetual wars. But the export trade was a large and vital source of revenue, and had to be protected from the Barbary pirates, who were highjacking American merchant vessels and either enslaving passengers and crew or holding them for ransom. At first, the nation paid "tribute" -- actually protection money -- to keep the peace. But the Barbary rulers, like blackmailers everywhere, kept raising the ante. Their continually escalating demands made it more expensive to buy them off than to fight them.

After much wrangling in Congress, the president was authorized to order the building of six frigates, and the American navy was born. The Tripolitan War was the first battle fought and won by the United States Marines.

But the most feared adversary was the British Navy. Brittania ruled the waves at the time. It was not long before the United States was forced to take on the Royal Navy, a prospect which they approached with trepidation. The motives which caused the war were complex, but the immediate pretext was the impressment of American citizens from American shipping. The truth was, we were interfering with them and they with us, and a showdown was inevitable.

The accounts of the battles in Six Frigates are hair-raisingly vivid. I, a landlubber from way back, learned a lot about how difficult it was to navigate in the age of sail and how much skill was needed to manuever and to fight naval battles. The battle scenes are bloody and might upset the squeamish, as no detail is spared. Many on each side were wounded, often horrifyingly, and many killed.

The war was costly on both sides. It ended inconclusively. Great Britain was fully occupied in fighting Napoleon, and the fight against the Yankees was a costly distraction. The Royal Navy no doubt could have taken out the Americans in a full out, no holds barred war, but they were otherwise engaged. This said, the American Navy gave a good account of itself, chalking up some amazing victories. In a sense, this war established a true national identity among the former colonies. It has sometimes been called "the Second War of Independence."

I cannot praise the Toll's style more highly. The narrative moves swiftly, yet everything we need to know is conveyed. A superior book.

Posted by nbennett at 04:29 PM

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The Duchess Pulls a Fast One

Reviewed by Gordon Hauptfleisch

Among the many pulp stories of Whitman Chambers (1898-1968) -- a now overlooked author of more than 20 crime and mystery novels, as well as a notable screenwriter for such films as The Come-On (1953), and Manhandled (1949) -- “The Duchess Pulls a Fast One” is one of several written for Detective Fiction Weekly that features Katie “the Duchess” Blaine, a reporter for The Sun who uses an innate sense of smarts to investigate crimes while researching her articles. Indeed, the independent Duchess -- the creation of whom was Chambers’ best effort in the production of an appealing series character -- could “produce hunches faster than a cigarette machine turns out coffin nails.”

Not that she’s letting on early in the story when she and a couple of rival big-boy reporters, Spike and Pinky, respond to a suspicious chemical plant fire - in fact, she comes off as an in-the-way tag-along, and even resourcefully jumps on a pumper as it hits the road “with bell clanging and siren wailing.” But once she gets her transportation, she goes on her own journalistic way, no matter what the quick consensus may be.

A consensus that, as know-it-all Spike and Pinky later and condescendingly explain, sees the fire as an arson-set insurance hoax known as a "Schwartz" -- “Duchess, don’t you know a Schwartz when one jumps up and spits in your face?” -- one implicating the chemical company’s owner, Kurt Bergstrom, another employee, John Hamlin, and his wife. The Duchess is perfectly willing to listen patiently, but when their particular nonsense jumps up and spits in her face, she is just as ready to indicate as such:

“And who was the man they found in the laboratory?”

“Some hobo who’ll never be missed. Hamlin got him there on the pretext of giving him a job, slapped him over the conk and fired the joint. Simple, Duchess.

“And you think Kurt Bergstrom was in on the hoax?” Katie pursued.

“Cinch.” Spike nodded gleefully. “The way I dope it, the time of the fire was prearranged to put Bergstrom in the clear. John Hamlin is a weak sister and the whole plot was cooked up by Bergstrom and Mrs. Hamlin. Hamlin is safely holed up somewhere, and when the heat is off he and the dame’ll scram to South America with forty grand.”

“And the other forty grand?”

“Into Kurt Bergstrom’s sock. Well, what do you think of it, Duchess?”

“I think the whole thing,” Katie promptly retorted, “is the silly machination of a disordered brain.”

While we follow the convoluted “thrill of the chase” for the boys as it breaks down in the face of increasing chaos, it is not until the end of “The Duchess Pulls a Fast One” that we are let in on the true extent of her “pay off.” After the behind-the-scenes build-up throughout the bulk of the story, we are led to the orchestrated, clashing, contradicting, and correct conclusion in which -- with a twist here, a turn there, and a surprise ending from out of nowhere -- all characters are brought together, the scenarios played out, and every loose end is tied up in a bow.

And if we ever doubted before, we suddenly stand united with each principal wondering “where we ever got the idea that the Duchess was silly, and dumb, and slow on the pick-up.&rdqu

Posted by nbennett at 06:42 PM

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ADHD & Me — What I Learned From Lighting Fires At The Dinner Table

Reviewed by Russ Evenhuis

A couple of years ago, I went to a counselor to get myself straightened out. Not that anything was wrong with me, of course. I have always thought the rest of the world has a problem, not me. It’s been that way for the nearly forty years I’ve been in this world. One thing led to another, before I knew it, Karen, my counselor, was asking me if anyone had ever mentioned ADHD to me. No one had, I told her, so she suggested I check into it and we would talk about it at our next appointment.

I googled ADHD the next day and printed a checklist that came from one of the sites. Reading through it, I became convinced that I was seeing myself being described in a way that no one ever could describe me. I wanted to read more, to learn more about what ADHD is and how it was affecting me.

Since my diagnosis, I’ve spent many hours trying to find material to read that holds my attention and speaks to me in a way that is useful to me. Although Blake’ E.S. Taylor's book is aimed at a reader younger than me, it spoke to me in ways that other books have not in that I feel like Blake is talking to me personally. He doesn’t whitewash the problems with having ADHD but he also doesn’t make me feel like it’s a death sentence. He is saying it is hard work but it can be done.

Blake E. S. Taylor was diagnosed at a very early age. He has taken situations in his life and made them lessons for people with ADHD. Included at the end of each situation, he talks about things he could have done differently in each situation and also strategies to help alleviate or avoid the situations.

Reading Blake’s book, I was struck at how difficult it must have been for him at times. It also brought back memories for me when I was his age and taking a test in a room that had too much color in it. Thinking about it, I always did better in classes that took place in bland rooms. Art rooms just distracted me way too much. Sitting too close to a window on a nice day was a guarantee that I would be daydreaming in a moment. I used to hate myself for not being able to focus in those situations. Now I understand.

Blake had forgotten to take his medication the morning of a big test. This is a problem, but not insurmountable. What makes the problem insurmountable is that the room is screaming with colors and art on the walls. Outside, it’s a nice day and the lower grades are at recess. All together, it’s distraction enough for anyone not fighting the scattershot focus of ADD/ADHD. Needless to say, Blake did not do very well on that test.

Another characteristic is quickness to boredom that can lead to doing things that if thought about for a few minutes, would never get done. More thought would bring a realization of consequences, usually bad ones. Blake shows this process with an incident in class where he got bored, lost focus and wondered what would happen if he threw his pen into the wall. Before the thought can even process fully, his pen has exploded against the wall. With that, Blake shows another problem with ADHD in that some people, in this case his teacher, don’t believe there is such a thing as ADHD. The thinking is that ADHD is nothing but an excuse for unruly behavior and is nothing that a bout of harsh punishment would not straighten out.

Blake’s writing is like a conversation, not a lecture, and because of that the reader might not get as much technical information as one of the more scientific books. I learned more from it however, because reading it held my attention, kept me engaged, taught through example, and helped me understand strategies that are easy to use in the real world. I plan on having my family read this book and will recommend it to others that either have ADHD or know someone that does.

Posted by nbennett at 06:40 PM

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Interview: Stephanie McMillan

Last winter I received my introduction to the people who inhabit Stephanie McMillan's Minimum Security when I reviewed her collaborative effort with writer Derrick Jensen As The World Burns: Fifty Things You Can Do To Stay In Denial, and found my first cartoon hero since Snoopy: Bunnista. What's not to love; with that cute little X instead of an eye -- a memento from having survived an animal testing facility -- his cute little arms, his grenade launcher, and his great do-it-yourself attitude. Bunnista isn't one for sitting around waiting for somebody else to make a statement about things; nope, he'll be right there with as many explosives as he can cobble together and let the world know what's what.

After that introduction I wanted more, and discovered that an anthology of Stephanie's work had been published under the title of Attitude: Featuring Stephanie McMillan's Minimum Security and discovered just how good she was at being a cartoonist and not being afraid to speak her mind. Now, it just so happens that I agree with just about everything she has to say about the mess that the world is in and what really needs to be done to even start making amends. As far as I'm concerned, it's one of the few places in mass media where you can be guaranteed reading the truth on a regular basis.

Wanting to learn a little bit more about the person responsible for what is now my favourite comic strip, I contacted Stephanie about doing an interview. This is the result.

What was it that made you decide that you wanted to draw cartoons -- what is it about that medium that appealed to you?

Stephanie: In fourth grade I fell in love with Peanuts and decided to become a cartoonist. Their personalities fascinated me -- the deep melancholy of Charlie Brown, and the defiant independence of Snoopy. I always marvelled at how Schulz was able to create distinct, subtle expressions with such economy of line, how just a couple of dots and curves could effectively convey worry or exasperation. By copying Peanuts at that age, I learned how to draw facial expressions. I think my characters still owe a lot to that early influence.

You have very strong opinions on social/political issues, how did they evolve?

Stephanie: At about age 12 I realized that I’d been too young to understand or participate in the social justice and anti-imperialist movements of the late 1960s. Growing up in the subsequent period of political stagnation, it frustrated me a lot that I’d missed that important and exciting time. I spent many hours as a teenager daydreaming about starting a commune, and thinking about what a fair society would look like. When I was a senior in high school, an older relative gave me the book Fate of the Earth by Jonathan Schell, which made me (unwillingly) think about -- and fear -- the possibility of nuclear war. I started writing about it for the school paper, and going to meetings of liberal anti-nuke groups.

I immediately realized that the actions they recommended -- writing letters to local papers and politicians -– were a useless waste of time. I didn’t know what else to do though, until outside one of these meetings I met a communist who talked to me about revolution. I was astounded and thrilled -– the idea of revolution hadn’t ever occurred to me. I’d thought it was a relic of the long-distant past, and here was someone telling me we could do it too. I jumped right in.

When did you make the decision to combine the two: politics and cartooning?

Stephanie: I went to film school, where I studied animation, because it was very important to my parents that I get a college degree, but already my heart was in political action. I spent my twenties as an activist, and rejected the idea of being an artist. It felt frivolous to draw funny pictures when the revolutionary movement was so small and fragile and needed every ounce of energy we could give it. Instead I took a series of crummy jobs (warehouses, factories, retail shops) to keep me alive so I could do my real work as an organizer. I worked to defend abortion clinics from Operation Rescue, worked against the detention of immigrants, against Star Wars and other cold-war moves by the US, against police brutality, and on a lot of other issues. What I wanted was to help take these struggles out of the realm of loyal opposition, and tie them into a movement that recognized the whole capitalist system as the underlying problem.

After about 15 years of this, the 1999 anti-WTO protests in Seattle revealed that a healthy and vibrant opposition movement had developed, and I felt that it was ethically okay for me to stop being an organizer (other people were doing it far more effectively), and do what I’d always wanted to do, create art as my way of exposing and opposing the system. So I started drawing cartoons.

Initially you started out by doing the single box cartoons, and now you do a recurring strip -- how did that progression come about?

Stephanie: At first they were actually multi-panel vertical rectangles, pretty wordy and elaborate. Stylistically I was influenced by the cartoonists I admired: among them Ted Rall, Ruben Bolling, Lynda Barry and Matt Groening. After a few years of that, I switched to single-panel political cartoons because I thought they’d be easier to place in papers. Then after the US attacked Iraq, in spite of millions of people all over the world protesting the moves toward war, I became so depressed that I stopped drawing altogether for about nine months.

Eventually I understood that it’s not acceptable to surrender or give up, and I picked it up again in the form of a character-based strip. I chose that form with the idea that it would be more effective to present political points using ongoing characters whom readers might identify with, and stories that would be more compelling to follow in an ongoing way.

You've created four very distinct human characters for Minimum Security , and one very angry rabbit -- where did you draw your inspiration for them from? Any friends or family to be found amongst them in some shape or form?

Stephanie: They’re all mixed up and combined from parts of myself and people in my life. Nikko, for example, was initially inspired by my brother Nick, whom I love to tease for the TV programs he likes (Nick is much smarter though, and cuter). His sister Kranti and I share a few personality traits (only the positive ones! Ahem. I’m not NEARLY that cranky...and I do wear clothes). I have a good-hearted friend who’s a little silly like Bananabelle, and the name Bananabelle came from my cousin’s pet sheep. Javier’s name came from an activist I’ve admired, who started a community garden. There are even parts of myself in Bunnista... or rather, there would be if I had more guts.

Creating a daily comic strip must be difficult. What's your process for working on the series -- writing a whole bunch of strips in advance, like the Celebrity Dodge Ball sequence, for instance -- did you sit down over the space of a few days and power through it, or do you only work a few days in advance of your deadline?

Stephanie: Though it can vary somewhat, in a typical week I write five comics on Monday or Tuesday, draw them on Saturday and color them on Sunday. The hardest part is the writing, and I don’t typically get very far ahead. I often sit at the blank page, agonizing over what should happen and how to possibly make it funny, with a growing dread that the clock’s running out. With longer sequences, I usually have a general sense of what will happen, but don’t actually write them out until the week I draw them. They run the week after they’re finished.

Which comes first: the dialogue or the illustration? Or is it simultaneous?

Stephanie: I write out the scripts first. One of the best bits of advice from an editor I ever got was many years ago, and it was this: write everything that absolutely must be in the cartoon ... then cross out half the words. They turn out much better when I remember to do that.

It's probably safe to say that Minimum Security is socially relevant and politically opinionated -- where do you find your inspiration?

Stephanie: Oh my gosh, everywhere. The entire planet and pretty much every form of life on it is being killed right now by industrial capitalism. The need to stop that from happening is tremendously urgent. There’s a lot to be upset about and to address: the imperialist wars and the relentless determination of the US empire to expand, conquer and destroy. The exploitative nature of this global economic system, where a few live on the backs of the many, and suffering is considered normal. The unfathomable levels of pollution that are driving extinct 200 species a day, and making us all sick.

Have there been any cartoonists, artists, or people in general who you would say have influenced your work, and shaped your thinking the most?

Stephanie: Sure, so many. I find artists of many genres very inspiring visually. Some of my favourites are great cartoonists like Bill Watterson, Winsor McCay, Gahan Wilson, and the others I’ve mentioned, political artists like John Heartfield and George Grosz, pop artists like Keith Haring and Yoshitomo Nara, and folk art from Mexico and the Indian subcontinent. I’ve benefited from reading a broad range of thinkers and writers, including Howard Zinn, Chellis Glendinning, Barbara Kingsolver, Margaret Atwood, Marx, Lenin, Mao, Jerry Mander, Wallace Shawn, Krishnamurti, Vandana Shiva, and Derrick Jensen.

As The World Burns was a collaboration with Derrick Jensen -- how did that work? Obviously you supplied the artwork, but did he write the story and dialogue and then you created the illustrations -- or did he give your a narration and you created dialogue and visuals that complimented it?

Stephanie: That was a fun, great process! We talked a lot throughout about how the story should go, and he’d send each part to me as he’d write it. He wrote it mostly in the form of dialogue, with some description. I wrote a few parts as well. At first I tried to keep up with drawing each section as I received it, but I quickly lost ground and it took me a few months to finish the drawings after he’d finished the writing.

You don't mince any words in your comics and are usually very direct in your opinions. Have you experienced any problems because of that, and how's the reaction to your strip been in general?

Stephanie: People usually either really like it or really hate it. Many readers have said that it expresses things that they’ve thought about or felt, and that they found it validating or strengthening. That sort of response is actually the reason I draw -– I want to help expose the hypocrisy and false claims of the system, and encourage resistance to it.

I also get my share of hate mail and criticism. I’ve even heard about a couple of blogs out there dedicated to ripping Minimum Security apart. Sometimes a right-wing blog will send a flurry of angry messages my way, but they die down pretty quick. I just delete them. Overall, the positive far exceeds the negative. I think many people want more art that challenges the status quo, and they appreciate it when they find it.

What's the future hold for the folks at Minimum Security? Any chance of live action or even another full length graphic novel?

Minimum Security is currently on the web site of United Media (Comics.com). If it does well there, and develops enough of a growing audience, then it’s possible that United will syndicate the strip for print as well (currently I self-syndicate it in print, and United syndicates it in electronic form). I would like to do another graphic novel (or more) with these characters, perhaps a sequel to As the World Burns. There are no current plans for animation, but it would be great to do that too. Mainly at this point I’m trying to get it into more print publications.

I would like to thank Stephanie for taking the time to answer my questions, and I encourage everyone to stop on over to Comics.com and get a fix of Minimum Security five days a week (Monday to Friday).

For those who were wondering, the title Minimum Security comes from something an inmate said on being released back into society when asked how it felt to be free again. He replied that he still wasn't free -- he was just in minimum security.

Posted by nbennett at 05:21 PM

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National Poetry Month

April is the cruelest month. --T.S. Eliot

Perhaps Eliot's April chagrin would be lessened a bit today, thanks to the fact that April is now celebrated each year as National Poetry Month. Originally started in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets, it has grown into the largest literary celebration in the world.

I was fortunate to develop a love of poetry at a very young age. Perhaps the most influential person who helped to instill my appreciation for finely crafted poetry was my third grade teacher, Mr. Lightburn. At the age of seven, I memorized over a hundred poems and wrote many of my own. I can still recite the first poem I ever committed to memory, Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost, and I carry it with me to this day as a treasured gem that springs to mind each winter as I watch the "woods fill up with snow."

Whether you are new to poetry or a lifelong fan, I encourage you to celebrate National Poetry Month. There are many ways to express and explore an interest in poetry. Schools and libraries in your area likely offer programs specifically geared towards teaching and learning about poetry this month. You can check out a book of poetry from the library or buy a collection of poems from your local bookstore or online. Subscribe to a poetry journal. It might be fun to attend a poetry reading at your local library or coffee house. Try writing a poem yourself, or if you are an experienced poet, submit your poetry for publication, or simply share it with others.

At Poets.org, you can register to have a poem-a-day e-mailed directly to you free of charge during the month of April. These poems will feature new work that will be published this spring, so it's a good way to preview some upcoming talent in the world of poetry. Poets.org also offers a plethora of online poetry resources geared towards adults and children alike, including a National Poetry Map that lists facts about poets from your area as well as information about upcoming poetry events.

April 17 is Poem in Your Pocket Day. You can join others across the world by jotting down one of your favorite poems to carry with you.

For more information about National Poetry Month, visit the Academy of American Poets website at poets.org.

Posted by nbennett at 05:18 PM

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Callisto

Reviewed by Richard Marcus

I have no idea where the misconception came from that satire has to be funny. Satire can be funny on occasion, but as it is a means of criticizing society, there are going to be times that it won't be funny in the slightest. The things one person finds problematic in life, another person is going to believe devoutly – meaning there is always going to be someone who doesn't get the joke no matter how funny you make the satire.

Classic satires like George Orwell's Animal Farm, where he equated Stalinist Russia with a barn yard revolution and showed the leaders of the revolution becoming as corrupt as the usurped masters, isn't funny at all once you understand what's being depicted. Yet, for far too many people, it's become a silly cartoon to be taken at its surface value where you laugh at the antics of the funny animals.

For the modern satirist to be successful, which in my mind means getting his or her audience to question the status quo, he or she has to find a way to bring their audience to the point where they see how ridiculous things are, without their attention being diverted by the humour.

The other major difficulty facing a satirist is ensuring the object of the satire doesn't become the object of audience affection. If you start identifying with Homer Simpson or Archie Bunker, how are you going to see them as the objects of ridicule they are supposed to be? If a character is to represent an area of malaise in society, what does that say if the audience feels sympathy for him? While it could mean society is a lot worse off than the author thought, it usually means the character's creator hasn't been as honest in his depiction as necessary.

In his latest novel, Callisto, Australian author Torsten Krol has created a character who, while not necessarily unlikable, isn't going to be someone most of his readership are going to want to admit identifying with. Odell Deefus is what most people would call a few bricks short of a load, or any of the other euphemisms people might have for the genuinely stupid. If his IQ were any lower, he could be considered developmentally challenged, but not in the heartland of America, Yoder Wyoming, where Odell was raised.

As Odell is our source of all information for his little adventure in 21st century real-politic, he's not about to admit he's what a generous person would call slow. He goes out of his way to draw our attention to his great intellect by informing us he's read The Yearling sixteen times. (It won the Pulitzer Prize, so it can't be a book for dumb people.) Odell is intent on reassuring us about his intelligence because he wants us to take the story he's about to recount seriously.

Once he starts telling us the story, we begin to understand why he's so desperate to assure us of his grip on sanity and his ability to think straight. Through an amazing series of coincidences, misadventures, misunderstandings, (there are a lot of those when Odell is involved), and straight out stupidity, Odell ends up involved with a scheme to run drugs into a local prison, a murder investigation, and the attention of the good folk at Homeland Security on suspicion of terrorist activity. To think it was all because he was making his way to the enlistment centre in Callisto, Kansas so he could do his patriotic duty and go over and kill some of them Islamic extremists.

He figures he stands a good chance of being signed up, even though he doesn't have a high school diploma, because they now have a test you can take instead. They're so desperate for recruits they're offering a bonus for signing up, so they're not going to be too bothered about whether a fellow's graduated or not. Besides, what else kind of work is available these days for a guy without a high school diploma? Nope; the army is just thing for a guy like Odell, and the millions of others like him across America.

Odell is not the only character in the book, but he is the centre of everyone's attention from the moment his car breaks down on the outskirts of Callisto on his way to the recruiting centre (which had been closed for about a year by the time Odell gets there, due to lack of interest.)

Most people meeting Odell for the first time realize what a golden opportunity he is for whatever plans they might want carried out. A born-again Christian preacher, drug running prison guards, a right wing politician, the FBI, and the boys from Homeland Security all see him as the answer to their prayers. What none of them count on is Odell's own unique way of seeing the world and how it will enable him to thwart them at every turn.

Torsten Krol, (who’s a bit of a mystery as he does no publicity and only communicates to his agent by the Internet, leading to intense speculation as to his true identity), has created in Odell Deefus a character who is almost too naive to believe. Yet, once we learn to accept Odell's vision of the world and allow ourselves to see it through his eyes, everything he does makes perfect sense. Torsten has imbued him with an emotional depth and honesty that is humbling. For we, like all the other characters in the book, have the tendency to stop treating him like a human being and only see the surface fool.

Krol exposes our own callousness through Odell, and we can laugh all we want at how he's being deceived by the other characters in the book until a couple of things strike us. What happened to our compassion that this person who is being treated like dirt by everyone around him elicits our scorn instead of our sympathy? The second thing is to slowly realize that if we're laughing at him for still buying the line about duty and patriotism being more important than civil rights, and that if we're laughing at him for any of the things he's honest enough to admit being taken in by, then aren't we laughing at ourselves just as much because we've been taken in, as well?

The world Odell Deefus lives in is the same world we live in. While some of the characters are slightly cartoonish, they are very real representations of the types of people they represent in our world. Beneath the buffoonery reality is our world in all its stark ugliness; and in the end, not even Odell's delusions can protect him from it. To me this is satire at it's finest. Krol creates characters and situations that are nearly cartoon, but have enough reality in them for us to recognize them as our own world, while ensuring all the while we are laughing at ourselves without knowing it.

Not everyone is going to like Torsten Krol's depiction of life in America or enjoy the book much for that reason. Unfortunately it's not always a pleasant thing to look in a mirror and see yourself on a particularly bad day, and that's what Torsten Krol has done. He caught America in the midst of a very bad day.

Posted by nbennett at 06:27 PM

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What's so Funny 'Bout Fiction

by Maggie Ball

Another day, another literary scandal. First (Well maybe not first. See this listl) there was Helen Darville’s faked history behind her Miles Franklin-winning novel The Hand that Signed the Paper; then there was James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces; novelist JT LeRoy, who finally admitted to being Laura Albert; Nasdijj, the Navajo memoirist who turned out to be porn author Timothy Patrick Barrus; Misha Defonseca, who turned out to be Monique De Wael, author of pretend memoir Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years; and now Margaret "Peggy" Seltzer, who has admitted that Margaret Jones is a pseudonym and that her memoir Love and Consequences was also faked.

So what’s with all these faked memoirs and identities? Does the fault lie with the publishers for not fact checking? Some would have it so.  Does it lie with the authors for duping their publishers, their agents, and of course the angry public who feel cheated of a real life story when all they got was fiction?

What’s so funny ‘bout fiction anyway? A good story is a good story, whether it really happened or whether it was pulled together by someone who imagined it. Frey’s book for example may not be damn good history, but it surely it is still the same damn good fiction that Oprah cried over. Perhaps even the bigger truths of the work — those characters and situations that we find verisimilitude in -- remain the same.

Writing a novel is no easier than writing a memoir – it takes an awful lot of work, talent, research, and inner searching to produce a full-length book that takes the reader somewhere that he or she can recognise as real regardless of genre. The books have to be truthful in one way or another or they won’t touch the reader.

Perhaps novelists are faking ‘memoirs’ rather than writing ‘novels’ because of the public’s insatiable hunger for ‘what really happened’ and the flow on effect this has with publishers, who are much more willing to take on memoirs than new fiction. My own novel Sleep Before Evening, is entirely fiction, but you can’t write a novel without putting an awful lot of yourself into it. There are plenty of moments that really happened, and the novel is full of the truth, because that is the whole point of fiction – to show something real and meaningful in a narrative construct. We don’t live in a linear, narrative type of universe.

Our lives are bombarded with a range of sensory perceptions, memories, diffuse narrative threads and anticipations. Both memoirist and novelist take these things and use art to create something structurally accessible that others can understand, but there’s always construct, selection, re-invention. There’s always artfulness. Even relating a recent memory involves that kind of construction. I’m not condoning the literary hoax, nor am I suggesting that these hoaxes don’t matter.  Of course it’s wrong to go on the record as being someone you aren’t – particularly when you are dealing with sensitive issues or race, experience or influence where you might steer someone wrong because of your pretence, or create inappropriate propaganda because of your bias.

But I am suggesting that the kind of reverence that the public places on “what really happened” -- the obsession we seem to have with “reality TV” and gritty revelation talk shows -- might be misplaced. James Frey was a successful author long before he faked his memoirs, but it was only the attention from Oprah and the ensuing scandal that made him a literary superstar, or super villain if you prefer – I’m not sure there’s that much difference from a sales point of view.

But should I really care whether James Frey really went to jail for 1 day or 10? Should I begin investigating because there’s a small discrepancy in the dates in Ismeal Beah’s latest memoir, A Long Way Gone? The key issue here is whether these are good books or not. If we buy them because they’re shocking, or amazing stories (“hey madge, you won’t believe what this kid got up to”) that don’t ring true, and are full of ridiculous rubbish we are happy to believe (“he swore in his memoir that aliens took him to Mars and I believed him”) then we might deserve to be lied to. If the memoir is beautifully written, and full of rich, vivid detail which touches something very real in the reader, then maybe it remains good fiction even if it isn’t good fact. The truth is about something deeper and more powerful than simply the bald facts.

In Jill Lepore’s excellent piece in this week’s New Yorker, “Just the Facts, Ma’am”, she makes this point wonderfully, exploring the relationship between historical writing and fiction, particularly as it manifested itself in the 18th century: “For Fielding, there are two kinds of historical writing: history based in fact (whose truth is founded in documentary evidence), and history based in fiction (whose truth is founded in human nature).”  There are many different kinds of truth, but the memoir, real or faked, certainly doesn’t have a greater claim to it than fiction does.

Posted by nbennett at 06:24 PM

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In Search of Molly Pitcher

Reviewed by Friend Mouse

In Search of Molly Pitcher, by Linda Grant De Pauw, is a young adult novel that not only seeks to solve the mystery of just who Molly Pitcher was, but also the mystery that confounded all of us in grade school: how the heck am I supposed to write a paper about that?

The protagonist is Peggy McAllister, a thoroughly modern heroine. An eighth grader, Peggy is very bright, a little weird and a lot lonely. Her single mother works long shifts at Wal-Mart to make ends meet; her best buddy is her 90-year old “Greatgramps,” a World War II vet and former private investigator. Peggy is a misfit at school, seemingly friendless, and throws herself into her schoolwork to keep busy. When a local contest offers prize money for “excellence in eighth grade social studies,” Peggy decides to enter with a paper on a great American hero. She picks Molly Pitcher out of a list her social studies teacher provides to the class even though the teacher tries to dissuade her from this selection, saying too few facts are known about Molly. Peggy is tough, however, and more than up for the challenge.

And what a challenge it is. Conflicting stories abound -- some calling Molly a sergeant and others a captain; some saying her husband was killed and others just wounded; some saying she carried a pitcher and others a bucket -- and very few are based on primary sources. Peggy soldiers on, with support from her Greatgramps and a local historian/historical romance author, collecting a huge amount of evidence about the numerous women who were on the battlefields of the Revolutionary War. She finally develops her thesis that “Molly Pitcher” was not an actual person but instead the embodiment of female martial bravery during the American Revolution. Peggy writes her paper and wins her prize (although her cranky social studies teacher gives her a B- for writing about several women as opposed to one American hero, as was the assignment).

Peggy is a very believable little girl. The quest she goes on to uncover the truth about this American icon is likewise laid out in realistic fashion. In Search of Molly Pitcher is as much an instruction manual on how to undertake a research project as it is a detective story about one of American history’s mysteries. De Pauw takes the reader step by step through the research process her main character follows: figuring out what questions need answering, learning the difference between primary and secondary sources, assembling a bibliography, organizing information into hard evidence and leads for further exploration, and putting the mass of information into cohesive form.

It’s been a long time since I had to write an eighth grade research paper. I’m also not that interested in the American Revolution. But I sat down and read In Search of Molly Pitcher in one sitting, as excited as Peggy as she sorted out the facts from the fiction about her hero. This book takes an innovative approach to getting middle schoolers interested in history. If only someone had done something like this for math when I was in middle school I might be able to solve the mystery that is my checkbook register today.

Posted by nbennett at 09:27 PM

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Brothers in Hope - The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan

Reviewed by Mel Odom

My 10-year-old son and I read a lot of books together. Usually we read for adventure and for laughs, but we’re currently working on the 2008 Children’s Sequoyah Masterlist, a group of 12 books thought to be the best of recent books by authors living in the United States. The award is named after Sequoyah, who is remembered as the father of the Cherokee alphabet.

The thing that really grabs my son’s attention is a true story about kids, especially if they’ve had to endure hardships. The hardest part about reading these books with him is explaining that all these horrible things really took place. That idea sometimes overwhelms him. He still lives in the mindset that adults can fix everything. I hate taking that away from him, but he also learns to appreciate the life he has and learns to be giving to others that have less.

Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan is one of those books. It’s really short and can be read within minutes, but the impact of the story is still with my child days later. Based on the tragic, real-life incidents in the Sudan where warlords massacred whole villages in the civil war that took place there, the book focuses on an eight year old boy named Garang Deng.

Garang became one of the leaders of the 30,000 Sudanese boys between 8 to 15 who became orphans as a result of that war. They ended up walking over a thousand miles to try to find safety. The fact that boys that age could endure the hardships and know enough to save most of them is astounding.

As I read the book to my son, I knew he was lost in that struggle, trying to imagine what he would do. That’s what he’s like. It wasn’t an adventure like we normally read. This was a real life-or-death situation.

Several of the boys died along the way. That fact is touched upon in the narrative but doesn’t weigh too heavily. Mary Williams, the author, has handled a truly difficult subject matter here and in a way that leaves young readers shaken but not despondent. Although only 40 pages long, the books is a real eye-opener about what goes on in the rest of the world.

The artist,  R. Gregory Christie, does an amazing job with kid-friendly pictures. The acrylic medium really stands out on the page, and the colors are all warm earth tones that reflect the geography of that region. Emotions, despair and joy, are plain for the reader to see in the way the characters stand. The art complements the simple, hard-hitting text wonderfully.

If you’re working with your child in the Sequoyah Reading this year, you may find that the subject matter in Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan is hard to deal with. Be prepared to answer a lot of questions from your child. Thankfully, I knew enough about what had happened there to answer most of them. You might want to read up on that civil war and the general outcome. I know my son seemed less pensive when I could answer his questions and let him know that most of those boys were truly safe now, and over 3000 of them came into the United States.

Posted by nbennett at 09:26 PM

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The Somnambulist

Reviewed by Mel Odom

Victorian London will be forever etched into the minds of readers who enjoy twisty mysteries and macabre adventures set against a history sharply defined in books and movies. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories first come to mind, as well as later forays such as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore. Stephen Spielberg even took a run at the genre and the setting in Young Sherlock Holmes.

I have to admit, I’m a bonafide sucker for the milieu. I grew up hanging onto Sherlock’s coattails while the game was afoot, and I never quite recovered from that first blush of fog-crowded streets and Hansom cabs clattering across cobblestones. Oklahoma author Will Thomas has set up a fine Sherlock riff in his own series about Baker and Llewelyn, Victorian detectives.

But Jonathan Barnes’s new novel, The Somnambulist, takes pre-conceived notions of Victorian mystery novels and adventures and turns them on their ears. And this is only his first novel!

I was captured at once by Barnes’s writing. He favors a blend of modern, easy to read language mixed with a shading of the long-winded Victorian trappings and a touch of purple prose. It’s a fine brew and I found myself sailing along within just a few pages. His writing is so smooth, and his imagery so evocative, that the world of Edward Moon and the Somnambulist grew larger and deeper and more textured with every word.

I have to admit, Edward Moon isn’t one of the most likeable people you’re going to find in this novel, but he is our chief detective. Like Holmes, Moon is a quirky individual filled with his own ego and intelligence. He’s a stage magician by trade, but his intellect is keen and he’s knowledgeable about a great many things. Moon is also rather novel in his relaxation pursuits, and I found myself jarred quite deeply when he elected to sample the wares of a local house of prostitution. I decided at that point not to like him overly much, but the traits -- all too human and poignant for some weird reason -- made him even more fascinating.

But where Moon has a few things hidden from the reader that are eventually revealed, his companion -- the Somnambulist -- remains an enigma. He’s a large, strong man who can’t speak but does communicate through a portable chalkboard he carries with him. He also has the peculiar ability of being able to become a veritable pincushion for swords that Moon thrusts through him in their magic act, and for enemies that battle him. He’s got an unexplained fetish for milk.

Together, these two form our crime-fighting duo for the novel. In the beginning, Moon is vaguely interested in the murder of Cyril Honeyman. At first, Honeyman’s death is believed to be a suicide. But Moon believes it’s murder.

I really liked the mystery set-up and the way that Moon and the Somnambulist were first brought into the plot - whereupon attempts were made to scare them off, prompting their efforts to force their way back in again. All the while the police were buzzing around trying to figure out what Moon knew. I enjoyed the familiar romp a lot.

Then about halfway through the novel, The Somnambulist takes a hard right turn into the Twlight Zone – without the warning signpost up ahead. I felt like Wile E. Coyote when he goes out over that empty canyon after the Road Runner. I’d been poking along with the novel at that point, simply enjoying the well-written read. Then the thing turned out to not quite be as simple as I’d believed.

I can’t tell you any more. You’ll have to read it to see where and to what lengths Barnes’s fertile mind takes you. However, I recommend the read whole-heartedly. Besides the quirky characters, some tantalizing mystery reveals, and a huge backstory, Barnes offers a wonderful view of Victorian London. The city comes to life on every page.

Barnes crafted a compelling read and characters with this first novel. I can’t wait to see where he takes his readers next. I’m going to be one of them.