by Thomas King
This book starts with a young man, a scientist, planning to commit suicide by drowning himself on the BC coast. He is part native Canadian and is drumming and singing as the water rises around him. However, rather than drowning he actually seems to rescue a young girl and other people from the water.
We learn that the young man feels responsible for a terrible environmental tragedy that occurred in the area. He had been partly responsible for a foliage reduction chemical that was used incorrectly. It devastated the water, trees and killed local people including the residents of a local Indian village.
The young man Quinn is befriended by Nicholas Crisp, a strange talking, very hyper individual, who rents him a trailer to live in. He also meets a young artist and a young mentally retarded boy who lives at the local (now abandoned) motel.
Meanwhile in Toronto we meet Quinn`s former boss, Dorian. Dorian is enjoying living the high life, buying expensive clothes and jewellery. He feels no remorse for the devastation. He seems to be ill but keeps on with his acquisitiveness. He is very annoyed that his employee Quinn is AWOL. He is also annoyed because a ship that was supposed to be taking the bad chemicals to storage has also gone AWOL. He is somewhat less annoyed when his wife, who had been bugging him to buy property in Florida, announces that she wants a divorce (she has a lover).
As the story goes on we learn that Quinn's family was living in Lethbridge but his father decided to take an assignment in the U.S. Quinn went with him, but while she said she would follow later his mother and his sister never join them. Quinn's father is killed on duty. Quinn completes his education in Minnesota and then finishes off in Stanford. He did not keep in touch with his mother nor sister. We find out that Quinn's mother and sister and his nephew were living in the native village where the pollution occurred so he is doubly devastated, hence his desire to kill himself.
Quinn later learns that the young artist, Mara, also suffers from guilt. She had left the village to study art, against the wishes of her mother and grandmother. She didn't return often and she wasn't there when the devastation occurred. He is shocked to learn that Mara knew both his sister and her best friend.
The young retarded boy keeps scouring the shore for "treasures". His father isn't around but he keeps thinking about what his father would say or what his father would have wanted him to do. Sonny survives through the assistance of his uncle, Nicholas. He decides that he will build a tower on the beach from scraps he finds and things he steals.
Mara decides to move back into her Grandmother's house. Shortly after she settles in she is visited by a number of strangers who join her in a big meal.
The area had been famous for turtles coming to hatch their eggs. Since the devastation there is little sign of wildlife. But one day a bird is seen in the sky and a sea turtle is spotted laying eggs. Could it be that the area is recovering?
Then we find out that the strangers who arrived at Mara's for the meal, are the same people that Quinn thought were ghosts who came out of the water. They did indeed come from the water. They escaped from the ship carrying the bad chemicals. Soon there is a high tide and the ship threatens to run aground on the beach.
They manage to direct it away.... but..... what will happen next? We are not told....
This was a great book. I really enjoyed the cantankerous, strange characters and the interesting plot. I like King's sense of humour and his language, a very storytelling voice. I was sorry when the story was over.
Wednesday, 22 October 2014
The ABC Murders
by Agatha Christie
After reading the "new" book about Poirot I thought I should read an actual book by Agatha Chrisite.
This book starts with Poirot, who is retired and trying to relax in London, receiving a letter announcing an upcoming murder in Andover. An elderly woman, owner of a newspaper shop is murdered in the town. Her last name begins with an A. No one was seen committing the crime. Then a second letter arrives announcing a murder in Bexhill and a young woman, with the last name starting with a B is strangled. Then a Sir Clarke is killed in Churston. The police and Poirot are frustrated. How can they catch/stop this serial killer. The only chance might be for him to make a mistake.
We are later introduced to a lonely young man. He reads the news and finds blood on his sleeve after he was in the location of one of the murders and he has lady's silk stockings in his possession. This is something that seems to tie all the murders together.
Poirot works with the local police. He is not as condescending to the police as he is in the recently written Christie-like mystery.
He eventually figures out that the brother of the third victim is indeed the serial killer. He planned and carried out all the other murders to take attention away from himself in regards to his brother's murder. The man also setup the young loner, hiring him to sell the stockings and making sure he was in the towns where the murders were committed. The young man became convinced that he could have carried out the crimes.
It was an interesting story, the plot twist with the young loner was an interesting aspect. I was really impressed with how sophisticated Christy's analysis of the mind of the serial killer was. It was not something I would have expected.
I will certainly look forward to reading more of her books. They are truly classics and stand up well even today against current mysteries.
After reading the "new" book about Poirot I thought I should read an actual book by Agatha Chrisite.
This book starts with Poirot, who is retired and trying to relax in London, receiving a letter announcing an upcoming murder in Andover. An elderly woman, owner of a newspaper shop is murdered in the town. Her last name begins with an A. No one was seen committing the crime. Then a second letter arrives announcing a murder in Bexhill and a young woman, with the last name starting with a B is strangled. Then a Sir Clarke is killed in Churston. The police and Poirot are frustrated. How can they catch/stop this serial killer. The only chance might be for him to make a mistake.
We are later introduced to a lonely young man. He reads the news and finds blood on his sleeve after he was in the location of one of the murders and he has lady's silk stockings in his possession. This is something that seems to tie all the murders together.
Poirot works with the local police. He is not as condescending to the police as he is in the recently written Christie-like mystery.
He eventually figures out that the brother of the third victim is indeed the serial killer. He planned and carried out all the other murders to take attention away from himself in regards to his brother's murder. The man also setup the young loner, hiring him to sell the stockings and making sure he was in the towns where the murders were committed. The young man became convinced that he could have carried out the crimes.
It was an interesting story, the plot twist with the young loner was an interesting aspect. I was really impressed with how sophisticated Christy's analysis of the mind of the serial killer was. It was not something I would have expected.
I will certainly look forward to reading more of her books. They are truly classics and stand up well even today against current mysteries.
Saturday, 11 October 2014
The Monogram Murders
by Sophie Hannah
This is a "New Hercule Poirot Mystery". As it has been a while since I have read an Agatha Christie novel I can't say how close to the original the work is from a writing perspective. However, the author does a splendid job of representing the character of Poirot and his little idiosyncrasies.
The story takes place in England. Poirot is retired and visiting a local restaurant for a cup of coffee. A frantic young woman enters and says she is going to be killed and deserves to be. She insists that Poirot promise he will not seek out her murderer. Then she runs away. Poirot is worried about her and tries to follow her, unsuccessfully.
Then he learns from a fellow boarder, a detective, Mr. Catchpool, that there has been a triple murder at a nearby hotel. All three people, two women and one man, have one monogrammed cufflink, with the initials PIJ in their mouths and they are laid out as if at a funeral. Mr. Catchpool ask Poirot to assist with the investigation of the crime. They get evidence from a witness that he saw a woman running from the hotel who dropped two hotel keys on the ground as she was leaving the hotel. She did stop and retrieve them before running away. The man recognizes her as a somewhat famous portrait artist.
It turns out that all three of the dead once lived in a small village. Mr Catchpool is dispatched to the village to find out about the three dead. He learns that a vicar and his wife committed suicide a number of years before and that the three dead individuals had been fomenting dissent in the village about the vicar. They were claiming he was summoning spirits for a fee. Another village woman claims that she was in love with the vicar and that was why she was visiting him when his wife was not around. This woman is the artist the witness claims he saw leaving the hotel. The scandal about the vicar was started by a young serving girl. The vicious neighbours took her claim and used it to accuse him of all sorts of bad things.
Then a fourth hotel room is found with blood on the floor. They found out that the serving girl from the village is the young woman Poirot met in the restaurant. He fears that she has been murdered as she was the one to check into that room.
As the story progresses Poirot looses patience with Catchpool often because he doesn't seem to observe things carefully or be as passionately committed to solving the crimes as Poirot seems to think he should be. He often challenges him to figure things out for himself.
When the young woman is found alive she claims that there was a suicide pact amongst the three people who hounded the vicar and herself and she is supposed to make sure that the artist is framed for the murders.
This turns out to be not quite the truth.
It was an entertaining read, certainly in the spirit and character of a real Agatha Christie mystery.
This is a "New Hercule Poirot Mystery". As it has been a while since I have read an Agatha Christie novel I can't say how close to the original the work is from a writing perspective. However, the author does a splendid job of representing the character of Poirot and his little idiosyncrasies.
The story takes place in England. Poirot is retired and visiting a local restaurant for a cup of coffee. A frantic young woman enters and says she is going to be killed and deserves to be. She insists that Poirot promise he will not seek out her murderer. Then she runs away. Poirot is worried about her and tries to follow her, unsuccessfully.
Then he learns from a fellow boarder, a detective, Mr. Catchpool, that there has been a triple murder at a nearby hotel. All three people, two women and one man, have one monogrammed cufflink, with the initials PIJ in their mouths and they are laid out as if at a funeral. Mr. Catchpool ask Poirot to assist with the investigation of the crime. They get evidence from a witness that he saw a woman running from the hotel who dropped two hotel keys on the ground as she was leaving the hotel. She did stop and retrieve them before running away. The man recognizes her as a somewhat famous portrait artist.
It turns out that all three of the dead once lived in a small village. Mr Catchpool is dispatched to the village to find out about the three dead. He learns that a vicar and his wife committed suicide a number of years before and that the three dead individuals had been fomenting dissent in the village about the vicar. They were claiming he was summoning spirits for a fee. Another village woman claims that she was in love with the vicar and that was why she was visiting him when his wife was not around. This woman is the artist the witness claims he saw leaving the hotel. The scandal about the vicar was started by a young serving girl. The vicious neighbours took her claim and used it to accuse him of all sorts of bad things.
Then a fourth hotel room is found with blood on the floor. They found out that the serving girl from the village is the young woman Poirot met in the restaurant. He fears that she has been murdered as she was the one to check into that room.
As the story progresses Poirot looses patience with Catchpool often because he doesn't seem to observe things carefully or be as passionately committed to solving the crimes as Poirot seems to think he should be. He often challenges him to figure things out for himself.
When the young woman is found alive she claims that there was a suicide pact amongst the three people who hounded the vicar and herself and she is supposed to make sure that the artist is framed for the murders.
This turns out to be not quite the truth.
It was an entertaining read, certainly in the spirit and character of a real Agatha Christie mystery.
Emberton
by Peter Norman
This is the story about Lance Blunt, an illiterate young man, who is offered a job at a dictionary publishing company. He is surprised to be offered the job in the company's marketing department, unsolicited. He did have a successful career in his father's furniture store until his father died and the business closed.
He gets little instructions about what to do, pretends to know how to read, and attends very tedious meetings. The building occasionally shakes and shudders. One of the senior members of the team seems to be quite ill and is found one day inhaling vapors from the radiator. Everyone is amazed when the young man is summoned to the penthouse by the company President. He is told that the man knew him from his father's business.
One day Lance meets a young woman he is attracted to, an etymologist with the company. She leaves him a note on a sticky. Of course he can't read it but gets help from one of the staff. She wants to meet him in the cafeteria. He is delighted to meet her, the cafeteria is basically deserted. She asks him for help in trying to dig up background information on the company. She takes him to a garden in the building and also the archives where they try to seek information without being noticed.
Later the owner takes Lance on a tour into the bowels of the building where he discovers that the building seems to be "alive" it lives off words, and body parts of employees. That explains why some employees leave without explanation. He allows Lance to feel the life force. He gives Lance a drink, harvested from the building's life force. It enables him to read.
Lance is anxious to share this information with the young woman but when he goes to he etymology floor he is told no one by her name works there. He finds out that as a child he was exposed to one aspect of the life force and it affected him negatively (like the vapours from the radiator). The President wants him to be his successor in running the company ad feeding the force. Something is going wrong, not only is the building rumbling, signs and words and communication outside the building are getting disrupted. Most of the employees are sent home for their safety. But Lance finds he cannot exit the building. It seems to have a hold on him.
Lance and the girl meet again and he tells her what they have learned. He decides that while it would be wonderful to be able to read he must destroy the force and they proceed to do so.
Being a Librarian I normally enjoy stories about books, writing, etc. I found the first half of the book interesting but the story line about this force consuming words, first abandoned words and then people was a bit far fetched for me so I wasn't really engaged in the latter part of the story.
This is the story about Lance Blunt, an illiterate young man, who is offered a job at a dictionary publishing company. He is surprised to be offered the job in the company's marketing department, unsolicited. He did have a successful career in his father's furniture store until his father died and the business closed.
He gets little instructions about what to do, pretends to know how to read, and attends very tedious meetings. The building occasionally shakes and shudders. One of the senior members of the team seems to be quite ill and is found one day inhaling vapors from the radiator. Everyone is amazed when the young man is summoned to the penthouse by the company President. He is told that the man knew him from his father's business.
One day Lance meets a young woman he is attracted to, an etymologist with the company. She leaves him a note on a sticky. Of course he can't read it but gets help from one of the staff. She wants to meet him in the cafeteria. He is delighted to meet her, the cafeteria is basically deserted. She asks him for help in trying to dig up background information on the company. She takes him to a garden in the building and also the archives where they try to seek information without being noticed.
Later the owner takes Lance on a tour into the bowels of the building where he discovers that the building seems to be "alive" it lives off words, and body parts of employees. That explains why some employees leave without explanation. He allows Lance to feel the life force. He gives Lance a drink, harvested from the building's life force. It enables him to read.
Lance is anxious to share this information with the young woman but when he goes to he etymology floor he is told no one by her name works there. He finds out that as a child he was exposed to one aspect of the life force and it affected him negatively (like the vapours from the radiator). The President wants him to be his successor in running the company ad feeding the force. Something is going wrong, not only is the building rumbling, signs and words and communication outside the building are getting disrupted. Most of the employees are sent home for their safety. But Lance finds he cannot exit the building. It seems to have a hold on him.
Lance and the girl meet again and he tells her what they have learned. He decides that while it would be wonderful to be able to read he must destroy the force and they proceed to do so.
Being a Librarian I normally enjoy stories about books, writing, etc. I found the first half of the book interesting but the story line about this force consuming words, first abandoned words and then people was a bit far fetched for me so I wasn't really engaged in the latter part of the story.
Thursday, 2 October 2014
Mr Gwynn
by Alessandro Baricco
This book is a book about an author who writes an article listing 50? things which he will never do again, one of which is write another book.
He is a rather lone figure, his agent has to have people track him down, usually in laundromats and hand him a phone so he can talk to him. The agent is very sad, and skeptical at first, that Mr. Gwyn means what he says.
However, Gwyn decides that what he will do is write portraits for people. He hires a studio, furnishes it with a bit of furniture and lights that will gradually burn out in approximately 30 days. Then he has his subjects come and "live" in the studio for four hours per day, naked. He observes them, not wanting them to talk. Near the end he does ask them a few questions. He finds that people's behaviour changes over the days. When the 30 days are up he give them a narrative about themselves of a few pages long.
The clients have paid a lot for this experience and they are all delighted with the profiles he produces. Many of them are quite strange. He tries to swear his clients to secrecy and all comply except the daughter of his first client. She is an angry spoiled teenager who takes his tale to the press. Mr. Gwyn then turns copies of the profiles to his secretary/office manager and asks her to take care of them. He also leaves her a copy of a book by an author she has read previously. She is so angry at him that she tosses the book against the wall.
She goes on to marry and have a child. One day she sees a copy of the book he gave her. She reads it and sees elements of the profile he wrote about her in the book. She then becomes convinced that he is still alive and eventually tracks him down.
The first part of the book contains this part of the story, the second part is a side story, the third is related to the first. I think the best way to summarize the book is a quote I found by an Amazon customer "While the story was clever and you inevitably become emotionally invested in the characters, the story falls apart at the end. The story becomes difficult to follow, and while it doesn't lose its enchanting style and remarkable way with words and storytelling, the plot disintegrates and fades into disjointed vignettes and a conclusion that feels as unsatisfying as Jasper Gwyn's own end."
This book is a book about an author who writes an article listing 50? things which he will never do again, one of which is write another book.
He is a rather lone figure, his agent has to have people track him down, usually in laundromats and hand him a phone so he can talk to him. The agent is very sad, and skeptical at first, that Mr. Gwyn means what he says.
However, Gwyn decides that what he will do is write portraits for people. He hires a studio, furnishes it with a bit of furniture and lights that will gradually burn out in approximately 30 days. Then he has his subjects come and "live" in the studio for four hours per day, naked. He observes them, not wanting them to talk. Near the end he does ask them a few questions. He finds that people's behaviour changes over the days. When the 30 days are up he give them a narrative about themselves of a few pages long.
The clients have paid a lot for this experience and they are all delighted with the profiles he produces. Many of them are quite strange. He tries to swear his clients to secrecy and all comply except the daughter of his first client. She is an angry spoiled teenager who takes his tale to the press. Mr. Gwyn then turns copies of the profiles to his secretary/office manager and asks her to take care of them. He also leaves her a copy of a book by an author she has read previously. She is so angry at him that she tosses the book against the wall.
She goes on to marry and have a child. One day she sees a copy of the book he gave her. She reads it and sees elements of the profile he wrote about her in the book. She then becomes convinced that he is still alive and eventually tracks him down.
The first part of the book contains this part of the story, the second part is a side story, the third is related to the first. I think the best way to summarize the book is a quote I found by an Amazon customer "While the story was clever and you inevitably become emotionally invested in the characters, the story falls apart at the end. The story becomes difficult to follow, and while it doesn't lose its enchanting style and remarkable way with words and storytelling, the plot disintegrates and fades into disjointed vignettes and a conclusion that feels as unsatisfying as Jasper Gwyn's own end."
The Valley of Amazement
by Amy Tan
This is the first book by Tan that I have read. Her books have been very popular so I had high expectations.
The book is the story of Violet Minturn. Violet's mother, an American, operates an exclusive courtesan house. She observes how her mother handles the clients, teasing them, nurturing their egos. As the politics in China change one of Violet's mother\s clients makes arrangements for the two of them to leave China for San Francisco on a ship. Violet's mother makes it onto the ship but Violet is detained and does not make it. It appears this was deliberate on the part of her mother's client. Violet later finds out that this man was likely her father.
Violet is taken in by another courtesan house and groomed to be a courtesan by a former employee of her mother's. This woman not only coaches her on how to behave but looks after her as a surrogate mother. Violet does not want to become a courtesan but she has no alternative.
The man who buys her "deflowering" is a man she likes, they have a loving but also tempestuous relationship while he has her contract. She treats him very rudely and he decides not to renew his contract. She then lives several years with a variety of clients.
Then she meets a client, an American. They fall in love with her and he takes her away from the brothel and they live together as man and wife. She has a baby girl. They are very happy for a few years until the man dies. Violet doesn't know what to do and decides to take on the name of the man's American wife, registering her daughter as his daughter. He has left her his fortune in China so she should have been comfortable. However, the man's American wife discovers what she has done, she is charged with a crime and the woman takes her daughter from her.
Violet is distraught by the loss of her daughter. She returns to work in a brothel where she meets a man who claims to be a poet. He woos her with tales of his family and with poetry and she agrees to marry him. She and her surrogate mother travel a great distance and are shocked to discover that the man is not as wealthy as he claimed and he has two other wives. She will be one of his concubines. She is furious and plots how to escape but the location is very remote and escape seems impossible. She does try to get away and her "husband" beats her savagely. Then she and other of the concubines hear about a village you can reach by climbing a nearby mountain.
They set out but the man almost catches up with them, but he is killed by a rock fall.
Violet returns to her home city but is adamant she will no longer be a courtesan. She goes to her first lover and insists he give her a job in his business. He does so and her English language skills and ability make a valuable contribution to his company. Initially they remain friends but not lovers.
Eventually Violet learns where her mother is and the circumstances under which she left. She contacts her mother who tracks down her daughter. Violet's mother makes friends with the girl and keeps an eye on her for Violet. It is clear the girl does not like her adopted mother. Violet's mother and her daughter travel to China to see her and invite her to return with them to the U.S. But she decides it would be better for her to stay and take care of her aging lover.
This was an interesting story, the portrait of the lives of the courtesans was interesting. It was interesting to see the strong female characters trying to have some measure of control over their lives. The story line of the mother's losing their daughters was poignant. The woman were very strong willed. The story was interesting with a lot of colourful characters. However, I felt it was a bit too wordy at times. The author spent a lot of time describing scenes and interactions but didn't give us much detail as to how Violet or her mother were feeling about the loss of their daughters. Violet's mother, to be fair, had been told that her daughter had been killed, run over by a carriage, if I remember correctly.
This is the first book by Tan that I have read. Her books have been very popular so I had high expectations.
The book is the story of Violet Minturn. Violet's mother, an American, operates an exclusive courtesan house. She observes how her mother handles the clients, teasing them, nurturing their egos. As the politics in China change one of Violet's mother\s clients makes arrangements for the two of them to leave China for San Francisco on a ship. Violet's mother makes it onto the ship but Violet is detained and does not make it. It appears this was deliberate on the part of her mother's client. Violet later finds out that this man was likely her father.
Violet is taken in by another courtesan house and groomed to be a courtesan by a former employee of her mother's. This woman not only coaches her on how to behave but looks after her as a surrogate mother. Violet does not want to become a courtesan but she has no alternative.
The man who buys her "deflowering" is a man she likes, they have a loving but also tempestuous relationship while he has her contract. She treats him very rudely and he decides not to renew his contract. She then lives several years with a variety of clients.
Then she meets a client, an American. They fall in love with her and he takes her away from the brothel and they live together as man and wife. She has a baby girl. They are very happy for a few years until the man dies. Violet doesn't know what to do and decides to take on the name of the man's American wife, registering her daughter as his daughter. He has left her his fortune in China so she should have been comfortable. However, the man's American wife discovers what she has done, she is charged with a crime and the woman takes her daughter from her.
Violet is distraught by the loss of her daughter. She returns to work in a brothel where she meets a man who claims to be a poet. He woos her with tales of his family and with poetry and she agrees to marry him. She and her surrogate mother travel a great distance and are shocked to discover that the man is not as wealthy as he claimed and he has two other wives. She will be one of his concubines. She is furious and plots how to escape but the location is very remote and escape seems impossible. She does try to get away and her "husband" beats her savagely. Then she and other of the concubines hear about a village you can reach by climbing a nearby mountain.
They set out but the man almost catches up with them, but he is killed by a rock fall.
Violet returns to her home city but is adamant she will no longer be a courtesan. She goes to her first lover and insists he give her a job in his business. He does so and her English language skills and ability make a valuable contribution to his company. Initially they remain friends but not lovers.
Eventually Violet learns where her mother is and the circumstances under which she left. She contacts her mother who tracks down her daughter. Violet's mother makes friends with the girl and keeps an eye on her for Violet. It is clear the girl does not like her adopted mother. Violet's mother and her daughter travel to China to see her and invite her to return with them to the U.S. But she decides it would be better for her to stay and take care of her aging lover.
This was an interesting story, the portrait of the lives of the courtesans was interesting. It was interesting to see the strong female characters trying to have some measure of control over their lives. The story line of the mother's losing their daughters was poignant. The woman were very strong willed. The story was interesting with a lot of colourful characters. However, I felt it was a bit too wordy at times. The author spent a lot of time describing scenes and interactions but didn't give us much detail as to how Violet or her mother were feeling about the loss of their daughters. Violet's mother, to be fair, had been told that her daughter had been killed, run over by a carriage, if I remember correctly.
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