Neuromancer by William Gibson

Neuromancer was a novel that I knew was assigned reading in some Humanities courses, and this is what led me to want to read it.  It wasn't held in the print collection of my library so I checked it out on audiobook.

Listening to Neuromancer as an audiobook is especially difficult because it makes the story that much harder to follow; Gibson is given to abrupt juxtapositions and changes of scene.  The psychedelia of some of his images and scenes are drawn with higher contrast because of those abrupt juxtapositions, I think.

The impression listening to the audiobook gave me was of being surrounded by radio theater.  I found the book dark and I felt unable to escape from its darkness and perhaps unwelcomely influenced by the "tough guy/street tough" character of Case.

This book was published in 1984 and it has a cinematic quality that reminds me of Bladerunner and Black Rain; in fact, parts of the beginning of the novel are set in a future Japan, a place where black market transplants, surgically implanted prostheses and plastic surgery are commonplace.

His protagonist, Case, is a "cowboy" (data thief, or in today's parlance, a hacker) and a drug addict with a strong self-destructive impulse.  Just when he's scraped bottom, he's rescued by a mysterious man named Armitage who is accompanied by a Yakuza enforcer named Molly who has mirror shades for eyes and steel fingers that extrude from underneath her fingernails like Wolverine.

Armitage's goals are mysterious and he takes Case to a variety of settings:  the "Sprawl," a megalopolis that extends from New York to Atlanta; Istanbul; Japan again and other places I can't remember.  Case's whole world is a port city full of strangers from faraway places thrown together.

I read this book in part because I wanted to try to understand the genre of "cyberpunk," which this novel is said to have begun; while Case is clearly a hacker and his life is influenced by living in a world, both in cyberspace (a term said to have been coined by Gibson) and in the real world of foreigners shorn of nationality, there are elements of fantasy and metaphysics that seem out of place in a world in which technology has given both freedom and rootlessness.

The audiobook contained both an introduction by the author and an afterword by an author, unknown to me, who described himself as a friend of Gibson's as well as a fellow Virginian, and who argued that the novel is suffused with a sense of an Appalachian past.  I'm not quite able to see all of his point but I have to agree that there is something about the novel, that I can't quite put my finger on, that points to the past as well as the present.

There's a interesting and brief discussion of the impact that Neuromancer had when published and its relation to the development of the Internet at schmoop:  http://www.shmoop.com/neuromancer.

I realized what Neuromancer reminds me of, finally - The Maltese Falcon.  The novel opens in a bar in Japan, I think in Chiba City (I don't really remember).  The bartender is a Russian who makes little observations about Case who's a has-been addict but manages to cushion the barb with his obscure metaphors.  (I like Quentin Tarantino to direct.)

Dream a Little Dream by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

In this romance by a well-known romance writer, there are a bunch of people who are in trouble.  By the end of the novel, they're not in trouble anymore.

Rachel's husband left her when he faced legal trouble; overnight, her world collapsed and she was left with nothing.  Once looked up to in her community, she's now despised.  Her sudden change in fortune has changed her personality; as her finances become more desperate, so does she.

When her car breaks down outside a tumble-down drive-in movie on the edge of town, she meets the irksome owner who insults her little boy.  Bowed but unbeaten, she asks the guy for a job, and to sweeten the deal, makes an outrageous offer.

Despite this unpromising beginning, she gets the job and finds that helping the ornery owner fix up his tumbledown drive-in movie parking lot surprisingly fulfilling.

Last to Die by Tess Gerritsen

I really enjoyed this book and I was surprised that I did.

I had the impression that this book would have a lot of "action," which it did, but I found that I really enjoyed it anyway.

Characterization was not very deep, but the main plot of the book turned on some orphaned children.  I wouldn't have guessed it, but I enjoyed the characters of the children.

Part of the story was the relationship between Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles, and that was a smaller part of the story than I anticipated.

I'd love to talk to someone who's read some of the other books in the series and could tell me if that's typical.  Of course, one of the problems with reading a book in a series out of order is that the "backstory" will not (or should not) be repeated for you as a newcomer.  For myself, although I'm curious about the backstory, I probably will never have time to read the other books in the series.

However, if I find a paperback from this series floating around in a drugstore or a used book sale, I'll grab it.

An enjoyable discovery.

A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton

I'd long looked forward to reading some Sue Grafton.

I was a little disappointed, and I think that's probably for a number of reasons.

The novelty of a female detective is no longer so great.  Some of the plot points were lacking in originality, as were some of the characterizations.

Some elements I did admire.  When Kinsey Millhone, the detective, goes to interview the murder victim's first wife, they have a conversation in which the first wife really springs off the page:  her portrait and dialogue seem realistic.

However, the first book in a series is often not as fully developed as later installments; I've often wondered if it isn't smarter to select a book from later in the series when I'm reading a new detective for the first time.

The Firm by John Grisham

The Firm is one of many John Grisham books that has been made into a film; while I read it, I often thought of the film but I did not feel that having seen the film kept me from enjoying the book fully.

I once started a Grisham book, years ago, and disliked it intensely.  At a time when I rarely gave up on books, I quickly stopped reading it and not only never picked it up again but never felt any desire to read another Grisham book.

However, I did enjoy this book.  I thought some of the ideas he presented were novel.  

I value his power as a descriptive writer.  Even though I was prejudiced against him as a writer when I started the novel, I found myself feeling that I could imagine what the firm's building looked like, on the basis of his description, and even what downtown Memphis looked like.  I thought that I could see the poolside at the Quins' house and the restaurants that Abby and Mitch visited.  

And I found this book exciting.  I did find it thrilling.  Of course, having seen the film, I knew something about the outcome.  But the film's plot was quite streamlined compared to that of the book, and it would have been quite easy for me to feel impatient with the drawing out of the discoveries that Mitch makes, and the actions that he undertakes.  

Reflecting on the book, I realize that I find some plot twists improbable.  I find some other things curious.  An FBI agent is preparing an indictment (do FBI agents do that?) and it's a preliminary indictment because the investigation is not complete.  Among the charges he lists, he "throws" in mail fraud because, he reasons, mail fraud is almost always a charge.  I assumed that this was a jab since Grisham has worked as a criminal defense attorney, and I'd guess that extra charges, no matter how trivial they are, just make extra work for defense attorneys.

Grisham's strength is his descriptive ability but I find his perception to be superficial.  He's excellent in describing what people look like and how the details of their appearance and mannerisms denote their class identity.  I found the attitude of the omniscient narrator calculating and cold, and a shrewd observer.  Perhaps shrewdness, while useful and possibly hard-won, is just not that attractive a quality.

The Reason Why by Vickie Stringer

Vickie Stringer is the author of a very popular fiction book, Let That Be the Reason.  Imagine This was the sequel to Let That Be the Reason, and The Reason Why is the "prequel" to Let That Be the Reason.  The Reason Why is the only one of these three books I've read; it was deeply discounted at Borders one day and I bought it.  As with so many books I read, it's just serendipity.

The Reason Why is most concisely described as a cross between Romeo and Juliet and The Sopranos.  Neither of the young lovers die in this book, but they have a sweet "first romance" that is thwarted by the by imprisonment of Chino, the head of a drug dealing street unit.

Chino meets Pam almost accidentally; to avoid a police dragnet he drops his pistol into her purse knowing that the police won't search the ladies.  Pam, a student at a Columbus, Ohio university, finds Chino to return the gun, and an instant attraction between them, full of braggadocio, flares.

To me, the charm of this book is its dialogue and the story of young lovers. When Chino is meeting with his subordinates, their dialogue is very musical.  The first time they each say "I love you" is a major moment in their romance, as is the first time Chino takes Pam to the condo he bought for them to live in.

When Chino first meets Pam, he spends a lot of time bragging about nothing in particular.  Pam is impressed, and has no thought that getting involved with Chino might not be wise or have consequences she would find heavy to bear.

Chino is making a lot of money, and sets Pam up in business.  For several chapters, their relationship deepens.  Chino plans to make a lot of money and get out of the drug dealing business.

When Chino's business is disrupted by a major bust in another area and rivalry with an adjoining gang, he is sent to prison.  While in prison he learns from a friend that Pam has been seen in public with another man.  Unable to believe that she is not cheating on him, their relationship deteriorates.  

Still Life by Louise Penny

I'm not sure what made me want to read this book now - Louise Penny has been hanging out on the edges of my consciousness for some time.  I'm so glad I got around to reading it; I love it.

What I appreciate about this novel is the wide variety of topics Penny touches on in the course of the story.  One is the shifting emotional dynamic of a marriage; another is Quebecois separatism; another is art and antiques; another is the difficulty of coming out as a teenager discovers his homosexuality; another is the difficulty of mentoring a young know-it-all.

I have a friend who loves this series and says that she loves Inspector Gamache.  It's interesting; there are never any detective series about detectives who put their careers above finding the correct answer. Inspector Gamache is no exception to this rule; at one point he refuses to arrest a man whom he thinks is innocent and is forced to accept a suspension as a result.

The acknowledgments that Penny, a journalist, prefaced her novel with are perhaps more interesting than the book itself:  as she thanks her husband and her friends she's quite candid about how her single-minded focus and need for support might have made her a selfish friend, or at least a needy one.  And, she explains that she had won an award from other authors for her unpublished manuscript which made the eventual publication of Still Life possible.

8/30/15

I saw Louise Penny interviewed by Terry Tazioli on Well Read, an author interview show on PBS (produced in Seattle), about a month ago.  Penny said several things I found very interesting.  One was that when she was working on Still Life, she anticipated writing a series and figured, since she was going to spend so much time with her lead character, Inspector Gamache, she thought she should make him someone she would enjoy.  Later she realized that Inspector Gamache was a lot like her husband.

She also told Tazioli that her aim in writing Still Life was to show that there was still good in the world.  I thought that was so surprising, in a way, because revealing the murderer shows the reality of evil, doesn't it?  I may not understand.  But a quality that Still Life has is that it celebrates friendship and connection.

The Next Always and Key of Light by Nora Roberts

Well, I thought I ought to finally get around to reading Nora Roberts, and I finally did.  I picked up Key of Light at a garage sale and The Next Always at the library.

I started Key of Light (2003) first and finished The Next Always first; as I began both novels I was very disappointed to see that they both had supernatural elements.

Key of Light is about some attractive, thoroughly modern mortals who rescue some trapped Celtic goddesses (I guess you have to be there) and The Next Always is about a bookstore owner and Iraq widow falling in love with the guy who had a crush on her all through high school and is now directing the renovation of a local, historical inn that is haunted.

What surprised me most is that they are so well-written.  I expected nothing but romance, but found that Roberts was skilled at description, setting and dialogue.

Some of her dialogue really snaps and is truly witty.  Some of it, especially in The Next Always, is a surprisingly accurate portrait of how folks really talk.  I greatly admire writers who can capture true speech; it's one of the things I admire about Lee Smith.

And, I was surprised that, in my non-linear way, I gradually became interested in and enjoyed reading both novels (I'd originally planned to just read a little, just to get the flavor).  Honestly, I didn't read all of The Next Always -- I read the first few chapters and then, picking it up in the middle, read all the way to the end.

Something else I find interesting is that both novels feature a group of three women who get together and go into business for themselves.  In Key of Light, it's a combination bookstore, art gallery, hair salon; in The Next Always, it's a gift shop at the Inn.

A writer named Lauren Collins wrote an interesting and judicious profile of Nora Roberts that appeared in the New Yorker in 2009.  I read it when it appeared.

What I read most from the profile is the following passage:

At dinner with Roberts and Wilder one night, I mentioned a scene in her novel "Birthright," in which the heroine, Callie Dunbrook, receives a coffee-table book about Pompeii from a man who may or may not be her father, who confesses to once having made the mistake of selecting an automotive accessory as an anniversary gift for his wife.


"You'll never live it down," Roberts said to Wilder, who was engrossed in a large platter of eggplant parmigiana.
She turned to me. "He doesn't even know what I'm talking about!"
Roberts continued, "First Christmas! What did you give me our first Christmas?"
"I don't remember," Wilder replied.
"I do. Car mats."

What I'm reading now

I've just finished Wallflower at the Orgy by Nora Ephron; I'm reading the Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas, Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie, & Nora Roberts' Key to Light.

Bet Me and Faking It by Jennifer Crusie

Just finished Bet Me (2004, I think).  I'd read Faking It a few years ago.

Both books feature outlandish plots, witty dialogue and lots of pop culture references.  This seems to have been a bigger feature in Faking It, filled with references both known and obscure, to '50's hits, than in Bet Me.  In Bet Me I was not surprised, then, to encounter Elvis and learn that Min was a huge fan.  But when Elvis Costello was mentioned I was really surprised to find myself grounded in the late 20th century.  The outlandish plots do make a reader feel ungrounded.

In Bet Me, the heroine falls in love with a guy who takes her out to win a bet (and she knows this).  She falls in love but most unwillingly. (The convention that folks fall in love despite themselves, their other plans, the machinations, wishes and expectations of others is fulfilled here; the love interest's ex-girlfriend is a psychologist and still wanting him, uses her expert knowledge to attempt to manipulate him).  Crusie shows a sympathetic understanding of female psychology.  Something I enjoyed greatly is that Crusie developed the supporting characters - the friends of the tormented couple and her sister.

In Faking It, the plot is even more outlandish.  The heroine meets the man of her dreams in a closet, early in the novel.  And they kiss, before page 30.  (Kissing is very big in Crusie's books and there is a little sex.)  A major impediment to their romance, despite their brief acquaintance, is that they are both engaged in illegal activities which leads to having a lot of secrets, misunderstandings and hesitations - why, just the very elements that make up a great romance story.

I think Bet Me could make a cute film.  I don't know if its cliched elements make it more or less filmable.  I think the "nutty" outlandish elements might be tricky but given the reliance on convention in this genre, it seems a shame to lose them - they're outlandish but original in an environment that's more predictable than a Holiday Inn.

China To Me by Emily Hahn

I can't do this book justice, which is a pity, because I'm in such a rush.

Emily Hahn was an American writer who accompanied her sister to Shanghai in the early '30's, on her way to Africa (which she loved).  She fell in love with Shanghai and couldn't bring herself to leave.  Shanghai in the thirties was full of foreigners and had an intriguing cafe society that mixed folks of many nationalities and classes.  I can see why she found that a heady and fascinating mix.

After several years in Shanghai, she traveled to Chiangking (sp?) to write a biography of the Soong Sisters (Mrs. Sun Yat-Sen (sp?), Madame Chang Kai-shek, and Madame Kung, three sister married to the most important politicians in China at that time).  Through her contacts she knew an amazing number of people. 

Then she traveled to Hong Kong, planning to return to Shanghai shortly thereafter .. but her plans changed and she ending up staying in Hong Kong much longer than she intended and was there when the Japanese took the city. 

Emily Hahn had a fascinating love life, which she touches on glancingly here.  As much as I might have liked details (okay, I longed for them, and explanations, too), I think that she took care to tread a fine line between honestly and openness .. after all, she had a child by the time she wrote this account, shortly after returning to America in 1944.

In Hong Kong, there was an amazing diverse population as well.   Her account of the Japanese occupation is fascinating, as well.

Hahn's fascinating life seems to have grown out of her fascinating character.  She was described, on the back of my paperback copy of China to Me, as a "citizen of the world," and I think that must be true.  She got on with an amazingly diverse group of people and I think part of this must have been a writer's fascinating with observation.  To my view, she was far ahead of her time and a great adventuress, and this story reads like an adventure story, full of event.  She's a wonderful storyteller, and if you like tales of wartime hardship or adventuresome lasses, I recommend this book to you.

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

I enjoyed The Eyre Affair.  It centers on Thursday Next, a war veteran and police officer who investigates the loss of a time/fiction travel machine, the "prose portal," and the kidnapping of Jane Eyre from the novel of the same name.

This is fantasy, obviously, and alternative history - here, the authorship of Shakespeare's plays is hotly debated, Richard III is an interactive event like singing along to the Sound of Music, the Crimean War has been dragging on for 131 years, Winston Churchill never survived to adulthood, and literature is so popular its popularity would rival a combination of reality TV, NASCAR, and pop music - if that were possible.  Jane Eyre ends with Jane resignedly marrying St. John Rivers and taking off to Africa.  The novel's passionate admirers admit, when forced to do so, that the ending is unsatisfying.

Did I mention that there are vampires in this world?  And, almost everyone has an interesting name.

Thursday is another in a long line of detectives with personal problems. Her character's assertion, bravado, and independence reminded me a little of Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski.  Unlike many detectives, while she is lonely, and lovelorn, really, she's far from alone:  she has her pet dodo, her ex-fiancee, both parents, an aunt and uncle, and even a brother.

Thursday is a veteran of the Crimean War and of a pivotal battle in which her brother was killed.  She's been traumatized by the war, and her life has been on hold since she broke up with her fiancee, also a veteran of her unit in the Crimea.

Her uncle Mycroft is an eccentric, a brilliant inventor who has devised a machine called the "Prose Portal."  To test the machine, he sends his wife, Polly, to the poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," but has trouble bringing her back.

Her father is a fugitive ChronoGuard operative who is looking into the death of Nelson; he fears history has been rewritten by the French revisionists.  Meanwhile, Thursday's mother is convinced that her father is having an affair with Emma Hamilton.

There is a lot of exposition in this novel:  we also get to meet Joffy, Thursday's brother and another improbably named relation.  I found myself feeling that the plot didn't really get rolling until around page 250 and still didn't display any sense of urgency.

In Thursday's work she encounters many frustrating bureaucratic problems, but the worst is Jack Schitt of the Goliath Corporation.  The Goliath Corporation has its fingers in many pies; one of them is a 24-hour news network.

The ending was very satisfying, however, so I'd say it was worth the wait.  This is yet another book for lovers of literature; the novel Jane Eyre doesn't appear much until the last quarter of the book. But those readers who love the romance of Rochester and Jane will enjoy the ending hugely.

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Burrows

This is a fun and fascinating book, as its mixed-up title suggests, full of contrasting elements.

It appeals to me because it's set on Guernsey, a place about which I know little.  It has an interesting history.  It came to England as a Norman possession with William the Conqueror.  When England lost its French territories, it chose to remain with England even those it's quite close to the French coast and closer to it than to England.

Not surprisingly, Churchill felt he could not spare the resources to defend it from the Germans and so it was occupied from the fall of France to the end of the war.

Juliet Ashton is a writer touring England, and tiring of touring, to promote her new book.  Her new book is a collection of comic essays she wrote during the war, meant to humorize the hardships and privations of the war years.  As she wraps up her tour, she writes to her publisher that she is concerned about what she'll write next.  She's looking for ideas.  And, she's eager to turn her back on Izzy Bickerstaff, her nom de plume when she wrote her wartime pieces.

Out of the blue, she receives a letter from the island of Guernsey, from a pig farmer no less, who is writing her because he found a book, second-hand, with her name on the flyleaf.  He writes her because he wants more books, something of which there's a shortage in Guernsey after the war.  In particular, he wants a biography of a writer he's grown to greatly admire, Charles Lamb.  Ashton shares his interest in Lamb and is intrigued.  She comes to correspond with him and other natives of Guernsey.  She soon decides that her next book will be about Guernsey during the war years, and she decides to visit the island.

The novel contains many comic and cozy elements:  a close-knit community of eccentrics, a romance, an orphan child being cared for by a community.

It also contains very dark elements:  starvation, internment in labor camps, execution.

It is a story told in letters, a form I particularly love.  Letters are a particularly fine and economical way to convey comic vignettes, of which there are many in this novel.

The plotting is eventful, if predictable.  Predictability, however, is what many readers want.  The think the fact that this book has been a big best-seller around the world and is a book club favorite proves that.  Winningly, it's not too long, either.

I found the style to be accomplished, but the characterization to be uneven.  Somewhere after the one-third mark I found myself enjoying it less.

A word about the literary society:  early on in the book, one character talks about his great interest in Charles Lamb.  I had not thought about Charles Lamb since taking "Romantic Poets" in school.  Lamb's own life story is poignant, and I found it to be an agreeable element in the novel.

This is a good book for folks who like cozy communities, eccentric characters, stories about literature, stories about writers, stories about World War II and stories set in exotic locales.