Stone's Fall

Seldom, if ever, have I read a 594-page book that leaves me with so little to say about it. The problem is not that I dislike Stone's Fall or that I did not enjoy it because I did very much enjoy the book and I am rating it a very solid 4.0. No, the problem is that this is a very complicated story and it is told in a way that makes it difficult to describe the book without wandering into a minefield filled with "spoilers." So I am going to be very careful in what I say about Stone's Fall, hoping that my enthusiasm about the book still comes through.

The story begins in 1953, at a funeral being attended by Matthew Braddock, a retired reporter who only coincidentally became aware that the woman whose funeral he is attending has died. Elizabeth Stone played a large role in Braddock's earlier life but he has had not contact with, or word about, her in decades. Braddock will not, however, just walk away from the funeral to resume his retirement and old age. Rather, after the funeral, he is provided with a packet containing detailed memoirs that will answer all the questions he had failed to answer more than forty years earlier.

London 1909 - Braddock is hired by Elizabeth Stone to find the illegitimate child mentioned in her late husband's will so that his estate can be settled in an orderly and timely manner. Elizabeth Stone, who claims to have been unaware of the existence of such a child before seeing her husband's will, tells Braddock that she is not overly concerned about the child's existence and that she simply wants the child found so that her husband's affairs can be finalized to the benefit of his heirs and creditors.

Braddock, though, being the suspicious reporter that he is, begins to look into Stone's business affairs and soon comes to question the way that John Stone supposedly met his death. Was the fall from a window that killed him an accident as is officially reported by the police? Was he pushed from the window? Did he jump? What does soon become apparent is that neither John Stone nor his widow, Elizabeth, are the people they seem to be.

Stone's Fall is told in three separate parts, each part taking place in a different city and in a different generation. Part I, London 1909, is the story of Matthew Braddock's investigation and what he learns about the Stones, both in the past and in the present. It ends at the point at which Braddock believes that he is forever done with the Stones and their confusing history.

Part II, Paris 1890, takes the story back a full generation and explains how Elizabeth came to be the woman she is and how she first encountered her husband. This section develops some of the minor characters from Part I and begins to hint at answers to the questions left open by the first segment of the book. One character, in particular, Henry Cort, takes center stage and the reader is given insight into how the man who appeared to be such a villain in Part I came to be that kind of person and what motivated him to do the things he did for his country.

Part III, Venice 1867, takes another step backward in time and allows John Stone himself to tell the story of his life, the story of a young man who discovers that he has a talent for making money and for rationalizing his behavior and code of ethics to his own satisfaction right into old age. It is in this part that the whole story and all of its rather complicated character relationships finally become clear. That does not happen until very near the last paragraph of the book in a revelation that will have most readers shaking their heads in admiration. Others might just find the ending to be a bit to coincidental to suit them (I was one of those and, thus, my rating of 4.0 rather than a higher one).

Iain Pears has created a book that is both beautifully constructed and beautifully written, a book in which his readers can totally immerse themselves into three very different worlds. It is a book that demands complete attention from its readers if they are to feel fully its intended impact. Its length, in conjunction with its complexity, means that it is not an easy book to read, but it is definitely a book that rewards those who give it the time and attention it deserves.

Rated at: 4.0

Are You Serious?

From Booking Through Thursday:

What’s the most serious book you’ve read recently?
(I figure it’s easier than asking your most serious boook ever, because, well, it’s recent!)

Meeting Jimmie Rodgers by Barry Mazor

I'm not sure that it comes out in my review just how detailed this Jimmie Rodgers "biography" is. It does not follow a conventional biography format and, in fact, Jimmie is dead and buried before the book is much more than one-third of the way read. This is, instead, a book on music history, in particular the musical family tree of Mr. Rodgers who, according to Barry Mazor, was able to influence multiple genres ranging from blues, to punk, to country, to rock and roll. The book also lists countless recordings that make Mazor's case.

Meeting Jimmie Rodgers is every musicologist's dream and, as an avid amateur musicologist and recordings collector myself, I found it quite satisfying...and very serious.

Stephen Colbert Is a Comedy Show, Not a News Show

This is a common story around the country. Localities decide for themselves the boundaries within which citizens wanting to use the services of public libraries must live. Then it is up to the libraries to enforce the rules. That is exactly what happened to one Pennsylvania library but staff there got more than it bargained for by enforcing the rules.

First comes the semi-funny Stephen Colbert bit about the library that supposedly recalled a 7-year-old's library card - and then comes the other side of the story.

"Nailed "Em" by Stephen Colbert and Company

The clip is worth watching in order to understand the statement that is shown, below. (I tried to get the video embedded into this page but Blogger.com does not seem to approve of the way it is coded, so you'll have to click on the link to see it. Please come back and read the statement when you're done.)

Dear Reader

July 2009

A MESSAGE FROM THE LIBRARY BOARD PRESIDENT

I am compelled to write because certain entities have continued to tell a story that is not factual and this has left a number of misconceptions in the minds of people. These people, without having the facts, are making hurtful and incorrect accusations about the staff of the Memorial Library of Nazareth and Vicinity. We had a recent example of how commenting on a situation without the facts can lead people to regret their comments so let us get to certain facts.

1.Dominic Phillips has not been banned from the Nazareth Library.

2.Dominic Phillips still has a valid Nazareth Library Card. This card will continue to be valid until it expires on 12-31-09.

3.No employee of the Nazareth Library ever called the Phillips’ home and said otherwise. The message left on the Phillips answering machine was from an employee of the library branch in Palmer Township.

4.The woman in the piece on the television show The Colbert Report, Leslie Burger, is the Director of the Library in Princeton, NJ. (68 miles away from Nazareth according to Rand McNally directions).

5.The interior library pictures were taken at the Phillipsburg, NJ library.

6.Neither the Nazareth Library staff nor the Library Board were approached by the producers or anyone else connected with The Colbert Report, nor were the staff or the Board given a chance to talk with them, or present our information to them.

7.We did not draw up the library district boundaries. This is done by a bill passed by the State Legislature and signed by the Governor.

8.Tatamy Borough was temporarily part of the Nazareth Library as part of a State funded grant back in the 1980’s. When the grant finished, Tatamy Borough, through its duly elected officials, decided not to pay for continued participation by the Borough. This is their right and their obligation to act in the best interests of their residents as they see it. Let me opine that as these officials were reelected after this, a majority of the residents of Tatamy must have agreed with them. It is also instructive to know that Bushkill Township was also a part of that grant and those elected officials did decide to permanently join the Library.

The first article published in the Express Times was not entirely accurate. There was a second article which made some effort to correct some of the misconceptions that arose from the first. Newspapers, at their heart, attempt to inform the public. I have no doubt that was the intent of the Express Times when it ran the first article, although I would have preferred that it had waited and done more investigation so that its story did not have factual errors. However, The Colbert Report is an entertainment forum on a channel called COMEDY Central. To be candid, I am both shocked and saddened to see how may people, many with advanced education and degrees, can watch a show on Comedy Central and assume that they are being given FACTS.

Maybe if people realized the show went to New Jersey to do a story about a Pennsylvania Library, they might question why. After all, New Jersey libraries are run pursuant to New Jersey law and Pennsylvania Libraries are governed by Pennsylvania law. Could it be that librarians familiar with Pennsylvania laws and procedures might not have given the show what they wanted for their episode? I will let each person make their own judgment. What I will question is how people could be saying all of the things, with such hate and venom, when they don’t know what in blazes they are talking about.

Any person who has sent a nasty e-mail to the library or posted a nasty comment on a blog somewhere who did not know at least 5 of the 8 facts I listed above (one more than half) should be ashamed of themselves for making these comments without a factual basis to do so. Has our society really gotten that gullible that we believe what we see on a comedy television show as fact and make no effort to use any critical thinking or do our own investigation? Everyone who has enough ability to send a hateful e-mail could have checked the Library’s web site and read the membership criteria and policies for themselves. Maybe it would be a good idea for all of us to go to our own libraries and take out 1984 or Animal Farm and learn something from all of this. And the first lesson should be not everything you see on television or even in the newspaper is correct.

John Reinhart, Library Board President

Dropping an 80-foot Tree in 45 Minutes

I'm a little off-topic this evening, but I want to share a brief clip of a Houston tree-removal crew in action. I went outside yesterday afternoon to investigate the noise coming from across the street from my house and discovered these guys in the midst of bringing down a huge pine tree in my neighbor's front yard. This tree was over 80 feet tall but it was taken down in less than an hour by one guy in the tree and a half-dozen helpers on the ground. It was, to say the least, an amazing thing to watch.

Trees all over Houston are being taken down right now in anticipation of what could happen if a hurricane strikes Houston again this year. The area looks and feels normal again (with the possible exception of Galveston Island) and no one wants to have their house crushed two years running - thus, the sacrificing of hundreds of healthy trees growing in dangerous spots.



The size of the tree only comes into perspective when I pan far enough back to show the two-story house behind it. This guy must have had quite a view from up there.

"Roberts Rules. Sigh."

I suspect that many, if not most, book bloggers post their reviews on one or two websites other than their own. Book bloggers are enthusiastic readers who love to share what is ordinarily a lonely pursuit with others of a like mind, something that was impossible to do before the web came along to shrink the world to the size of a basketball. Bloggers are as used to receiving feedback from those who read their thoughts as they are to providing feedback to fellow bloggers. That sense of community is, in fact, half the fun.

One website, though, is more akin to the Wild Wild West than it is to a typical book review site. It is a place where book reviewers can expect to be cursed, laughed at, and otherwise abused on a regular basis (if tarring and feathering or stocks were available, I would really be worried). Amazon.com, though, can be a nasty place for book reviewers with thin skins. Dare to post a review on any political book, either positive or negative, and watch the “helpful/not helpful” votes come rolling in from people who have not read the book - but hate its author. Dare to post a negative, or even a mediocre review, of a book by a big-name, mainstream author and expect to have your very IQ challenged by the author’s rabid fans.

The strangest thing about Amazon is that a generous portion of the abusive comments attached to book reviews come directly from the authors of those books. It is hard to understand what the authors think they will gain by making personal attacks on readers who have panned their books, but I suppose such behavior is cheaper than the therapy from which they would more readily benefit.

Even big-name authors tend to blow their stacks every so often about book reviews but few of them respond the way that Alice Hoffman did publicly a few weeks ago to one newspaper reviewer who dared question the quality of her latest novel:

“Now any idiot can be a critic. Writers used to review writers. My second novel was reviewed by Anne Tyler. So who is Roberta Silman?”

That kind of response creates a “no-win” situation for an author, as Hoffman found out by the amount of scorn hurled her way by the media and public alike. Is Hoffman suggesting that seasoned readers and professional critics not dare review a book unless they, too, have been published? Sales are all about word-of-mouth nowadays and Ms. Hoffman’s elitist attitude makes clear how unhappy she is that word of a disappointing novel spreads quickly in today’s marketplace - no matter who the author may be. More to the point, why should readers even trust reviews written by other writers since so many writers trade cover blurbs and reviews with their friends and colleagues over entire careers?

Even as prominent a book reviewer as Maureen Corrigan (of NPR, book and newspaper fame) knows what to expect from certain negative reviews. However, few handle the situation as cleverly as Corrigan did this weekend when she disguised her review of the latest Nora Roberts tripe as an opinion piece about the frustration of reviewing the books of an author who sells the huge number of books sold by Roberts. (I read Corrigan’s piece in the Houston Chronicle on Sunday morning, but here's a link to the whole review at the Washington Post site.) According to Corrigan:

“It doesn’t much matter what I say about the new Nora Roberts novel; most of the adult female population of the planet is going to read it anyway. It’s a staggering understatement to say that Roberts is review proof.”

[…]

“If I pan the novel, I come off as a snooty-pants literature professor, and I’ll be deluged by emails from her ticked-off fans. If I gush over it, I’ll be suspected of trying too hard to be just a regular gal…”

Now that she has done her best to discourage a “deluge of emails” from Roberts fans, Corrigan has her say:

“I’m going to say what I think straight out: Black Hills is synthetic mind candy. It’s not even very satisfying synthetic mind candy, such as, for instance, Clive Cussler in his prime or Patricia Wentworth’s soothing Maud Silver mysteries.”

[…]

“This latest smooch-and-shoot saga spans three decades and many twists of the heart. To give Roberts her due, she keeps this fluff aloft for hundreds of pages (partly by repeating the same sex scene every other chapter or so). Black Hills isn’t much of a suspense story and the romance is so silly that it isn’t even good fantasy fodder, but none of Roberts’ fans will give a hoot.”

Next consider that Nora Roberts has written more than 160 bestsellers, 39 of which have debuted at No. 1 and you will better understand Corrigan’s take on this new one. While thinking about those numbers, you might also consider the national embarrassment of what is called the NYT Fiction Bestseller List.

Me, I hope to keep Corrigan’s tongue-in-cheek approach in mind the next time I am called a bunch of names over at Amazon. If it happens to a critic as good as Corrigan, I will just remind myself that I am in good company despite my amateur status.

Larry McMurtry's Last Hurrah?

Larry McMurtry's latest novel, Rhino Ranch, due to hit bookstore shelves on August 11, may just turn out to be the answer to a Larry McMurtry trivia question because Mr. McMurtry is indicating that it will be his last.

According to the Dallas Morning News, McMurty made remarks during a recent visit to his old home town of Archer City, Texas, that strongly hint that his days of fiction writing are behind him:

"It's a finite gift, for sure," he says of novel writing. "I'm about at the end of it. I can write certain things. I don't think I can write fiction any more. I think I've used it up over 30 novels. That's a lot of novels."

[...]

"Most great novels are written by people between 40 and 60, or 35 and 60," he says. "Not too many great novels are written by people over 75. Hardly any. Maybe Tolstoy."

Rhino Ranch represents a first for McMurtry, whose tetralogies include the powerful series that spans Moving On, All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers, Terms of Endearment and The Evening Star. (He also has written a Lonesome Dove tetralogy.)

Rhino Ranch concludes his only quintet, the other four volumes being The Last Picture Show, Texasville, Duane's Depressed and When the Light Goes.

The article also delves into McMurtry's huge book collection and the bookstore he opened in Archer City. Take a look at the whole article for much more detail on that interesting aspect of the author's life but one section did jump out at me because of its tone:

McMurtry claims to have not a single customer from Archer City and says his fellow citizens would prefer to see Booked Up packed up and gone. "They hate them," he says. "They're very uneasy about those books. They're not comfortable with all that knowledge being around."

His hometown, to which The Last Picture Show was "lovingly dedicated," hasn't changed much over the years. He calls it "a mean little oil-patch town, not welcoming to outsiders."

It is impossible to tell, of course, whether McMurtry said this with a smile on his face and was making a little "inside" joke or if he might be feeling that it really is impossible to go home again. I hope he's not becoming bitter and depressed about a perceived lack of appreciation from the townspeople for his efforts to do something for Archer City.

McMurtry, as the article goes on to say, is also convinced that newly published physical books will become a thing of the past within another generation, a prediction that has to bother any book lover, especially one who owns more than 300,000 of them.

I can't help but find this whole interview to be one of the saddest ones I've read in a while. The real truth of the interview seems to be "between the lines,"something I didn't realize on my first reading of the quotes. A second time through the article, though, left me with the feeling that McMurtry is perhaps more than a little depressed about his stage of life, something I can understand but really hate to see in a man I've admired for so many years. I hope I'm wrong.