Dominance

I probably should have known better.  On the one hand, I despise the kind of novels that have transformed Dan Brown and James Patterson into multi-millionaires.  On the other, I love “books about books,” especially novels involving mystery and murder.   Those always start with a bonus point or two in hand when I begin them, so I had high hopes for Will Lavender’s new thriller, Dominance.  My hopes, however, were misplaced in this case.

Dominance is about little Jasper College and a special night class, “Unraveling a Literary Mystery,” being taught there to an elite group of senior American Literature majors.  The most unusual thing about the class is that it is being taught via closed-circuit television from the prison cell of a former professor who is there because he murdered two female college students at a different school.  Strangely, copies of Paul Fallows novels ornamented the bodies of both victims. 

Paul Fallows, himself, is a mystery.  Despite the stature of his work, and the notoriety connecting his books to the brutal axe-murders, no one has ever seen or spoken with him.  Now, Professor Aldiss hopes that one of the nine students in his class will finally be able to solve the Paul Fallows mystery.  With that purpose in mind, he feeds them a series of tantalizing clues that will have them competing to see which of them will finally solve the riddle that has frustrated Paul Fallows scholars for decades.

Lavender presents the novel in a series of flashbacks to the 1994 class alternated with flashes forward to the present day.  One student, it seems, did make a major discovery during the class, a discovery so important that it forever changed the life of the professor and eventually led to a professorship at Harvard for the student.  The story begins on the evening of the first class, and proceeds like an out-of-control train rushing down a mountainside to its destiny. 

One can see from this brief synopsis that the book’s plot has a lot going for it.  Booklovers (who will, of course, love the premise) will be jumping all over this one – as did I.  My quarrel is not with the plot; it is with the book’s style.

Will Lavender

At first glance, Lavender’s book seems to be more than 350 pages long.  Within those pages, the author has crammed 53 chapters – which is not necessarily unreasonable.  But it turns out that the chapters are really much shorter even than one would suppose because, almost every time there is a shift between past and present, the publisher has inserted a little three-page break with a title on the middle one (“The Class,” “Iowa,” “Alex,” etc.).  That is bad enough, but it gets worse.

As the book nears its dramatic climax, the chapters grow shorter and shorter, each of them ending with the type of cliffhanger that reminds of those old Saturday morning serials kids used to love so much.  The chapters grow shorter - but not the white space between them.  I suppose that by making the reader turn the pages more often to get to the meat of the story, the publisher is hoping to build the tension involved in the reading process.  That might work on some, but many others will react as I did: with snarling frustration at the silliness of it all.

Novels that read more like screenplays are precisely why I cannot read Dan Brown and James Patterson novels.  I reluctantly add Will Lavender to the list (and I feel sure that he will not at all mind being lumped in with that highly successful pair).  Don’t get me wrong: fans of Brown and Patterson will love this book.  If you’re one of those, don’t miss Dominance.

Rated at: 3.0

Portland's Homeless Enjoy Books-on-Wheels

Photo from Street Books website

I have to believe that it is virtually impossible for homeless people to obtain a library card from their local libraries - even though some do spend a good bit of time inside them.  But, sad as this might be, who would blame the libraries for not allowing books to walk out the door with someone just as likely to disappear forever as come back to return the borrowed book?  Permanent addresses and telephone numbers make it a whole lot easier to find the rest of us.

One woman is doing her best to place books into the hands of as many of Portland, Oregon's, homeless as she can.  The Christian Science Monitor has a nice piece on Laura Moulton's little bicycle-powered library:

Every Wednesday and Saturday, Portland, Ore., residents can spot Laura Moulton fiercely peddling her bike as she tows along a wagon full of books. When she arrives at her destination, Ms. Moulton parks, opens her wagon, and sets up for her four-hour shift.

[...]

Ms. Moulton is Portland’s mobile librarian. Since early June Moulton has been bringing books to the public with her library-on-wheels Street Books, an outdoor library for people who live outside. “The power of the book,” she says, “offer[s] a way to transport oneself out of a current reality.” Books are also “a tool to help pass time, which a lot of people living outside have a lot of.”

[...]

“Being able to give them a card and tell them, ‘I hope to see you again’ – that’s a powerful thing because these are people who cannot get a library card [at the local library] because they have no address,” Moulton says. Her patrons show a high-level of accountability in returning books, which contradicts some assumptions about homeless people. “The regular patrons are coming back and returning books very regularly,” she says. “I have patrons who come and check out two or three books a week.” The loaned books have no set due date. Patrons simply return the book when they’re finished reading.

All of us know that books are as much about escapism as they are about anything else. They offer glimpses into different worlds, places we might never see in any other way. They allow us to visit other planets, become spies, track serial murderers, ride with Old West outlaws, time-travel back to ancient times or distant futures - places and circumstances much different from our real world.  That this library-on-wheels, known as Street Books, can bring some relief and pleasure to a few of Portland's homeless is a beautiful thing.  Thank you, Laura Moulton.

(Laura has a website, complete with details and pictures - take a look.)

Digital Textbooks Said to Be Less Effective Than Printed Texts

Dallas Morning News writer Nicholas Carr suggests that schools should think twice before dumping their traditional textbooks for digital texts and Kindles.  Unfortunately, as Carr points out in his piece, too many school boards are ready to jump immediately onto any new technology bandwagon that comes along.

In theory, the benefits of electronic textbooks seem clear and compelling. They can be updated quickly with new information. They promise cost savings, at least over the long haul. They reduce paper and photocopier use. And they're lightweight, freeing students from the torso-straining load of book-filled backpacks.   

But schools may want to pause before jumping on the e-book bandwagon. Recent studies suggest that printed books continue to have important advantages over digital ones. Not only do they accommodate a wider array of learning styles, but they also encourage more attentive reading and study. And if there's anything in short supply among students today, it's attentiveness. In a study last year at the University of Washington, a group of graduate students were given Kindles, and their use of the devices was monitored through diary entries and interviews. By the end of the school year, nearly two-thirds of the students had abandoned the Kindle or were using it only infrequently.

[...]

In another recent study, 500 undergraduates at the University of California were asked to compare printed books with e-books. Most of the students said they still preferred reading from pages rather than from screens. According to a report on the study, many of the students "commented on the difficulty they have learning, retaining and concentrating" when looking at a computer screen. In a typical complaint, one of the students said, "E-books divide my attention."

Please read the article to get the full impact of Carr's argument.  I am particularly impressed by his comments comparing the flexibility of reading a physical book compared to the rigidity involved in reading a digital textbook.  I think Carr just explained to me why I am personally still uneasy about doing too much of my reading via e-books.  I have too many little reading habits that don't transfer readily to the new technology - and I'm willing to bet that most of you do, too.

None of this might be a big deal when reading for pleasure during one's leisure time, but it could make a critical difference in the education of thousands of high school and college students who have marginal reading skills or learning difficulties.  After all, we live in what seems to be an ADD world already.  Why make it tougher than it has to be?

Just after Sunset

Just after Sunset, published in November 2008, is a collection of thirteen (what more appropriate number than thirteen for a King collection) Stephen King short stories.  The stories gathered into this volume appear to have been written over a number of years (one of them over 30 years ago) with the shortest of them clocking in at ten pages and the longest ones running over fifty pages each.  In the book’s introduction, King laments about how easy it is for a novelist to lose his short story writing skills if he does not regularly practice the craft.  Obviously, from what we see here, he need not have worried too much.

Of the stories in the collection, only one of them, a story called “N.” would really be called a Stephen-King-style horror story – although there is one other about a horrifying cat, titled “The Cat from Hell,” that does come close. That one, the oldest story in the book, was originally published in Cavalier magazine but this is the first time that it has been included in a Stephen King anthology.  I should note, too, that there are several “ghost stories” in Just after Sunset, but none of these qualify as horror stories since the ghosts in them are generally among the stories’ most sympathetic characters.

Many readers, especially King fans, already will be familiar with “The Gingerbread Girl,” a longish story that was released on CD as an audio story about six months before its inclusion in Just after Sunset.  This is one of the most effective stories in the book, and it follows the theme of what I think are the best stories in this collection: wacky killers, crazed seekers of revenge, and crazy do-gooders are best avoided at all costs.

My personal favorites are “A Very Tight Place,” in which King demonstrates that he can still write a “gross-out” story with the best of them; “Stationary Bike,” a story in which one man learns what it really takes to keep his veins and arteries clear of all the goop he eats; and, “The Things They Left Behind,” an excellent story of one man’s survivor’s guilt after the murders of 9-11.

All in all, this is a nice collection of King’s work, and the icing on the cake is a seven-page section at the end entitled “Sunset Notes,” in which King explains the origins of the stories and why he felt compelled to write them.  King fans should enjoy this collection – and those less familiar with his work might be pleasantly surprised.

Rated at: 4.0

Is the Poe House Doomed?

The Poe House

Edgar Allan Poe's family appears to be on the brink of losing its Baltimore home for the second time in in the last 175 years.  After Poe moved from the home in 1835 to take up residence in Richmond, his aunt and cousin were forced to move out because of financial difficulties.  Now, the city of Baltimore, faced with its own financial problems, is no longer able to help support the museum located in the home and it may have to be closed down.

According to the Los Angeles Times book section, the museum is in trouble partly because the part of the city in which it is located is not one that attracts many tourists:

Edgar Allan Poe's Baltimore house is running on fumes. The historic house is a museum open to the public that lost the $85,000 in support it gets from the city of Baltimore for the second year running, and may be forced to close.

[...]

A Baltimore city official told the New York Times that budget cuts left everyone "under the gun," although the city's $55,500 support of the Babe Ruth Birthplace Museum continues. Babe Ruth's museum gets many more visitors than Poe's.

The New York Times offers more details:

Since the city cut off its $85,000 in annual support last year, the house has been operating on reserve funds, which are expected to run out as early as next summer. In the coming months consultants hired by the city will try to come up with a business plan to make the Edgar Allan Poe House financially self-sufficient, possibly by updating its exhibits to draw more visitors. But the museum sits amid a housing project, far off this city’s tourist beaten path, and attracts only 5,000 visitors a year.

[...]

The Poe House, which is owned by the Baltimore City Housing Authority, is designated a landmark, so it’s in no danger of being torn down, even if it closes as a museum. It is about a mile from Poe’s grave in the Westminster Burying Ground, where for decades a mysterious visitor left a half-filled bottle of cognac and three roses every year on his birthday, Jan. 19.

No one would argue that we are living in the toughest economic times most of us have seen in our lifetimes, but it would seem that funds to keep open the doors of the Poe House could be found.  $85,000 is not a huge amount of money for a city the size of Baltimore and it would be a shame to see it shut down such an interesting piece of its history for savings that would surely just be squandered elsewhere in the city budget.

Iron House

Iron House is John Hart’s fourth novel but I have to confess that I did not come onboard until his second one, Down River.  That one is still my favorite of the three I have read to this point (and, in fact, it earned Hart his first Edgar Award for best novel in May 2008), but each successive novel has been instrumental in enhancing Hart’s well deserved fame and reputation for writing superb thrillers.  In April 2010, The Lost Child turned his second and third novels into back-to-back winners of the Edgar for best novel, a truly remarkable achievement.  Now, all the buzz is about Iron House, a book that many critics and Hart fans are calling his best ever.

Iron House offers the story of two brothers who were very lucky to survive their infancy, only to be thrust into a brutal orphanage setting that emotionally crippled one of them and caused the other to run for his life when he was just ten years old.  Michael, just a little older than the brother he left behind, but physically and mentally much tougher than Julian, finds his way to New York and a life on the streets.   From there, just in the nick of time, the boy is taken under the wing of a New York mob boss who comes to think of Michael as a son.

But now Michael wants out of the family business.  The man he considers the only father he has ever had is dying, and Michael receives his blessing to leave the mob and begin a new life with the woman who is carrying his child.  He knows, however, that it will not be that simple.  Two people, the boss’s real son and the mob’s chief enforcer, are determined that Michael will not walk away cleanly and they are only waiting for the old man to die before they make their move.  Michael’s choices are these: stay in the mob, use his money and connections to start a new life in some remote corner of the world, or kill his two enemies before they can do the same to him and his lover. 

John Hart

Only when Michael is briefly reunited with his long lost brother does he realize that this is just the tip of a very dirty iceberg. 

John Hart does not write run-of-the-mill thrillers.  He explores how his characters became the people they are and why they act the way they do. He spends as much time developing their inner lives and their relationships with other characters as he does moving his thrilling plots along.  If there is such a thing as a “literary thriller,” Hart has to be considered one of the masters of the subgenre.  Make no mistake about it, however - this rather dark book is filled with graphic violence, chaotic twists and turns, and scenes that will long stick in the minds of imaginative readers.  It is not an easy book to forget, one that fans of psychological suspense most definitely should not miss.

Rated at: 5.0

(Review Copy provided by Publisher)