To a God Unkown

To a God Unknown, John Steinbeck’s second novel, uses a theme that often appears in his work, one that I’ve come to call the “broken dreams” theme.  The short novel also examines closely the deep attachment that farmers and ranchers have to their land and how the same religious superstitions that can so easily comfort some will cause great stress and pain to others.

Young Joseph Wayne is the third of his father’s four sons, and he is not at all satisfied with his status as third son.  Joseph yearns for a place of his own where he can create a homestead capable of comfortably supporting him and his offspring for generations to come.  He has a clear vision and he is determined to make it a reality, so with his father’s reluctant blessing, Joseph leaves Vermont in favor of starting a new life in California.  With no firm location in mind, Joseph wanders until he reaches central California’s long valley known as Nuestra Señora.  And in Nuestra Señora, with the help of a proud Castilian sidekick, Joseph begins to build his dream home.

Things go so well for Joseph that upon his father’s death, he easily convinces his brothers to bring their families to California to join him on the land that he believes will forever be home to the Wayne family.  But, as Joseph and his three brothers will learn the hard way, not all dreams come true, and Joseph’s does not even come close to becoming reality. 

Author John Steinbeck

To a God Unknown is a novel filled with mysticism, paganism, and the deeply felt Christian beliefs of a simpler people living in simpler, more isolated times.  At times it takes a combination of all three belief systems to bring Joseph any comfort, but in the end, nothing is strong enough to save him and his family from the despair and destruction toward which they are inevitably headed.  It is life itself that finally breaks Joseph Wayne, once and forever.

To a God Unknown is filled with characters: the many members of Joseph’s immediate family, their spouses and children, and numerous locals of Anglo, Mexican and Spanish descent.  Unfortunately, almost none of the characters have much of a ring of authenticity about them, and the tragic plot of the novel loses much of its impact because this.  This is not one of Steinbeck’s finest efforts, but it was another good step for him toward becoming the excellent writer that he would ultimately be.  Even if for that reason alone, Steinbeck fans will want to give this one a look.

Post #2,582

Chicago Noir: The Classics

Chicago Noir: The Classics is my ninth experience with the wonderful Akashic Books series of noir short stories since I first discovered them several years ago.  In addition to this Chicago collection, I have enjoyed the books set in Manila, Belfast, Long Island, Boston, Mexico City, the Lone Star state of Texas, Providence, and one set entirely inside prisons.  I was particularly interested in getting my hands on Chicago Noir because that city’s reputation for political corruptness is the first thing that many people think of when they hear the word “Chicago.”  Even the book’s editor, Joe Meno, stressed that reputation in his introductory comments:

            “Only in Chicago do instituted color lines offer generation after generation of poverty and violence, only in Chicago do the majority of recent governors do prison time, only in Chicago do the dead actually vote twice.  With its public record of bribery, cronyism, and fraud, this is a metropolis so deeply divided – by race, ethnicity, and class – that sociologists had to develop a new term to describe this unfortunate bifurcation.  As Nelson Algren best put it, Chicago is and has always been a ‘city on the make.”’

But all that said, the stories in Chicago Noir seem to stretch the definition of “noir” to a greater degree than any of the other noir collections I’m familiar with.  Granted, these stories are labeled as “The Classics,” and some of them are decades old, but I found myself wondering several times whether they really fit in this particular collection. 

There is, for instance, a wonderful story from 1945 by Richard Wright called “The Man Who Went to Chicago.”  While this is one of my two favorite stories from the entire collection, I struggle to fit it within the confines of my personal definition of the term “noir.”  It takes place entirely within a Chicago Medical District research lab, and the only crimes committed are an aborted knife fight that causes damage to the lab, and the workers’ decision to cover up the fact that the resulting damage ruined the research studies being conducted there.  It is “dark” only in the sense that it exposes the horrible racial discrimination so common to those times.

Now, my other favorite story from Chicago Noir: The Classics leaves no room to doubt that it belongs in any collection of noir fiction.  This one is called “I’ll Cut Your Throat Again, Kathleen,” and it was written by Fredric Brown way back in 1948.  The story is brutal, has a couple of unforgettably duplicitous characters in it, and the most shocking ending of any story in the entire collection.  It is only the second time I have read Fredric Brown and it is enough to make me search for more of his work.

As in most short story collections, the stories in Chicago Noir: The Classics are a bit uneven.  Perhaps that is purposeful and done in hope that there is something in the collection that will appeal to everyone who picks it up.  If so, that might be a legitimate reason for packaging them together.  But a couple of stories were so formulaic that I wished I had not bothered with them at all.  It’s as if they were written to “spec” even though they were from 1995 and 2009.  But overall, this is a worthy addition to the Akashic Books noir series, and I am happy to add it to my collection.

Post #2,581

Book Trailer of the Week: Bats of the Republic

I have always been fascinated by "illustrated novels," especially when the novels are about time travel and the like, and from the looks of this book trailer, even though this one is not technically about time travel, it just might be a winner.  Zachary Thomas Dodson, author of Bats of the Republic, wrote the book, designed everything about it, and illustrated it himself.  

Take a look at the video and I think that, if you are inclined to enjoy this kind of fiction, you will be intrigued by what you see.  The problem with these books is usually their cost because of how difficult it is to combine all the elements into something the size of a hardcover book.  That's why I was surprised to see that Amazon is selling Bats of the Republic at a more reasonable price of just $15.37 for the hardcover edition.  (It's available in Kindle version, too, for a couple of bucks less, but that just makes no sense at all to me after watching the video because feeling and touching this book is a good part of the fun of it.)

Post #2,581

Is Stephenie Meyer Taking Her Fans for Granted?

Because I haven't read even one paragraph from any of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight books, I can't claim to know anything about them other than what I've picked up second hand or from my own limited observation.  Based on seeing them in every bookstore I've been in for the last several years, I suspect they have all sold well.  I know that my granddaughter read and enjoyed the whole series and had to see all the movies based on the Twilight characters.  But as much as she liked the books, she did say that they are not very well written compared to a lot of other stuff she's read recently

But all that said, news today from USA Today that, rather than write a whole new novel...you know, one with a different plot...Meyer has chosen to re-write Twilight by simply flipping the genders of her main characters.  Maybe it's because this is so close to the same approach that the hack who made millions from Shades of Grey took recently in which she just retold her less-than-stellar novel from a different point-of-view, that Meyer's approach sort of bothers me.  It just seems lazy and presumptive on her part.  But I am willing to concede that her presumption that her fans are going to be willing to shell out big bucks again for anything with the Twilight logo on it is absolutely correct.

That's right, in Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined, which is available today as bonus material in the 10th anniversary edition of Twilight, the gender of the two main characters (played by Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart in the film adaptations) has been swapped, and the book becomes the story of a female vampire and the human teenage boy she falls in love with. 

"A question that had come up at a lot of signings and other things was about Bella being a damsel in distress. And it’s always bothered me a little bit, because anyone surrounded by superheroes is going to be in a bit of distress," she said. "And so I thought if I switched it around a little bit to see how a boy does, and you know, it’s about the same."

 What changes when the genders change? Not too much. "The further you get in the more    it changes because the personalities get different," Meyer explained. "It’s just a love story, it doesn’t matter who’s the boy and who’s the girl." 

Perhaps I'm being a little too hard on Meyer for going in this direction, but that last sentence I quote from the article does not give me a lot of confidence in the quality of this or any of the other books in the series:


"It's just a love story, it doesn't matter who's the boy and who's the girl."  

Post #2,580

Killing Maine

The first time I picked up Mike Bond’s Killing Maine all I really knew about the novel was that it is the second book in the author’s Pono Hawkins crime thriller series.  But because I had read and enjoyed Saving Paradise (the first book in the series) so much back in 2013, I thought I knew pretty much what to expect.  As it turns out, my assumptions were not even close because Killing Maine is a whole lot more than I figured on.

Killing Maine is an angry novel and Mike Bond is an angry author.  Bond is not happy about a segment of the energy industry that declares itself to be environmentally friendly, but in reality destroys the environment, slaughters wildlife, and drives people from their homes wherever it leaves its dirty footprints.  Let’s call it “Big Wind,” because those profiting from the construction of wind turbines to be used for the generation of electrical power are certainly full of exactly that according to Mike Bond and Pono Hawkins, the chief protagonist of Killing Maine. 

Pono Hawkins is a well-known surfer, not only in Hawaii where he lives, but all over the world.  As Killing Maine begins though, he is in Maine, a long way from the Hawaiian beaches he loves so dearly – and he is freezing his butt off.  But Pono is a Special Forces vet, and when any other Special Forces vet needs his help, Pono is going to answer that call.  And that’s why someone is shooting at him today in a remote Maine forest where he is almost as likely to freeze to death as to die from the shooter’s aim. 

Like something out of The War of the Worlds, Maine has been invaded and conquered by the hundreds of gigantic wind turbines that are lined up in rows that make them appear to be marching across the clear-cut countryside.  They are, in reality, spreading so fast that no homeowner in the area is free from their threat – and the turbines are so environmentally unfriendly that no human being, and very few animals, can live comfortably anywhere around them because of the irritating sound tones they almost constantly produce.  Now a man who once saved Pono’s life in combat is in prison, charged with the murder of a Big Wind promoter.  Pono knows that Bucky has to be innocent, so even though he really can’t stand the guy, when Bucky’s wife (a one-time lover of Pono’s) explains the situation to him, he knows he has to help.  His personal honor code leaves him no choice.

Author Mike Bond

Thus begins the second round of Pono’s battle to expose Big Wind for what it is.  But even though he survived his first round with them in Saving Paradise, Pono is going to find it very difficult to repeat that success.  And even if he does survive, chances are good that he will spend most of the rest of his life in prison because Maine’s corrupt cops and politicians are trying to hang every new felony in the state on him while he is there working to free Bucky.

Like the first book in this series, Killing Maine is quite a ride for those who love good crime thrillers.  But, too, like its predecessor, it is much more than just another rousing crime thriller.  This is another of Mike Bond’s environmental eye-openers that will leave readers a lot wiser about alternative energy plans, state and federal politics, and the huge profits that are being stolen from the pockets of American taxpayers by the scam artists who often surround an industry like this one.  I can’t recommend this one strongly enough.  

Special Memorial to Talent of Alexander Pope

I noticed in The Guardian this morning that the Twickenham area of Greater London has erected a beautiful memorial to Alexander Pope along the banks of the Thames.  It's impossible to tell from the article exactly where the memorial has been placed, but I'm hoping it's along that beautiful stretch of the river that I came to know so well (I lived just a stone's throw from the Richmond Bridge that crosses from Richmond into Twickenham).  I'm going to picture it there in my mind, anyway - at least for now.

The home of English rugby will be stirred “by tender strokes of art” as well as sport, following the installation of a new sculpture on the bank of the Thames celebrating the work of Twickenham’s most famous former resident, Alexander Pope.

Based on an urn designed by the poet for the garden of a friend in the Midlands but since destroyed, the 8ft sculpture features Pope’s famous lines from Epistle IVin which he exhorts readers to “Consult the genius of the place in all”, a maxim that is still a guiding principle in garden design today.

I love that the article mentions that Twickenham is the "home of English rugby" because I absolutely fell in love with the sport while I was in England.  I attended often attended matches at the big stadium and other smaller ones in the neighborhood and, to this day, I still try to keep up with the sport.


Special Note to my British friends:  If anyone can tell me more precisely where along the river in Twickenham this is located, I would much appreciate it.

Post #2,578