Clear

Davies, Carys. Clear. New York: Scribner 2024. Print.

First Sentences:

He wished he could swim -- the swimming belt felt like a flimsy thin and it had been no comfort to be told not to worry, the men couldn't swim either. Each time they rose he glimpsed the rocky shore, the cliffs, the absence of any kind of landing; each time they descended, the rocks vanished and were replaced by a liquid wall of gray. He closed his eyes.


Description:

In the 1840s, the Scottish Clearances was a relentless movement by Scot landowners to remove poor tenants from their properties in order to turn the land into sheep production. John Ferguson, an impoverished minister, agrees to take on the job of removing the last man from an isolated island off the northern coast of Scotland. John takes on this work in order to raise money for his struggling church. 

Of course, John is told the man will be set up in a better location, so should readily agree to leave his barren, wind-swept isolation for a better life. What could go wrong? 

In  the intriguing historical novel Clear by Carys Davies, we soon find out.

On the first day on the island, John falls from a cliff, knocking himself out, and waking up in the hovel of Ivar, the very man he is supposed to evict. John does not speak the island's ancient language used by Ivar, but in the ensuing days, slowly builds a dictionary of the forgotten words of Ivar.

Ivar lives by scraping out a small garden and raising a few wild sheep, trading wool for his rent although due to the isolation of the island, the owner has not bothered to collect payment for decades. Tragedies in his family have left him to survive on the island alone.

Before the arrival of John Ferguson [Ivarthought] he'd never really thought of the things he saw or heard or touched or felt as words....It was strange to think of a fine sea mist, say, or the cold north-easterly wind that came in spring and damaged the corn ... It was as if he'd never fully understood his solitude until now -- as if, with the arrival of John Ferguson, he had been turned into something he'd never been or hadn't been for a long time... 

This quiet novel slowly unfolds the awkward relationship of the men as John recovers from his injury, living in close quarters in Ivar's sparse hut. And meanwhile, John's wife worries about her husband whom she hasn't been able to contact and was against the work he was to undertake. Since the next boat to pick up John and Ivar is one month away, she is naturally restless.

I loved this book. It is calming, exciting, intelligent, human, and challenging in its very quiet way. There is even an appendix with entries from an actual 1908 dictionary of the Norn language used in the Shetlands of Ivar. Davies notes that the last native-speaker of Norn had died in 1850, just after the time period of this novel.

Author Davies in new to me, so I'm immediately ordering some of his other works. Fingers crossed they are anywhere near as good as Clear.

 

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Davies, Carys. West.   

A widowed mule-breeder hears of the discovery of huge bones in Tennessee and, leaving behind his sister and daughter on his run-down farm, sets off into unknown lands to see whether these ancient giants still exist.

 

Remarkable Bright Creatures

Van Pelt, Shelby. Remarkably Bright Creatures. New York: HarperCollins 202. Print.

First Sentences:

Darkness suits me. Each evening, I await the click of the overhead lights, leaving only the glow from the main tank. Not perfect, but close enough. Almost-darkness, like the middle-bottom of the sea. I lived there before I was captured and imprisoned....Darkness runs through my blood.

 

Description:

Not sure whether Shelby Van Pelt's Remarkably Bright Creatures, title refers to octopuses or humans. You see, a small part of this interesting novel is narrated by an curmudgeonly Giant Pacific octopus, a creature (named Marcellus, of course) held in a tank located in the Sowell Bay Aquarium for the past four years.

"Held" is a relative term. At night, Marcellus is able to squeeze through a tiny opening under his tank's lid, pull himself out, and slip-slide through the room, snacking on the other water creatures, opening locked doors, and generally exploring everything in the aquarium during the 18 minutes before he needs to return to his water. 

 

Remarkably Bright Creatures focuses of Tova Sullivan, an elderly woman who cleans the aquarium, idly talking to the fish and other waterlife there, including Marcellus, as she mops floors and polishes the glass on the tanks. Tova recently lost her beloved husband to cancer and also thirty years earlier suffered the loss of her teenage son who disappeared one night under unknown conditions. Cleaning the aquarium gives her something to do and help her cope.

Marcellus hears her kind words of greeting and observes her sadness. And when one evening Tova finds Marcellus accidentally trapped in computer cords outside his tank during one of his wanderings, she rescues him and the two form an secret friendship. Tova even finds she can place her arm inside his tank and Marcellus will wrap a tentacle around it, squeezing it gently, and leaving suction marks that puzzle Tova's friends.

 

It should be mentioned that during Marcellus late-night movements, he collects items and hides them safely under a rock in his tank. And one item, he realizes, might prove how Tova's son died. But communicating this information is far from easy.

It is lonely. Perhaps it would be less so if I had someone with whom to share my secrets. I am very good at keeping secrets. You might say I have no choice. Whom might I tell? My options are scant.

Then along comes a young man, Cameron, who visits Sowell Bay on a quest to look for his possible absentee father as well as any information about his mother who abandoned him years ago without revealing his father's name. An old photograph, high school yearbook, and class ring have led him to Sowell Bay and eventually to work in the aquarium alongside Tova and Marcellus.

Now hang with me for a moment, all you doubters. It sounds like a ridiculous premise: a thinking, observant sea creature who understands English, and remembers every action, word, and all creatures (aquatic and human) who enter his viewing room. But Marcellus is no ordinary octopus, or maybe he is and we have never gave his species credit for their cleverness and brain.

Well, of course I am intelligent. All octopuses are. I remember each and every human face that pauses to gaze at my tank. Patterns come readily to me....When I choose to hear, I hear everything...my vision is precise. I can tell which particular human has touched the glass of my tank by the fingerprints left behind. Learning to read their letters and words was easy....My neurons number half a billion, and they are distributed among my eight arms....I have wondered whether I might have more intelligence in a single tentacle than a human does in its entire skull.

Author Van Pelt cleverly, convincingly, dreamily explores and eventually ties together the stories of loss and hope of these characters. It is an absorbing tale of realistic figures (including the octopus), who deal with personal and social challenges and heartbreak, but retain hope throughout all their trials. It is an optimistic book, full of positivity and endurance despite the obstacles placed before all of them. A quiet story to absorb you from page one to the very end.

Secrets are everywhere. Some humans are crammed full of them. How do they not explode. It seems to be a hallmark of the human species" abysmal communication skills....Why can humans not use their millions of words to simply tell one another what they desire. 

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Montgomery, Sy. The Soul of an Octopus: A surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness.

An absolutely fascinating account of the author's varied experiences with octopuses, relating numerous examples of their intelligence, interaction with humans, and lifestyles. Don't miss it.  (previously reviewed here)

The Bullet Swallower

James, Elizabeth Gonzalez. The Bullet Swallower. New York: Simopn & Schuster 2024. Print.

First Sentences:

Alferez Antonio Sonoro was born with gold in his eyes. The gold was sharp and it stung him so that he blinked uncontrollably and always carried a vial of salted water in his pocket. Of the four Sonoro brothers he was the only one thus signified, and his parents regarded it a blessing, incontestable proof of divine favor.


Description:

Sometimes just the title is so intriguing you at least have to open the book and check out the first sentences. Who can resist titles like some of my favorites: Last Night at the Brain Thieves Ball, The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling, The Speed of Dark, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Go As a River, The Improbability of Love, The Man Who Understood Women, Summer Hours at the Robbers Library, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, The Ten Thousand Doors of January, and Quirkology? Books with these titles could have stories or information about virtually anything. Honestly, I feel any tempting title like these deserves to have at least the opening pages explored.

Add to this list Elizabeth Gonzalez James's tantalizing title, The Bullet Swallower. What kind of story could such a title allude to? Magicians? Gun fighters? Medical patients? Definitely intriguing enough to lure me in. And I wasn't in any way disappointed.

In 1895, Antonio Sonoro sets off from his tiny farm in Mexico to try to save his wife and children from starvation after a long drought. He is a bandit, a quick-witted survivor, skilled with a gun, a ruthless man from a long lineage of ruthless men who once ruled the area and accumulated vast riches from their gold mines using local people and harsh labor conditions. But time, bad luck, and an evil curse have reduced the Sonoro line to only Antonio and his family, with little hope of them ever regaining his luck and fortune.

Antonio's current plan? Rob a train across the border in Houston which he had heard was carrying gold. He convinces his younger brother, Hugo, to help him, but their plans run afoul and the Sonoros find themselves on the wrong side of the Texas Rangers.

The book follows Antonio on his nail-biting journey through the desert as he is simultaneously hunted by the Rangers, while at the same time doggedly seeking to meet up with these same lawmen so he can enact revenge on their leader.

He'd run from one certain death to another, and his chances of finding the Rangers were as good a finding a teardrop in the ocean. He hadn't seen a footprint in days, and he feared the silence and darkness and dead trees would swallow him...

Author James then jumps 70 years into the future to introduces a man named Jaime Sonoro. Jaime, a renown actor and singer, is living a comfortabl life with his family when he is given an ancient, moldy book describing the long, dark history of the Sonoro family, a name he shares but knows nothing about his history. He reads of iron-fisted rulers, men who flaunt humanity and the law to amass their fortune. But he also reads of the curse that trails this (his?) family in the form of bad luck. He also meets a mysterious figure, Remedio, who seems to know more about the family and their fateful lives. 

He saw, for the barest second, malice in Remedio's eyes, a bright white flame that was gone as soon as Jaime was aware of having see it, if he had seen it.

Could Jaime Sonoro be somehow related to this ill-fated family and thus carry the curse? And who exactly is this mysterious figure who has moved into their house and seems to have a quiet knowledge of the Sonoros?

And the feeling of being watched followed Jaime in and out of the house, the hair always tickling the back of his neck like something he'd forgotten, something urgent but out of reach. He began imagining men in long trench coats spying on him from behind newspapers....He felt camera eyes on him while he sat alone at his desk reading. Since the book had come into the house -- he'd been in the habit of turning on lights to peek inside closets, checking always who was behind him, peering through the curtains, half expecting to see a madman outside wielding a tommy gun.

It's an unusual book, beautifully written about some dastardly people and their quests for survival, money, revenge, and overcoming their destiny. I dove into it based on the title and soon found myself totally immersed in this complex family and history, as well as the current stories of the gun slinger as well as the modern actor/singer who might somehow be related.

And the interesting fact is that this story is based on the author's great grandfather, Antonio Gonzalez, who was a bandido in the last-1800s. He experienced much of the same history as the gunslinger Antonio Sonoro, even being left for dead at one point and referred to as "El Tragabalas," the Bullet Swallower, just like Sonoro. It was a story author James had frequently heard growing up, one that certainly adds a twist of reality to the novel. 

Everything in this book is true except for the stuff I made up." - Elizabeth Gonzalez James (author)

Highly recommended for sheer adventure, brilliant writing, and captivating story-telling. Gripping in every way.

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

North, Anna. Outlawed.   

Ana, a young woman banished from her Western town in the 1980s, joins up with the Hole-In-The-Wall Gang, outlaws led by The Kid. But she learns this is no ordinary shoot-'em-up thugs. (previously reviewed here)

 

Anna O

Blake, Matthew. Anna O. New York: Harper 2024. Print.

First Sentences:

"The average human spends thirty-three years of their life asleep." She leans closer, enough for me to catch a gust of expensive perfume This is usually the moment when I know. "And that's what you do?"

"Yes.

"A sleep doctor?"

"I study people who commit crimes when they sleep."


Description:

Sometimes the premise and first lines of a book are just too intriguing not to give it a read. Such is the case with Matthew Blake's Anna O. The irrestible plot here? Can a person who, while sleep-walking, commit and be charged for a crime (murder) that she, when awakened, cannot remember doing? And what if the woman in question, referred to as "Anna O," never wakes up after being found with a bloddy knife in her hand and two friends stabbed to death nearby.

And she still has not awakened after four years.

Time is running out for the London Ministry of Justice to bring her case to trial. She cannot be indefinitely held in Her Majesty's Prison Service, but cannot be released possibly to kill again. The MofJ seeks her murder conviction, something they cannot do unless Anna O 1) awakens, 2) is ruled competent, and 3) is found guilty due to overwhelming evidence (including her text sent that said "I'm sorry. I think I've killed them").

Enter Dr. Benedict Prince, a forensic psychologist at the Abbey Sleep Clinic who specializes in "people who commit crimes when they sleep." The MofJ hires him to work with Anna O to re-awaken her. But Prince believes Anna O to have "resignation syndrome," a functional neurological disorder, having suffered a trauma so great that she has given up hope of living and therefore has retreated into the safer world of sleep. 

People think the animal side is the body and the rational side is the brain. But it's often the other way round.

Further complicating the situation is the fact that Prince's ex-wife, Clara, was the first police officer on the scene for the Anna O stabbings and is now is the major police figure on the case. Needless to say, Ben and Clara are at odds, with him wanting to undersatnd and study the sleeper, and Clara only wanting a conviction...that is, if Anna O ever awakens.

There are twists and turns aplenty as Prince tries various methods to reach into Anna O's consciousness, all the while dealing with the pressure of the MofJ, Clara, and social media advocates for Anna O's release or conviction. And just maybe not all these messenging figures are not just non-involved onlookers.

It's a fascinating study of sleep disorders, treatment, and consequences for sleep-walkers and the people they affect by their actions. This was a completely new concept to me, one clearly written in a well-told scenario by intelligent, concerned characters. Author Blake has a winning style and imagination, so I thoroughly enjoyed Anna O and look forward  with eager anticipation to his next book. For now, Anna O is a winner.

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Feeney, Alice. Sometimes I Lie.   

A paralyzed woman is just awakening from a long-term coma with only a vague memory of how she got in her condition. She can hear and understand what goes on in her hospital room but cannot respond as she tries to piece together bits of conversations to comprehend her history and the veracity of the people who now surround her, including her husband and best friend.

 (previously reviewed here)

The Appeal

Hallett, Janice. The Appeal. New York: Simon & Schuster 2021. Print.

First Sentences:

As discussed, it is best you know nothing before you read the enclosed.


Description:

I am always intrigued by epistolary novels. You know, the ones told completely through written documents (e.g. letters, diaries, newspaper clippings, texts, emails, etc.). Here, in Janice Hallett's first novel, The Appeal, she frames the story through the eyes of two junior lawyers assigned by their boss to read through a file of correspondence and related notes, then come to a conclusion about what really happened. Apparently, Tanner, their boss, needs information for an upcoming case he is defending and wants fresh eyes to study the details and present him with their thoughts.

 

Slowly, slowly, we read with the copious emails and notes exchanged between a small group of people who are preparing their roles for a community theater presentation. While they find nothing exciting at first, soon an email surfaces that the director's two-year-old granddaughter, Poppy, has been diagnosed with a rare brain cancer that is probably incurable. But fortunately, her grandfather notes, Poppy's doctor has heard of promising results from a new drug in its test stages that might help, possibly even cure the child. It has not yet been approved for the general public, the Poppy's doctor has a means of obtaining the medicine at a stiff price: $175,000 for the first of four treatments.

An appeal goes out to the theater players and their friends and family to help raise the funds to acquire this test drug privately which can then be administered by the girl's doctor. Everyone contributes, creates fund-raising opportunities, and even dedicates the proceedings from the upcoming play to Poppy's medication.

But there are hints that maybe something might not be quite right in this appeal. And when a cast member is found dead after apparently falling off the balcony, no one knows quite what to think or whether anyone from their group might be responsible.

Epistolary novels usually reveal themselves slowly as we need time to, piece by piece, understand the characters and actions. Lots of writing is placed in front of the researching lawyers (and us readers) full of thoughts, ramblings, misdirection, rumors, accusations, dreams, and relationships flicker across the pages, writings presented to the lawyers (and us readers), for analysis and then discarded or held onto as key information.

Hallett is the master of spreading subtle clues buried in a complex plot and benign yet somehow suspicious characters. As I read these missives, I kept seeing something out of the corner of my eye, unable to clarify whether it was really there or even what, if anything, it was, yet thinking that it might be important to remember and understand. Such is the skill that drew me to Hallett and novel, The Appeal. And I was not in any way sorry to be immersed in its story and characters. A challenging, satisfying read.

 

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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          (and an Intro to The First Sentence Reader) 

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Hallett, Janice. The Twyford Code

The best, most baffling, intriguing mystery, full of twists, turns, questionable narration, undiscovered treasure, and a possible code/treasure map found in a child's book. Fantastic. (previously reviewed here)

 

 

The Fix

 Baldacci, David. The Fix. New York: Grand Central Publishing. 2017. Print.

First Sentences:

It was normally one of the safest places on earth. But not today.


Description:

OK, I admit it. I am a huge fan of David Baldacci's Amos Decker character, the ex-policeman/football player with the perfect memory. Having nothing to read that could quite match the intensity of the brilliant 787-page The Year of the Locust by Terry Hayes that I had just finished, I returned to Amos Decker, my old reliable crime-solver, in Memory Man, the first (and in my mind the best) of the 7-book series). I read it, then the second book, The Last Mile, and now finished up with The Fix, a fine chaser to my Decker binge (for now).

In the four pages of The Fix, Decker is walking in front of the J Edgar Hoover building, home to the FBI, heading to a meeting. Several yards ahead, he notices a well-dressed man, Walter Dabney, walk up to a woman, Anne Berkshire, pull out a gun and shoot her in the head. Then before Decker could intervene, Dabney put his gun under his chin and shot himself.

Wow, what a start. Two deaths, sudden, intentional, in front of the FBI Headquarters, and memory-perfect Decker an eye-witness.  Seems an easy case. But the only question is who were these two people, why did Dabney kill Berkshire, and why choose the very public FBI building for this action?

Not much to go on, but Decker is roped into the inveestigation of these questions mainly due to one other minor point. The FBI has intercepted messages that very soon there will be a terrorist act on the magnitude of 9-11. And it is scheduled to take place sometime very soon. Where, when, how, and by who are a new set of questions to be answered. Could these shootings and terrorist threat somehow be linked?

Slowly, slowly, Decker and his partners on the FBI investigation team, uncover tiny nuggets of interesting information that may or may not contribute to these investigations. As they peel back ;ayers based on new discoveries, the cases become more and more unclear. Rather

than getting closer to a solution, Decker and his team feel increasingly confused with the disjointed information.

And the day of the terrorist event is rapidly approaching.

Highly recommended for lover to follow detailed crime procedure, to grapple with tiny clues, and try to puzzle out who is telling the truth and who is in these events up to their necks. The Fix, through Baldacci's terse writing and dialogue, encourages readers to immerse themselves and binge read until their eyes droop. But what a pleasant way to stimulate your mind and wear out your eyes.

 

P.S. If you are new to the Decker series, maybe start with the first book, Memory Man, to get some background on Decker and his partners, The Fix can clear up their backstories on its own but it is more satisfying to start at the beginning and read the first two equally comples and brilliant Decker books, then dive into The Fix as a dessert.

 

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

 

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Baldacci, David. Memory Man.   

The first book in the Amos Decker mystery/thriller series. Decker, due to a football accident, cannot forget anything: words, pictures, faces, events. After his wife and child are brutally murdered, and even though someone has confessed to the crime, Decker takes on his own personal investigation and uses his perfect memory to identify key clues to unravel the event and find the true killer(s). Highest recommendation. (previously reviewed here)

 

The Year of the Locust

Hayes, Terry. The Year of the Locust. New York: Scribner 2023. Print.

First Sentences:

I once went to kill a man.


Description:

Now there's a first sentence that does it's job. With those seven words that hint of upcoming violence, probably most readers will either be excited to read further or else dismiss the book as a topic they have no interest in.

 

But Terry Hayes' The Year of the Locust is, for me, a worthy addition to my "Highest Recommendation" category. It is a worthy sequel to I Am Pilgrim, my all-time favorite international thriller. 

 

Written ten years after Pilgrim, The Year of the Locust brings back Ridley Kane, the "Denied Access Area" CIA spy whose specialty is sneaking into (and successfully returning from) forbidden countries (Iraq, Afghanistan, Russia, etc.) and doing what's necessary to stop terrorists who threaten the United States and the world.

Here, the CIA is alerted to a terrorist, al-Tundra, forming his own anti-Western army of hatred in Iraq for nefarious ends. Thought long-dead, al-Tundra (identified by the huge locust tattooed on his back), is revealed as alive in a grainy photograph smuggled out of Iraq for the CIA. Kane's mission is to infiltrate into Iraq, meet with the informant, and understand what al-Tundra is plotting for the world so the CIA can figure out how to stop him.

 

What could go wrong ... besides everything.

 

And that assignment is only the first in Kane's encounters with al-Tundra over the course of 700+ pages in Locust. Adventures follow in Russia, Pakistan, and even the United States. Yes, there is violence, some very graphic, but author Hayes relies on building plotting, unraveling situations, and nail-biting tension rather than glorifying blood. You are side-by-side with Kane, in his head as he pours over even trivial or complex detail ("like digging a well with a needle") and decision as he works out to best deal with each encounter or threat he faces.

The action is compelling, and, although the book is 700+ pages, it goes along rippingly due to the very short 1-3 page chapters. It's so easy to binge-read Locust, saying "Oh, I have to read just one more chapter to see how he decides/executes/escapes this situation." I won't say it flew by, but definitely it read as quickly as humanly possible since I was completely engulfed in the action, Kane, his CIA boss Falcon, the elusive CIA traitor Magus, and al-Tundra, the Locust. 

 

Locust is able to humanize Kane more over the pages, introducing his partner Rebecca, and her dealings with his profession. Kane is a loner of a man with many worries, but his relationships with Rebecca and Falcon, as well as several characters he encounters during his "Denied Access Area" missions, make his a rounder character, someone with internal conflicts.

 

Of course, the writing by Hayes is superb. His attention to every detail and descriptions of people and environment paint a totally enveloping atmosphere that make us lucky readers get hopelessly caught up in the action. There are new age weapons like a rifle scope with a built-in GPS system, an completely undetectable missile, copious use of satellite surveillance and recordings, a deadly virus, and even a bit of science fiction in the end to make the world right again. All seems reasonable and acceptable due to Hayes able writing style, terse dialogue, and believable character personalities.

I loved it, can't you tell. Won't spoil any more of the plot, but by now you should be able to decide whether this book is for you. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but for me it was gripping and fully immersive on every page. My highest recommendation.

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out

Hayes, Terry. I Am Pilgrim.   

Simply the best, most thrilling, unexpected, spy caper ever as CIA agent Kane tries to track down an unknown terrorist threatening a nefarious, unstoppable act that will destroy America. My Highest Recommendation. (previously reviewed here)

 

Brittle Innings

Bishop, Michael. Brittle Innings. New York: Bantam 1994. Print.

First Sentences:

When I look at it, minor league ball back then was sort of like B movies. Thrills on the cheap, Cheap buses, cheap hotels, cheap stadiums, cheap seats, cheap equipment, cheap talent. Cheap-cheap. Sound like an Easter chick, eh? Or like the mechanical conductor on those subway trains out to Atlanta's airport.


Description:

Here's the premise (and kind of a spoiler) for Michael Bishop's quirky Brittle Innings:. During World War II, Dr. Frankenstein's giant creation is quietly playing first base for a minor league baseball team in backwoods Tennessee. Just let that visualization sink in for a moment.

 

Sure, it sounds like a silly concept, a comic romp with madcap players and goofy situations. But Brittle Innings is actually a highly-intriguing glimpse into the minds of both a 17-year-old rookie baseball player from a tiny farm town in Oklahoma, and an 8-foot, horribly disfigured, slick fielding, book-reading infielder who both play for the Tennessee Highbridge Hellbenders in the class-C Chattahoochee Valley Baseball League.

The novel's narrator is Danny Boles, currently a grizzled minor league baseball scout, who now recounts his early time with the Hellbenders. Danny is assigned a room with the team's giant first baseman, "Jumbo," (actually Hank Clerval), a quiet, thoughtful man reluctant to speak. But when Hank does converse, it is in a beautifully formal, almost Victorian preciseness and vocabulary, an unusual voice among his scruffy minor league teammates. Visually, though, Hank is something, shall we say, different.

His body parts didn't seem to fit. His stringy-haired block of a noggin didn't belong with he bullish neck and the wide sloping shoulders under it. His proportions were more of less okay, I guess, but the colors and textures of his skin didn't match up the way you'd've expected. It was like some'd kneaded biscuit dough, cake dough, and a mass of Piedmont clay together without blending. Even as he snored, Jumbo reminded me of a body, wounded or dead.

The young rookie Danny is also mute, unable to speak due to a traumatic encounter with his father and later from a fight with a soldier. He is a willing listener and thus able to observe the world and people involved with his minor league team. He and Jumbo strike up a mutually silent friendship as roomies and fellow talented ballplayers.

All progresses well during the season until Danny stumbles onto Hank's diary. In it, Danny reads of Hank's experiences with the world that brought him to the Hellbenders. Of course, Danny finally comprehends who Hank really is. No one else suspects, mainly because Hank, despite his strange ways and appearance, to his teammates, manager, and owner, he is simply an odd, but prodigious home run hitter who might just lead them to the league championship. But from Hank's diary, he reveals his true purpose for becoming a baseball player:

The central business of every human being is to be a real person....What now infused meaning into my days...derived less from tiresome social intercourse than from the galvanizing physical sensations of hitting a ball hard and far, and of throwing it with exactitude....[D]runk with the restored robustness of my borrowed body, I would have only faceless teammates and unending occasions to exercise my intellectual and animal faculties playing baseball.

It's a coming of age story for Danny Boles, a backstory of a famous literary character, and a world of scruffy, quirky baseball players and supporters that held my attention through every page. Author Bishop's strong story-telling skills offer an insightful peak into the world of second tier baseball and the people who help keep it in existence. 

Actually, there is not a massive amount of actual baseball games recounted, as the novel focuses more on the off-field interactions between players, racism, management, friends, and family. As the team assistant and wonderful player (who is unable to be on the field due to his race), Darius reflects about a lifestyle choice he made: 

I think it's cause me life done crept into its brittlest part, like unto them innings when the whole thing could go either way -- depending on jes when the crucial bonecrack happen, and to whom. I awmost waited past the snappin point. Mebbe I did. But if I beat it now, mebbe I'll git past my brittle innings and play on through to a stretch that'll heal me, that won't jes shake me down to splinters and shards.

OK, maybe I did give away Hank's identity to you, but that revelation is something you would probably have figured out long before Danny did a quarter of the way into the story. But it is that intriguing information that led me to this book in the first place. Who could resist reading about Mary Shelley's creation in a baseball uniform, rooming with a mute teenage teammate in a tiny town during World War II? Certainly, I couldn't pass it up and was not in any way disappointed by this thoughtful, clever, compassionate, and insightful dive into the world of Danny Boles, Hank "Jumbo" Clerval, and the Highbridge Hellbenders. Hope you enjoy it as well.

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Roth, Philip. The Great American Novel.   

Quite a bit more  black humor and satiric look at rag-tag baseball during World War II when regular players were unavailable. Here, the Rupert Mundys field a team with players named Baal and Gil Gammesh, a fast-ball pitcher who tries to kill an umpire with a pitch, a fantastically talented player made to ride the bench to teach him humility... all narrated by an excitable, eccentric journalist whose first line of his recollections of the Rupert Mundy's baseball team is, naturally, "Call me Smitty." One of my all-time favorites. Highest recommendation.  (previously reviewed here)

Shibumi

Trevanian. Shiubumi. New York: Crown1979. Print.

First Sentences:

The screen flashed 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3...then the projector was switched off, and lights came up in a recessed sconces along the walls of the private viewing room. The projectionist's voice was thin and metallic over the intercom. "Ready when you are, Mr. Starr."


Description:

I was intrigued and utterly captivated by Trevanian's Shibumi, when I first read it in the early 1980s. After stumbling across it again at a used book sale, I thought it was worth a purchase and re-read, and I wasn't disappointed. The story, characters, plot, and writing hold up very well forty years later.   

Trevanian, author of the best seller and movie, The Eiger Sanction, offers a new character, Nicholi Hel, a most interesting, dangerous man. Raised by a Russian aristocrat mother and later by a Japanese general in Shanghai who taught him the strategic game of Go, Hel becomes an international figure, master of many languages and cultures. 

His passion is spelunking in dangerous caves. He has also picked up a skill known as "hoda korosu," or "naked kill," which allows him to use common household objects (playing cards, paper clips, etc.) to do bodily harm to enemies.  

Throughout his future life, although he was seldom armed, he was never unarmed; for in his hands a comb, a matchbox, a rolled magazine, a coin, even a folded piece of writing paper could be put to deadly use....For  Nicholai Hel, the average Western room contains just under two hundred lethal weapons.

In his youth, he suffered many hardships including the loss of his mother, the bombing of Hiroshima, and imprisonment by the American government, Naturally, he has a few grudges against several people and countries. 

It is only natural that he uses his skills to become the world's most feared assassin, although the book does not detail any of his "stunts" as he refers to them. Most have happened prior to the book's major narrative when Hel is retired and seeking to live in peace. 

But the Mother Company, an international organization which controls the CIA, NSA, etc., has botched a recent assassination attempt on the Munich Olympics killers. They will not leave Hel alone after learning one of the assassination survivors showed up at Hel's isolated Basque home to ask for help.

A violent man, no. His calm voice and demeanor reflects his thoughtful study of the life philosophy and practice of "Shabumi," the state of effortless perfection. He has restored a castle to fit with his lifestyle, including a rain porch where he can listen to the tones of rain on the roof, garden, and stream (which he tunes for more perfect sounds by moving the stream's rocks into different positions). These luxuries require money, hence his anonymous profession of the past as a highly-paid assassin.

Shibumi has to do with great refinement underlying commonplace appearances. It is a statement so correct that it does not have to be bold, so poignant it does not have to b e pretty, so true it does not have to be real. Shibumi is understanding, rather than knowledge. Eloquent silence. In demeanor, it is modesty with pudency....elegant simplicity, articulate brevity.

I don't want to reveal too much of the plot, but suffice to say this character, Nicholai Hel, is fascinating on every page. He calmly discusses philosophy, social mannerisms, game theory, life choices, and cultural differences, each of which is intriguing and absorbing to read about. These have shaped his upbringing and still influence his current life. And now he finds himself unwillingly drawn back into the world of secret, nefarious operations.

If you are a fan of thrillers, government covert plans, international politics, cultural philosophy, and just great characters, I highly recommend Shibumi. It is the best of this genre, next only to I Am Pilgrim (see below) that I have ever read...and I have read a bunch of them. Enjoy.

 

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Hayes, Terry. I Am Pilgrim  

The best international thriller I have ever read, regarding a terrorist and his plot to destroy the United States, and his pursuer from a secret government agency. Unbelievably tense, well-written plot with two great characters. Highest recommendation.  (previously reviewed here)