Insomniac City

Hayes, Bill. Insomniac City. New York: Bloomsbury, 2017. Print

First Sentences:

I moved to New York eight years ago, and felt at once at home. 

 

In the haggard buildings and bloodshot skies, in trains that never stopped running like my racing mind at night, I recognized my insomniac self. If New York were a patient, it would be diagnosed with agrypnia excita, a rare genetic condition characterized by insomnia, nervous energy constant twitching, and dream enactment -- an apt description of a city that never sleeps, a place where one comes to reinvent himself.


Description:

From these very first words, I loved Bill Hayes's Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me  Who could not fall in love with such captivating language to describe a unique environment? Clearly, this book promised to be full of wry, thoughtful and unique observations, so I was all in.

 

Author Hayes moved to New York from San Francisco after the sudden death of his long-time partner, Steve. As an insomniac, Hayes began to wander his new city in the late and early morning hours, both observing and conversing with people who were similarly sleep-challenged.

In the summertime, late into the night, some leave behind their sweat-dampened sheets to read in the coolness of a park under streetlights. Not Kindles, mind you, or iPhones. But books,. Newspapers, Novels. Poetry. Completely absorbed as if in their own worlds. And indeed they are.

Hayes also brought along his camera, his "travel companion," during day and night city walks. He shot photos of people for his own private enjoyment. Unwilling to intrude on some intimate scenes, Hayes shot body parts that reflected the person's essence.

Couples captivated me -- on the Tube, on park benches, arm in arm on the street. Couples so in love you could see it in their faces....Their smiles were heartbreaking. I took pictures of their hands, laced together as if in prayer, or their feet -- the erotic dance that is a prelude to a kiss.

Hayes records these episodic meetings, observations, and photos in his diary, entries which he compiles into Insomniac City. And oh, the joy, hope, and humanity each piece presents to us lucky readers fortunate enough to share his everyday sights, elegant writing, and imagery. 

Sometimes I'd sit in the kitchen in the dark and gaze out at the Empire State and Chrysler buildings. Such a beautiful pair, so impeccably dressed, he in his boxy suits, every night a different hue, and she, an arm's length away, in her filigreed skirt the color of the moon. I regarded them as an old married couple, calmly unblinkingly keeping watch over one of their newest sons. And I returned the favor; I would be there the moment the Empire State turned off its lights for the night as if to get a little shut-eye before sunrise.

But there is yet another part of this wonderful book besides late night observations and photographs. Hayes meets Dr. Oliver Sacks, the neurologist and best-selling author. The two men connect and become romantic partners, a first for Sacks in decades. Their loving relationship is also reflected on in Hayes' diary as he records bits of their conversations, random thoughts from Sacks, and a peak at the new life they spend together.

...last night the clock chimed,..O[liver] and I counted the chimes carefully. A big smile broke out on his face. "Oh! That's very eccentric! Earlier, it did ten chimes at four o'clock, and now, seven at nine."

We laughed how this is like having an aging parent in the house, one who's a little "dotty," gets a little lost, misremembers, from time to time ... 

I could keep on giving examples of Hayes' narrations, but I have to stop and leave so many more for you to experience. Suffice to say, I fell in love with both these men, New York City, and the beauty of descriptive writing that will stay with me for a long time. Highest recommendation.

I have come to believe that kindness is repaid in unexpected ways and that if you are lonely or bone-tired or blue, you need only come down from your perch and step outside. New York -- which is to say, New Yorkers -- will take care of you.

Happy reading. 

Fred

Other book recommendations
About The First Sentence Reader blog

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

Sacks, Oliver. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: and Other Clinical Tales.

Highly unusual cases recorded and commented on by Sacks, detailing his experiences in a New York neurology clinic depict some of his patient' symptoms and treatment, including: a man with no recollection of any events in the last sixty years; a man who cannot recognize faces (including his own); an autistic, but brilliantly gifted artist; a woman who has Irish songs from her childhood constantly running through her head; and of course, the title character who grabbed his wife's head and tried to put it on his own head. Incredible, readable, and wonderfully entertaining as you try to imagine the reality of these patients.

 

To Serve Them All My Days

 Delderfield, R.F.. To Serve Them All My Days. New York: Simon & Schuster. 1972. Print

First Sentences:

The guard at Exeter warned him he would have to change at Dulverton to pick up the westbound train to Bamfylde Bridge Halt, the nearest railhead to the school, but did not add that the wait between trains was an hour.

It was one of those trivial circumstances that played a part in the healing process of the years ahead, for the interval on that deserted platform, set down in a rural wilderness, and buttressed by heavily timbered hills where spring lay in ambush, gave Powlett-Jones an opportunity to focus his thoughts in a way he had been unable to do for months, since the moment he had emerged from the dugout and paused, rubbing sleep from his eyes, to glance left and right down thee trench.

Description:

When I began The First Sentence Reader blog, one of my first choices of books to make sure that every one of my reader knew about was R.F. Delderfield's To Serve Them All My Days. Now, three years and over 300 book recommendations later, I am finally getting around to telling you about this wonderful novel.

This book has everything I want in a great read: strong, personable characters; interesting setting; compelling plot; and honest, straightforward writing. It tells the story of David Powlett-Jones, a shell-shocked survivor of the World War I trenches in France. There he was severely shaken by a mortar blast and forced to recover in a hospital for months. P-J, at the urging of his doctor, applies to the English boys school, Bamfylde, under the able leadership of the Rev. Algy Herris. With no experience teaching but finding the clear air and quiet were immediately clearing the fog and lingering fears in his brain, the young Powlett-Jones takes a history teaching position at Herris' school and the story begins.

Here you could almost reach out an touch the quiet. It was a living thing that seemed to catch its breath up there in the hanging woods and then, at a wordless command, slip down the long hillside and gust over the rails to lose itself in the wood opposite. Its touch was gentle and healing, passing over his scar tissue like the fingers of a woman.

The Bamfyld staff has been pulled together helter-skelter due to the enlistment of every other able man into the English war effort. Aged, old-school teachers are coaxed from retirement to work alongside war dodgers and those rejected for physical or mental shortcomings. The school is filled with privileged boys ready to challenge any new teacher, so P-J, a former miner's son, knows he has his work cut out for him.

But under the headmaster's loose but purposeful guidance, P-J begins to blossom into a solid, popular teacher. Nicknamed "Pow-Wow" by the boys for his tendency to talk things over in class and listen to the opinions of the boys, he becomes a rarity in the age of memorization and the punishment cane.

The school and boys begin to grow on P-J and slowly the horrifying sights and tragedies from the French trenches begin to fall from his consciousness. Love enters his life, as does tragedy. He shows quick-thinking in classrooms, faculty lounges, and several emergency situations involving life and death for several boys.

In all, To Serve Them All My Days gets my highest recommendation. Don't be put off that it is a fairly long book. It will bring you to a place that is welcoming, challenging, intelligent, cozy and loving. You won't want to leave that environment or its characters which you have grown to admire and love. Please read it soon.

Happy reading. 

Fred

Other book recommendations
About The First Sentence Reader blog

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

McCourt, Frank Teacher Man.   

Memoirs of Pulitzer Prize-winner McCourt recalls his three decades of teaching English in New York cities inner-city schools. As an Irish immigrant facing thousands of not-so-eager "students", he faces real world challenges each day, many of which he fails to overcome. But when he succeeds with telling them stories of his life in Ireland or sees the flicker of a student's respect, he is inspired to keep teaching. Extremely personable and well-written.

The Scapegoat

Du Maurier, Daphne. The Scapegoat. New York: Doubleday. 1956. Print

First Sentences:

I left the car by the side of the cathedral, and then walked down the steps to the Place des Jacobins. 

It was still raining hard. It had not once let up since Tours, and all I had seen of the countryside I loved was the gleaming surface of the Route Nationale, rhythmically cut by the monotonous swing of the windscreen wiper.

Description:

Sometimes just the premise of a book is enough to hook you into at least picking it up to read. Examples? A man inadvertantly left all by himself on Mars (The Martian). A trip down the Nile River from origin to mouth in a kayak (Kayak Down the Nile). Creating a sport fishing spot in the desert (Salmon Fishing in the Yemen). The auction of the furnishings from a luxury apartment in Paris that has not been opened in seventy years (A Paris Apartment). And, of course, the history of the library card catalog system - be still my heart - (The Card Catalog). In the hands of a talented author, you have a compelling read.

It is on such an interesting premise and masterful writing that I stongly recommend Daphne du Maurier's The Scapegoat. 

Here is the set-up. A Englishman, John, desperately depressed as his vacation in Europe ends and knowing he must return to his dull teaching position, happens one night to meet another man, Jean, the wealthy Comte de Gue. They are strangers to each other, but soon realize they are not ordinary strangers. The men immediately see that they could be exact twins.

I realized, with a strange sense of shock and fear and nausea all combined, that his face and voice were know to me too well. I was looking at myself.

Over drinks and later in Jean's hotel room, they talk about their lives before John passes out. And when he awakens the next morning, he is alone in the room with only Jean's suitcase, clothes, and possessions. Jean is gone along with John's clothes. The hotel staff immediately mistake John for the other man and when Jean's family car arrives to take "Jean" home, John decides to play along and see what living like the wealthy Jean would be like ... and whether he can pass as another person with a stranger’s family and friends.

What an opening premise! From then on, every page is a nail-biter as to whether this counterfeit Comte de Gue will be unmasked. Each sentence “Jean”/John utters, each person he pretends to know, each family business transaction he oversees puts him in peril of discovery along with the unimaginable consequences. 

And where is the real Comte, John continues to wonder? What will happen when he shows up in his own home?

There it is. A deliciously devious plot with danger and cleverness on every page, masterfully related by the skilled storyteller, Daphne DuMaurier. How can you possibly resist? Well, don't resist. You won't be sorry.

Happy reading. 

Fred

Other book recommendations
About The First Sentence Reader blog

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

DuMaurier, Daphne. Rebecca  

Classic Gothic fiction story of a newlywed couple who returns to the husband's home to live, only to be constantly reminded of his beloved first wife, Rebecca, whose spirit permeates the estate.

Apollo 8

Kluger, Jeffrey. Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon. New York: Holt 2017. Print

First Sentences:

August 1968 

The last thing Frank Borman needed was a phone call when he was trying to fly his spacecraft. 

No astronaut ever wanted to hear a ringing phone when he was in the middle of a flight, but when the spacecraft was an Apollo, any interruption was pretty much unforgivable. 

Description:

I admit it. I love books about space, NASA programs, and memoirs from astronauts. Here's a great book to add to any fellow space-lover's reading list: Jeffrey Kluger's Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon. This well-researched book is chock full of inside stories, data, interviews, and photos about the first manned space flight to the moon. Apollo 8 details every thrill, problem, and personality to allow readers to experience every aspect of this history-making flight.

In 1968, the United State was experiencing difficult times. Assassinations, Vietnam, civil rights protests, and the Cold War filled the newspapers. Even NASA was on shaky ground after the fiery deaths of astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee on the Apollo 1 launchpad. Therefore, NASA scrapped the next two Apollo missions to revamp all safety procedures, and used unmanned spacecraft for the Apollo 4-6 flights. Apollo 7, the first three-man Earth orbital mission, had problems with both the spacecraft and the crew who complained constantly during their flight about the craft and conditions. (NASA made sure none of these men was allowed to fly into space again.)

NASA needed some good publicity to increase interest from the citizens and government. They therefore decided to upgrade the mission of Apollo 8 from a simple Earth orbit into one that would head to the Moon. It would be humankind's first flight outside our own orbit. NASA even decided to add orbits of the Moon to take photos of potential landing sites and, for the first time ever, bring back scenes from the dark side of the moon. These ambitious goals would certainly catch the interest of the world!

Frank Broman, Jim Lovell, Bill Anders were the crew. NASA hoped these men would rise to the challenge of the more complex flight plan and the revamped training necessary to succeed in the daring mission. And NASA wanted these astronauts and flight to succeed with such perfection that Americans would recover from the Apollo 1 deaths and Apollo 7 sloppiness to again feel proud of the US space program. As a bonus, such an ambitious flight would make the Russians realize how far the US was pulling ahead in the space race.

There were 5.6 million separate parts in the command and service module...which meant that even if everything functioned 99.9 percent perfectly, 5,600 parts might go bad. 

The mission required Apollo use the giant, untested Saturn V rocket to break Earth's orbit. Designer Wernher von Braun assured NASA that the rocket would be ready for the 16-week launch date. Now all that was needed was for :

1. The Earth to be at the precise spot in its rotation for launch, orbit, moon shot to achieve the proper angles;
2. The Atlantic or Pacific Ocean to be in position under the returning spacecraft 6 days later for splashdown;
3. The Moon to be in proper phase for illumination of possible landing site photos

Astronauts and Mission Control staff practiced simulations of every procedure and problems thrown in. Trainers would disable three of the Saturn engines just after launch, kill communications systems, have individual systems break down and give the men three minutes to solve the problems.

In-flight problems still arose. For example, Commander Bormann was nauseated throughout the flight. Stored bags of urine leaked. Temperatures inside sun-facing spacecraft stayed at a steady 80 degrees. Along with the reality of three men living for six days in a small space, these factors combined to produce a definite ripeness to the air in the spacecraft. 

Many more fascinating details emerge from Apollo 8, including the history of the formation of the moon. Author Kluger describes how 4.5 billion years ago a passing body collided with Earth to knock it off its axis to create our seasons and send a ring of dust around our planet that after a billion years condensed into the Moon.

The highlight of the mission was the Christmas TV broadcast from Moon orbit where each man gave his personal impressions of Moon to the vast audience on Earth. Each recited portions of the Genesis biblical verses ("In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth..."), and the listeners were awestruck.

There is so much more, but I will prevent myself from revealing additional wonderful details to those who want to read and savor this historic account for themselves, and to stop myself from boring any who are not space enthusiasts. Apollo 8 is an important piece of the space program puzzle that eventually put humans on the Moon. I found Apollo 8 to be a fascinating documentation of this flight. It was riveting for an armchair astronaut like me to be part of each step for this particular mission.

Happy reading. 

Fred

Other book recommendations
About The First Sentence Reader blog

____________________

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

Burrows, William E. This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age  

The most complete history of the space program, from initial experiments with rockets to landing on the moon and beyond. Loads of conversations, memos, speeches, flights, triumphs and failures, and the people behind all of these. Interesting because it draws on documents from the Soviet Union to follow the birth and development of their space program as well. 

Cernan, Eugene and Don Davis. The Last Man on the Moon  

Biography of Gene Cernan and his adventures in NASA from Gemini to Apollo to setting the final footprints on the moon. Wonderfully narrated by Cernan as he recalls the training, excitement, frustrations, and eventual rewards for his first space walk and eventual moon walk. (previously reviewed here)

An Odyssey

Mendelsohn, Daniel. An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic. New York: Knopf 2017. Print.

First Sentences:

One January evening a few years ago, just before the beginning of the spring term in which I was going to be teaching an undergraduate seminar on the Odyssey, my father, a retired research scientist who was then aged eighty-one, asked me, for reasons I thought I understood at the time, if he might sit in on the course, and I said yes.

Description:

When his 81-year-old father asks if he can sit in on his freshman seminar at Bard College on the Odyssey, Daniel Mendelsohn agrees. The resulting experiences from this intimate class and father-son interactions are the basis for an surprisingly compelling book, An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic.

What...could studying the ancient classics possibly teach students in the present day? ... Human nature..."[P]hilology,' from the Greek for "love of language" -- was nothing less than a means to a profound understanding of the "intellectual, sensual, and moral powers of man."

There are actually three plot lines to this book, each equally thought-provoking. First there is the class and its discussion of the epic poem, the Odyssey by Homer (or by several authors over the centuries who compile separate stories into one work). The seminar provides an in-depth analysis of the adventure poem with fascinating background of the Trojan War and its principle characters. There are translations and definitions of significant Greek text to fully understand the interesting implications of specific phrases. 

The one word in the English language that combines all of the various resonances that belong severally to "voyage" and "journey" and "travel" -- the distance but also the time, the time but also the emotion, the arduousness and the danger -- comes not from Latin but from Greek. That word is "odyssey."

During classroom discussions, Mendelsohn's father doesn't just sit quietly in a corner listening as Mendelsohn anticipated. Instead, he interjects his crusty opinions that often challenge or even contradict his son's direction in the seminar, with freshmen joining in with their opinions.

The second interwoven narrative gives background of the early home life of the Mendelsohn father and son including the prickly history between the two that crops up in the author's mind during comments made by Mendelsohn's father. Their relationship was challenging to say the least, with the precise mathematician father distancing himself from his gay son and setting high standards for behavior,

Finally, after the seminar concludes, father and son embark on a cruise that follows Odysseus' voyages through the Mediterranean. After such a testy seminar experience, how will these two survive living together on a boat for several weeks?

Now that I am old...I guess I can see the part about the importance of being out there and trying things even if you fail. You have to keep moving, at least. The worst thing is to go stale. Once that happens, you're finished.

I knew very little about the Odyssey before reading An Odyssey, so would have been satisfied with just the explanation and discussion of the poem. But having the other two tracts of an Odyssey made this a much rich  experience for me. As father and son's characters slowly reveal themselves, grow and falter, they take on the importance and adventure of Odysseus himself.

And surely, these two men along with Odysses, embark on life-changing odysseys. The Odyssey we learn is about Odysseus' son Telemachus' journey to find and understand his father, Odysseus, just as Mendelsohn begins to discover and understand his own father. 

I was realizing for the first time, how much the Odyssey knew about this ostensibly trivial but profound real-life phenomenon, the way that small things between people can be the foundation of the greatest intimacy...When you have those things, those things that couple have, they keep you connected long after everything else becomes unrecognizable.

A great read, one I really enjoyed thoroughly, definitely worth your time on so many levels.

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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

Homer. The Odyssey  

New, lean, fast-paced translation of the epic poem

The Last American Man

Gilbert, Elizabeth. The Last American Man. London: Penguin. 2002. Print.

First Sentences:

By the time Eustace Conway was seven years old, he could throw a knife accurately enough to nail a chipmunk to a tree.

By the time he was ten, he could hit a running squirrel at fifty feet with a bow and arrow. When he turned twelve, he went out into the woods, alone and empty-handed, built himself a shelter, and survived off the land for a week.

Description:

Some people harbor dreams of forsaking civilization, disappearing into some isolated forest and living off the land peacefully in harmony with nature. Of course, none of us could survive more that a few miserable days, but what if ....

Elizabeth Gilbert depicts such a man in her strongly-written biography of Eustace Conway, The Last American Man. 

For years, Eustace had escaped his father's badgering and humiliations by spending time in a local American Indian museum, learning the Indian philosophy and their skills of living in nature. He gradually acquired the abilities to live independent of civilization and, when he reached 17, tooks off from his home with his homemade teepee and motorcycle to find his perfect land in the woods of North Carolina to make a home in nature.

Eventually he purchased acres of isolated lands and built Turtle Island, his refuge which could preserve of enough natural forest for him to live freely with animals, water, and trees in his own way without roads, electricity, or contact with the outside world. Supporting himself by giving demonstrations and talks to schools and organizations, everything seemed perfect in his chosen life.

But not all was easy. He was determined to spread his philosophy that anyone can live in nature, and should. To that end, Eustace opened Turtle Island to campers seeking his knowledge of survival skills. What they found were hours of digging post holes, eating meager meals from whatever Eustace can scrounge (including roadkill and dumpster diving), and whatever other work Eustace felt was needed to keep Turtle Island running. Few campers were happy with these arrangements and many left early.

And then there was his strong desire to start a family and his plan to find the perfect woman. Not all went well in this area as might be expected, as potential girlfriends were left to mind the teepee and campers to Eustace's exacting standards while he traveled the country giving demonstrations and preaching his back-to-nature philosophy.

But what an interesting man he is, and what a life he carved out for himself. The book is filled with story after incredible story of incidents in his life of interacting with nature, including raising a hundred turtles in his childhood backyard, riding horses across the United States, and through-hiking the Appalachian Trail without packing any food and surviving on what he could hunt or scrounge. Throughout the book he is always carefully plotting the perfect existence and spreading his enthusiasm to kids and adults alike.

Wonderful reading about a complex man who defines and then carves out his ideal life.

Happy reading. 

Fred

(See more recommended books)
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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Paulsen, Gary. Hatchet

Young city-born teen survives a plane crash in the wilds of Canada and must learn how to survive. Wonderful book for teens and adults alike, as the best news is there are several other books in this survival series. (previously reviewed here)

Nobody Walks

Herron, Mick. Nobody Walks. New York: Soho Press. 2015. Print.

First Sentences:

The news had come hundreds of miles to sit waiting for days in a mislaid phone. 

And there it lingered like a moth in a box, weightless, and aching for the light.

Description:

It's a simple story. A quiet, solitary man working at a dead end job in a meat processing plant in France receives a message on his phone that his son, Liam, has died, a son he barely has had contact with in years. Tom Bettany immediately walks off his job, gathers his few possessions from a locker, and heads to London to learn something about Liam's death. Mick Herron's thriller Nobody Walks starts off quietly enough with this open-and-shut case, but Bettany's involvement soon expands the action in every way conceivable.

Bettany learns that Liam fell from his apartment terrace under the influence of an exotic drug. Whether he fell, was pushed, or "something else" is what Bettany wants to know. The police are of no help, ruling it a simple accidental death. But Bettany plunges in anyways to search for the facts and an explanation.

We soon learn that Bettany is no ordinary father, no run-of-the-mill meat packer. He is a former special ops agent with London's MI5, a man who walked off that job and the grid years ago for unknown reasons. Now, his previous government employers may or may not be happy he has returned to snoop around this case. Certainly the crime bosses and drug lords Bettany dealt with in his former life do not want him back in their territory whether or not they are involved with Liam's death.

The ties Bettany has with his former life prove difficult to reconnect with or to break. After all, nobody walks away clean from a government intelligence position as Bettany soon learns.

Intriguing, confusing, clever, suspenseful, and gripping, Nobody Walks is high stakes criminal investigation and underworld shenanigans by conniving, very hard people around every corner. A challenging, riveting story with one of the most surprising endings to any novel I have ever read. Nobody Walks truly satisfies with its first (and last) sentences and everything in between, a rarity in my experience. 

The best news is Herron has written many other thrillers, so I'm excited to plunge into his well-written characters, plot, and dialogue for many weeks to come. Here's to great, prolific writers!

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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

Hayes, Terry. I Am Pilgrim

The best thriller imaginable. One man, formerly of an ultra-secret intelligence unit for the United State, must find a lone terrorist with the capability to inflict a damaging plague on the entire country. Fabulous in its breathtaking suspense, clever story, and strong, intelligent characters. (previously reviewed here)

The Winter Fortress

Bascomb, Neal. The Winter Fortress. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2016. Print.

First Sentences:

In a staggered line, the nine saboteurs cut across the mountain slope. 

Instinct, more than the dim light of the moon, guided the young men....Dressed in white camouflage suits over their British Army uniforms, the men looked like phantoms haunting the woods.

Description:

Raise your hands if you have ever heard of "heavy water." Here's a hint: it is vital to the production of atomic bombs and therefore the key ingredient in Neal Bascomb's account of the real-life World War II undercover operation in The Winter Fortress. 

Heavy water is ultra-distilled water that is painstakingly refined down a few drops with unique qualities. In the late 1930s, no one at the Vemork, Norway heavy water plant the really knew what to do with the interesting product they produced except to let scientists take small samples to experiment with and possibly find a use. But in 1940 when Nazi Germany requests from Vemork not a few drops of heavy water but two tons of the stuff, many workers at the facility suspect the Germans have found a military use for this liquid.

Turns out heavy water is a key component in the stabilization and detonation of the experimental atomic bomb being worked on the in United State and now, apparently, in Germany. When Germany overruns Norway and takes over the Vemork plant, and then vastly increases heavy water production, their intentions are confirmed. If the Germans are using it for an atomic weapon, they must be stopped or at least slowed until the American/British team in New Mexico can achieve their own bomb.

The plant must be destroyed by Allies. But a bombing raid would destroy many people in the nearby town. And the distillation tanks are heavily protected deep inside the mountain fortress/plant in an area unlikely to be damaged by bombs.

The plant destruction therefore requires an undercover job to be secretly carried out by the Norwegian local resistance with training by British Special Operations. Discovery of their mission would mean severe repercussions to the local families who help them, so the planning, training, and eventual mission are limited to a handful of Norwegians. Families are not even told of the work these ordinary husbands and fathers are undertaking.

The tension is unbelievable as, step by step, this team of Norwegian locals acquires vital information smuggled out of the plant, undergoes commando training in England, and makes detailed plans to take on this inaccessible fortress ... and hopefully get out alive. Then they wait for good weather, week after week, knowing the success or failure of the team would turn the tide of the War by determining which side would create the bomb first. 

Absolutely riveting reading about a mission I knew nothing about, yet one that changed the balance of power. I also learned about the dedication of each and every person in Norway to do whatever they could to thwart the hated Germans occupying their country. A truly gripping, uplifting, tension-filled account of people taking it upon themselves to do whatever it takes to frustrate and defeat their enemy.  

Happy reading. 


Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

____________________

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

MacLean, Alistair. The Guns of Navarone

Fictional account of a team of saboteurs on a mission to destroy an important German gun installation. Thrilling, nerve-wracking, taut, and unexpected, this novel is one of my favorites by a man who can really write thriller action plots.

The Great American Novel

Roth, Phillip. The Great American Novel. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux. 1973. Print

First Sentences: 

Call me Smitty.

That's what everybody else called me -- the ballplayers, the bankers, the bareback riders, the baritones, the bartenders, the bastards, the best-selling writers (excepting Hem who dubbed my Frederico), the bicyclists, the big-game hunters (Hem the exception again), the billiards champs, the bishops, the blacklisted (myself included), the black marketeers, the blonds, the bloodsuckers, the bluebloods, the bookies, the Bolsheviks (some of my best friends, Mr. Chairman - what of it?), the bombardiers, the bootblacks, the bootlicks, the bosses, the boxers, the Brahmins, the brass hats, the British (Sir Smitty as of '36), the broads, the broadcasters, the broncobusters, the brunettes, the black bucks down in Barbados (Mistah Smitty), the Buddhist monks in Burma, one Bulkington, the bullfighters, the bull throwers, the burlesque comics, the burlesque stars, the bushman, the bums, and the butlers. And that's only the letter B fans, only one of the big Twenty Six.

Description:

Honestly, Phillip Roth's The Great American Novel is definitely not for everyone. First, you must be a baseball enthusiast, well-versed in and delighted by the nuances, jargon, and insider goings-on of a major league team. Second, you have to enjoy black humor with its irony, biting wit, and uncomfortable situations. Third, a working knowledge of some classical literature and literary techniques (e.g., over-long sentences, revered writers, famous novels, etc) helps. It also would help if you can recognize a few mythological names and places since most of the novel's characters and locales use these names. 

Right from the first sentence there is the tongue-in-cheek reference to the first line of Moby Dick ("Call me Ishmael") and Roth takes off from there. The Prologue is a long rant by Wordsmith "Smitty" Smith, the aged sports reporter from a by-gone era, who is attending the sportswriters gathering at the Baseball Hall of Fame. To everyone else's mocking ridicule, Smitty plans to cast his vote for Luke Gafaloon, the great hitter from the Ruppert Mundys. Never heard of them? Well, that's because the Mundys were part of the Patriot League, the forgotten/suppressed third major league from the Depression and World War II eras. 

When the other baseball writers claim never to have heard of Gafaloon or the Patriot League, Smitty decides to write the epic story of that era and the shenanigans that led to that League's demise. It will be the Great American Novel because Smitty disparages other claimants to that title, from Huckleberry Finn and The Great Gatsby to Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and many others.

Smitty's Prologue might be a slog for anyone not fascinated by literature and black humor, so skip it if you get bored. Soon Smitty begins his history of the ill-fated Patriot League and its quirky players when the best players had been drafter into military service during World War II. There are stories of luminaries like Gil Gammesh, the fireballer who pitches a perfect game of all strikes ... until with two out in the ninth and two strikes on the final hitter when the umpire calls a ball on a close pitch. Fireworks ensue.

Here's a partial list of a few of the major characters Smitty follows on and off field:

• Roland Agni, the brilliant fielding, hard-hitting player whose father makes him play for free for the worst team in order to instill humility in Roland;

• Bob Yamm, uniform number 1/4, the pinch-hitting midget instructed never to swing his bat in order to draw a needed walk, but decides one infamous day to take a cut at the ball;

• Nickname Dumar, the young kid who longs for a big-league nickname but gets "Nickname" as his moniker instead;

• Luke Gofannon, the most prolific home run hitter in the majors, but who loves triples best;

• Hothead Ptah, the wooden-legged former legend now dubbed "the most irritating player in baseball";

• Isaac Ellis, the genius teenager who develops a secret formula to make the Mundys unbeatable;

• Angela Trust, the elderly owner of the Mundys who has torrid affairs with the best players;

• Ulysses S. Fairsmith, the Mundys' manager who brought baseball to the darkest regions of Africa;

• General Oakhart, President of the Patriot League, who gives away the Mundys' stadium to the US military for wartime training, forcing the Mundys to play all their home games on the road.

The Great American Novel documents these oddball characters as they play games, carouse, and do their best to win games with their limited talent. Then the unthinkable happens: the Mundys start winning. But there are Russians and international politics involved, plots laid and nefarious schemes undertaken. Soon the Mundys are disgraced and the Patriot League abolished from all baseball records.

Smitty's narration can be crude, demeaning to women (and also men), and definitely strongly-opinionated on baseball, its players, and administrators. For Smitty, baseball is a beautiful game, wonderfully played by the greats, yet the Patriot League is full of quirky impostors, greedy owners, blind umpires, and corrupt league officials. It is up to him to record an honest report to preserve the memory of this ill-fated league, the teams, and the characters that make up this era.

It is a colorful tale indeed, full of baseball games and behind-the-scenes plotting, of players you grown to love or hate, and a world of sports rarely portrayed so cleverly. For the right reader, The Great American Novel is an absorbing, fantastic, and very, very funny novel. I, of course, loved it!

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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

Tye, Larry. Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend.

Thoroughly researched and highly entertaining, Tye explores the facts behind the greatest Negro Leagues pitcher, sorting through interviews, newspapers clippings, box scores, and recordings. Even solves the ongoing mystery of how old Satch was. One of my absolute favorites.

Brosnan, Jim. The Long Season.

Probably one of the best books ever written about baseball from an insider, pitcher Jim Brosnan of the St. Louis Cardinal, who kept a diary during the 1959 season, documenting the players, life, and struggles of that year in the language of a real ball player. Highly recommended for its authentic language and honest look at America's game.