Junkyard Dogs by Craig Johnson

JUNKYARD DOGS
Craig Johnson
Viking Adult 2010

Reviewed by carol
★    ★    ★    ★


The sixth book in the series featuring Sheriff Walt Longmire is a lot of fun, and brings life back into the Longmire series. It has to be hard being a mystery writer, immersing your characters in the dark side of human nature.  Junkyard Dogs goes back to the roots of the Longmire mysteries by focusing on the characters in small town in Wyoming, bringing their quirks and lifestyles to life. 

The story begins with a strong hook:

“I tried to get a straight answer from his grandson and granddaughter-in-law as to why their grandfather had been tied with a hundred feet of nylon rope to the rear bumper of the 1968 Oldsmobile Toronado.”

We begin with the misadventures of the Stewart clan, managers of the Municipal Solid Waste facility, aka Town Dump. As Walt is sorting through their latest mishap that ends at the emergency room, Doc discovers one of the Stewarts recently found a finger at the dump. Meanwhile Santiago Saizarbitoria, one of Walt’s deputies, is considering quitting after events in the prior book. Walt decides the missing appendage is the perfect way to ease Santiago back into action while giving him time to reconsider. As Walt gives a hand (har, har) to the Stewart clan, he discovers old man Geo is having a secret romance, and when tempers flare at the junkyard, Walt’s sure it is because the secret is out. It isn’t, but it won’t be long before it is.


The characterization brings a much-needed humor back to the series. I actually laughed out loud in chapter one, because the situation was so absurd–and yet plausible the way it developed, bad decision by bad decision. While amusing, the characters remained quite human, with their own logic, seriousness and tragedy in their lives that took them beyond mere comedic appearances (I’m looking at you, Stephanie Plum, Mooner and Sally Sweet).  I wish the same could be said of the relationship between Vic and Walt. Although tension between them continues to simmer, at this point it feels more forced, neither progressing organically nor cooling off. Flirtation between them often feels more awkward than entertaining, with the exception of some delightful police banter that’s prelude to an illegal but informative search. Luckily, those occasions aren’t the primary focus of Walt’s life right now, so it didn’t distract overmuch. Despite the comedy, Johnson still manages a respectful balance of character:


“There was an Indian air about Geo, or maybe it was a mountain man quality. Some people live on the high plains because they can’t live anywhere else, their antennae fixed to a frequency that is preset to offense. Once in a long while they venture into town and drink and argue too much. Like fine instruments of delicate temperament rarely played, they become untuned and discordant.”

Plotting is interesting. It’s a methodical pace with the beginning of the story focused more on character build and day-to-day policing, but eventually all the pieces come together and the action rockets forward. The ending felt a bit contrived and done to a Hollywood scale that didn’t quite match the Andy Griffith down-home beginning.  A final nod to the quality of the setting, which gives a hint of what those fierce mountain winters must be like.

Overall, enjoyable and a solid entry into the Longmire canon that’s renewed my inspiration to continue the series.

Tricks

Ellen Hopkins
Margaret K. McElderry Books
Reviewed by Nancy
5 out of 5 stars

Summary

Five teenagers from different parts of the country. Three girls. Two guys. Four straight. One gay. Some rich. Some poor. Some from great families. Some with no one at all. All living their lives as best they can, but all searching...for freedom, safety, community, family, love. What they don't expect, though, is all that can happen when those powerful little words "I love you" are said for all the wrong reasons.

Five moving stories remain separate at first, then interweave to tell a larger, powerful story -- a story about making choices, taking leaps of faith, falling down, and growing up. A story about kids figuring out what sex and love are all about, at all costs, while asking themselves, "Can I ever feel okay about myself?"

My Review

When I went to pick this book up at the library, I was surprised at how small and fat it was. Great, just what I need…a 600+ page book and hardly enough time to read. When I opened up the book and glanced at the first few pages, I was delighted and shocked the margins were so wide and there were no more than seven words per line. Then I thought, “wait a minute, this is freakin’ poetry!” Since I read so little poetry and never developed an appreciation for it, I left the library slightly disappointed. Well, Tricks isn’t exactly poetry, but a novel written in verse. Once I started reading, I couldn’t put the book down. Dishes were piling up, dust bunnies were fighting back, and I was late to work.

Tricks is a story about five deeply troubled teenagers, all from different areas, backgrounds, and family situations who end up falling into prostitution.

Each character has a story to tell. These stories are brief, and jump from one character to the next and back again. At the beginning, I was a little frustrated at how short their stories were and was afraid that I would not be able to distinguish one character from the next. It turns out there was no need to worry. Hopkins does a brilliant job of infusing her characters with life, personality and emotions. As I continued to read, and the characters’ situations became more harrowing, I found the stories very intense and was relieved there was some separation. I was also surprised at how much I enjoyed the writing style. These stories told in verse allowed me to get into the minds and feelings of the characters without extraneous detail, and helped me feel a deeper connection with them.

Tricks broke my heart and made my stomach churn. The stories were gripping, painful, and honest. My own teenage years, painful memories, wrong choices, and difficulty with parents all came flooding back. I wish my own parents could have read a book like this, just to see how their own behavior and actions could irreparably damage a child’s life.

Ike: An American Hero by Michael Korda
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

”A man who has successfully commanded millions of men in battle, who has made the most difficult and far-reaching military decision of all time, and who accepted the formal surrender of Nazi Germany, must have a core of steel; a streak of ruthlessness; the ability to make cold, hard, objective decisions; and an imperial sense of command, however well disguised they may be by a big grin and a firm handshake.”



Dwight D. Eisenhower almost didn’t go to West Point. He wanted to go, but his best friend decided to go to Annapolis and Swede talked Dwight into applying with him. When the Senator was looking over their applications he decided that Dwight was going to replace a young man from Kansas who had just dropped out of West Point.

The fickleness of fate.

If Dwight D. Eisenhower had went to Annapolis he might have been Ike, but he never would have been IKE. He would have been successful, but he probably would have never been POTUS. His parents were both Mennonites. His mother later switched to Jehovah's Witness; regardless whatever their religious affiliation, they were appalled that their son wanted to be a soldier. It went against everything they believed. They were a poor family, held upright by the generosity of Ike’s grandfather.


The Eisenhower Family. Front row: Father David, Milton and Mother Ida. Back row: Dwight, Edgar, Earl, Arthur, and Roy.

All six Eisenhower brothers were successful, some even became wealthy. After the war when Dwight was touring Abilene, Kansas he saw a sign in front of his old house proclaiming it to be the birthplace of General Eisenhower. He became furious. He was famous for his volcanic temper. He demanded that the sign be changed to say Birthplace of the Eisenhower brothers. At the time he was one of the most famous men in the world. When it came to his brothers he never let his accomplishments overshadow theirs... at least not in his own mind.

During WW1 he was asked to train new recruits. Despite frequently requesting to be transferred overseas so he could command men in action his superiors felt he was much more useful getting men ready for war. One particular recruit by the name of F. Scott Fitzgerald was less than enthusiastic about Ike. In fact he slept through his lectures and disliked him with a burning intensity. Maybe it is a good thing that Fitzgerald’s Brooks Brothers suit never saw the mud of France.


Ike bored Fitzgerald. The young lad looked good in uniform though.

Ike worked for Douglas MacArthur for almost seven years as a key member of his staff in the Philippines. I think this turned out to be very fortunate posting because dealing with the ego of MacArthur prepared him for his eventual job as Supreme Commander when he had to contend with the massive egos of Montgomery, Churchill, De Gaulle, Patton, Roosevelt, and Stalin. Because MacArthur had a beautiful Eurasian mistress, who he went to see every afternoon for several hours, Ike had to cover for him. He also had to work until late into the night because that was when MacArthur liked to work best. Mamie was not amused.


The wooing Young Eisenhower.

When Ike was trying to win the hand of Mamie Doud he decided to show his worthiness by transferring to the burgeoning aviation division because they were paying flyers much more than what he could make in the Army. Her father told him that he could not marry Mamie if he became a flyer. Mr. Doud felt it was too dangerous a profession. Ike tore up the application papers and got married.

The wheel of fate rolled back into the proper groove.

Even though he loathed professional politicians he was actually very good at politics. He mastered the art of being ambiguous. As President this evasiveness was sometimes misconstrued as dithering or vagueness or even incompetence when in reality Ike was unwilling to ever be badgered into giving an opinion that would restrict his decisions later. He was confident in his own judgments and would not allow anyone to force him into policies or military decisions that he was not comfortable with.

Ike would never lead men into battle, at least not the way he wanted to. His competency kept him away from the fields of war and strapped him to a desk. His superiors recognized him as a man who could see the big picture. He could keep proper perspective of the power that they would eventually be asking him to shoulder. As he surpassed his old boss MacArthur and his old friend Patton who both had what he craved, battle field experience, his loyalties to both men were severely tested as Ike needed them to be men who lead, but who could also follow. When a woman asked MacArthur years later if he knew Eisenhower he retorted: Best damn clerk I ever had.” There might be more than a tinge of bitterness in that statement, but also he was absolutely right.

Eisenhower turned out to be the best damn clerk of the whole damn war.

Vicissitudes of fortune, which spares neither man nor the proudest of his works, which buries empires and cities in a common grave.”---Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire


Kay Summersby was never far from Ike.


Ike had a British driver named Kay Summersby, a one time model who became his constant companion during the war. She became famous when she showed up in an article in Life Magazine. Mamie was not amused. It wasn’t unusual for Generals overseas to have pretty young women attached to their staff who did more for them than iron their uniform. Michael Korda is uncertain as to the relationship that Ike and Kay may have had. The history of lust will tell us that more than likely she was providing comfort to Ike above the neck and below the waist. If she was his lover she was someone more than just a bed warmer she was also someone he could trust who didn’t have an agenda.

Korda was reluctant to commit on this subject because there doesn’t seem to be the usual smoking gun of an inappropriate letter or a love child or a symbolic gift that could make a definitive case. Wouldn’t it be refreshing if he didn’t sleep with her? A nontraditional conclusion regarding most powerful men...well...men. Though if he did, frankly, with the stress and strain of his life it certainly would have been forgivable. Knowing Winston Churchill I like to think that he intentionally planted the beauty on Ike and she was feeding him information that Ike might have been reluctant to share with him.


The PINK LADY! Helen Gahagan Douglas.

The presidential chapters are just a few slender reeds compared to the chapters devoted to the war. It is interesting that given the way Ike despised career politicians that he was stuck with Richard Nixon as a running mate. When Ike was making out a list of potential vice presidents Nixon was on the second tier of candidates. Nixon at this point in time was most famous for his electoral victory over Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas in which he accused her of being a communist ”describing her memorably, if ungallantly, as ‘pink right down to her underwear.’” Brilliant, odious, but brilliant for not only does he get a laugh but he gets the titillating laugh of the nudge, nudge, wink, wink variety with the added bonus of reminding everyone, this is 1950 mind you, that she was a woman. (Nixon actually stole the line from her primary challenger Manchester Boddy.)

Nixon gave Eisenhower the willies. Hell, Nixon gave everyone the willies.


I’d like to think the caption is: Eisenhower has just made a joke at Nixon’s expense. Ike is thinking what a DICK and Nixon is thinking what a BALD BASTARD.

Eisenhower did accomplish some civil rights work as President though I think he could have done more. He had a famous showdown with an Arkansas governor over segregation in schools. Ike was convinced as were many white Americans that equal rights needed to come along slowly to keep the powder keg from exploding. He ended the Korean War. He kept the United States out of war for eight years.

Eisenhower’s presidency has been described as boring, but one thing I’ve found with reading presidential biographies is that no presidency is boring. So much happens within this country over a four or eight year span not to mention the world events that have an impact on American policies and politics.

”Never complain, never explain.”-- Disraeli Ike liked that quote and lived it.

Ike was proud of his card playing prowess. He understood concealment, secrecy, and most importantly the ability to bluff. He was not the tactician that Montgomery or MacArthur were. He didn’t have the audacity of Patton or the assured arrogance of De Gaulle. He was not the orator that Churchill or Roosevelt were. But if I had to pick a man to run a war or the man to be president on the verge of WW3 I’d pick Ike every day of the week and twice on Sunday over all these very talented men. His hubris never exceeded his ability to control it. He was a man who knew how to listen, ponder,and make a decision that would steer a course through the gunsmoke of bombastic rhetoric. He was also a man who knew how to be heard over the rattling of sabers. I agree with another Eisenhower biographer, Evan Thomas, that his greatest victories were the wars he did not fight.”


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Midwife Crisis

Call the Midwife: Farewell to the East End by Jennifer Worth
2009
Reviewed by Diane K.M.
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars


Blimey, this memoir was bleak. 

Jennifer Worth's third book about her years serving as a midwife in London's East End in the 1950s was much darker than the first two. It was well-written and the stories were all compelling, but it covered some serious stuff, including babies who died during delivery, botched abortions, children killed by tuberculosis, a father who prostituted his daughter on a ship, and the Contagious Diseases Acts.

I need to pause here to explain how horrified I was to hear about the Contagious Diseases Acts, which was passed by British Parliament in the 1860s. It allowed police officers to arrest any girl or woman they suspected of being a prostitute and to check her for venereal disease. Reportedly some officers took full advantage of this and basically raped the women while doing their "exam." There is such a story in this book, and it is dark, man.

"Any woman of any age could be subjected to this horrifying treatment. At the time the age of consent was thirteen, so a child of that age could legally be regarded as a woman. The Contagious Diseases Act affected only working-class women, because upper-class women never walked in the streets alone, but would be accompanied or in a carriage. Men of any age or class were exempt from arrest and examination, even if caught in the act of soliciting, because the Act of 1864 was specifically designed for the control of women."

The Acts galvanized the women's movement in England, and mercifully the CDA was repealed in 1886.

The case of the sea captain who encouraged his daughter to sleep with every man on ship, including himself, was also shocking. The midwives learned about her because the girl had become pregnant, and good ol' Chummy was the one who helped deliver the baby on board the vessel. The story had a nice coda because that night Chummy met an officer she eventually married. 

There are also lively stories of Sister Monica Joan, who discovered the joys of taking a cab ride instead of the bus, and we learn about the woman who runs the local pub. The end of the book discusses how the neighborhood changed in the 1960s, and why the midwives and nuns eventually closed their practice. 

"One by one the docks closed; air freight had replaced the old cargo boats, and the dockers became redundant. At the same time demolition of bomb-damaged and slum property started, and people were rehoused out of London in the new towns. For many this was life-shattering, particularly for the older generation who had lived their entire lives within a radius of two or three streets, close to their children and grandchildren. The rehousing programme tore apart the extended family, which had provided the unity and been the strength of East End life for generations."

I listened to all three of Jennifer Worth's Midwife memoirs on audio, read by Nicola Barber, who was an excellent narrator. This third book is filled with a lot of history and social issues of the day, which was interesting, but I had hoped for a little lighter fare. I would still recommend it, just be prepared for some sad tales.

Faithful Place

Faithful Place by Tana French
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When Frank Mackey was 19, he planned to run away to London with his sweetheart, only she never showed up. Everyone assumed she ran away on her own, including Frank. Decades later, when her suitcase turns up in the chimney of a building being renovated, Frank returns to his old neighborhood to confront the possibility that Rosie Daly never left at all...

What would you be willing to die for? That's the question Frank Mackey's father asks him in his youth that sets the tone for most of the book. Another of the running themes is "no one can mess you up like your family can."

Faithful Place brings undercover cop Frank Mackey back to his old neighborhood and reunites him with the family he hasn't spoken to in decades. It didn't long for me to figure out why Frank is such a manipulative asshole. It runs in the blood.

The poor Dublin neighborhood Frank grew up in is one of the better-developed settings I've ever encountered. You can almost smell the desperation wafting off the pages. Frank's family is a well drawn bunch, all seeming like real people, warts and all.

The mystery itself was much easier to crack than in the previous two volumes. I guessed the killer based on a line he uttered somewhere in the first 30% of the story. Frank catching up with me was quite a ride. By the time I was finished, I was glad the sadness parade was over.

The third book in Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series maintains the standard set by the previous two volumes. Tana French is quickly earning a place in my favorite authors list. Four out of five stars.

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Murder and Mayhem in the Dead of Winter

Reviewed by James L. Thane
Three out of five stars

This is an atmospheric novel set in the middle of winter in a tiny town in eastern Pennsylvania named Wyalusing. At the center of the story is Danny Bedford, a giant of a man who was left severely challenged mentally in an accident in which both of his parents died while Danny was still a young boy.

Since that time, Danny's life has been a stern trial. He was raised by a bitter hard-drinking uncle and after the death of the uncle supports himself by tending to a laundromat. He lives in a tiny room above the laundromat which is part of his compensation. Most other residents in the small community either ignore Danny or mock him both because of his size and his disability.

The only person who's ever been kind to Danny is a waitress named Mindy who shares his birthday and who is angered by the way the rest of the town treats him. But when Mindy turns up murdered, Danny suddenly finds himself in the crosshairs of a number of people who immediately jump to the conclusion that he has killed her.

In particular, Danny is pursued by a vicious deputy sheriff who has bullied Danny all their lives and who is now ready to shoot him on sight. Danny is only vaguely aware of what is going on around him and his chances of surviving the night of the murder seem small indeed.

As the title implies, the story takes place in the dead of winter, and Gailey is at his best in setting the frigid scene in which the action takes place. The characters are well-drawn, if a bit one-dimensional, and one feels a great deal of sympathy for Danny and the tragic situation in which he finds himself. But the story did not resonate with me quite as much as I had hoped, in part because some of the characters did not seem all that believable.

This is another of those novels in which some of the characters drink very heavily in addition to taking drugs. As a result, any normal person would be totally incapacitated very early on, although these characters continue to forge on for hours, committing mayhem on a massive scale. This ultimately took me out of the story because I kept thinking that at least one or two of these characters should have been not just dead drunk, but simply dead from alcohol poisoning long before the climax of the novel.

There's another development at the end of the book which allows the narrative to spin out for another few chapters but that simply made no sense to me, and so while I enjoyed parts of this book, it winds up being three stars for me rather than four.  

Sameness Is Setting In For Snicket

The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket
Reviewed by Jason Koivu
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Those super unfortunate orphans get stuck with another ineffectual guardian, who can't keep them safe from the dastardly Count Olaf. Looks like they'll have to find their own way out of this tight bind all by themselves, again!

Amateur Character Actor and Plotter of Evil Deeds............

Count Olaf



The The Wide Window has some colorful characters, wonderful settings and enough action to keep this one entertaining through out. The overly apt naming of people and places gives this a very old-school storybook feel. Snicket keeps up with the whole defining big words thing, which some kids probably get annoyed with, even if they do learn a new word or two.

However, the problem is that at only the third in this series of 13 books, the repetitious plot line is beginning to wear thin. I doubt I would've read even this far in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events if it weren't that the man behind that preposterous pseudonym, Daniel Handler, played accordion on my favorite band, The Magnetic Fields fantastic triple cd album 69 Love Songs. I know, it's a stretch, but I loved everything about them at the time and couldn't help myself. Here's a somber song he played on, if you care to listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReTxR...


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Wicked Awesome!

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
Reviewed by Jason Koivu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Busting out my born-and-raised Bostonian accent, let me just say, this is Wicked awesome!

Without taking itself too seriously, Gregory Maguire's Wicked takes Frank L. Baum's original work quite seriously, using reverential satire, witty wordplay and just plain silliness to tell a fan's version of the Wicked Witch of the West's backstory. Like a roaster lightly and lovingly giving the roastee a tender "going over", coddling his target out of a deep love and respect, Maguire delicately prods Baum's material, for instance, giving unintended meaning to or investing heavy with innuendo scenes and situations that the originator probably unintentionally left open to interpretation.

The book hinges upon the descent of the central character into a kind of madness. Maguire's Witch becomes a sort of Raskolnikov character, over thinking herself into believing her own mania, such as Dostoyevsky's anti-hero in Crime and Punishment. She is propelled by emotion, which she attempts to suppress, and an ideological movement, which she wholly embraces to the point of being enveloped by it. By the end, both have her wrapped within their choking grasp. Maguire's handling of this descent is relatively subtle. He takes his time to lay down some of the important breaking points in the Witch's life that eventually transform her from a little girl into a monster, a very real monster if not for the reasons she is perceived to be one.

I've read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz only once and have seen The Wizard of Oz movie countless times, so my ideas of how the story goes is skewed towards the Hollywood version. That's good and bad. Good, because this is one of those times when the movie improved upon the source material. Specifically, the movie cuts out a lot of unnecessary fluff that bogs the book down. Bad, because the movie distorts some parts of the book. That's not really a problem, unless you're trying to remember what's what and who's who in this Land of Oz Frank L. Baum created. Maguire relies heavily on the reader already knowing this stuff. If you don't, you'll be a bit lost in a wealth of new characters and creatures coming from Baum's pre-existing fantasy world. Maguire's layering on of politics will probably drag down the story and bore you. Plus you won't be in on some of the jokes! So yes, I'm suggesting you read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz before attempting Wicked.

It's taken a while for me to get around to reading it myself. I was under the impression that its appeal was directed towards women, since they were the only ones reading it. Certainly it has a feminine slant. Most of the principle characters are female. The other inhibitor was that Wicked had been turned into an extremely popular Broadway hit, heralded by a seemingly undiscerning, Disney-loving mass. The number of reviews right here on Goodreads by folks who first saw the show, then read this book and gave it a scathing review, seemed to back that theory up. However, that they lambasted it as "too vulgar", "not like the show at all", "too long" and that the musical "summed up the first half of the book in an 8 minute long song!" made me realize this was probably a really good book worth reading. If it makes non-readers hold their nose and back away, that's the book for me!

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Dirty Little Secrets, by C.J. Omololu

Dirty Little Secrets
by C.J. Omololu

Reviewed by Sesana
Four out of five stars

Publisher Summary:

 Everyone has a secret. But Lucy’s is bigger and dirtier than most. It’s one she’s been hiding for years—that her mom’s out-of-control hoarding has turned their lives into a world of garbage and shame. She’s managed to keep her home life hidden from her best friend and her crush, knowing they’d be disgusted by the truth. So, when her mom dies suddenly in their home, Lucy hesitates to call 911 because revealing their way of life would make her future unbearable—and she begins her two-day plan to set her life right.

With details that are as fascinating as they are disturbing, C. J. Omololu weaves an hour-by-hour account of Lucy’s desperate attempt at normalcy. Her fear and isolation are palpable as readers are pulled down a path from which there is no return, and the impact of hoarding on one teen’s life will have readers completely hooked.
  
My Review:

 Yes, this is a problem novel, and the problem this time around is hoarding. Sort of an unusual choice to write a YA novel about, but not entirely surprising. Gawking at hoarders is a bit of a cottage industry on certain cable channels, after all. Dirty Little Secrets is entirely from the perspective of the teenage child of a hoarder, and it's set almost entirely in the day that she's discovered her mother dead in their home. And fair warning, some of the descriptions in this book are stomach-churning.

Lucy's decision, to spend a few days cleaning up the house before reporting her mother's death, was at first all but anything but understandable to me. I'm not sure why Omololu decided to start with that shock and then use the rest of the book to try to convince her reader that Lucy isn't an unbelievably awful person. She gave herself quite an uphill battle. It's partway through the tour of the house that I started to understand, even if I never could imagine doing this myself. Maybe it was when Lucy found the hamster cage, or realized that her mother had given no more care and consideration to things that Lucy had made than to random pieces of garbage. There's also plenty of flashbacks that put her relationship with her mother into context. Essentially, there isn't one, which is one of the saddest things about this book.

Lucy's mother was definitely a compulsive hoarder, and she had come to the point that building walls of things around herself had cut her off from her family. Lucy believes that her mother loved her stuff more than she loved her, and because we never see inside her mother's mind, we don't know how true that is. And does it really matter if it isn't? It's what Lucy genuinely believes to be true, and she'll never know otherwise at this point. Lucy's apparent coldness is a defense she's built up over time. After reading this book, I visited the website Omololu mentions at the end of the book, Children of Hoarders, and wasn't surprised at how much Lucy sounded like the people on the site. She did her homework.

On the last few pages, Lucy makes a decision that, if I'd read it at the start of the book, would have seemed insane. But by the end, I was able to understand just how much she felt backed into a corner. Not excuse or defend her actions, exactly, but I could understand. It was hard to read at times, but I'm very glad this book exists. Gawking at hoarders is almost a national pastime, but it's always from the perspective or an outsider. At best, there's some dwelling on the state of mind of the hoarder, but the effects on the others in the house aren't really talked about so much. 

Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie

BEST SERVED COLD
Joe Abercrombie
2009 Gollancz

reviewed by carol
 
★  ★  ★  ★


AKA “Abercrombie and the Ultimate Anti-Heroes.”Here’s the short review: reading Best Served Cold is like being a guest judge on ‘Iron Chef America: Sardines.’ Sure, there’s some incredible stuff happening–but still… it’s sardines . And would you really want to eat like that every day?

The long review: What’s good? The writing, the world, the character description, the brilliant way Abercrombie links and weaves so many plots together, both large and small, and the tension he is able to build through the story even when the general outline is known (“seven deaths”). There were times I found myself saying, “now that was a fabulous sentence/paragraph/plot twist,” but I couldn’t tear myself away from reading long enough to take down a note or two. So we will all have to remain unsure which particular points struck me; what I remember is that they were there and there was more than one. One notable narrative device used to brilliant effect is in memory segments in the beginning of some chapters. The memory gives context an earlier event we’ve already heard rumors about or how it has given rise to particular actions. It results in a neat little bite of background to the rumors, character insight and world history. Overall, he achieves that rare writer’s groove where the reader stops to marvel, but not long enough to disengage from the story.

The bad? Well, while it’s not done badly, truly none of the characters are very likeable. Caught in webs of their own weaving, and victims of their own pursuits, no one is very sympathetic. These are well-created characters that occasionally navigate their challenges with grace, and always with fortitude, but most often just use determination and brutality. If you’ve read The First Law series, and Abercrombie is hoping you have (as more than a few characters have first made appearances there), the main character, Monza, “The Butcher,” suffers overmuch from similarity to Inspector Glotka. The frequent references to her physical discomforts sounded a great deal like the words used to describe him, and I found myself feeling like a significant amount of her character-building was poached from him. Abercrombie writes that part of his personal challenge with this book was writing a lead female character, and perhaps because of Glokta, I just feel like he didn’t quite succeed.

Four stars for literary excellence, but the brutality and lack of truly heroic characters will keep me from adding to my personal collection, and prevent me awarding full five-star awesomeness rating.



cross-posted from my blog at  https://clsiewert.wordpress.com/