The Silver Bone by Andre Kurkov

Sunday, May 5, 2024--San Antonio

The Silver Bone by Andre Kurkov was longlisted for the Booker International Prize.  It is a crime story that takes place in Kiev during the the political turmoil of 1917-1918.  Samson is a young man whose mother and sister have already died and he and his father are attacked on the street by Cossacks.  The father dies having his head split in two by a sword while also saving his son by pushing him as a sword goes toward his head.  Samson loses only an ear and faces life alone.  He needs to find a job.  This is a period of high crime due to the turmoil, and he writes a report of another crime and takes it to the police which are very shorthanded.  Because Samson's report is well written with good details, he is hired on the spot to join the police force if he is interested and is immediately assigned to follow the case he has reported which involves two soldiers who have apparently stolen items, pushed themselves into Samson's apartment claiming the right to live there, and are planning to desert the Red Army to go home for planting season.  It is a rather simple detective story--the first of a series that is planned.  It seems to have been shortlisted for the prize because it includes an aspect of magical realism; Samson can hear things happening wherever the severed part of his ear is placed.  As a detective story, it is lacking, I believe.  For instance, with crimes happening daily, Samson is allowed to pursue just two crimes over a period of what seems to be several weeks.  I gave the book 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

The Male Gazed by Manuel Betancourt

Thursday, May 16, 2024--San Antonio

The Male Gazed by Manuel Betancourt is a memoir in essays.  I checked it out because it was on a number of lists of top books in 2023.  I don't see how it got there.  It is very boring for anyone who isn't familiar with Colombian soap operas, the "Colombian Liberace," specific TV series in the US, the details of Madonna's Vogue album, the excitement discovered by gay men from the lower east side going to Harlem to experience voguing, minute details of every season of Ru Paul's Drag Race, etc.  The author, only about 39 years old, has written it as if what has happened in his life and how he has lived his life is of great importance, so important that he had to write page-after-page of details as if everyone has had the same experiences in life as he has--not as a story, but as essays that describe exactly what happened in detail, his thrill of discovery from those experiences, etc.  Reading on a Kindle, I often thumbed through multiple pages at a time rather than waste time on details that were meaningless to me.  It's obvious that the author thinks he is very enlightened and is living a fabulous life of discovery and understanding.  I'm just glad I got this through the library and didn't waste any money on it.  I gave it 2 1/2 stars out of 5.

And There He Kept Her + Where the Dead Sleep by Joshua Moehling

Saturday, May 11, 2024--San Antonio

And There He Kept Her and Where the Dead Sleep are both by Joshua Moehling are the first two books in a series of crime stories with a third book currently being written.  The former was a finalist for the Lambda Mystery Award earlier this year, and the latter was just recently published. Both take place in a summer lake vacation resort near the Canadian border in Minnesota.  Both also revolve around members of the Gherling family--the wealthiest local family.  Ben Packard, a deputy detective, has recently been named acting sheriff by the man who hired him and is on leave to be treated for cancer.  When Ben was young, he and his family spent summers with his grandparents who had a cabin on the local lake.  One of Ben's brothers disappeared one winter during the Christmas holidays.  No body was ever found; just his snowski and a single glove he was wearing were found in the edge of the lake.  Ben had never returned until recentl--to take the job as a detective after growing up in the Twin Cities and serving as a policeman there.  When Ben's romantic partner,who was also a policeman dies, he wants to leave the big city to get away from the memories there and just happens to find the job available in the lake resort he remembers from his childhood.  In the first book, two young teenagers have disappeared and Ben is the lead detective in trying to find them.  Solving the mystery involves learning about a local drug ring run by one of the young grandchildren of one branch of the Gherling family and solving several cold cases related to missing persons.  The small-time drug ring dealer and his addict sister are spoiled teenagers and major disappointments within the family. In the second book, there is a robbery and murder that involves the adult children of the other branch of the Gherling family.  There is a mother and 3 female children who are what might be called hellcats who are resentful and have been fighting among themselves throughout the lives of the 3 daughters.  Ben Packard is again the lead detective in solving the crime in this book.  He is also running for election to serve as permanent sheriff in the second book.  Both books are well written.  The stories are complex, but not unnecessarily so.  There are critical details that are only revealed toward the end of each book.  Although Ben is gay, they are not gay stories; that just happens to be a part of the life of the man who is the central investigator in these two mystery stories.  I gave both books 4 stars out of 5.

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

Wednesday, May 1, 2024--San Antonio

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and named a Top Ten book of the year by the New York Times and the Washington Post.  It is a long (650+ pages) and complicated novel filled with secrets, lies, high expectations on others, abuse, business failures, crimes, failed relationships, etc.  Readers who do not enjoy a story that spirals downwards from the beginning to the end, should probably skip this one.  It is filled with moments that will create tension for the reader more and more as time passes.  It takes place in Ireland and spans approximately 20 years with occasional moments of memories from earlier than that.  All the characters have their flaws (although often hidden) and as the reader you will likely want to yell at them when they are making poor decisions in life.  It is built around the lives of a wealthy family who owns the Volkswagon dealership in the town.  The owner is at retirement age.  He has two young sons--the younger one who is the star football player and a promising salesman because of his personality and the older one who leads a quieter and more studious life with plans to go to Trinity College in Dublin.  The younger son actually takes care of his older brother in school when he is teased or bullied.  The father has chosen the older one to eventually take over the business.  But there is another family, a very poor one, in town with a daughter who is the most beautiful of the secondary school female students and is scheming to live a more glamorous life.  Unfortunately, life in her home with an alcoholic father and 3 older brothers is not easy, so she lives with an aunt.  The book follows the lives of the members of two families.  It tells the same stories from different perspectives so that what you have learned happened at one point in the book is altered later with input with someone else.  It is a fascinating and interesting story, but I did not find it to be an enjoyable read.  The downward spiral of the lives of the characters through poor decisions just created too many tense moments for me as the reader.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

The Sympathizer by by Viet Thanh Nguyen

 Sunday, Apr. 21, 2024--San Antonio

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen won the Pulitzer Prize among other prizes and forms of recognition.  I read about the new HBO series based on the novel and decided to read the book rather than watch the series.  It's fictional, yet each aspect of it matches descriptions of real events.  The book takes place toward the end of the Vietnam War and afterward.  The main character is a young man who is the son of a Vietnamese woman and a Frenchman who is a priest.  In the book he is a young adult who has gotten a college education in the USA and during the Vietnam war is working within the military intelligence operation as the assistant to a General while being sympathetic to the communist cause; therefore he is operating as an embedded spy.  The book is many stories tied together, though.  It's a story of discrimination since the young man is never completely accepted--is always an outlier--not considered to be a true Vietnamese nor a true westerner.  It's also the story of the war, the story of the end of the war and the harried escape, the story of being an immigrant in America, the story of what happened in Vietnam after the war, the story of the American Vietnamese immigrants wanting to retake their country, the story of the reeducation camps in Vietnam (like those that exist in all other communist countries) to break the resistance of former enemies and to keep the citizens in line--even those who fought for communism.  It is also the story of formed family since events throughout the book are built around the shared stories of 3 friends who became "blood brothers" when young and have tried to support and protect each other all their lives.  And as serious as all this sounds, there are points in this novel that are among the funniest I have ever read.  (I'll never forget what the 13-year old discovered as he stuck his fingers into a raw squid and what he eventually did!)  It's a good book which I read with up-and-down interest because it is essentially so many stories tied together as one.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjai-Brenyah

 Sunday, Apr. 14, 2024--San Antonio

Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjai-Brenyah, a finalist for the National Book Award, takes place in the near future of the United States.  The title is the name of the hottest new reality show which has taken the interest of the nation by storm.  It features prisoners voluntarily sign up for the show which requires them to fight each other to the death for a chance of prison release if they can keep winning for three years.  Different prisons around the name have their own representatives forming a "chain" in competition with the other chains.  The big stadium battles are always between members of different chains, but to keep the public's interest and introduce surprises, chains are followed regularly.  (Think Big Brother-type shows.) Technology has advanced so that there are no hidden cameras; instead, there are spinning orbs used zoom in, out and around to broadcast what is happening at any moment both during battles and outside of battles.  To add surprise actions, there are activities such as hiking/camping trips by individual chains through wilderness areas giving members a chance to turn on and kill other members of their on chain.  Most prisoners who participate die within a matter of 2-3 weeks.  There is a hierarchy of titles and privileges plus stardom to be gained the longer a prisoner stays alive.  Unlike the Hunger Games which occurred after changes in the type of national government and living conditions within the country, Chain Gang All Stars seems closer to possibly coming true since it is not so much of a stretch from what we already see in today's reality shows.  And there is the added question of why those watching as people kill each other are exhilarated.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5. 

Possession by A. S. Byatt

Saturday, Apr. 6, 2024--San Antonio

I quit reading Possession by A. S. Byatt at the 33% point even though it was a winner of the Booker Prize.  I feel it won that award because of the complexity of the story rather than for being a good story to read.  I actually quit reading at the 4% point and moved on to another book which I finished in less than 3 days.  So far, after going back to this book to see if I could stay with it, I have wasted a total of about 10 days to get only 1/3 of the way through it, and I have no interest in continuing.  The basic story of the researchers who have discovered missing letters between two authors from decades ago is interesting, especially since the two authors they have spent so many years researching have been considered to be minor poets with unique, but not very interesting contributions to literature.  (In this respect, I think the author may have been trying to criticize the narrow niches that university scholars claim as their topics of specialization.) But the author has inserted so much of these "not very interesting" poems the authors created which contributes to the book boring.  Plus the letters the poets have written to each other are mostly boring to read due to so many references to each other's writings as well as the writings of historically significant authors/philosophers in history.  Only a person who wants to go through 500+ pages that resemble a puzzle to be solved and either know the classics of literature well or want to wade through them to understand references made to them would enjoy this novel.  Anyone else completing it could have only kept pushing through to be able to say they read it.  I gave it 2 stars out of 5 and am glad to leave it behind me.