Michigan Mysteries

Motherless Brooklyn

2012-02-16T08:31:00.000-08:00

The book is Motherless Brooklyn and the author is Jonathan Lethem. To my knowledge, this is the first full length work of fiction that features a narrator with Tourette's Syndrome. Besides the Tourettes's, our hero, Lionel Essrog, was raised in a Brooklyn orphanage which earned him my immediate sympathy and undivided interest. The author has definitely done his research on the condition. With a brain that constantly mangles, twists and interchanges words, Lionel takes the reader along on his tortuous journey as he tries to solve the murder of his long time mentor. Luc Sante called the book "funny, dizzying and heartbreaking". I agree.

The Paris Wife

2012-01-04T09:28:00.000-08:00

The book is The Paris Wife and the author is Paula McLain. Though I am not a big fan of Hemingway's work I thoroughly enjoyed this book, much of it set in Paris in the 1920's. Presented as fiction, the book does a thorough job of getting into the psyche of Hadley Richardson during the period she was Hemingway's wife. The book provides glimpses of their friendships with Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and the hard drinking eccentrics Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. The narrative takes us to Pamplona for the running of the bulls and into the mountains for skiing. I empathize with Hadley as she struggles to maintain equilibrium while trying to keep up with this crowd and still be a mother. The author has done her research and spun it into an engaging story. I am ready to read A Moveable Feast, Hemingway's own account of that period in his life.

IDENTICAL STRANGERS

2011-12-28T09:28:00.000-08:00

The book is "Identical Strangers; A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited" and the authors are Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein.
The book is non fiction with alternating entries by the two authors, identical twins who were adopted and raised by diffferent families. Elyse is in her mid-thirties and living in Paris when she begins to search for information about her birth mother. She never finds the mother but she does discover her identical twin. The two women meet and discover that they have much in common-- so much so that their chronicle is an important contribution to the dialogue about whether we are shaped more by nature or nurture.
Should twins be separated? How different would their lives have been if they had been raised together? These are the recurring questions that haunt these two women as they struggle to forge a new bond. Fortunately they are both articulate writers and have produced a fascinating, self written case study.

Unfamiliar Fishes

2011-12-21T08:37:00.000-08:00

The book is Unfamiliar Fishes and the author is Sarah Vowell. The author writes about history -- and achieves the unlikely result of making it funny. This story begins with the arrival of US missionaries in Hawaii, followed by the development of sugar plantations, and finally the deposition of the last native ruler, Queen Liliuokalani. Vowell takes an ironic look at the benefits brought by the haoles (whites) -- such as literacy, balanced against the native Hawaiins loss of culture and autonomy. She is unsparing as she recounts the foibles of both sides in the many conflicts involved. Somebody once commented that an author is well on the way to fame when his/her name appears on the book cover in larger print than the title. If this is true, then Sarah Vowell is on her way.

Pagoda Dreamer

2011-12-08T08:10:00.000-08:00

The book is Pagoda Dreamer and the author is Judith March Davis. Davis has written a biography of her mother Dorothy Rowe, based on her own recollections but largely aided by the letters that Dorothy wrote to her sister throughout her lifetime. The sister, known as Lurry, saved these lettters and presented them to Davis after her mother had died. The story begins in China, then moves to the states and then to Michigan, where a summer home in Pentwater plays a large part of the story. The book is a chronicle of a remarkable life; it also made this reader nostalgic for a time when people sat down and hand wrote long letters, sharing their feelings and perhaps administering a form of self therapy.
The story reminds me that I too have a box of letters. They were written by my younger self to my mother, when I was off adventuring in the world. I discovered them after my mother died, but for some reason I have never taken the time to read them. I wonder why??

South of Superior

2011-11-30T08:32:00.000-08:00

The book is SOUTH OF SUPERIOR and the author is Ellen Airgood. Airgood lives in Grand Marais, Michigan, and has used her home as a template for McAllister, the isolated Upper Peninsula town that is the setting of her novel. Madeline Stone, the protagonist,comes to live in McAllister in response to a request from a woman she hardly knows. But that woman is the only link Madeline has to her birth family, and she can't resist the longing to know more about her roots. As Madeline navigates the rigors of her new environment, she meets characters who will eventually change her life. Though I enjoyed the tale, I never felt immersed in it; I never completely identified with Madeline.

WINE AND WAR

2011-11-23T08:42:00.000-08:00

The book is WINE AND WAR, and the authors are Don and Petie Kladstrup. Based on extensive research and numerous personal interviews, the authors have fashioned a highly readable story about the French wine industry during the German occupation of World War II. They use personal narratives throughout the book, weaving them with historical events and little known facts. I was sorry when the book ended. So then I read the epilogue. And then the glossary. And finally the footnotes. Someday I'll read the whole thing again.

Middlesex

2011-11-16T07:55:00.000-08:00

The book is MIDDLESEX and the author is Jeffrey Eugenides.
In this age of transgender surgeries -- which have been publicized in books, films and even on televisions's Dancing with the Stars (thanks to Chaz Bono)--- I thought I was ready for anything. But I was totally knocked out by Eugenides' book, which is narrated by a hermaphrodite. I had seen pictures in historic and medical textbooks, but it never occured to me to wonder about such a person's interior, emotional life. Eugenides takes on this neglected subject and runs with it. First of all, he thoroughly educates the reader on the condition without ever becoming dry or pedantic. But more important, he takes us inside the mind of a young woman who hits puberty in a maelstrom of confusion as she realizes that she is different but doesn't understand how or why.
As I read, I became so involved with this young person that the act of violence committed on her/him in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park was heart- breaking. After 529 dense pages, the author fashions something more than we could hope for -- a happy ending. In my humble opinion, Eugenides is a genius.

The Yellow Brick Road

2011-11-09T09:37:00.000-08:00

The book is FINDING OZ and the author is Evan Schwartz.
It would be hard to find anyone in this country who has not seen the movie "The Wizard of Oz" where Judy Garland sing "Over the Rainbow" and gets transported to the colorful land of Oz.
The movie came from a play and the play came from a book written by L Frank Baum in the very early 1900's. I knew all of this since I grew up reading the "oz books" and have a complete collection. But Schwart'z book told me some things I didn't know about Mr.Baum.
For one thing, his mother-in-law, Matilda Gage, was an ardent and active feminist, campaigning for the vote for women. This might explain why the protagonist is a spunky, resourceful girl rather than a boy. Secondly, Baum was a emember of the Theosophical Society -- a group which brought tenets of Eastern religion and philosophy to the U.S. One of their studies involved the four paths to enlightenment -- through cultivation of the mind (intellect) development of the emotions (love) or through withstanding tests of courage. There you have it -- the scarecrow, the tinman and the lion. The fourth way is serenity -- finding home. This children's story became an American myth because it embodies a very real and helpful road map for becoming an adult.

Medieval Murders

2011-11-02T09:23:00.000-07:00

The book is Medieval Murders and the author is Aaron Stander. Stander lives in Michigan in the Traverse City area and is associated with the Interlochen Arts Academy.
This is Stander's fifth book with Ray Elkins as the teacher/cop/sleuth. In this case, the book is a prequel to the other four -- which might be confusing for anyone following Elkins' personal life but I did not find it so. Each of Stander's novels can stand alone, as mystery novels should.
The title refers to the deaths of three women, all of them teachers of Medieval Studies at an unnamed midwestern university. As Elkins says, it is statistically impossible for all of the deaths to have been accidents or even suicide. And he proceeds to prove his point.
When the killer is revealed, the motive seems a litle less than plausible, but that's just nit picking on my part. It's still a fun read.

can you make it Swedish?

2011-10-26T09:59:00.000-07:00

The October 17 issue of the New Yorker magazine has a cartoon in which an aspiring author has presented his manuscript to a potential publisher. The publisher smiles and says, "It's a gripping detective thriller, but could you make it Swedish??
For any of you who may have been living under a rock, the reference is to the 3 books by the Swedish writer Stieg Larsson -- books that have been topping best seller lists -- in the USA and elsewhere -- for the past year and longer.
The sales of this book may have been compounded by the fact that the author died of a heart attack shortly after he found a publisher.
But the books are fascinating in their own right. The female lead appears in the first book as "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", and continues to play a major role in the second and third volumes of the trilogy. I agree with people who say that that these novels have parts that are both violent and graphic. But in a book, it is easy to skip over those parts.
The male lead is a thinly disguised version of Larsson himself. Larsson is a strong feminist, and he doesn't shy away from the theme of sexual abuse by his own gender.
I read all three of these books; the aformentioned, then "The Girl who Played with Fire," and "The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest". But I didn't read them in close succession. For books as intense as these,one needs a breather in between. SD

A GOOD HARD LOOK

2011-10-19T09:02:00.000-07:00

The book is A GOOD HARD LOOK and the author is Ann Napolitano. this is a work of fiction, but one of the main characters is the real life writer Flannery O'connor. I will confess I have never read anything by O'connor, who seemed to specialize in short fiction. I did see the movie "Seabiscuit" a true story about an underdog race horse that came from behind to win. In Napolitano's book, Flannery is the promising writer who went off to New York, and now has been forced by illness to return to her home, a small town in Georgia. She lives with her mother and tries to focus on her writing and ignore the neighbors. Flannery's one indulgence is her birds -- she has acquired a noisy flock of unique fowl, the most notable being a gang of noisy peacocks. The first half of the book moves along like a chronicle of small town life, but then, there is a virtual implosion which leaves two people dead, and nothing can ever be the same again. The book is well written and left me wanting to know more about Flannery O'connor.
NEXT WEEK; Can you make it more Swedish?

welcome

2011-10-17T14:19:00.000-07:00

Hi there and welcome to my Michigan Mysteries blog. Like most writers, I am also an avid reader, of both fiction and non fiction. I like histories and mysteries, biographies, a little bit of chick lit and the occasional classic. I plan to post weekly about whatever I may be reading and I always welcome suggestions and comments from my readers. Coming up soon; A GOOD HARD LOOK by Ann Napolitano.