One Man's Opinion: WATCHMAN by IAN RANKIN

This one I should have read years ago. Still, better late than never. 

Watchman tells the tale of Miles Flint, a long-time spy who spends his life watching people for a job and as an excuse to occupy his time so that he needn't go home to his wife. 

Early on, he becomes ensnared in a case involving the shadowing of an individual in a fine London establishment. When the target of the observation slips away and throws Miles a knowing smile, something seems off. And it most definitely is. What follows in an unraveling of the investigation and all it touches.  

It took me a while to get into this. The opening pages stutter a little. There's a lot to get across and it feels slightly laboured. Thankfully, early jitters were soon overcome and I was sucked into the story so far that I couldn't stop reading. 

Flint's world is intriguing. It's set in a time of Irish terrorism and there's a spate of bombings in London that are keeping everyone busy. The structure of his organisation is fascinating and the characters, generally likened to specific species of beetle, are highly individual. It has a nice drive and a lovely sense of humour (P G Wodehouse meets The Thirty Nine Steps?). 

As the machinations unfold (infidelity, government ministers, journalists, terrorist cells, family complications, cross and double cross, betrayal and back-stabbing, to name those that come to mind) Watchman picks up the pace until it's fairly rattling along. I was loving every minute.

The plot is rather involved and it's a matter of trust that all the loose ends will be explained and tied up by the end. I'd say that the closing chapters are a little like the flesh of the villain as he is exposed- doughy and a on the sticky side. Though everything was ultimately resolved, it felt a bit too contrived and not quite as explosive as the earlier scenes. I guess I just wanted something more. 

All in all, a lot of fun and, bar the opening and close, riveting stuff.  

One Man's Opinion: INTO THE WAR by ITALO CALVINO

 

Before I picked up Italo Calvino's Into The War, I started Graham Greene's Stamboul Train. Much as I enjoyed the evocative sleeper train mood and some excellent scene description, I just couldn't get over the character often refered to as the Jew. I'm normally good at putting things into context and I'm happy to allow authors to play around with the belief systems of their characters, but this just didn't feel right. Perhaps it was shining a light on prejudice. Whatever it was doing, it was too much for me to stomach and I decided not to carry on. There were a few other reasons - slight confusions, unlikely happenings and a sense that it wouldn't be worth the effort even if I had made it to the end. You can tell me I made a mistake in the comments, but I'm happy that I pushed it aside. 

With that as a partial context, fleshed out with the rise of the right wing in recent German elections and the crazy events in the US where the president appears more deranged and dangerous than many of us suspected, a dip into Calvino seemed apt. 

I've read a number of novels by Calvino and loved them, though it was so long ago now that the memories aren't as firm as I might have hoped. This was my first encounter with his short autobiographical work. I had high expectations and wasn't disappointed. 

Mussolini has just declared war and we get three pieces written by a teenage boy with a sense of subversion and a keen eye for detail. There are elements that seem ethereal alongside those that are surreal. There are harsh realities, humourous observations and a sense of the bizarrenes of it all. Smoking, sex and mischief figure heavily, as you might expect, as does the probing into the regimentation of the youth as they are forced into banal roles within the fascist structure. 

Each story is short, though punches way above it's size. It's definitely worth reading and a reminder to us, if we're not there aleady, that Into The War is not a place we want to be. Those that want to stir the pot for their own selfish ends or to flex and increase their power on the world stage, be warned. 

One Man's Opinion: STATION ELEVEN by EMILY ST. JOHN MANDEL

 

‘She’d once met an old man up near Kindardine who’d sworn that the murdered follow their killers to the grave, and she was thinking of this as they walked, the idea of dragging souls across the landscape like cans on a string.’

I’ve been watching a lot of ER recently. Last week I experienced for the second time the death of Dr Mark Greene. I was reminded just how powerful the scenes are and how nicely handled it all is. Clever writing and great production.

As Mark does his best to come to terms with his impending death, he is also struggling with his relationship with his daughter. When considering the final piece of advice to pass on before he leaves, he settles on ‘be generous’. It’s a beautiful moment and a profound offering.

That has all been floating around with me for a while and was certainly at the back of my mind while I read the most wonderful novel, Station Eleven. It’s a work about a world-changing pandemic written way before our 2020 experiences that takes us through the build up to the event its consequences.

There’s so much to love and I will not come close to doing it justice in my own reflections.

The opening is breath-taking. On stage is King Lear, played by Arthur Leander, who is about to have a heart attack and die. He’s at the centre of a web of characters through which the story will be told. There’s Jeevan, a would-be paramedic who leaps upon the stage in an attempt to save his life; Kirsten, a young girl who appears in the play and whose mother hopes has a great future in acting; Clark, Arthur’s oldest friend; Miranda, his ex-wife and the creator of the comic of the title; and Tyler his only child.

After failing in his attempt to save Arthur, Jeevan learns of the dangers of the Georgia flu. He’s ahead of the game in this respect and does what most people seem to do in worrying situations – panic buy and seek out those who are most important. The whole episode is utterly compelling, the tension ever-present, the need to know where the story will take them all-consuming.

From there we flash backwards and forwards in unexpected ways. For a while, I was disappointed it didn’t go in the direction I’d hoped, but I soon realised that what I wanted from this book, and perhaps any novel, was being provided for in spades and that I just had to trust Emily St John Mandel with her vision.

I’m not greatly informed when it comes to post-apocalyptic or dystopian fiction. Even so, I’ve tried to write a bit of it and was pleased with my efforts. This, however, does what all good work does and steps out of the genres to encompass everything.

The world of the post-Georgia flu is created in ways that it’s easy to imagine. What’s makes it stand out so strongly is the journey of each of the characters. We get to know their history, but more importantly to me, grow to understand the ways in which they come to terms with their own mortality. A pandemic is good for one thing and that’s forcing people to reflect upon what is important. The characters in this novel leave trails for us to follow as we contemplate our own pasts, presents, futures and demise.

I have a whole list of things I want to focus on now that I’ve finished. It’s the kind of story that will have you asking and answering questions throughout. Much as I’d like to list some of my conclusions, I think that would be foolish. Read the book for yourself and make decisions of your own. The one I feel it is okay to share is the rekindled desire to read great fiction – life really is too short to spend too much time with the chaff.

Station Eleven has a little bit of everything. Profundity. Poetry. Surrealism. Tension. Heartbreak. Joy. Hope. Humour. Violence. Tenderness. You name it, I’m sure it’s in there. Not that these things make it dry. This story is alive. The characters are vivid. Their journeys are immense and I’m glad I sat along with each of them for the ride, no matter how turbulent each was.

Aces all round for this. My favourite read in quite some time.

One Man's Opinion: LIGHTNING by ED McBAIN

 

When lightning strikes, I imagine it hurts. A lot. It certainly does in this novel by Ed McBain.

Here we have two main cases running through the book as the detectives of the 87^th Precinct have their hands full.

Across the city, the bodies of young female athletes are being hung from lampposts and a repeat rapist is terrorising a set of chose individuals with his constant returns. The overall impression that I was left with following the read was that I had been much more involved with the victims of this story than many others, feeling their pain and anguish much more readily than I might normally. There’s no gallows humour to cover the sadness that comes along with the destruction of young lives and the nature of the power imbalances weighs heavily.

As the story unfolds, all of those involved have an uneasy feeling that the Deaf Man is behind the hangings – who else would taunt and probe the detectives in this way? There’s a fabulous set of scenes where each of the cops imagines the Deaf Man’s involvement, which also give us another, as always, appreciated window into their personal lives.

Among the chaos of the crimes, we spend time with more of the women of the precinct. Annie Rawles is a beautiful tough nut who works with the rape squad. She also happens to be sleeping with Cotton Hawes. Eileen Burke is a decoy from special forces and she is sleeping with Kling. They’re heavily involved and it’s the experience of their case from their perspectives that adds a huge amount of emotional power and tension to Lightning.

Other than the main events, there are some fantastic sub-plots to keep a reader entertained. Meyer is experimenting with a wig and the reception is mixed. There’s also a reappearance for the always repugnant Ollie Weeks to stir the pot while helping to progress the case. Best of all, there’s a glimpse into Teddy Carella’s life. She’s thinking about getting back into work after years of being a stay-at-home mother. For someone of her intelligence and experience, that should be no problem; unfortunately the world isn’t that straightforward and this cameo throws petrol onto misogynistic flames that have been flickering from the off.

It really is a cracker and could easily have been told as two separate stories, but the fact that they are woven together adds power to the whole, two excellent plots coming together to form a giant.

One Man's Opinion: WHERE THE BONES LIE by NICK KOLAKOWSKI

I was really pleased to get an ARC of Where The Bones Lie by Nick Kolakowski. It's a story that will be familiar to many a fan of vintage noir, more specifically to the Private Eye of the Hollywood variety. It shares many of the tropes that might be expected in the genre and manages to provide hommage to what has gone before while carving out something fresh and new. 

Dash Fuller is falling flat on the comedy circuit while attempting to create a new and clean life for himself, when up pops an old acquaintance. Manny is a high-end lowlife fixer who will sort out the complications of studios and those involved in the celebrity industry if they're prepared to pay him enough. 

Dash is flat broke and is in no position to say no. In spite of his better judgement, he sets out in search of a couple of big players who have disappeared off the radar to carry on their bizarre lifestyle. 

Almost in parallel to this, a young woman is desperate to find out what happened to her father, a shady dude who disappeared many years earlier and whose body has recently been found in a lake after the water level dropped significanlty. She enlists Dash's help and off they go to try and unlock the skeletons from their closet. 

The cases allow us an insight into a fascinating world that provides a great backdrop against which the book unfolds. 

The good news is that it's a tense and fun read that will entertain anyone who likes a complex PI story where layers are stripped off painfully until all that's left are the bare bones of the truth. 

The better news, at least in my opinion, is that there may well be more to come. It definitely feels like a series opener and I think that it's likely that the next tale will be even stronger and richer - Dash Fuller is someone who is deep and will take some getting to know and I have a sense that the more of him that is revealed, the more we're going to want to stick around.

Go check it out. 
 

One Man's Opinion: A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE by ARTHUR MILLER

 

It seemed apt to pick this from my shelves this week, what with the return of Donald Trump to the White House. All that negative talk about immigration and questions regarding the right to become a citizen if born to in the States is rather depressing. I wish I could see a positive side to all of this; I think that the only thing I can find is that I'm far away from it, something I'm jolly grateful for. 

The United States, that melting pot of the world's cultures, seems to have a patchy record when it comes to who is allowed to visit/live or not. Clearly the 1950s Miller writes about here was another period where the arrival for those seeking a new life without permission was a very big deal. 

Eddie Carbone works down at the waterfront in Red Hook. He's a simple man who works hard and takes advantage of the benefits of unloading cargo from on occasion. He lives in a small apartment with his wife and his neice, a young girl who is quickly turning into a woman. We see from early on that Eddie's relationship with his neice, Catherine, is odd. While wanting to control the women in his life, she's able to get away with things if she plays her cards right and if her aunt pulls some strings. 

Catherine's already on the verge of moving out from the family setting. She's been offered a job a little way from their home and is keen to leave school to take it. Eddie is struggling with the idea that she might grow away from them and puts his foot down hard. 

Entering the picture are two of his wife's cousins, Maro and Rodolpho. They enter the country illegaly from Italy, Marco to support his family and Rodolpho to start a new life. They  bring with them a strong sense of pride and in their traditional values as well as a host of problems for Eddie. Putting up illegal immigrants is a crime in terms of the law, grassing up those who have the courage to house them is a crime in terms of the community. 

It's not a spoiler to say that it's all going to unravel in an unpleasant way. Eddie's lawyer offers a narration that offers a sense of foreboding. The two brothers rock the boat more that it can stand and the world of the Carbone family is clearly going to sink fast unless someone can intervene. 

It's incredible to me that such an intricate and gripping tale can be told in this short a space of time. Stage directions and acting notes make everything vividly clear, but the dialogue constanlty accelerates to plot to it's next stages. 

A View From The Bridge is a really good read. I've never seen it on the stage, but if it comes to town I'll be at the head of the queue for tickets. 

One Man's Opinion: IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK by JAMES BALDWIN

 

I love it when a novel really ramps up the emotions. If Beale Street Could Talk does that in so many different ways. It's constantly nipping away at your insides as you read, then takes out huge chunks with bites that will no doubt leave permanent scars (or at least I hope they do, given the stories told). 

This one pulls in so many different ways. And it doesn't pull its punches. 

Fonny and Tish are young lovers. Early on, we discover that Tish is pregnant with Fonny's child and that Fonny is currently behind bars, charged with the rape of a woman in the neighbourhood. Much as the struggle to get Fonny out of prison is the core of the plot, the stories that emanate from that centre are diverse:we get to examine both sets of families and their reactions to what is going on; we find out about how the couple got together in the first place and how the baby is conceived; we discover things about the community, warts and all; and we get to observe friendships and social tensions. No matter which way the slice is cut, there are overriding pressures that influence everything. The racism is intense, visceral and overpowering, the surges against it almost futile (there's something in the fight that reminded me of Ellison's Invisible Man, a reference that tells you that I need to read more widely). There's religious bigotry and digs at religious fundamentalism. It has homophobia and sexism. Institutionalised prejudice takes a kicking and economic exploitation is clearly on display. Also included is domestic violence, doled out by heavy-handed men on their wives. And all of this is important, for it's only by drawing attention to each of these facets that thinking can be done and changes made, for this is very much a book about rising up against oppression and injustice wherever it may be found.  

I thoroughly enjoyed this one, though it wasn't all plain sailing. There's a real mix of time and place and it occasionally took me a moment to readjust and work out where I was. The tenses and voice occasionally stumbled, perhaps because they were trying to run too fast at times. There are also a lot of commas and that sometimes got in the way. That being said, I always found the groove again, partly because I was so driven to get to whereever it was going. 

If Beale Street Could Talk has the passion of the best love stories, the tension of the finest crime dramas and all the anger and turbulence that it needs. 

Definitely one to get your hands on and digest. Quality stuff.