Finished (with it!) Th 3/29/18
This is one of my old trade paperbacks, and I'd never read it. I had pulled it from one of the shelves downstairs, and then I heard a podcast with Greg Iles and he said that one of his favorite characters in all of literature was one from SMILLA'S SENSE OF SNOW.
I remember that novel was made into a film and it was a kind of murder/ mystery set in Denmark about a character who uses her extreme knowledge of snow to solve the crime- more of less.
A difficult and laborious read. I did a painful two hundred pages with little or no understanding, and then skimmed to the end.
It's set in a Danish orphanage/ private school that is part of some kind of a social experiment.
The title might mean that in this experiment of 'social Darwinism' some of the participants will succeed, some will fail, and some will be 'borderliners'.
Parts of it are somewhat interesting, but, overall, not worth the effort.
A strange subplot or perspective of the author is his infatuation with Time. He writes about the first town in the fourteenth century to have a public clock. He says that no one was aware of Time in the sense of 'what time is it'? But, because of the intricacy of the clock/ machine, it was appreciated more as a representation of the precise nature of God's handiwork.
All kinds of descriptions of 'the shape of time' and other strange observations. But what this has to do with the action within the novel is unclear- at least to me.
From Amazon-
"Strange things are happening at Biehl's Academy when this elite school opens its doors to a group of orphans and reform-school rejects, kids at the end of the system's tether. But the school is run by a peculiar set of rules by which every minute is regimented and controlled. The children soon suspect that they are guinea pigs in a bizarre social experiment, and that their only hope of escape is to break through a dangerous threshold of time and space. Peter Høeg's "brilliant" and dystopian Borderliners is a "uniquely philosophical thriller" (Boston Sunday Globe) and a haunting story of childhood travail and hope."
From Wikipedia-
"Peter is a student at Biehl's after spending all of his life in children's homes and reform schools. He is a borderline case, along with Katarina, whose parents both died in the past year, and August, who is severely disturbed after killing his abusive parents. Although allowed no social interaction, the children conspire to conduct their own experiment to discover what plan is being carried out at Biehl's. Høeg touches on some of the same themes as in his acclaimed Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow - neglected children, scientific experiments, and technology - but Borderliners is not a thriller and may not appeal to the same audience. It is instead a fascinating intellectual puzzle that explores the themes of social control, child assessment, family, and the concept of time.
The book is also somewhat autobiographical, as it reflects Høeg's own schooldays at a Copenhagen private school."
Friday, March 30, 2018
Saturday, March 24, 2018
THE BURNING GIRL by Claire Messud
Finished Fr 3/23/18- The March, 2018 selection for the Contemporary Book Club
Royston, MA is a fictional city, but it's located near Haverhill, which is very much real. The location is about 35 miles north of Boston, near the New Hampshire border and 17 miles east of the Atlantic coast.
The two friends; Cassie Burnes and Julia (Ju-Ju) Robinson (maybe Robertson?)
Cassie's father was killed by a drunk driver when Cassie was very young. Clarke Burnes was working a second job in Boston and was driving home in bad weather and his car was struck.
Beverly Burnes works as a nurse practitioner. She treats people that are dying; home hospice worker. No extended family or network and a somewhat mysterious past. You can't even be sure that Clarke was real, let alone all of the details of her life which she chooses to share.
Cassie says things to Bev that Bev promises never to bring up again, but she does. Is this some kind of evil intent, or is it just that Bev truly doesn't understand how important this confidence is to Cassie. THIS RIFT MATTERS MORE AS CASSIE GETS OLDER AND BEV'S ROMANTIC LIFE CHANGES.
Ju's father is a dentist. He works from an office behind their large Victorian home. Ju's mother, Carole, is a local reporter/ journalist for the newspaper.
Rudy- Alcoholic caretaker; alone except for his German Sheppard, Bessie
Peter- First Julia's boyfriend, but Cassie picks him up. This happened in middle school. Julia was always attracted to him and they become close when Cassie disappears. In high school they have a short sexual relationship, but decide that they are better as friends.
Delia Mosel- 'The Evil Morsel'; When Cassie and Julia drift apart this girl becomes friends with Cassie. She brings out the worse in Cassie.
Dr. Anders Shute is a doctor who becomes involved with Bev. She has been alone since she lost Clarke, and Cassie is happy that she has found someone, but was always suspicious about Shute's motives.
Bev is Christian and Shute makes her even more rigid in her beliefs, and this has a really big adverse effect on Cassie.
This is the doctor that treated Cassie when she was bitten by a dog when Julia and Cassie worked for a vet as a summer job when they first went to high school.
Notes from the author's reflections on the book at Amazon-
"FIRST BEST FRIEND- A type of union that prefigures romantic love. Falls away you see more of what seperates you than what brings you togehter.
Every adventure, for good or for worse, becomes better with your friend.
Major Theme-
Human intimacy and how much we know each other.
How much we 'make up'to cover what we don't know
The Dilemma of The Book-
In a mature or 'real' relationship, the person you love reflects back an accurate reflection of who you are or who you can be. It becomes difficult if the sense of yourself that comes back is not what you would wish."
Notes about author's background-
Claire Messud; Greenwich, CT (1966), novelist and creative writing professor. Grew up in the United States, Australia, and Canada, returning to the US as a teenager; mother Canadian and father is from French Algeria. Studied at Yale and Cambridge. Messud is married to book critic (The New Yorker/ The Guardian), James Wood
Nice Insight Into Being Female
“Sometimes I felt that growing up and being a girl was about learning to be afraid. Not paranoid, exactly, but always alert and aware, like checking out the exits in the movie theatre or the fire escape in a hotel. You came to know, in a way you hadn't as a kid, that the body you inhabited was vulnerable, imperfectly fortified.”
Royston, MA is a fictional city, but it's located near Haverhill, which is very much real. The location is about 35 miles north of Boston, near the New Hampshire border and 17 miles east of the Atlantic coast.
The two friends; Cassie Burnes and Julia (Ju-Ju) Robinson (maybe Robertson?)
Cassie's father was killed by a drunk driver when Cassie was very young. Clarke Burnes was working a second job in Boston and was driving home in bad weather and his car was struck.
Beverly Burnes works as a nurse practitioner. She treats people that are dying; home hospice worker. No extended family or network and a somewhat mysterious past. You can't even be sure that Clarke was real, let alone all of the details of her life which she chooses to share.
Cassie says things to Bev that Bev promises never to bring up again, but she does. Is this some kind of evil intent, or is it just that Bev truly doesn't understand how important this confidence is to Cassie. THIS RIFT MATTERS MORE AS CASSIE GETS OLDER AND BEV'S ROMANTIC LIFE CHANGES.
Ju's father is a dentist. He works from an office behind their large Victorian home. Ju's mother, Carole, is a local reporter/ journalist for the newspaper.
Rudy- Alcoholic caretaker; alone except for his German Sheppard, Bessie
Peter- First Julia's boyfriend, but Cassie picks him up. This happened in middle school. Julia was always attracted to him and they become close when Cassie disappears. In high school they have a short sexual relationship, but decide that they are better as friends.
Delia Mosel- 'The Evil Morsel'; When Cassie and Julia drift apart this girl becomes friends with Cassie. She brings out the worse in Cassie.
Dr. Anders Shute is a doctor who becomes involved with Bev. She has been alone since she lost Clarke, and Cassie is happy that she has found someone, but was always suspicious about Shute's motives.
Bev is Christian and Shute makes her even more rigid in her beliefs, and this has a really big adverse effect on Cassie.
This is the doctor that treated Cassie when she was bitten by a dog when Julia and Cassie worked for a vet as a summer job when they first went to high school.
Notes from the author's reflections on the book at Amazon-
"FIRST BEST FRIEND- A type of union that prefigures romantic love. Falls away you see more of what seperates you than what brings you togehter.
Every adventure, for good or for worse, becomes better with your friend.
Major Theme-
Human intimacy and how much we know each other.
How much we 'make up'to cover what we don't know
The Dilemma of The Book-
In a mature or 'real' relationship, the person you love reflects back an accurate reflection of who you are or who you can be. It becomes difficult if the sense of yourself that comes back is not what you would wish."
Notes about author's background-
Claire Messud; Greenwich, CT (1966), novelist and creative writing professor. Grew up in the United States, Australia, and Canada, returning to the US as a teenager; mother Canadian and father is from French Algeria. Studied at Yale and Cambridge. Messud is married to book critic (The New Yorker/ The Guardian), James Wood
Nice Insight Into Being Female
“Sometimes I felt that growing up and being a girl was about learning to be afraid. Not paranoid, exactly, but always alert and aware, like checking out the exits in the movie theatre or the fire escape in a hotel. You came to know, in a way you hadn't as a kid, that the body you inhabited was vulnerable, imperfectly fortified.”
Thursday, March 22, 2018
BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON by Dean Koontz
Finished We 3/21/18
This is one of the paperbacks that I picked up on Thursday, 3/1/18 at the Prairie Archives on the square downtown.
The title refers to, "Parish Lantern", an old English slang term for 'moonlight'. Parish Lantern is the name of a talk radio host who was inoculated with 'the stuff'. 'The Moonlight Club' will be the name of these super heroes- possible sequel in the offing?
No other author is able to envelop the reader right into the thick of the action within the first few paragraphs of chapter one better than Dean Koontz. The story kicks off in the parking lot of a seedy budget hotel in rural Arizona.
Dylan O'Connor- Itinerant artist traveling the US selling his paintings. 29 yrs old.
Sheppard O'Connor- Autistic; very high IQ
Jillian Jackson- Stand-up comedian hitting clubs in the southwest
Parish Lantern- Talk radio jock similar to Art Bell
Lincoln Proctor- the evil doctor who developed 'the stuff'. He was hoping to lead a new race infected with his serum. Eating peanuts while infecting Dylan and Jilly. He grins and talks crazy megalomania like nonsense.
The characters battle an army of mercenaries who are out to kill them. Who they are is not really developed, but clearly the US government could not allow 'super heroes' to exist without control.
In the end, the main characters are at Lantern's huge Frank Lloyd Wright home on Lake Tahoe.
They decide to form 'The Moonlight Club' for the good of mankind. Although it makes you wonder exactly what they would do. For instance, your Freedom Fighters might be my Terrorists.
I'd read anything by Koontz, but the reason I picked this one up is that I heard a podcast of Greg Iles and he said that nobody writes Horror better than Dean Koontz. One of these days I'm going to read one of his 'best' horror novels.
This is one of the paperbacks that I picked up on Thursday, 3/1/18 at the Prairie Archives on the square downtown.
The title refers to, "Parish Lantern", an old English slang term for 'moonlight'. Parish Lantern is the name of a talk radio host who was inoculated with 'the stuff'. 'The Moonlight Club' will be the name of these super heroes- possible sequel in the offing?
No other author is able to envelop the reader right into the thick of the action within the first few paragraphs of chapter one better than Dean Koontz. The story kicks off in the parking lot of a seedy budget hotel in rural Arizona.
Dylan O'Connor- Itinerant artist traveling the US selling his paintings. 29 yrs old.
Sheppard O'Connor- Autistic; very high IQ
Jillian Jackson- Stand-up comedian hitting clubs in the southwest
Parish Lantern- Talk radio jock similar to Art Bell
Lincoln Proctor- the evil doctor who developed 'the stuff'. He was hoping to lead a new race infected with his serum. Eating peanuts while infecting Dylan and Jilly. He grins and talks crazy megalomania like nonsense.
The characters battle an army of mercenaries who are out to kill them. Who they are is not really developed, but clearly the US government could not allow 'super heroes' to exist without control.
In the end, the main characters are at Lantern's huge Frank Lloyd Wright home on Lake Tahoe.
They decide to form 'The Moonlight Club' for the good of mankind. Although it makes you wonder exactly what they would do. For instance, your Freedom Fighters might be my Terrorists.
I'd read anything by Koontz, but the reason I picked this one up is that I heard a podcast of Greg Iles and he said that nobody writes Horror better than Dean Koontz. One of these days I'm going to read one of his 'best' horror novels.
Saturday, March 17, 2018
TURNING ANGEL by Greg Iles
Finished Fr 3/16/18
A Penn Cage novel
This is the third novel that I've read by Iles, and I've loved them all. Better than 'an airport read' because they're so much longer and more detailed, and all of them are serious page turners.
I checked out some videos on Youtube about the authro-
He loves cats, the Beatles, and he plays guitar (FRANKLY SCARLET)
'Turning Angel' refers to a statue in the local cemetery near Natchez, MS. This is also where the Iles family plot is located. Greg's father is buried there and he was also a doctor- like Penn's father in the series.
The Storyline:
Kate Townsend, a high school senior and the most popular girl in town is found drowned in the river. She has been having a passionate affair with Drew Elliott, maybe the most popular doctor in town, friend of Penn Cage, and over twenty years older than Kate.
Who dunnit and Why??
At the river bank Kate while waiting for her lover Drew, Drew's wife, Ellen, confronts her about the affair. Kate tells Ellen that she's pregnant and Drew wants to marry her. Ellen freaks, strangles her, but doesn't kill her. Kate falls into the river and hits her head.
Ellen leaves and Marko Bakic, an exchange student from Serbia and the local hoodlum, finds Kate and rapes her lifeless body.
After the rape, Kate dies (finally?) and then Drew enters the scene to administer CPR- after the fact.
Drew is brought up on murder charges and the case is actually secondary to the attempt by a crooked black politician to take control of the town. Drew is found guilty, but later Marko is charged with the crime. The fact that Ellen strangled Kate is concealed from the authorities.
When I read what I've just noted about the book, it sounds like bullshit, but it is most definitely a wild read.
From Amazon-
"After winning the most dangerous case of his career, prosecutor Penn Cage decides to remain in his Southern hometown to raise his young daughter in a safe haven. But nowhere is truly safe -- not from long-buried secrets, or murder....When the nude body of prep school student Kate Townsend is found near the Mississippi River, Penn's best friend, Drew Elliott, is desperate for his counsel. An esteemed family physician, Drew makes a shocking confession that could put him on death row. Penn will do all he can to exonerate Drew, but in a town where the gaze of a landmark cemetery statue -- the Turning Angel -- never looks away, Penn finds himself caught on the jagged edge of blackmail, betrayal, and deadly violence."
I think my next one by this author will not be part of the Penn Cage series. His first book dealt with Rudolf Hess??
A Penn Cage novel
This is the third novel that I've read by Iles, and I've loved them all. Better than 'an airport read' because they're so much longer and more detailed, and all of them are serious page turners.
I checked out some videos on Youtube about the authro-
He loves cats, the Beatles, and he plays guitar (FRANKLY SCARLET)
'Turning Angel' refers to a statue in the local cemetery near Natchez, MS. This is also where the Iles family plot is located. Greg's father is buried there and he was also a doctor- like Penn's father in the series.
The Storyline:
Kate Townsend, a high school senior and the most popular girl in town is found drowned in the river. She has been having a passionate affair with Drew Elliott, maybe the most popular doctor in town, friend of Penn Cage, and over twenty years older than Kate.
Who dunnit and Why??
At the river bank Kate while waiting for her lover Drew, Drew's wife, Ellen, confronts her about the affair. Kate tells Ellen that she's pregnant and Drew wants to marry her. Ellen freaks, strangles her, but doesn't kill her. Kate falls into the river and hits her head.
Ellen leaves and Marko Bakic, an exchange student from Serbia and the local hoodlum, finds Kate and rapes her lifeless body.
After the rape, Kate dies (finally?) and then Drew enters the scene to administer CPR- after the fact.
Drew is brought up on murder charges and the case is actually secondary to the attempt by a crooked black politician to take control of the town. Drew is found guilty, but later Marko is charged with the crime. The fact that Ellen strangled Kate is concealed from the authorities.
When I read what I've just noted about the book, it sounds like bullshit, but it is most definitely a wild read.
From Amazon-
"After winning the most dangerous case of his career, prosecutor Penn Cage decides to remain in his Southern hometown to raise his young daughter in a safe haven. But nowhere is truly safe -- not from long-buried secrets, or murder....When the nude body of prep school student Kate Townsend is found near the Mississippi River, Penn's best friend, Drew Elliott, is desperate for his counsel. An esteemed family physician, Drew makes a shocking confession that could put him on death row. Penn will do all he can to exonerate Drew, but in a town where the gaze of a landmark cemetery statue -- the Turning Angel -- never looks away, Penn finds himself caught on the jagged edge of blackmail, betrayal, and deadly violence."
I think my next one by this author will not be part of the Penn Cage series. His first book dealt with Rudolf Hess??
Wednesday, March 14, 2018
MICHAEL BLOOMFIELD- IF YOU LOVE THESE BLUES by Jan Mark Walkin and Bill Keenon
Finished We 3/14/18
The book came with a CD that I recently found in a random stack and I added this to Google Play. I loved the music and I just happened to find this hardback on the shelves several days later; serendipity? There is no evidence that I've read the book, although some of it did seem familiar; there was a packing slip in the book saying that it was shipped 2/28/06.
Important Things To Remember-
Boomfield was 'born in Chicago' and his family lived on Melrose in the city and later moved to Glencoe.
His family's fortune was built on the restaurant supply industry. His father invented the sugar dispenser- glass cylinder with chrome flap.
Married his high school sweetheart and although they were not married forever, they were very close all of his life. She had a son and Mike was even close to him, and when she finally married again, he was close to her new husband- for life.
Guitarist with The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
He was with the Butterfield Band when Dylan went electric at Newport Folk Festival in 1965. According to people interviewed in this book, the crowd booed mostly because Dylan only played three songs.
Guitarist with Electric Flag
Elvin Bishop was the smartest guy in Oklahoma and Al Kooper formed the 'Al Kooper Blues Project' and then, 'Blood Sweat and Tears'.
He had a fairly successful solo career, but he destroyed it by his lax attitude. Everyone MUST be on 'Bloomfield Time' or nothing else.
Although it's generally thought that he was a heroin addict, to me it sounds as if he would use anything and everything to get off.
When he got hooked on smack he switched to booze and this probably was more detrimental to his health. The Smack To Gin Experience.
According to this book he was found in a car because he actually OD'd in a nearby apartment and these people put him in the car. It probably was not a cocaine overdose, but some kind of designer drug and the people that he was with injected him with coke in an attempt to revive him.
July 28, 1943 – February 15, 1981
Friday, March 9, 2018
THE SENTINEL by Jeffrey Konvitz
Finished early on the morning, in bed- Fr 3/9/18.
I read this slim novel as an ebook from the library. When I first tried to check out the book, I got an error message from the library saying that they had reached the limit for loaning ebooks and I had to wait until midnight. Odd that I was asked to wait until midnight to check out this horror/ thriller. The next day, it downloaded with ease.
The author, Jeffrey Konvitz, was an entertainment lawyer who also writes fiction. He wrote the book and produced the film; 100 million!
This is the classic 'beach or airport' read....trash, but really, relly good trash.
An interesting structure because the real meaning and purpose of the action is not revealed until the very end. The NYC brownstone is really the portal to Hell and 'the sentinel' is the human who has been chosen to keep the angels of Lucifer from the earthly plane of existence.
Alison Parker is the protagonist. She's a model with a history of mental instability and has attempted suicide.
Michael Farmer is her lawyer boyfriend. He is the villan, but for almost the entire book is seems to be a hero. He has killed his former wife and staged it to look like a suicide. He hired a detective Brenner to perform the act and he did this so that he could realize his inheritance from his rich wife and be with Alison.
The birthday party for Jezebel the cat is great in the book, but it's one of my favorite scene in movies. Burgess Meridith is unbelievably creepy and evil.
Plot summary from wikipedia-
"Alison Parker, a beautiful but troubled fashion model moves into a gorgeous New York City brownstone house that is divided into apartments. The house is inhabited on the top floor by Father Francis Matthew Halloran, a reclusive blind Catholic priest who spends his time sitting at his open window.
Alison is romantically involved with Michael Farmer, a lawyer and former prosecutor. Alison's life is beset for a number of reasons. She had a horrible relationship with her recently deceased father, and survived at least one suicide attempt. Michael is under suspicion in the death of his former wife. A determined New York City Police Department detective named Gatz is sure that Michael murdered her, and soon comes to suspect Alison as well.
Alison suffers sleep loss and horrible nightmares involving her father, and soon begins to suffer blinding headaches.
Looking for distraction, she tries to ingratiate herself with the building's other occupants - but finds that they are bizarrely eccentric and obnoxious. Alison complains about them to the building's real estate agent. The agent is confused, telling a shocked Alison that there were no neighbours - besides for herself and Fr. Halloran, no one else lives there.
Looking for answers, Michael breaks into a records archive of the Catholic Church. Researching the past of Fr. Halloran, Michael learns that the man has none. Rather Halloran's life "began" the day that another man's life apparently ended, leading Michael to believe that the two men are one and the same. He also finds similar records for a woman, a nun named Sister Therese who is to reside in Alison's building. Michael soon concludes that Sister Therese is actually the woman that Alison is meant to become.
Rushing to her building, he confronts the blind priest, only to be killed. Returning to the building, her headaches returned and her skin beginning to desiccate, Alison finds Michael seemingly unhurt. He reveals that he is actually dead and also damned for killing his wife. He also explains that the house is actually positioned over the gateway between our world and Hell and that there must be gatekeeper to protect the world from the denizens of the underworld. Until now, that gatekeeper, or sentinel, had been Father Halloran, but Alison is now expected to succeed him. Her troubled past, especially her suicide attempt, make her the appropriate choice. The inhabitants of Hell are actually her fellow "neighbours", and they know that they have one chance to escape the abyss - pressuring Alison to complete her suicide. At the last minute, Father Halloran appears and saves Alison, driving the "neighbours" back to hell.
The book ends with Alison becoming the new sentinel."
I own this book and I think that I also have the sequel, THE GUARDIAN.
68 West 89th St is the address of the brownstone
17 East 71st St. is Michael's apartment
Checking these locations at Google Maps, and they are perfect- even today.
I read this slim novel as an ebook from the library. When I first tried to check out the book, I got an error message from the library saying that they had reached the limit for loaning ebooks and I had to wait until midnight. Odd that I was asked to wait until midnight to check out this horror/ thriller. The next day, it downloaded with ease.
The author, Jeffrey Konvitz, was an entertainment lawyer who also writes fiction. He wrote the book and produced the film; 100 million!
This is the classic 'beach or airport' read....trash, but really, relly good trash.
An interesting structure because the real meaning and purpose of the action is not revealed until the very end. The NYC brownstone is really the portal to Hell and 'the sentinel' is the human who has been chosen to keep the angels of Lucifer from the earthly plane of existence.
Alison Parker is the protagonist. She's a model with a history of mental instability and has attempted suicide.
Michael Farmer is her lawyer boyfriend. He is the villan, but for almost the entire book is seems to be a hero. He has killed his former wife and staged it to look like a suicide. He hired a detective Brenner to perform the act and he did this so that he could realize his inheritance from his rich wife and be with Alison.
The birthday party for Jezebel the cat is great in the book, but it's one of my favorite scene in movies. Burgess Meridith is unbelievably creepy and evil.
Plot summary from wikipedia-
"Alison Parker, a beautiful but troubled fashion model moves into a gorgeous New York City brownstone house that is divided into apartments. The house is inhabited on the top floor by Father Francis Matthew Halloran, a reclusive blind Catholic priest who spends his time sitting at his open window.
Alison is romantically involved with Michael Farmer, a lawyer and former prosecutor. Alison's life is beset for a number of reasons. She had a horrible relationship with her recently deceased father, and survived at least one suicide attempt. Michael is under suspicion in the death of his former wife. A determined New York City Police Department detective named Gatz is sure that Michael murdered her, and soon comes to suspect Alison as well.
Alison suffers sleep loss and horrible nightmares involving her father, and soon begins to suffer blinding headaches.
Looking for distraction, she tries to ingratiate herself with the building's other occupants - but finds that they are bizarrely eccentric and obnoxious. Alison complains about them to the building's real estate agent. The agent is confused, telling a shocked Alison that there were no neighbours - besides for herself and Fr. Halloran, no one else lives there.
Looking for answers, Michael breaks into a records archive of the Catholic Church. Researching the past of Fr. Halloran, Michael learns that the man has none. Rather Halloran's life "began" the day that another man's life apparently ended, leading Michael to believe that the two men are one and the same. He also finds similar records for a woman, a nun named Sister Therese who is to reside in Alison's building. Michael soon concludes that Sister Therese is actually the woman that Alison is meant to become.
Rushing to her building, he confronts the blind priest, only to be killed. Returning to the building, her headaches returned and her skin beginning to desiccate, Alison finds Michael seemingly unhurt. He reveals that he is actually dead and also damned for killing his wife. He also explains that the house is actually positioned over the gateway between our world and Hell and that there must be gatekeeper to protect the world from the denizens of the underworld. Until now, that gatekeeper, or sentinel, had been Father Halloran, but Alison is now expected to succeed him. Her troubled past, especially her suicide attempt, make her the appropriate choice. The inhabitants of Hell are actually her fellow "neighbours", and they know that they have one chance to escape the abyss - pressuring Alison to complete her suicide. At the last minute, Father Halloran appears and saves Alison, driving the "neighbours" back to hell.
The book ends with Alison becoming the new sentinel."
I own this book and I think that I also have the sequel, THE GUARDIAN.
68 West 89th St is the address of the brownstone
17 East 71st St. is Michael's apartment
Checking these locations at Google Maps, and they are perfect- even today.
Thursday, March 8, 2018
RABBIT RUN by John Updike
Finished We 3/7/18
My impression of the book-
From 1960 the first book written in the series, but not the first in the timeline of the books.
Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom feels trapped in a loveless marriage and a boring sales job (he hawks 'kitchen peelers' in dime and department stores), and jettisons his whole life.
He leaves his wife, Janice- who is pregnant, then drives to West Virginia (he lives in Mt. Judge/ Brewer, Pennsylvania) and ends up at his high school coach's house. This man takes him in, and later introduces him to a woman, Ruth, who is a kind of low level escort. She's not happy with him, and he's not happy with her, but they shoulder on. When he learns that his wife is in delivery, he returns, and tries to take up where they were. It doesn't work. Janice has stopped drinking, but takes it up again. One drunken, lonely afternoon, she accidently drowns the new born, Rebecca June. Nelson, Harry and Janice's two year old son is in the apartment at the time of the incident. At the funeral, Harry feels much guilt about his actions, and as the casket is lowered, he turns to Janice and blurts out, "Hey, don't look at me, I didn't kill her"!. Then, he runs from the cemetery, and continues to run into the forest.
Very much a downer; dour and depressing.
The plot summary from wikipedia-
"Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, formerly a high school basketball star, is now 26, and has a job selling a kitchen gadget named MagiPeeler. He is married to Janice, who was a salesgirl at the store where he once worked, and who is now pregnant. They live in Mount Judge, a suburb of Brewer, Pennsylvania, and have a two-year-old son named Nelson. Harry finds middle-class family life unsatisfying, and, on the spur of the moment, he leaves his family and drives south in an attempt to "escape". After getting lost, he returns to his home town, but not wanting to return to his family, he instead visits his old basketball coach, Marty Tothero.
That night, Harry has dinner with Tothero and two girls, one of whom, Ruth Leonard, is a part-time prostitute. Harry and Ruth begin a two-month affair and he soon moves into her apartment. During this time, Janice moves back into her parents' house and the local Episcopal priest, Jack Eccles, befriends Harry in a futile attempt to get him to reconcile with his wife. Nonetheless, Harry remains with Ruth until the night he learns that she had a fling with his high school nemesis, Ronnie Harrison. Enraged, Harry coerces Ruth into performing fellatio on him. The same night, Harry learns that Janice is in labor, and he leaves Ruth to visit his wife at the hospital.
Reunited with Janice, Harry returns home with her and their daughter, named Rebecca June. Harry attends church one morning and, after walking the minister's wife Lucy home, interprets her invitation to come in for a coffee as a sexual advance. When he declines the invitation for coffee, stating that he has a wife, she angrily slams the door on him. Harry returns to his apartment, and, happy about the birth of his daughter, tries to reconcile with Janice. He encourages her to have a whiskey, then, misreading her mood, pressures her to have sex despite her postnatal condition. When she refuses and accuses him of treating her like a prostitute, Harry masturbates onto her and then leaves in an attempt to resume his relationship with Ruth. Finding her apartment empty, he spends the night at a hotel.
The next morning, still distraught at Harry's treatment of her, Janice gets drunk and accidentally drowns Rebecca June in the bath tub. The other main characters in the book except Harry soon learn of the accident and gather at Janice's parents' home. Later in the day, unaware of what has happened, Harry calls Reverend Eccles to see how his return home would be received. Reverend Eccles shares the news of his daughter's death, and Harry returns home. Tothero later visits Harry and suggests that the thing he is looking for probably does not exist. At Rebecca June's funeral, Harry's internal and external conflicts result in a sudden proclamation of his innocence in the baby's death. He then runs from the graveyard, pursued by Jack Eccles, until he becomes lost.
Harry returns to Ruth and learns that she is pregnant by him. Though Harry is relieved to discover she has not had an abortion, he is unwilling to divorce Janice. Harry abandons Ruth, still missing the feeling he has attempted to grasp during the course of the novel; his fate is uncertain as the novel concludes."
My impression of the book-
From 1960 the first book written in the series, but not the first in the timeline of the books.
Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom feels trapped in a loveless marriage and a boring sales job (he hawks 'kitchen peelers' in dime and department stores), and jettisons his whole life.
He leaves his wife, Janice- who is pregnant, then drives to West Virginia (he lives in Mt. Judge/ Brewer, Pennsylvania) and ends up at his high school coach's house. This man takes him in, and later introduces him to a woman, Ruth, who is a kind of low level escort. She's not happy with him, and he's not happy with her, but they shoulder on. When he learns that his wife is in delivery, he returns, and tries to take up where they were. It doesn't work. Janice has stopped drinking, but takes it up again. One drunken, lonely afternoon, she accidently drowns the new born, Rebecca June. Nelson, Harry and Janice's two year old son is in the apartment at the time of the incident. At the funeral, Harry feels much guilt about his actions, and as the casket is lowered, he turns to Janice and blurts out, "Hey, don't look at me, I didn't kill her"!. Then, he runs from the cemetery, and continues to run into the forest.
Very much a downer; dour and depressing.
The plot summary from wikipedia-
"Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, formerly a high school basketball star, is now 26, and has a job selling a kitchen gadget named MagiPeeler. He is married to Janice, who was a salesgirl at the store where he once worked, and who is now pregnant. They live in Mount Judge, a suburb of Brewer, Pennsylvania, and have a two-year-old son named Nelson. Harry finds middle-class family life unsatisfying, and, on the spur of the moment, he leaves his family and drives south in an attempt to "escape". After getting lost, he returns to his home town, but not wanting to return to his family, he instead visits his old basketball coach, Marty Tothero.
That night, Harry has dinner with Tothero and two girls, one of whom, Ruth Leonard, is a part-time prostitute. Harry and Ruth begin a two-month affair and he soon moves into her apartment. During this time, Janice moves back into her parents' house and the local Episcopal priest, Jack Eccles, befriends Harry in a futile attempt to get him to reconcile with his wife. Nonetheless, Harry remains with Ruth until the night he learns that she had a fling with his high school nemesis, Ronnie Harrison. Enraged, Harry coerces Ruth into performing fellatio on him. The same night, Harry learns that Janice is in labor, and he leaves Ruth to visit his wife at the hospital.
Reunited with Janice, Harry returns home with her and their daughter, named Rebecca June. Harry attends church one morning and, after walking the minister's wife Lucy home, interprets her invitation to come in for a coffee as a sexual advance. When he declines the invitation for coffee, stating that he has a wife, she angrily slams the door on him. Harry returns to his apartment, and, happy about the birth of his daughter, tries to reconcile with Janice. He encourages her to have a whiskey, then, misreading her mood, pressures her to have sex despite her postnatal condition. When she refuses and accuses him of treating her like a prostitute, Harry masturbates onto her and then leaves in an attempt to resume his relationship with Ruth. Finding her apartment empty, he spends the night at a hotel.
The next morning, still distraught at Harry's treatment of her, Janice gets drunk and accidentally drowns Rebecca June in the bath tub. The other main characters in the book except Harry soon learn of the accident and gather at Janice's parents' home. Later in the day, unaware of what has happened, Harry calls Reverend Eccles to see how his return home would be received. Reverend Eccles shares the news of his daughter's death, and Harry returns home. Tothero later visits Harry and suggests that the thing he is looking for probably does not exist. At Rebecca June's funeral, Harry's internal and external conflicts result in a sudden proclamation of his innocence in the baby's death. He then runs from the graveyard, pursued by Jack Eccles, until he becomes lost.
Harry returns to Ruth and learns that she is pregnant by him. Though Harry is relieved to discover she has not had an abortion, he is unwilling to divorce Janice. Harry abandons Ruth, still missing the feeling he has attempted to grasp during the course of the novel; his fate is uncertain as the novel concludes."
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