CHARMING BILLY by Alice McDermott

 Finished Th 12/24/20- Xmas Eve.

This was one of the books that the Contemporary Book Club selected to read this year. I think this is a book that I recommended. I hope the group liked the book as much as I did.

A man believes that the love of his life went back to Ireland and died of pneumonia. She actually left Long Island (she and her sister were taking care of the children of a rich family) and went back to Ireland and married another man. She even used the money that Billy had given her to start a small business with her new husband. 

The novel begins at Billy's funeral and most people believe that this 'emotional abandonment' caused his alcohol addiction.

His best friend and cousin is Dennis. He's responsible for the lie and the narrator of the novel is Dennis's daughter. She is not named. 

From the book:

"In the arc of an unremarkable life, a life whose triumphs are small and personal, whose trials are ordinary enough, as tempered in their pain as in their resolution of pain, the claim of exclusivity in love requires both a certain kind of courage and a good dose of delusion."

From the review at Publishers Weekly:

"The death of charming Billy Lynch from alcoholism is the starting point from which McDermott (At Weddings and Wakes) meticulously develops this poignant and ironic story of a blighted life set in the Irish-American communities of Queens, the Bronx and the Hamptons. With dialogue so precise that a word or two conjures a complex relationship, she examines the curse of alcoholism and the cost it takes on family and friends. Did Billy drink because of a broken heart caused by the death of Eva, the young woman he ardently loved who had gone back to Ireland after their brief summer together? If so, his cousin Dennis has much on his conscience, since he knew that Eva used the money Billy sent her for return passage to put a down payment on a gas station for the man she decided to marry. Dennis spared Billy the humiliation of public jilting by inventing the story of Eva's demise. Or is alcoholism ""the genetic disease of the Irish,"" a refuge for souls who can sustain their religious faith in an afterlife only if earthly existence is pursued through a bleary haze? Was plain, courageous Maeve, the woman Billy eventually married, devastated by his drinking, or was her uncomplaining devotion yet another aspect of an ancient pattern in Irish families? McDermott sensitively probes the ties of a people bound by blood, long acquaintance, shared memories, the church and the tolerance of liquor in its men. If Billy drank to sustain his belief in heaven, to find redemption for his unfulfilled life on earth, is the church's teaching about death ""a well intentioned deception""? McDermott's compassionate candor about the demands of faith and the realities of living brings an emotional resonance to her seamlessly told, exquisitely nuanced tale." 

I have read a couple of novels by McDermott and I plan to keep my eyes peeled for more of them.

A book that's meant to be savored rather than just read.

TONY & SUSAN by Austin Wright

 Refinished Su 12/20/20

See my entry on October 3, 2016. I wrote extensively about this book and I hadn't seen the movie yet.

I finished the book the first time the day after Bo's first birthday party. 

I liked the book and the movie, but I think that I liked the film slightly more.  

THE WRONG SIDE OF GOODBYE by Michael Connelly

 Finished Mo 12/14/20

This is a trade paperback that Janny loaned me when I met Joe and her in Washington Park last week. Her copy looks as if it was purchased in Britain because it's marked '4 pounds'.

SYNOPSIS: A billionaire contacts Harry Bosch to look for a woman that possibly could be an heir to his estate. The man had met the love of his life, but his parents convinced him to leave her behind, but what became of the baby?

My Problem: Whitney Vance, the aging billionaire was smothered by his secretary. This woman used his special pen to rewrite the will to allow her to inherit ten million dollars. Vance used the first part to change his will to leave money and property to his possible living relatives.

Since the second part of the will was written by the secretary, why wouldn't the whole 'new' will be thrown out. Couldn't the corporation that controls Vance's money just contend the the secretary made up the whole thing?

I'm going to see if I can find a 'Connelly Forum' to see if someone might know why this didn't happen. 

From the book's page at Amazon:

"Harry Bosch is California's newest private investigator. He doesn't advertise, he doesn't have an office, and he's picky about who he works for, but it doesn't matter. His chops from thirty years with the LAPD speak for themselves.

Soon one of Southern California's biggest moguls comes calling. The reclusive billionaire is nearing the end of his life and is haunted by one regret. When he was young, he had a relationship with a Mexican girl, his great love. But soon after becoming pregnant, she disappeared. Did she have the baby? And if so, what happened to it?

Desperate to know whether he has an heir, the dying magnate hires Bosch, the only person he can trust. With such a vast fortune at stake, Harry realizes that his mission could be risky not only for himself but for the one he's seeking. But as he begins to uncover the haunting story--and finds uncanny links to his own past--he knows he cannot rest until he finds the truth.

Swift, unpredictable, and thrilling, The Wrong Side of Goodbye shows that Michael Connelly "continues to amaze with his consistent skill and sizzle" (Cleveland Plain Dealer)."

There is also a subplot about the 'Screen Cutter Rapist' that was very interesting. An ex-cop  from the San Fernando Police Department (where Harry works part-time and for free on cold cases) is now working for city zoning and using his job to target women to rape. This man kidnaps Harry's female partner and Harry ends up saving her. 

Another enjoyable read and I would take anything by Michael Connelly. I had either read this one before or watched the TV adaptation. His stuff is always worth multiple readings. 

 

DROP CITY by T. C. Boyle

 Finished Sa 12/12/20

This is one of my ancient trade paperbacks that I first finished on Su 10/14/07 and had bought at the library book sale that summer. 

A hippie commune in 1970 near the Russian River northwest of Sacramento, CA relocates 3,000 miles north to Boynton, Alaska- 'Drop City North'. 

TC Boyle's 9th novel; released in 2003

From the KIRKUS review:

"Boyle’s protean imagination works overtime in his thickly plotted ninth novel, a big, racy tale of the conflict between a radical utopian commune’s idealistic visions and the simpler imperatives of survival in the Alaskan wilderness.

In Drop City, a California hippie enclave in 1970, we observe through the eyes of its newest members: “Star,” a restless dropout from her parents’ straight life, and Mario, a hardier type who drifts into the City because he knows he wants to build things. Boyle then shifts to Boynton, Alaska (near Fairbanks), where homesteader Cecil (“Sess”) Harder and his new wife Pamela begin their life together in Sess’s well-stocked cabin in the deep woods. As parallel chunks of narrative further introduce us to both sets of characters, a ludicrous auto accident brings the heat down on Drop City, and its putative guru Norm (whose inherited wealth pays the bills) leads the group’s relocation to Alaska, where the peace-and-love people collide with the Harders. A cruel winter, sexual and racial disharmony, and Norm’s decision to pull up his personal stakes exact their toll, and the story churns fatalistically toward its violent climax, on Halloween, in sub-zero cold. Boyle has worked this territory before in several sensationally effective stories, but never with such telling detail and devastating characterizations. The best of the latter include the stoical Sess and warmhearted Pamela, murderous trapper (and Sess’s mortal enemy) Joe Bosky, and weak-willed Ronnie Sommers (a.k.a. Pan), a lethal combination of ingenuous flower-power and uncontrollable appetites. Boyle (After the Plague, 2001, etc.) never fails to enthrall and entertain, but the mordant tragicomic momentum is perhaps too explicitly subordinated to his agenda—revealed in such sequences as the aftermath of a scary episode that endangered Drop City’s toddlers (“They [i.e., the adults] didn’t want to save children, they wanted to be children”).

Probably the fullest picture of the hippie culture of the late ’60s since Marge Piercy’s early fiction, and one of Boyle’s best."

The novel is about two 'alternatives' to 'The Straight World'. The first is a hippie commune in northwest California and the other is a remote village in the Alaskan interior populated by hunters and trappers. Two societies that appear to be opposed- one is pure hedonism and the other is an uphill struggle just to live, but they are all people who march to different drummers from mainstream society. 

"To live outside the law, you must be honest'- BOB DYLAN

My favorite scene is where a terrible traffic accident occurs and the driver and passenger are tripping their brains out.

Also the racial and social tension between a couple of black hustlers (rapists) and the 'peace and love' crowd.

This is a novel where the plot is secondary to the quality of the writing. Truly this is a book to be savored. 

I found another novel by T. C. Boyle in the stacks and it is in my queue. 

THE ETHICAL ASSASSIN by David Liss

 Refinished Su 12/6/20

I ordered this hardback from QPB on Mo 4/17/06 and finished it the first time Fr 6/9/06..."At The Club after an afternoon session and before dinner with The Brandenburgs at China Buffet near Cub Foods on Vets". This restaurant is not in business anymore. 

PREMISE:

A young man in Florida, Lem Altick is selling encyclopedias to make money to attend Columbia and finds himself in the middle of several murders and at odds with a drug gang and a corrupt policeman. When he makes his pitch to Karen and Bastard, a man enters the trailer and shoots them both, but spares Lem. When the assassin and Lem return to the scene of the crime they notice an additional body. This begins their trip down the rabbit hole. 

Melford Kean is the 'ethical assassin' and the reader wonders if he's a charming sociopath, eco-activist, or a vigilante for social justice.

The story is set in a trailer park adjacent to a hog farm. The residents get free stuff for living in the stench.

Horrifying descriptions of  the 'Waste Lagoon' and lots of commentary on the mistreatment of animals raised for food...The trailer park is a speed trap and the cop, Jim Doe will write a ticket if you are one mile over the limit.  

Great nicknames: 'The Gambler'- his name is Kenny Rogers and 'BB gun' his name is William Gunn. 'BB' is a well off middle age man who is very attracted to young boys, but he only sees it as 'he's saving them'. His partner, Desiree is a Siamese Twin who was separated from her twin Aphrodite by surgery. Desiree has a huge scar on her side and back and she is still 'Intune' with her dead sister. 

A link to the review of the novel at Kirkus:

 https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/david-liss/the-ethical-assassin/

A well written dark comedy and I really liked it.

GUILTY AS SIN by Tami Hoag

Finished Mo 11/30/20

This is a hardback that I ordered from Amazon and received on Mo 8/24/20. This is the second and final novel in Hoag's 'Deer Lake Series'.

'NIGHT SINS' is the first book and I read that last summer. I wasn't wild about that book, and I'm pretty lukewarm about this one. 

Both are set in Deer Lake, Minnesota, a small town fairly close to Minneapolis. In both novels it's winter and temperatures plunge far below zero. 

In the first novel there is a steamy love affair between Agent Megan O'Malley of The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and Mitch Holt, the local chief of police. 

In 'GUILTY AS SIN' Hoag features a love affair between Assistant County Attorney Ellen North and Jay Butler Brooks, a true crime author. 

The novel involves the kidnapping of eight year old Josh who was abducted after hockey practice. He is found, yet another boy is taken and he is killed. 

The book's page at Amazon:

"A cold-blooded kidnapper has been playing a twisted game with a terrified Minnesota town. Now a respected member of the community stands accused of a horrific act of evil. But when a second boy disappears, a frightened public demands to know: Have the police caught the wrong man? Is the nightmare continuing—or just beginning?

 Prosecutor Ellen North believes she’s building a case against a guilty man—and that he has an accomplice in the shadows. As she prepares for the trial of her career, Ellen suddenly finds herself swept into a cruel contest of twisted wits, a dark dance of life and death . . . with an evil mind as guilty as sin."

The ending is a bit abrupt and there were too many characters. Both novels were entertaining, but not really compelling.  

See the blog post of 'NIGHT SINS' for more plot details.