FUNERAL IN BERLIN by Len Deighton

 Finihsed Su 11/17/24

This was one of my ancient paperbacks that I had never read. An enjoyable read and the writing was far superior than what I was expecting. Baldacci makes the plot more important than character development or tone, but Deighton's writing is just the opposite. I had a little trouble keeping track of the story, but the superior writing easily made up for the slight confusion.

My take on what happened: 

The 'hero' is tasked with getting a scientist out of East Berlin. He was to be smuggled out of the country in a casket, however another agent was in the coffin. He wanted to assume the identity of a dead Jew who was extremely wealthy, yet died in one of the camps. This man had phony ID and he was hoping to go to Switzerland, show the identification, and become a rich man.

From a blog on the internet:

"In this story, the nameless spy is sent to East Berlin to facilitate the defection of an East German scientist. He must work with the Russian security-chief Colonel Stok and Hallam of the British Home Office. An elaborate plan is set up to get the scientist out of East Berlin. This book was published only three years after the Berlin Wall was constructed; in the introduction, Deighton speaks of the time he spent in East Berlin shortly after the wall went up. The setting feels very authentic.

This book in the series had some interesting differences from the first two. There are over 50 chapters and  almost all of them start with a brief tidbit about a move or strategy in chess. For example: "Players who relish violence, aggression and movement often depend upon the Spanish Game." With no knowledge of chess, this meant nothing to me, but it was a nice touch anyway.

This story was not entirely told in first person. From what I remember, the first two books were told only from the nameless spy's point of view and in first person. In this book, there where chapters here and there that were in third person and focused on the story from various character's points of view. I liked that change, although the narration of the nameless spy is one of the best elements of the story.

There are lots of great characters in this story. The aforementioned Stok in East Berlin and Hallam in London are both memorable. Johnny Vulkan is a double agent that has helped the agency before. There is a discussion with the head of the agency regarding using Vulkan on this case:

'The point I'm making is, that the moment Vulkan feels we are putting him on ice he'll shop around for another job. Ross at the War Office or O'Brien at the P.O. will whip him into the Olympia Stadion and that's the last we will see of him...'

Dawlish touched his finger-tips together and looked at me sardonically. 

'You think I am too old for this job, don't you?'

I said nothing.

 'If we decide not to continue with Vulkan's contract there is no question of leaving him available for the highest bidder.' 

I didn't think old Dawlish could make me shiver.

Another element I like in these stories is the addition of footnotes. They are not extensive enough to break the flow of reading but do add bits of information which would not fit in the flow of conversation.

This book was made into a film, as was The Ipcress File. Michael Caine starred in both films. I had seen The Ipcress File film for the first time in May of this year. I enjoyed it; Caine was just wonderful in the role (called Harry Palmer in the films). However, it was only a bit less confusing than the book. I watched the film adaptation of Funeral in Berlin very shortly after finishing the book and I liked this film even better than the first one. Probably because I understood what was going on, plus my increased familiarity with the characters."

I borrowed the film from Hoopla and watched it on Tu 11/19/24 and the film was streamlined and I think it made more sense. The whole subplot about the 'science of enzymes' was dropped and how Broume was in the concentration camp and his rich family was barely mentioned. Harry Palmer is 'Edmund Dorf' and Johnny Vulcan was actually a Nazi prison guard who was trying to get Broume's paperwork so that he could claim Broume's two million dollars in a Swiss account. 

THE BOYS FROM BILOXI by John Grisham

 Finished Tu 11/12/24

This was a trade paperback that Janny loaned to me. 

It's a great (and well written) fictional tale about the 'Dixie Mafia'.

Two close friends; Keith Rudy & Hugh Malco.Keith was the 'good' boy who became a lawyer (with political aspirations- his father was the DA) and Hugh was the 'bad' boy who became a mafia chief within his father's organized crime family. 

A description of the book at Goodreads:

"For most of the last hundred years, Biloxi was known for its beaches, resorts, and seafood industry. But it had a darker side. It was also notorious for corruption and vice, everything from gambling, prostitution, bootleg liquor, and drugs to contract killings. The vice was controlled by a small cabal of mobsters, many of them rumored to be members of the Dixie Mafia.

Keith Rudy and Hugh Malco grew up in Biloxi in the sixties and were childhood friends, as well as Little League all-stars. But as teenagers, their lives took them in different directions. Keith’s father became a legendary prosecutor, determined to “clean up the Coast.” Hugh’s father became the “Boss” of Biloxi’s criminal underground. Keith went to law school and followed in his father’s footsteps. Hugh preferred the nightlife and worked in his father’s clubs. The two families were headed for a showdown, one that would happen in a courtroom.

Life itself hangs in the balance in The Boys from Biloxi, a sweeping saga rich with history and with a large cast of unforgettable characters."

Although this is novel, it reads just like a True Crime. The reviews were surprisingly luke warm, but I really liked the book. It's somewhat more than the usual 'beach read'. 

A link to a review of the novel:

https://charles-harris.co.uk/2023/08/the-boys-from-biloxi-has-grisham-taken-on-too-big-a-case/ 

A MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT by David Baldacci

 Finished Mo 11/4/24

This was a trad paperback that Janny loaned me. It's typical Baldacci. I loved it while I was reading it, but it's just a compelling storyline. 

This is part of his 'Atlee Pine' series. She is an MMA fighter, weight lifter, and an FBI agent; part of BAU- 'The Behavioral Analysis Unit'. 

Set in Andersonville, Georgia at the infamous Confederate Civil War prison. 

Two Storylines:

1) Atlee was a twin and when they were six years old, Mercy (her twin) was kidnapped and Atlee was physically attacked. In this novel she is trying to locate her sister because she might still be alive and she also wants to find her mother. This storyline is not resolved. 

2) A serial killer is operating in the area. People are murdered (a man and a woman) and dressed in wedding clothes. This storyline is resolved. The killer was a woman who was friends with her parents. 

US AGAINST YOU by Fredrik Backman

 Finished Tu 10/29/24

This is a trad paperback that Janny loaned to me. It's by the same  Swedish author who wrote 'A MAN CALLED OVE'.

This is about an ice hockey rivalry between two teams, The Bears and The Bulls. Each team is represented by the towns of Beartown and Hed. 

A rape pits the towns against each other.

A star player is gay and this pits the towns against each other. 

Many characters and a wise & pithy observation is on almost every single page.

I want more by Backman. 'A MAN CALLED OVE' was his first book and he has many more. 

Link to an excellent review at 'Medium'.

https://zachary-houle.medium.com/a-review-of-fredrik-backmans-us-against-you-4d61efe0204c

'US AGAINST YOU' is part of a trilogy. The first is 'BEARSTOWN' and the final book (can be read as a stand-alone) is 'THE WINNERS'.

GONE TO SOLDIERS by Marge Piercy

 This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I had never read. However, it is probably one of the best historical novels that I've ever seen. It really made you feel that you were experiencing what it was like during WWII. 

It was a little confusing because it involves many characters over many years, but well worth the effort. 

From 'Kate Vane' blog:

"Gone to Soldiers presents a much more nuanced view. It follows a number of loosely linked characters from the start of the war. Their stories take in a range of locations, nationalities and situations, although American, female and Jewish characters all feature prominently. The action spans four continents and takes in battles, intelligence, resistance, factory work and the concentration camps.

What Piercy does so brilliantly is tell an epic story, covering the big political and moral issues, while giving you vivid, believable characters, and making them each the centre of their own narrative. There is heroism and brutality but there are also stories of love and ambition, of small acts of nobility and selfishness, of the ways which people find to survive. Some of the characters experience unspeakable horror, others bleakness and deprivation. For some, especially women, the war brings opportunities.

Piercy highlights the moral ambiguities of the conflict. The reluctance of western countries to welcome refugees is highlighted. Many on the Allied side believe leftists and Jews are more of a threat than Fascists – leading the US to initially side with the Vichy government rather than anti-colonial and resistance fighters. Women form an essential part of the wartime workforce but are still regarded as inferior by many, their status provisional.

At the start of the book many just don’t believe that war and barbarity could happen in their enlightened world. Nowhere is this more clearly shown than in the story of Jacqueline, a French-Jewish teenager. Her narrative begins with an endearing mix of cleverness and naivety. She is dismissive of her father’s Zionism, seeing herself as internationalist, secular, trying out lofty opinions and philosophical ideas. Even after the Nazi invasion, she initially feels that life has changed little, that people’s fears have been exaggerated. Of course, her innocence is short-lived.

This book is totally immersive in the way that only long novels can be (in the acknowledgements Piercy says it would have been even longer, but she couldn’t get the funding for a research trip to the Soviet Union). It forces you to consider what you could endure, if you had to, whether you would be brave or look the other way (of course none of us thinks we would be a collaborator or a profiteer). It makes you wonder if we, like Jacqueline, think this couldn’t happen to us, even as many of the events in the book resonate today."

From 'Kepler's Staff Review':

"There is no better novel about World War II than Gone to Soldiers. Marge Piercy’s painstakingly researched story follows the lives of ten deliciously complex characters through the war and its aftermath. There’s Daniel, the drifter who finds his calling in decoding Japanese naval messages; Bernice, who blossoms from a stay-at-home daughter into a proud, self-confident WASP; Jacqueline, the French teenager who becomes one of the leaders of the Jewish underground; and Naomi, her sister, who must adapt to a new life living in safety with cousins in Detroit, while her family faces the Nazis in France. These and the stories of the other six characters make World War II vivid and personal for any reader, regardless of age." 

 

FLEA: Acid For The Children (A Memoir)

I bought this book on Amazon on received on We 10/16/24 and I noticed that Flea's birthday is 10/16/62.

The book concerns his early years and ends before the success of the RHCP. 

From The Rolling Stone:

"Born Michael Peter Balzary, the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ bassist and spiritual adviser is the sort of rock star who begins his memoir, Acid for the Children, weeping at musical beauty in an Ethiopian church, blurting earnest declarations about his “endless search to merge with infinite spirit” and his surrendering “to the divine and cosmic rhythm,” and offering the summary observation that “bein’ famous don’t mean shit.” Call him disingenuous. Still, you’ll most probably want to hug him before you’re 10 pages in.

Flea’s got a compelling, vulnerable, self-interrogating writer’s voice; his editor on the project was David Ritz, who’s abetted some great music memoirs and biographies (see Aretha: From These Roots; Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye, etc.), generally focused on finding his subject’s beating heart. That must’ve been a breeze with Flea, whose outsize heart appears regularly here — on his sleeve and occasionally in his mouth. He waxes romantic about a beloved sweater made for him by his maternal nana (actual name: Muriel Cheesewright), digs for memories of his early years in Australia, the son of a government worker posted to the consulate in New York City in 1967. There, he comes into consciousness, as his parents split up and his mom takes up with a wild-man jazz bassist (yes, there was evidently some rub-off).

Young Flea, semi-neglected, gets his mind blown by be-bop, learns about substance abuse, and heads off wide-eyed into boho America, eventually landing on the West Coast, where he wets his bed, smokes angel dust, fails with girls, and eventually discovers the L.A. punk scene, where he cements his outcast status and finds his place in the world. After a stint with hardcore troublemakers Fear, he launches a band with high school pal/ bro-soulmate Anthony Kiedis — and that’s where the book ends."

I would read almost any rock biography and this one is well written. 

He's a soulful guy, whithout a doubt.  

COLD DAY IN HELL by Richard Hawke

 Refinished Mo 9/30/24

This was one of my hardbacks that I got on the internet and finished on Tu 1/6/09. 

The central plot is that a nationally famous talk show host is charged with two murders. When another murder happens similar to the other killings it seems to show that the real killer is still at large. He was and the true killer is the talk show host's manager. 

There's a lot of moving parts and many, many characters, but the book is well written and I liked it. 

From Google Books:

"In the stew and dazzle of New York City, savvy, irreverent Fritz Malone-who Susan Isaacs called "the perfect balance of noir P.I. and decent guy"-is embroiled in a string of grisly murders that drags him behind the lurid headlines into the tangled affairs of some the city's most beautiful people and their ugly truths. When two women linked with charismatic late-night TV personality Marshall Fox are found brutally slain in Central Park, Fox becomes the prime suspect and is charged with the murders. At the tabloid trial, one of Fox's ex-lovers, Robin Burrell, is called to testify-and is instantly thrust into the media's harsh spotlight. Shaken by a subsequent onslaught of hate mail, Robin goes to Fritz Malone for help. Malone has barely begun to investigate when Robin is found sadistically murdered in her Upper West Side brownstone, hands and feet shackled and a shard of mirror protruding from her neck. But it's another gory detail that confounds both Malone and Megan Lamb, the troubled NYPD detective officially assigned to the case. Though Fox is in custody the third victim's right hand has been placed over her heart and pinned with a four-inch nail, just as in the killings he's accused of. Is this a copycat murder, or is the wrong man on trial? Teaming up with Detective Lamb, Malone delves deeper into Fox's past, unpeeling the layers of the media darling's secret life and developing an ever-increasing list of suspects for Robin's murder. When yet another body turns up in Central Park, the message is clear: Get too close to Fox and get ready to die. And Malone is getting too close. In Cold Day in Hell, Richard Hawke has again given readers a tale about the dark side of the big city, a thriller that moves with breakneck speed toward a conclusion that is as shocking as it is unforgettable."