MAZE OF DEATH by Philip K. Dick

 Finished Tu 9/8/20

This is one of my ancient paperbacks and there is no indication when I bought it.

Plot:

A group of space colonists believe they are on Delmak-O, but really they are the crew of the spaceship of Persus 9, stranded in orbit around a dead star with no way of calling for help. Most of the explorers decide to continue the hallucinations. It's a 'reality vs. perception' novel and it's as if the characters embrace a non-reality. 

One of the people believed that they were picked for the mission through prayer. Prayers 'work', but they must be augmented electronically to reach all the known and unknown parts of the galaxy.  

The book's page at Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Maze_of_Death

The explanation of the book at Goodreads:

"Fourteen strangers come to Delmak-O. Thirteen of them were transferred by the usual authorities. One got there by praying. But once they arrived on that treacherous planet, whose very atmosphere seemed to induce paranoia and psychosis, the newcomers found that even prayer was useless. For on Delmak-O, God is either absent or intent on destroying His creations. At once a wrenching metaphysical thriller and an ingenious meditation on the nature of divinity, A Maze of Death is Philip K. Dick at his most dizzyingly provocative."

A link to the comments at Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/216399.A_Maze_of_Death

I think that one of the most glaring irregularity is PK Dick's treatment of women. The only aspect of Dick's female characters is important is that they are physically beautiful. One of the people on the 'ship/planet' is a woman who is portrayed as 'the town whore'. 

The best part of the book is its' brevity. Slightly less than two hundred pages was just enough. 

The copy that I have is falling apart, but I think I'll keep it because I liked it.

AMERICAN PSYCHO by Bret Easton Ellis

 Refinished Sa 9/5/20

This is an old trade paperback that I bought at Barnes & Noble; Sa 11/5/94: $14.00. I finished it four days later, and I reread the novel and finished on Su 9/17/00.

Patrick Bateman is a psychopathic serial killer. He's quite open about his activities, but nobody listens.

Donald Trump is a hero of Bateman's. When people refer to 'The Plaza', he corrects them by saying, 'It's 'The Trump Plaza'. If Trump has eaten there, it's where Bateman's friends will definitely go there.

He claims that he works in 'Murders and Executions' instead of 'Mergers and Acquisitions'. 

Many times he is not recognized, but people never question that he is part of the top 'One Percent'. 

Many times he claims that he has to return video tapes to the store. 

Positive Criticism:

"...a gruesome little critique of the most shallow and depraved aspects of 1980s American capitalism..."

Negative Criticism:

"...“he most loathsome offering of the season, and “a contemptible piece of pornography.”

"...stupefying details about expensive clothing, food and bath products, that were it not the most loathsome offering of the season, it certainly would be the funniest..." I remember that this is what I loved about the novel my first time through it. But now it just dates the novel. Bateman's fantastic TV is only a 27" model and some of the trendy products are no longer for sale. 

 "...a hilarious, repulsive, boring, seductive, deadpan satire of what we now call—as if it were something in the past—the Age of Reagan."

"... a canonical work of social satire, widely regarded by gender theorists and feminist critics alike as a scabrous assessment of modern masculinity run amok."

Bateman is an expert on clothes and how they are worn. All of his friends defer to his opinions on fashion. 

Bateman is referred to by his friends as "Mr. Wallstreet".

I really loved the book all of the times that I've read it. Funny and horrifying.

TRUE TO FORM by Elizabeth Berg

 Finished Tu 9/1/20

This is a hardback that Janny bought at a lawn sale. I think that this novel could be aimed at the 'young adult' market, but maybe contemporary kids would think it too sweet.

The character of Katie was in two other novels; 'DURABLE GOODS' 'JOY SCHOOL'.

The novel is set in 1961. Katie is thirteen and this is her summer break and her father wants her to work. She gets a baby sitting job taking care of three young boys and also helping an old man take care of his elderly wife, Mrs. Randolph. And, her best friend Cynthia, has a mother who insists that young girls should be part of The Girl Scouts of America. 

Mr. Randolph is a retired teacher and he is able to get her into the exclusive girls school where he used to teach. Katie wants to be part of the 'popular' girls at the new school and she gets used. The new girls want to use her for her intelligence and she denigrates Cynthia in front of her new friends. Cynthia hears it and will not speak with Katie. This is the major 'clash' of the novel. 

The book is a kind of meditation on Friendship. 

From the book's page at Amazon:

"Living with her stern, unapproachable father and his new wife after the death of her mother, thirteen-year-old Katie finds herself lonely and forges an alliance with Cynthia, a fellow misfit."

A review by 'Top 500 Reviewer Vine Voice':

"Written with wisdom and wit, this book by Elizabeth Berg—the third in a series—is a coming of age story to which any woman who came of age in the '60s will thoroughly enjoy, if not actually treasure.

It's the summer of 1961 and Katie Nash is 13, bridging that confusing time between childhood and adolescence. But Katie does something so terrible and upsetting that she can barely forgive herself, and the act may very well bring her remorse her entire life. How she tries to make amends is both endearing and sad and teaches us all lessons in not only how to forgive one another, but also humble ourselves to seek forgiveness from those we have harmed.

While this book can be read as a stand-alone novel, I think you will appreciate it so much more if you read "Durable Goods" and "Joy School" first."

A FAINT COLD FEAR by Robert Daley

 Finished Fr 8/28/20

This is one of my ancient paperbacks and there is no notation on the flyleaf if I had ever read it.

Robert Daley is the gold standard for 'the cop procedural' and this is one of my favorite genres.

Robert Daley served as Deputy Commissioner of the New York City Police Department in 1971-72. He was born in 1930 and he is still alive. The author's page at Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Daley

The novel is mostly set in Columbia and South America. Ray Douglas was the head of a New York police narcotics division and he was kind of banished to South America due to an internecine 'turf battle' after a huge heroin bust. The novel is set in the 80's and was at the beginning of The War On Drugs and federal, state, and city agencies were fighting as to who would handle the planning and logistics of the operations. 

Douglas is sent to Columbia and it's left to him as to what to due. He is like a fish out of water and the drug kingpins of South America have completely bought the local governments and police forces and pretty much run the show. These men are ruthless criminals, but run their operations like they were CEO's of major international companies. 

Jane Fox is another 'fish out of water'. She is an investigative journalist and fights to be stationed to cover the South American drug operations. In the 80's women were fighting for their place in the workplace and she knows that if she had been a man, nothing would stand in her way, but since she's a woman she is scrutinized far more closely.  And, she is in a stale marriage and has outgrown her husband's outdated values and views on women. And, Jane and Ray are almost destined to fall in love.  Ray is a recent widower and he falls the hardest. He has grown children and he really loved his dead wife, but now it's time to begin again. 

Because Jane is pretty she is able to form relationships with at least one of the drug kingpins. And, late in the novel she is kidnapped by one of the drug lords. Ray moves heaven and earth to orchestrate the various agencies to work to get her back. He is successful and although she had second thoughts and was thinking of reunited with her husband, but on the last page you learn that she is going through with her divorce and she will be with Ray Douglas. 

A quote from the author at the book's page at Amazon Books:

"... Much later I served as an NYPD Deputy Commissioner, ducking under the yellow tape to get as close to the crime scenes as possible, and on that experience I based a number of the novels that were to come. I wrote also about bullfighting, opera, grand prix racing, France, wine, treasure diving, for I plunged into all those worlds as well, plunged all the way to the end if possible, where I stood around gawking for a time, then wrote as accurately as I could, whether in fiction or non-fiction about what I had found. There is a price exacted of those who ignore traffic signs. I paid it in fear, defeat, humiliation, even in lawsuits. But other times I reaped an incredible profusion of excitement and delight—and also made a good living. To keep my enthusiasm high, I had to keep discovering new worlds, new people, for otherwise writing is hard, hard, hard, sometimes impossible. There were so many strange doors out there, all of them strangely ajar, at least to a writer. One had only to lean a little and they would open and whatever was behind them would be revealed. It’s all in this book. This is my story."

I liked the book and I found another novel on the shelves by Daley which I plan to read.  

NIGHT SINS by Tami Hoag

 Finished Su 8/16/20

This is one of my paperbacks that I bought at the library book fair on Sa 1/11/20.

When I finished the book I was disappointed that it really didn't end. The kidnapped boy, Josh, just 'reappears' and a madman is captured but why and how he did the crime is not resolved. A new novel called, 'GUILTY AS SIN' (2000) must be read to find out the complete details. 

Set in Deer Lake, Minnesota, a small town fairly close to Minneapolis. It's winter and the temperatures plunge far below zero. 

A LOVE STORY AND A CHILD KIDNAPPING

Agent Megan O'Malley is sent to the town from Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to assist in the kidnapping of an eight year old boy, Josh.  

Mitch Holt is the local chief of police. He and Megan become lovers. Megan is dead set against any involvement with another cop, but the attraction is far too strong. At first I thought that the 'steamy cop affair' in the middle of a kidnapping seemed a little ham-fisted, but it works in a corny way. Mitch's wife and son are dead. He feels responsible because he allowed his wife and son to shop at a store located in a bad area. Both were gun downed during a robbery. He has an adorable five year old girl, Jessie. 

Hannah and Paul are Josh's parents. Hannah is a well-loved local doctor and Paul is a 'wannabe' beloved local businessman. Paul is having an affair with a neighbor, Karen Wright, that is also Hannah's friend. Paul wants to become 'the face of the search' for his son and Hannah is honestly devastated and feels that all of her competency of her medical practice is down the drain.  

Karen's husband, Garrett Wright, is the madman who is captured at the end of the novel. But, he couldn't have acted alone. This man was a teacher at the college and was helping in the investigation. At the end you don't even know if Karen was aware of the affair between Paul and Hannah. I even felt that Karen could have been aware of the kidnapping itself. 

***A janitor at the local ice rink where Josh was taken is the first suspect. He had a record involving child molestation that he had not divulged to the local police. This man commits suicide by shattering his glass eye and then slitting his wrists.

From the review at Kirkus:

"In Hoag's swell, sexy thriller (after Lucky's Lady, 1992), an eight-year-old boy is kidnapped, and two emotionally battered cops find love. There's a cold snap in Deer Lake, Minn., but it's all hot sparks when Agent Megan O'Malley meets police chief Mitch Holt. She's struggled to become the first female field agent for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension; he has "Harrison Ford's looks and an athlete's body" (sorry, Harrison). On the outside they're two tough cookies who've been scarred by life. But inside, their hearts are as mushy as marshmallows that have burned too long in the fire. When Josh Kirkwood is kidnapped after hockey practice, Megan and Mitch launch a search as the wind chill sends the temperature plummeting to 60 below. The kidnapper, who sends cryptic messages with pieces of Josh's clothing, is an evil maniac who likes to manipulate his victims. Josh's mother, Hannah, suffers most. A doctor who runs a hospital ER and still bakes her own cookies, she blames herself for neglecting Josh; her husband blames her too, even though he was committing adultery with a neighbor when Josh called him for help. Hannah turns to Father Tom, a hip cleric who plays a GameBoy, wears cowboy boots, and feels a little unpriestly about his parishioner. Hoag inserts strong doses of violence (a suspect slits his wrists with pieces of his own glass eye; the villain breaks Megan's hand), skillfully handles a complicated plot, and makes us care about her central characters. The whodunit is compelling, but never more important than the evolution of relationships. Sliding unashamedly from police procedural to purple prose, Hoag savvily steeps her novel in the conventions of steamy romance, where the color of the police chief's "whiskey" eyes are as important as the clues."

I will check Amazon and if 'GUILTY AS SIN' is priced right, I might pick it up. 

 

MODEL BEHAVIOR- A NOVEL AND 7 STORIES by Jay McInerney

 Finished Fr 8/7/20

I finished the novel, not the short stories. The novel is 178 pages.

The novel concerns a celebrity journalist, Connor McKnight and his long-time girlfriend and super-model, Philomena. She's leaving him for a famous actor and Connor seems unable to accept the fact.

From BookPage:

"...allows McInerney to return to the themes and stylistics of his earlier work. He overlays the vodka-doused story of Connor with cheeky pokes at popular culture, using his sardonic pen to skewer the self-anointed beautiful people, revenge-seeking book reviewers, and brash magazine editors. McInerney is sly, mischievous, and sometimes downright nasty as he writes his most trenchant social critique since Story of My Life." 

From the book's page at Amazon:

"In his latest novel, Model Behavior, McInerney offers us the portrait of a doubting devotee of the city where vocation, career, and ambition (which only occassionally coincide) run head-on with friendship and love--or merely desire. We see Conor McKnight's well-earned ennui fast becoming anxiety as he tries to protect himself from the harrowing fate that unfolds before his bleary eyes. McInerney is at the peak of his craft in what is sure to become a classic at the end of the century."

A funny passage:

"Don't you mean, 'The Cocteau Twins'?

"No, I mean 'The Simon Twins'- Carly and Paul...Chick Music!"

It was an easy, breezy read and could be read in a couple of settings. I'll leave the book out and maybe randomly hit the short stories. 

STRAIGHT MAN by Richard Russo

Refinished Su 8/2/20

This is one of my trad paperbacks that I first finished Fr 11/16/02 on a day off. In the flyleaf I had written, 'Best novel I've read in ages'. And, after the second reading I still agree absolutely.

PREMISE:

A look at the life of William Henry Devereaux, Jr. (Hank) who is the chairman of the English department of a small college in west central Pennsylvania. He has a kind of snide, quirky manner and he never takes anything very seriously, although his life is unwinding before his eyes. 

***His nose is mangled during a staff meeting when one of his female teachers hits him with a notebook and the spiral catches one of his nostrils.

***His wife is away and probably having an affair with his dean

***One or more of his staff is eager for an affair with him

***The high-point (?) is when he threatens to execute a goose unless he gets the budget his department requires. Hilarious and compassionate simultaneously. 

Much of the novel might have been based on Russo's teaching career at Southern Illinois at Carbondale, IL. 

From the book's page at Wikipedia:

"Straight Man (New York: Random House, 1997) is a novel by Richard Russo set at the fictional West Central Pennsylvania University in Railton, Pennsylvania. It is a mid-life crisis tale told in the first person by William Henry Devereaux Jr., the unlikely interim chairman of the English department. Notable moments include the chairman's hiding in the rafters as the faculty vote on his dismissal, his threat of killing a campus pond goose every day until the department receives a budget, flirtations between faculty and students, satires on academic scholarship and stardom, and love and health in the season of grace. It is rumored that the material for this book came from Russo's experiences teaching at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Southern Connecticut State University or at Penn State Altoona."

The author's page at Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Russo

The theme is that a man who has never taken anything seriously finally must make a stand. This doesn't mean that he has to do anything, but it's more like he just must 'let go' and accept his life,