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  And, she is in a stale marriage and has outgrown her husband's outdated values and views on women.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,

THE COSMIC RAPE by Theodore sturgeon

Finished Sa 7/25/20

This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I found on the shelves. No note on the flyleaf when I got it or if I read it. The book was published in 1958.

An interesting premise and there are many compelling passages and sections, but overall it lacks depth.

PREMISE:

A spore, 'THE MEDUSA' is traveling through space searching for sentient beings so that they can absorb it into 'the hive'. The spore is dropped to Earth and travels through the food chain until it reaches an alcoholic homeless person, Dan Gurlick. He is asked by this higher entity to 'find out how humans can reconnect' like they were before. In other words, humanity was intended to be live a hive of bees or a colony of ants and Dan Gurlick will become 'the host'.

As this process begins, the humans learn to 'grok' together and repel the alien plan.  Nothing in the novel sheds light on how this defense happened.  

Numerous characters are introduced that are not really connected to the overall story. 

Interesting Points:

(After human consciousness is re-united)

"Now children would never again wonder if anyone cared, or grow up thinking that to be loved is a privilege. It's a privilege only to adults. To any child it's a basic right, which if denied dooms the child to a lifetime of seeking it and an inability to accept anything but child-style love. The way things were now, never again would a child be afraid of growing up, or hover anxiously near half-empty coffers so very easy to fill."  

Chapter 26 is a short chapter that very effectively describes how a human 'united mind' would be. It makes it sound pretty fantastic. 

The ideas of the novel are interesting and compelling, yet as a novel, it doesn't quite gel. 

The novel's page at Wikipedia:

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

A reader's observations about the book at Amazon:

"Theodore Sturgeon's The Cosmic Rape (1958) is an unusual and refreshing take on the alien invasion trope -- especially for a 1950s novel. Unlike many other reviewers, I found that the mechanics of the work (innumerable characters, short length, and ramshackle structure) do not detract from the overall result. Sturgeon's prose is, as always, admirable. Although the novel can feel like an outline rather than a fully fleshed out novel like his earlier masterpiece of the genre, More than Human (1953), the end result is a poignant exploration of collective conscious/individuality.

Brief Plot Summary (limited spoilers)

Gurlick, an alcoholic homeless man, accidentally ingests a seed of the Medusa (in a half-eaten hamburger found in a trashcan). However, the Medusa does not immediately transform him. Instead, the Medusa's ability to convey/carry it's ultimate goal (to create a hive-mind) is restrained by the paltry abilities of Gurlick's intellect. Most importantly, the Medusa is baffled by humanity which has achieved so much individually without a hive-mind. The individuality of humanity (despite wars, struggle, isolation) is its most notable and positive quality. The alien believes that humanity once had a hive-mind that fractured overtime.

Thus the unusual galaxy spanning entity has Gurlick discover how to "put people's brains back together again." The alien's reward plays into Gurlick's base desires -- he can break whatever he wants. The chapters containing Gurlick's story are the most numerous.

Other secondary characters include Dimity Carmichael who is aroused by the sexual sufferings of others (in this case an abused co-worker). A perpetually frightened boy name Henry who is unable to differentiate between happiness and punishment because his abusive father begins all his punishments with smiles. And Mbala (clearly Sturgeon had just read Achebe's Things Fall Apart) whose manhood is challenged by a yam thief. Although there are numerous other side jaunts/characters everything wraps up in a relatively cohesive whole at the end.

Final Thoughts

The structure of Sturgeon's work can be quite frustrating. Sturgeon's preference for the short story form means that each character hardly receives more than one or two short chapters. Each story is linked thematically by a scene of guilt, fear, anger... The event causing the emotion-often characterized by miscommunication between individuals-serves to isolates the character from others. This isolation/miscommunication is paired with the arrival of the Medusa which seeks to create a human hivemind which it will be able to control.

For a novel barely clocking in at 160 pages and comprised of numerous small chunks, Sturgeon manages to ask and ruminate on some very pertinent themes. The Cosmic Rape is in no way a masterpiece of the caliber of More than Human but deserves to be read by all fans of Theodore Sturgeon and the genre. This is a fascinating re-invention of the alien invasion trope."

My observation-  "Nice try, but no cigar. "

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP by John Irving

Finished Su 7/21/20

I loved the book and want to see the movie and read more by Irving.

This is one of my ancient paperbacks and there was no note on the flyleaf if and when I had read it.

I picked it up on the shelf when I read a review that said Elizabeth Berg was a similar writer. Somewhat true, yet her writing doesn't quite reach the sublime level of Irving.

I watched a YouTube video where Irving was interviewed on the 40th anniversary of the book's publication. Also, I saw a sixty minute documentary on Amazon Prime where Irving talks about his approach to the writing craft. 

It's a kind of satire of a war between the sexes or, more accurately, 'the polarization of the sexes'. Jenny Garp is killed by a man and Garp is killed by a woman. I saw an interview with Irving on the 40th anniversary of the release of 'THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP' and he was surprised had how little progress has been made in forty years. 

The definition of a 'picaresque novel'. This class of novel depicts the adventures of a roguish, but appealing hero. 

The book is jam-packed with interesting and crazy characters. 

John Irving studied under Kurt Vonnegut at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. 

Jenny (Fields) Garp's novel is called 'A SEXUAL SUSPECT'. She is 'suspect' because she shuns the traditional role of a woman. She 'uses' a wounded soldier to impregnate herself with Garp. She doesn't feel the need of a husband. 

Garp's name is 'T.S. Garp'. The two initials stand for 'Technical Sargent'. That was his soldier's rank in the service. 

Roberta (Robert) Muldoon is a central character. 'Old 90 from the Philadelphia Eagles'. This character is Irving's favorite and was intended to be the 'most grounded'. He is also Garp's closest friend. 

After Garp dies the book goes on for twenty pages. No matter who dies, life goes on...largely unaffected. 

The book is also about a father's fears. How can he keep all of his friends and family away from 'The Under Toad'?

Ellen Jamesians, a group of women named after an eleven-year-old girl whose tongue was cut off by her rapists to silence her. The rapist apparently 'forgot' that Ellen could still write to describe her attackers. The members of the group cut off their own tongues in solidarity with the girl (the girl herself opposes this tongue cutting).

Garp vehemently disagrees with this group for disfiguring themselves. Because of this he is vilified as an anti-feminist and a hater of women.  

Many attributes of Garp are shared by the author. Irving really was an English teacher and a wrestling coach with young children when he wrote the book. Also, just as Garp had a couple of unpopular novels before his 'break through', so did John Irving. 

The book's page at Wikipedia:

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

O-ZONE by Paul Theroux

Finished Th 7/8/20

This is an old hardback from my collection. There is no note on the flyleaf, but I'm sure that I've at least read most of this before. 

Paul Theroux is generally known for his travel books and this is one of his novels.

I almost stopped reading,  but I think that this book is very important especially today. The gap between the rich and the poor is getting worse and the plot in this book could be America's future.

The book was released in 1986 and the dystopic future that the book documents is probably about 2020 to 2030. 

Hooper and Hardy Allbright- Two brothers who are 'owners'. These are the licensed, upper-class members of America. Both are heirs to the Allbright fortune. It was a chain of clothing stores that went 'mail order' and as society broke down, more people ordered by mail (just like today during the pandemic).

Chemically induced 'comas' are acceptable ways to enjoy a weekend.

A new way for gangs to intimidate. They surround their victim in a 'swarm' and then scream at the top of their lungs. 

***A few of the characters begin to realize that essential freedoms have been given up due to the harsh security measures. Aliens are not sub-human and by treating them as harmful, the entire society is hampered by needless checks and counter-checks by police and private security firms. 

 

Moura is Hardy's wife- She has a son, Fisher (Fizzy), by her visit to a fertility clinic ('contact clinic'- actually this place is closer to legalized prostitution). The clients are masked (masks play a key role in the novel. They are used as a fashion statement and a protection against disease...just like in today's world of the pandemic). In order to insure her pregnancy she visited the clinic many times over a couple of months and formed a kind of 'love relationship' with the donor. 

The search for 'her donor' is a big sub-plot within the novel. 

O-ZONE is an area of the United States near the Ozarks in Missouri. A radioactive spill caused this entire area to be abandoned...The Outside Zone. 

The novel begins with a trip to the O-Zone by a group of wealthy 'owners' from NYC. They live in a 'gated' hi-rise called Cold Harbor. They have been told that this zone is uninhabited, but people live there. 

Aliens are people that are undocumented. They are described as being sub-human and I almost believed that they were from another planet. However, the denigration of these people is almost like the way people talk of 'foreigners' today. 

By the end of the novel we learn that a whole conservative section of the country lives in these outer zones. They almost have a kind of 'Andy of Mayberry' existence. This is very appealing some of the characters.

***Fisher is a repellent character, but I feel that he is a portrayal of someone 'on the spectrum'. He seems very intelligent, but completely devoid of social skills. He is an excellent pilot and very familiar with all things mechanical. 

Murdick is one of the rich owners. He is very right-wing and violent. He is rich enough to buy almost any form or weapon or transport vehicle. 

He is involved with a group of fanatics called 'Godseye'. These people murder undocumented aliens on sight. They patrol the edges of the settled areas and kill at random. They believe that they are protecting the country. 

Hopper is obsessed with a native girl called Bligh. She runs with a pack of aliens and Hooper kidnaps her. And the aliens take Fisher as a way of getting her back. 

Under Fisher's guidance the group travels to New York to make the exchange. Fisher grows during his time with the aliens. They almost become friends and it's the first time that Fizzy has dealt with people in a positive manner.  

***Hardy Allbright works for a company that attempts to change weather plans to create crops and temperate conditions. It is a way for oil companies to keep the price of oil up. This company plants a huge mountain of oil that makes the surface temperature warmer and this attracts clouds and causes rain. Whole areas of the world are transformed. He is hoping that he can accomplish this in the Ozark area. 

From Publishers Weekly:

"Theroux's view of humanity is becoming increasingly bleak even as he stretches his reach with this novel that brilliantly depicts the world as it may become. In the not-too-distant future, America has turned into a police state and a rigidly class-obsessed, terrifyingly racist society. On the verge of anarchy, the country is fragmented into many chaotic parts. The Owners, the remnant elite who live in armed enclaves protected by fearsome security forces, feel menaced by aliensalso called Roaches, Trolls, Skells, Starkiesall those who lead desperate lives of poverty and despair. A group of eight Owners, including a near-genius adolescent, seek an adventurous thrill in a rocket trip to the forbidden area of the O-Zone, formerly the Ozarks, which has been sealed off following massive nuclear contamination. The experience changes all of them, and a second, secret voyage there has terrifying consequences. Theroux has vizualized every detail of his desolate, all-too-plausible world. His scathing social commentary is powerful and convincing; his characters, while too unappealing to win the readers' sympathy, etch themselves in the mind. This highly literate science fiction is not a pleasant book to read, but it is a significant contribution to the literature of what may be a preapocalyptic world."

A link to an excellent critique of the book:

http://movies2.nytimes.com/books/97/06/08/reviews/theroux-ozone.html

Although I had trouble keeping my interest up, I finished the novel and realized that it could be viewed as 'important' especially during the real America of 2020.