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Author du Jour: Deborah Crombie

10/09/2017 by Frederic Colier

“Garden of Lamentations,” by Deborah Crombie

(William Morrow, pp 400, $15.99)

A new shipment from Texas transplant, Deborah Crombie, to the UK brings another powerful thriller featuring the Scotland Yard detectives Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James. The most interesting aspect of Crombie’s novels, and this one (her 17^th) does not fail to hit the high mark, lies in their characterizations. No two thriller-writers write alike, but two schools stand out. One that accentuates plots and actions, while the other emphasizes characterization and, indirectly, intimacy. We travel through life with the protagonists, outside of the investigation. We meet their families and evolve within their domestic spheres, their marriage, children and personal problems. It goes without say that this latter category makes for a different kind of reading and novel experience. Crombie is neither one nor the other, but a perfect balance between the two that few can achieve without falling into the traps of tediousness and formulas.

“Garden of Lamentations,” takes us from the get-go on a double-spiral ride. The Kincaid-James team works separately. First Gemma is involved in the investigation of the murder of a young woman, whose body is discovered in one of Notting Hill’s private gardens. Suspicion does not lag; for this macabre discovery is located in one of London’s most select neighborhoods. When another victim meets the same dark forces, Gemma knows that there is something more at play. Meanwhile, Kincaid, who fears for his life, has moved away from Gemma James, to investigate a case involving members of the forces. Distrust reigns in the ranks, especially after an officer is violently assaulted. As a reader, you anticipate when these two stories are going to cross path. I will not tell you how but partially points you in the direction. While Gemma foresees a potential solution to her crimes, she becomes aware that a child’s life rests in her hands . . . and this makes for a psycho-haunting uninterrupted read, with Kincaid to the rescue.

Author du Jour: Elliot Ackerman

10/03/2017 by Frederic Colier

“Dark At the Crossing,” by Elliot Ackerman

(Alfred A. Knopf, pp 256, $ 25.95)

Here is an author whose fiction cannot be separated from his life, or, if you indulge me, whose novels are based on his life. Once a marine, with an impressive five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, Ackerman is now a journalist based in Istanbul, from where he has been covering the Syrian Civil War since 2013. “Dark at the Crossing” Ackerman’s sophomore novel, after his much-heralded debut novel, “Green on Blue,” like its predecessor, deals with characters trapped in the middle of a brutal conflict. The conflict here is not just the obvious Syrian debacle, but also the one of a failed marriage. Ackerman comments on the genesis of the novel as an insight he had while meeting a revolutionary friend turned refugee. The man was having a conversation with his wife on the phone, and after he put the phone down he stated: “I was unfaithful and she’s never forgiven me.”

The unfaithfulness here is the revolution, the belief, the inspiration, and hopes it breeds while commanding enormous sacrifices. For Ackerman a revolution is a like a marriage: two souls come together and unite to form a new ideal. When a marriage fails, parties have to reenter or recreate a new reality, often with extreme suffering. This insight lies at the core of “Dark at the Crossing.” It is a novel of fragmentation and dissolution, where sacrifices can only meet grief, insanity for the fight of lost causes. Add the loss of a child to the mix and you get a gut-squirming novel, written with the spare prose of an unforgiving Hemingway. There’s darkness all around, and perhaps a different kind of redemption. But don’t expect Hollywood, with its compulsory tendency to romanticize all situations, where a couple would develop the ultimate love, to rescue you. Wars, no matter how we look at them, are no favorable breeding grounds for love. Life, however, still pulses below, and this is where you will find the best of humanity, that the novel succeeds in capturing.

Author du jour: Alex Berenson

09/29/201709/26/2017 by Frederic Colier

“The Prisoner,” by Alex Berenson

(Putnam, pp 426, $28.00)

In this age of great distrust, when even the most open-armed neighbor turns out to be a blood-thirsty sleeping cell waiting to enact some extremist cause, suspicion becomes the first natural line of defense, a secondary reflex when culture forces us to internalize the prevalence of danger. “The Prisoner” will feel like a fresh twist. The setting works in reverse, as the choice of story attempts to excoriate layers upon layers of phobia and paranoia. You could even venture to whisper that the story has a cleansing effect. In this case, John Wells, the main protagonist, is a Muslim convert who goes into hiding in the very epicenter of al Qaeda jihadist world, and so to infiltrate ISIS. Even though this scenario removes the possibility to see the US soil as the battleground for next collision, a major but remains. Life offers no certainty, no matter how many precautionary measures we think we take. In this case, Wells’s infiltration is to investigate an infiltration from within, a prominent CIA mole passing information to the enemy. In the light of the saga taking place within the current White House, the scenario feels, to say the least, prophetic.

But bombshells come in all shapes and sizes, especially those that take our lives over. John Wells who has retired and now lives in slow-tempo Montana, learns that he is the father of a baby girl, Emma. John discovers in the process an unsuspected side of himself. He actually enjoys playing dad, even though he completely failed at his first attempt with his now-grown son. Being conscious of an idyllic life is like winking at the Gods to take it away. Wells is pulled back into action the day he receives a phone call from a Bulgarian jail where Muslim terrorists have been incarcerated. Unable to convince the higher authority of nearing danger, Wells must once again resume his former disguise within a much broader and brutal al Qaeda to go undercover in Bulgaria and locate the true identity of the traitor, while risking everything to save others’ lives. A pitch-perfect delivery from Berenson. For those in search of understanding of the inner workings of a terrorist group, “The Prisoner” is precision work.

Author du Jour: Meredith Maran

08/03/2017 by Frederic Colier

“The New Old Me” by Meredith Maran

(Blue Rider Press, pp 302, $27.00)

A great undiscovered jewel, and from what I infer, a book that deserves to get into every single book club in the nation, and beyond. My enthusiasm is perhaps excessive. There comes a time when a book appears and has valuable lessons to teach us. We learn something we never suspected existed. People in their 60s’ have a life as well, and they go through ups and downs like the rest of us, and still have to learn lessons along the way. They can even display resilience and an appetite for life. It is pleasant surprise that a publisher would release a book that actually concerns our aging nation, where so much emphasis rests on the land of twenty-something Lena-Dunham wannabes teaching the world with great self-assurance life lessons and proper etiquette. Which begs the question: what is more interesting, someone who fumbles through life while brandishing a narcissistic flag and seems to have all the answers? Or someone who has worked hard to build a life, only to lose everything overnight and who has to pick herself up to start again—at age sixty?

This is exactly what happens to Meredith Maran who had a perfect life, meaning living with a sense of safety that no one could ask for more, with a good marriage (to the woman of her dream), a beautiful Victorian house, a good writing career, and an active social life. And then Life comes knowing at her door, like it tends to when things are going too well, and it takes everything away, and more. The best friend dies; her father is diagnosed with Alzheimer; she loses her job, and the house, along with the marriage. Welcome to “The New Old Me.” This is where we meet Meredith, dead broke about to move to La La Land, CA, where she struggles to rebuild her life and self, with all the scrawny feathers that come attached to them, fanned by heartache, loneliness, and self-doubt. The energy of the prose however shows us that beyond the circumstances lies a strong-willed and witty woman, and sure enough slowly Meredith crawls out of her trenches, and she does so with humor. For those in search of summer inspiration, this is your book. Look no further. (It was my wife’s favorite read so far this year.)

Author du Jour: Pauline Lévêque and Florence Mars

07/17/201707/05/2017 by Frederic Colier

“Say Bonjour to The Lady: Parenting From Paris to New York,” by Florence Mars and Pauline Lévêque

(Clarkson Potter, pp 250, $19.99)

If you lived abroad for an extended period, even simply during a semester off while in college, you know that cultures are nothing alike. There is as much in common between Russian and Portuguese bread than between a whale and a tiger. That is what give the world its colors and texture. There has been a bevy of books about raising children in foreign countries of late. France and Paris seem to be the target to this topic. A mother forced to live abroad because her husband’s multi-national has relocated the family to a distant land or simply a single mom in search of new adventures learn quickly that, in France, things are not quite the same as in the States. They readjust with more and less success to the new local flavors.

There’s always an element of silliness and caricature while observing another’s culture. Italians speak with their hands; French shakes their head to show easy irritation, and so on . . . But beyond surface observations, social frameworks speak louder than words. They are harder to pinpoint. The French knock on your door uninvited for dinner. The Spanish don’t start dinner before 11 pm, and the Dutch bring their own food along in case you have not inferred the hint. Yes, they are camping in your place, for a few days.

In their charming illustrated book, “Say Bonjour to the Lady,” Florence Mars and Pauline Lévêque achieve that sweet delicate balance by drawing funny everyday situations between the art of raising children in Paris versus New York, from first-hand experience, without falling into obvious cultural yawns. What becomes apparent with the Lévêque‘s clean-lined illustrations and Mars‘s micro texts is the swinging pendulum between the two cultures applying different approaches to reach nonetheless the same goal. On one hand, French parents seems far less concerned or involved in monitoring their children around the clock, which could be interpreted as a sign of trust. They preferring instead to allow their children’s own self-development to flourish or let them deal with themselves to the point of coming across as not caring. Whereas in New York, parents seems at the service of their children around the clock, to the point of appearing to reveal an underlying anxiety or fear of missing out or stunting or damaging them if they fail to validate any one of their initiatives. Which would be a mistake to believe as well. New York parents simply love to include their children in their lives. Raising them is a hands-on family affair. The book’s strength stems from the playful comparisons Lévêque and Mars draw. Both sides have wonderful and sad pros and cons. If you can accept that, in France, children play in a separate room located as far as possible from the adults’ center of gravity, the living room, and that, in New York, parents live in their children’s living room, another word for playroom, you are in for a few complicit merry giggles.

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