Indian Killer

Indian Killer
By Sherman Alexie
1996
Warner Books
420 pages
ISBN: 0-446-673-70-6
Read: 9/4/12-9/8/12

I was looking forward to reading this book. I have been very impressed with Sherman Alexie, and his collection War Dances is one of the best things I read last year. In particular, I was deeply moved by the short story "Salt" from that collection, so much so that I wrote about it in my (rarely updated) other blog. To be honest though, I was also a little unsure what to expect. Alexie generally writes very lyrical fiction laced with dark humor and deep issues of identity. Many of his short pieces seem to dance along the narrow line between poetry and prose without ever coming down on one side or the other. Because of that, "murder mystery" seemed a break from type. And while sometimes such breaks lead to amazing things, I would be lying if I said that I wasn't a little wary.

But the term "murder mystery" has very little to do with the contents of this novel, and frankly I think that the people that wrote the blurbs do it a significant disservice when they suggest that it is a thriller, even a "literary thriller," whatever that means. Certainly, this novel is "about" a series of murders committed in Seattle by a serial killer known as the Indian Killer, but the actual plot of this novel is only the frame on which beautifully complex characterizations hang sharply cutting commentary on issues of identity, community, and some of the weaknesses of the human condition. While this is certainly darker than what I have read of Alexie's other work, it was hardly a true break from type: beautiful, lyrical fiction with a bit of a bite.

Interestingly, several of the reviews on Amazon and elsewhere seem to have fundamentally misunderstood the story, or at least what I took from it. I hate when people do that.

Shadow of Night

Shadow of Night
By Deborah Harkness
2012
Viking
584 pages
ISBN: 978-0-670-02348-6
Cincinnati Public Library
Read 8/28/12-9/2/12

I read A Discovery of Witches, the first book in Harkness's All Souls Trilogy (this is the second) quite by accident. No, I did not trip over my own feet and stumble through 500 some odd pages, what I mean is, when I picked up A Discovery of Witches, I was completely unaware that it was the first in a series. As a rule, I try to avoid reading any books in a series until the series is complete. There are several reasons for this: (1) I am very impatient, and I have decided that fiction-reading is not the area though which I want to work on this character flaw. (2) As a fiction reader, I am very forgetful, I tend to forget details of characters and events in novels (even as minor details, phrases, and emotions reactions remain vivid in my mind). Therefore, for me, the best experience of reading a series with any continuity that benefits from a memory for details is to start with volume 1, and read book by book straight through to volume N as if the whole thing is one big narrative. (3) I am very compulsive, and in order to achieve my optimal experience, I have, several times in the past, ended up rereading all of the prior volumes in a series when a new one comes out. (I did this recently when a (surprise!) 8th book in The Dark Tower series came out, and you have a very long blog post on the entirety of The Wheel of Time to look forward to in 2013, sometime after the final volume comes out in January.)

I enjoyed, but didn't love, A Discovery of Witches. It's a good story, with a tight plot that kept me involved despite some flaws (including a not terribly likable female lead, and a not very well developed male lead). I was reading happily along, entertained and excited to know what happened, when I came to a sudden, sinking, realization: there simply weren't enough pages left to wrap up the story. Not even enough to do it badly. I was unhappy. Multiple "damnit"s were uttered. Worst of all, my impression at the end of A Discovery of Witches was that this was going to be exactly the worst kind of series to be in this position. The first book was (1) exciting (I really wanted to know what happened) (2) complicated (no way that I am going to remember all the characters and the details of this world) and (3) just not good enough to want to read again. So I decided to do an experiment. I decided just to read the books as they came out, no rereads, and see how that was. You know, like a normal person.

And reading book 2 about 10 months later... Not so bad. There are definitely details that I have forgotten, so I can see where it might have been better to read straight through, but I had only one or two places where I felt really lost, so it wouldn't have been worth it to read the first book again. I find myself curious about what will happen next, although this volume ended on much less of a cliffhanger, at least for me, than the last one did. (This is good, because the author's website currently has no information, at all, whatsoever, on the third book, so I imagine I am going to be waiting quite a while). So yeah, maybe I could read a series as the books come out... maybe. I'm still not sure that I would choose to do it again on purpose.

As for the book itself. I enjoyed it, and it was a great book to have on hand far a very rainy Labor Day weekend, keeping me completely entertained as my husband and brother-in-law killed aliens on Playstation3. Harkness does better with her character development in this book, making Diana more likable, Matthew more fully formed, and introducing us to Philippe, Matthew's father, and one of the more compelling characters we've seen thus far. In Shadow of Night, Harkness takes her characters out of the present day and  into a world she, as a historian, is familiar with, Elizabethan London. I believe that as a novelist, she did well to take things into her intellectual wheelhouse, and her writing thrived in a world that provided some historical constraints to her imaginings.

In short, Shadow of Night is not perfect, but the movement of the plot drives things forward and kept me involved. It's a good read. But not one that will stand alone, if you want to get something out of it, you probably have to read A Discovery of Witches first. That being the case, take my advice... wait until the series is finished.

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Napoleon

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Napoleon
By Gideon Defoe
2008
Pantheon Books
177 pages
ISBN: 978-0-375-42398-7
Cincinnati Public Library
Read 8/27/12-8/28/12

I've been reading Gideon Defoe's hilarious The Pirates! books since my husband first found them, shortly after we saw the movie based on the series, the also-hilarious The Pirates! Band of Misfits. We've both found all four volumes highly entertaining, which is particularly wonderful because there is generally not much overlap in our reading lives.The series is riotously funny, and as all of the volumes are equally slight and slim, won't take up a huge amount of your time.

Here, Pirate Captain, to the dismay of his crew, decides to give up pirating for beekeeping, and thanks to some scheming on the part of his nemesis Black Bellamy, ends up doing so on the tiny island of St. Helena. He is enjoying his time as the island's "most famous resident" until the arrival of none other than Napoleon Bonaparte. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the two just don't get along.

The books in the series succeed by maintaining a delicate balance of humor that is alternately smart and frankly silly, and this offering is no exception. All four The Pirates! books are all well worth your time, and to get the most out of the running gags, your best bet is to start at the beginning, The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists.

Dreamcatcher

Dreamcatcher
by Stephen King
2001
Pocket Books
882 pages
ISBN: 0-7434-6752-3
Read 8/24/12 - 8/27/12

We spent the last week of our summer vacation in southern Maine, so it seemed fitting to bring a little Stephen King along. The book I was reading before this took a bit longer to get though than I expected, so I didn't get started until the end of the vacation, but I was at least in Maine when I started this one.

I generally enjoy Stephen King's books, and frankly. Dreamcatcher was no exception. It's a fast-paced, plot-driven book that perfectly served its purpose of being a relaxing but riveting escapist vacation read. I had fun with it.

Example conversation with my husband:
Him: Are you OK? You're squirming.
Me: Yeahhhh. A guy's getting eaten by a monster.
Him: Is he alive?
Me: He was when it started. Now shush!

King, as usual pulled me in and scared me good. I admit to staying up reading well after bedtime to finish the story. There were certainly some weaknesses; in particular, I think that King failed to outline the rules of the supernatural world as well as he usually does. I found myself a little confused about what was happening towards the end of the book. So not King's best, but overall a pleasurable read.

I do have to say that after reading it, I am surprised by the fact that they attempted to make it into a movie, and perhaps not surprised that the reviews are bad. I can see where the weaknesses, particularly not-perfectly-defined magic, would just make a movie either confusing and hard to follow or seem to come out of nowhere. So yeah, I think that I'll skip that one and let this story be as it was in the book. Entertaining but not exceptional.