Farewell, I'm Bound to Leave You

Fred Chappell - 228 pps.

The third entry in the Kirkman saga concerns a group of people largely absent from the first two books: women. The structure of Farewell is much more similar to I Am One of You Forever (You haven't read it yet?) than to Brighten the Corner Where You Are; it is a collection of short stories concerning life and death, music, and the fairer sex. Except for a few chapters, these stories are presented as conversations between Jess and his mother and grandma in which the latter two recount stories of "the good people" or rather, the good women, of previous generations. To avoid trite hyperbole concerning womanly strength, I will say simply that this book will make you want to hug your mom.

Like the uncles of I Am One of You Forever, the aunts of Farewell are plentiful and fascinating. There's the daughter of a deadbeat alcoholic dad whose surrogate grandpa teaches her to fly fish, the town's resident genius who arranges a picturesque life for two young lovers, and the charitable Anglea Newcombe, whose kindness extends beyond the living world. The most charming story in the work centers around two lovers who, as the woman is preparing to kill the man in a duel, render themselves unconscious and collapse on each other. When they awake, they embrace and their quarrels are put aside. The work is not always so happy, however. Almost all of the aunts have passed away by the time Jess hears their stories, loss lurks in nearly every episode, and the death of Jess' grandma frames the work. The pervasiveness of death makes the beautifully written stories bittersweet. As Mama Kirkman remarks, "sometimes it seems all the really good people are gone."

Women: The New Men?

Equally important to the work is music. In my favorite chapter, the fictional anthropologist Dr. Holme Barcroft travels with Jess' mother and grandma to a hoedown hosted by the Lafferty family and its legendarily skilled square dance calling patriarch. The writing in this chapter brilliantly captures the mystical feeling of unity that come with listening to really great music. As Chappell writes, "[While listening to the music, Dr. Barcroft] felt that he was standing near the origins of a strength that helped to animate the world, a power that joined all things together in a pattern that lay just barely beyond the edge of comprehension." Musical references crop up throughout the work, notably in a chapter about Jess' impetus to write and in the work's title, which comes from an Appalachian folk song. Indeed, the lyrics of that song crop up throughout the work, particularly when the characters find themselves in times of need. It's clear that Chappell sees music not just as a source of joy, but also of comfort, and his writing on the topic occasionally borders on profound. Mostly though, he sees music as a link through time and place, and that is wherein its solace is found.

A real life Dr. Holme Barcroft

This book is not I Am One of You Forever. The storytelling is not quite as tight in places (The story about the courtship of Papa and Mama Kirkman seemed forced.), the humor is not as sharp, and it sometimes borders on Rockwell-esque wholesomeness. That last assesment isn't totally fair though, because this book does cover adultery, rape, and murder remarkably candidly. Also, these criticisms are mostly stylistic. The substance of this book is remarkable. It is about remembering loved ones and letting them go. It is about the strength of friendship and understanding. Mostly though, it is about the human capacity to endure and heal, in particular, the female human capacity to endure and heal. If you're a guy, read it and feel a little more appreciation for the females in your life. If you're a girl, then you can pat yourself on the back; you inspired a fantastic book.

-Heathcliff

Arctic Drift

Clive and Dirk Cussler - 515 pps.

Not yet gone are the days of cheap action fiction that you can buy in airports, subways, and other kiosks around the world. Today you see new people trying to either bank on the success of The Davinci Code or the success of CSI. You do not see characters like Jack Reacher from the Lee Child books or Dirk Pitt written from Clive Cussler being woven into these action fictions anymore. Chivalrous, intelligent, and remnant from the days of knights, these characters tend to stick with you through the thick and thin the more you read them.

Interestingly enough, I first started reading about the adventures of Dirk Pitt and NUMA long ago with the first book of the series, The Mediterranean Caper written back in the hey day of the 1970's. Since then , Cussler has written dozens of books with Dirk Pitt and his sidekick Al Giordino saving the day, including the joint work of Cussler and his son Dirk Cussler in Artic Drift.

As other readers of the series know, when Dirk Cussler began to assist in the writing of the last three books, there was in the introduction of Pitt's long lost children Dirk and Summer. (If you are confused bout the all the Dirks, let me sum up. Dirk Cussler (Author), Dirk Pitt Sr (referred to as"Pitt" and Dirk Pitt Junior (referred to as "Dirk"), Hopefully that helps) Basically in my opinion, the write in of these two new characters that we were supposed to start loving from the get go was a shock and to this day I find myself skimming over the Dirk and Summer scenes to find out what Pitt has been up to.

Sadly I guess this is what is supposed to happen as Pitt has aged appropriately since the first novel in the 70s. I really hope that Pitt doesn't become a "Hey lets get Dad's help since he is too old to partake in our adventures" character but the way these stories are going I can't imagine it happening in any other way except maybe Pitt dying in a blaze of glory in a sword fight with a super villain after saving the world and being the hero he is to me. Now yes, that will never happen, but hey, I can wish can't I?

Overall if you are a fan of the series I would recommend this book. If you are starting out in the adventures of Pitt, then I suggest that you start with the earlier novels and read your way through them. Without having read Pitt's early adventures, I don't think I could fully appreciate the subtle humor and references to previous novels and how deep the Pitt character actually is. This novel continues the great line of stories being written by Clive Cussler and on a personal note continued the development of Dirk Pitt as I know him on the page.

PS. Heathcliff if you touch this post I will destroy you. Whore.

-Maj. MajorMajorMajor

Brighten the Corner Where You Are

Fred Chappell - 212 pps.

The second entry in the Kirkman Tetralogy (the first one was I Am One of You Forever, which was superb), Brighten the Corner Where You Are finds Kirkman patriarch Joe Robert playing Galileo to rural North Carolina's Catholic Church. Joe Robert taught evolution in his high school science class and from the beginning, the reader is fairly sure of his fate. The book follows what will presumably be Joe Robert's last day as high school teacher; the day when the school board finds him guilty of committing treason against the church.

Joe Robert drives this book. The writing is not as rich as that of I Am One of You Forever, but it is still frequently chuckle-inducing and contains several brilliant poetic flourishes. However, from the beginning you will be entranced by Joe Robert. He is a bit different in this book, a more grizzled and intellectual version of the overgrown teenager from I Am One. To stimulate the minds of his students he does everything from host Socratic seminars (During one of these seminars - which is the funniest scene in the book - Joe Robert shouts "Goddammit, Socrates, you don't understand a thing!" at a boy who has inherited the philosopher's spirit.) to playing pranks on them. Joe Robert is intent on one thing, kindling the fires that are the minds of his students, as Plutarch insisted. His stubborn pursuit of this goal is his primary character flaw.

So. Crates.

As expected, a conflict between spirituality and science is at the heart of the book, though not in the way I anticipated. For instance, the trial before the school board, which I thought would be reminiscent of the trial in Inherit the Wind, never occurs, because Joe Robert quits before it can. Instead, the delicately simmers up over the episodic structure of the book. In one episode, the literal-minded Joe Robert engages in an argument with the school janitor over the difference between looking at things and seeing them; an argument that is actually about whether explaining events or accepting them is more important. In another, Joe Robert's faith in reason leads him to conversing with an escaped goat named Bacchus. As Joe Robert argues, the only way to get someone, or some goat, to do something is to make them believe that it is in their best interest. In the strangest and most powerful chapter of the book, Joe Robert engages in a legal defense of Charles Darwin during which he delivers an elegant speech on the compatibility of Christianity and the theory of evolution. In each of these episodes, and indeed throughout the entire book, a subtle and stunning treatise on the nature of truth is developed. By the end, it becomes clear that it is not just science and religion that are up for debate, but the nature of truth. What is it? How do we find it? Chappell doesn't answer these questions, but he's guaranteed to make you scratch your head over them at least once.

You can't handle this book review!

The title for Brighten the Corner Where You Are comes from a hymn about inspiring others by being virtuous in daily life. Joe Robert is not virtuous in the classical sense. Actually, he lies like a dog on a cheap rug. But these lies do more for the people around him than the truth ever does. As a teacher, Joe Robert is universally loved and is adept at reaching his kids. But when he finally embraces the truth, in his defense of Darwin, he ends up destroying that which is most precious to him. It seems that Joe Robert is locked into a life of horrible paradox. His deep love for the human race manifests itself through his pursuit of the truth, and his stubborn pursuit of the truth causes suffering for those he cares about most deeply. When he finally realizes this, Joe Robert simply leans over to his wife and asks her if she gets the joke. I have to say, I am still working on it.

-Heathcliff

Odd Man Out

Matt McCarthy - 294 pps.

Could someone explain the controversy surrounding this book to me? McCarthy's manager embellishes his sentences with more profanity than a Bob Saget routine, the Dominicans and the Americans don't get along, and the players are using everything from Red Bull to cocaine on a regular basis. Maybe I am jaded or maybe the implication that most professional baseball players are arrogant overgrown adolescents isn't shocking anymore. I have to admit, McCarthy's one year stay with the Provo Angels didn't seem all that different from my four year stint with the Yorktown High School Patriots, except that the players on the Patriots drove nicer cars.

McCarthy's writing has its weak points. Apparently more than a few of his facts are incorrect - he gets game results wrong and it seems that an incident involving Larry King's child punching McCarthy's teammate in the groin was fabricated - and his frequent allusions to his time at Harvard Med can get annoying. However, McCarthy is mostly a compelling storyteller, so long as he sticks to vignettes about his teammates hitting on T.J.I. Fridays waitresses or his manager's Dice Clay impressions.

McCarthy's initial interactions with Chris Young, currently of the San Diego Padres, and the Yale baseball team made me think McCarthy was simply a baseball playing Tucker Max. I was wrong. McCarthy is more or less a straight man who is also highly affable; he also turns out to be frequently hilarious. My favorite line comes from early in the book "In mid-May...I received a call from a scout for the New York Yankees named Cesar Presbott. He began the conversation by announcing, 'It is I, Cesar Presbott, scout for the New York Yankees.' His self-importance oozed through the phone."

It is I, Monty Python Reference

Despite the factual errors, I know what McCarthy means when he says he continues to maintain the veracity of his book. If I were to write my memoirs of middle school summers spent in mini-vans and scalding southern Virginia ball fields, I'm sure I would misquote my manager more than once. But my readers would still know that he looked like a trimmer Wilford Brimley, he turned a blind eye when we were off the field, and facilitated what my apparently lifelong love of baseball. Ultimately, the spirit of the message is more important than the mean old facts.

Odd Man Out isn't for those who didn't play baseball, because it reinforces the negative stereotypes about baseball players that are turning so many people off of the sport. For those who did play however, you will find this book snappy, exciting, and nostalgic. You will see that the Provo Angels are comprised of ghosts from your baseball past - the crotchety old manager, the prima donna all-star, and the unstable fireballer - and you will be reminded of baseball's timelessness. The drug usage and (gasp!) underage drinking will deteriorate the already embattled image of the modern baseball player. But nobody should get mad at McCarthy for sharing this information; he is a first-hand reporter, after all. The good needs to be taken with the bad, even when we baseball players are on the losing end.

-Heathcliff

The Painted Veil

W. Somerset Maugham - 289 pps.

You know what most men aren't good at? Figuring out what goes on inside the minds of women. You know what W. Somerset Maugham isn't good at?

Published in 1925, The Painted Veil tells the story of Kitty Fane, a vapid British socialite. She moved with her new husband, Walter, to the British colony of Hong Kong, where he is a bacteriologist. But this is no honeymoon story. Kitty does not love Walter, who is socially awkward and aloof, but married him because she was getting too old to be single. He inexplicably adores her, even though she's vain and silly. Unfortunately for Walter, she falls head over heels for the charming, powerful, and married Charles Townsend and they begin a passionate affair. Eventually Walter catches on and she asks for a divorce. He says he will agree to it if Kitty can get Charles and Charles's wife to make written statements that promise that they will divorce and that he will marry Kitty. If they won't do that, Kitty will have to accompany Walter to his new post in a remote village where he will be treating a cholera epidemic. Charles won't do it, of course, because the scandal would ruin his career, and Kitty is devastated. Not only has her lover abandoned her, he's sent her off to certain death.

That's about the first hundred pages. It's a pretty big wind-up just to get to this little village, and even when we get there, nothing much happens. Or it does, but it's all inside Kitty's mind and heart. The problem with that is that the author is a man and he doesn't seem to understand women very well. Or even like them.

This is supposed to be the story of a woman finding herself, but all this woman finds is that she needs a man. Maugham paints most of the women as petty, vapid and needy, and Kitty is the worst of all of them. When she finally realizes how shallow she's been, she explains it to her husband in this awful self-deprecating way that not only demeans her, but all women. The only strong females are a group of French nuns who run a mission in the village.

I think the biggest failure of this novel is the underdevelopment of the setting. There are so many opportunities missed. We see almost nothing of Chinese culture. Kitty can't speak Chinese, so she only ever has conversations with white people. There is one scene where Kitty talks through a white translator to a Chinese woman, but it's brief and nothing is really established by it. There is no comment made on the imperialism, good or bad. These white people are getting carried everywhere in sedan chairs! Come on!

Maugham misses the game-winning pass

But I'm not being entirely fair. I didn't hate it. The novel has its good points. The writing is nice, detailed but not tedious, and it flows well. It's short and easy to read, especially because of the short chapters that give you the impression of progress and encourage you to keep reading. It could easily be finished in a day.

My favorite part of the novel was the dynamic between Kitty and Walter. Walter still cares for Kitty, but can't bring himself to trust her, or even tolerate her, again. Kitty is desperate for Walter to forgive her because his anger is running him into the ground. Also, she realizes Walter is the only person in the world who cares for her at all. Their dialogue is tense and revealing of both their characters. The relationship has a suspense built into it in that it could change at any moment.

The problem is it doesn't! It doesn't change, nobody changes, or really learns anything, if their actions are any indication. Kitty has a thousand little revelations on the nature of existence that ultimately lead to nothing. The only thing that noticeably changes about our heroine is that she is now able to see into the motivations of others. But this only leads to more philosophizing on Maugham's part about the selfish nature of relationships and how little people really mean to each other.

It was a really depressing book. It was so disappointing, mostly because it had so much potential to be great, and it missed the mark. The plot could have gone somewhere. The main character could have been less of a caricature. I could have come away a better person! But no, I just learned a lot about Maugham's issues with women.

I hear the recent movie adaptation with Edward Norton and Naomi Watts has a different ending and is, in general, a more worthwhile venture. So if I were you, I'd stick with the movie.

Edward Norton > W. Somerset Maugham

-Daisy Buchanan

The Kings of New York

Michael Weinreb - 278 pps.

There's a point in every man's life when he finally realizes that he's never going to go pro. This realization is crushing. It means that that man knows he's stuck with his crappy job and will spend the rest of his life listening to "Glory Days." I hated that song when I heard it at baseball games, but the older I get the more I understand why people take solace in it. It reminds them of high school, where every little action could've meant life or death and the real world consists of American Idol and Survivor. It's kind of unfair when you think about it. If you're good at throwing a football, you get to be god of your entire universe for four years. After that, you become mortal, and the change ain't easy.

Keeping the faith

At least the kids in Kings of New York knew what they were getting themselves into, sort of. Competitive chess was never a lucrative vocation to begin with, so playing it in high school shouldn't have given them false hope. It just doesn't seem right though, that a game so mentally challenging, so difficult -- a game whose best players are regarded as geniuses after all -- provides almost no pay off for those who excel at it. Chess got Sal Bercys a full ride to UT-Dallas and it got Willy Egard enough money to get by without a summer job, but it by no means secured them a future. That doesn't mean the team members didn't play chess like their lives depended on it when they were in high school. Sal and Willy -- like most of the Edward R. Murrow high school team chronicled in Kings -- believed chess would save them from the realities of the world. For as good as they were, you can't blame them.

Kings of New York chronicles the journeys of the Edward R. Murrow chess team during the 2005-2006 school year. Though Weinreb's writing is sometimes clumsy and the book's organization is unclear, his passion for the kids he follows and his awe for chess are what carry the narrative. That, and the remarkable people affiliated with Murrow's chess program. Compelling enough is the fact that the two best young players in the nation, Sal and Alex Lenderman, both play for Murrow. In addition, there is silent Nile, Oscar the hustler, and Ilya the workaholic. Each of these young men undergo huge changes as their run at a national chess championship progresses. The hardest stories to swallow are those of Oscar, Willy, and Ilya. Neither Oscar nor Willy graduate despite their proficiency for chess and Ilya gets denied admission to all of his top choice schools. The easiest is Sal's. He changes from aloof genius to inspired leader. Yet for all of Sal's efforts, Murrow cannot muster a victory in the 2006 championship. When school lets out the kids go their separate ways. If it weren't for the chess team, you'd think they didn't even know each other.

Photographic evidence

But the book isn't about failures, it's about chess. An idiosyncratic cast of characters slides in and out of Kings, from chess guru Bruce Pandolfini to International Master Irinia Krush. We see Alex find success in an international tournament and see chess get Oscar Santana a chance at an education that otherwise would've been denied. Though in the end it's unlikely any of these people will find the kind of fame that most high school athletes dream of, at least they'll be able to convince laymen that they are geniuses by whooping them in chess. If not that, they can always make a few bucks hustling in Washington Square. Maybe there's a future in chess after all.

-Heathcliff

Fingersmith

Sarah Waters - 582 pps.

Perhaps this isn't the most glorious debut for the GB Club, but...oh well. Let me start with a story: On my 20th birthday, my uncle Mike gave me a paperback. He said, "Happy birthday, Daisy! I think you'll really get into this." The cover art looked pretty spiffy, and I am a sucker for historical fiction, so I figured I'd give it a try. Besides, my uncle seemed to think that I'd really enjoy it.

The novel is immediately engrossing. The voice of the first narrator (there are two) is lively and enthralling. Sue Trinder introduces herself as a clumsy, but lovable fingersmith (read: pickpocket), a poor girl raised in a family of thieves in a dodgy part of London in the mid-19th century. At seventeen, she lives for the excitement of London and helping her adoptive parents with their petty scams. When a friend asks her to help him in an elaborate scheme to cheat a rich young lady at an isolated mansion in the countryside, she has no idea what she's getting into.

Dangerous countryside

So here I am, getting completely involved in this book that, while not high literature, is a great mystery/thriller/historical fiction piece. All I could focus on for days was figuring out what the twist was going to be. No joke, ask Heathcliff. Imagine my surprise as I keep reading and reading and I slowly start to realize...this is a lesbian book. I started doing my research then on the author, Sarah Waters, and it turns out that all her books are lesbian books. One of her novels, Tipping the Velvet, is even named after a Victorian-era term for cunnilingus.

I mean, I'm cool with lesbians. I'm progressive. But my uncle did say he thought that I'd really like it. Hmm...Whatever, but finding that out definitely made me read the title in a different way.

Double entendre

Anyways, the story is excellent. The plot is very tight; it's masterfully constructed. It's filled with twists and turns, each one as surprising and satisfying as the last. Despite the expert storytelling, the novel reads as a sort of guilty pleasure, and not because of the lesbian romance. There's something more salacious than a little fingersmithin' going on here. The romance itself is very well done. It's not too sudden or too maudlin, and it's genuinely touching. The characters are compelling and odd, especially the females. Women play a much more prominent role than the men, so it's just a touch feminist. That's not to say that the males are demonized or flat, because they're just as interesting as the women except with less to say.

The only real complaint I had with Fingersmith was the change of narrator for the middle section of the book. The book is divided into three parts and the first part is told charmingly by Sue Trinder in the first person. The second part switches to the first-person perspective of Maud Lilly, the wealthy heiress Sue and her friend are trying to rob. Maud's voice is much more educated than Sue's. Because of this, Maud's voice is unfortunately also more sterile and less endearing. Maud is infinitely less likable than Sue and this section of the book drags because of it. I don't argue that the perspective change was unnecessary, but the way it's done leaves something to be desired.

It's a great book. It doesn't have much to say about life, or even really about love, but it's a fun read. The atmosphere of 19th century England is captured in an engrossing way and all the sex, lies and turnabouts keep the pages turning.

In summary: Fingersmith is no Grapes of Wrath, but it's definitely worth a read. Also my uncle thinks I'm gay. Sorry, Heathcliff.

-Daisy Buchanan