“Stargazer” is her sixth novel
in the series but mostly plot and writing do not match her father’s
brilliance, although some titles stand out. I usually go for the Navajo
mythology, description of nature and landscape but plot wise it is often more cozy
crime, so I think I stick to re-reading my old
Tony Hillerman collection in the
future which are in a league of their own.
It is rare
that I am so completely blown away by a book uttering “Wow” several times when I
finished “My Monticello” by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson. This debut will stay in my head for some
time. What a powerful, electrifying story,
what an incredibly beautiful use of language, a chilling account put into
narration what has been a nightmare of
mine ever since the rise of Trump and his administration. Picture the US in a civil war like state with
black neighborhoods burning, brown skinned people driven out and turned away at
clinics hunted down by white supremacists, a world in chaos set on fire.
“Give onto Others” is no exception, the favor Commissario Brunetti does for his former neighbor Elisabetta in looking into something seemingly private and unimportant around her daughter’s life branches out into all directions leading nowhere. Only in the middle of the book, when her daughter’s veterinarian office is vandalized, does Brunetti step into action and the book gathers speed when he decides to look into his neighbor’s family background and motive.
I like Donna Leon’s subtle way of developing an often non bloody but psychologically astute plot. And of course there are always scenes of Venice, food, drink, Brunetti’s family and colleagues and reflections on Italy’s or Venice’s shortcomings which always makes for a fine, escapist reading time. It is a bit like visiting friends.
“The Flames” is based on four women in Egon Schiele’s life; he was one of the most controversial Austrian painters in early 20th century Vienna, a close friend of Gustav Klimt and known for his unusually explicit erotic paintings and sketches. I saw them at the Albertina in Vienna and even today they are provoking.
Schiele
painted them all: his headstrong sister
Gertrude, his very first model with whom he shared an unusually close bond. Vally: his muse, lover and model during his
early year as an artists, an exceptionally free spirited, proud woman who stood by
him when he was thrown into prison for his pornographic paintings and then the bourgeois,
wealthy Harms sisters who both had a crush on him: Adele the older, more eccentric,
possessive troublemaker of the two and Edith, the gentler, more conventional of
the sisters who eventually became Egon’s wife.
Haydock does an excellent job in painting the hard, often turbulent
lives of each of them, overshadowed by WWI, taking fictional liberties with her
narration but staying close to what actually happened. She adds their biographies as an appendix and shares
with the reader what spurred her to
write this excellent novel which I found so captivating. Egon Schiele, around whose life all four rotate, ends up being a side character.
This is a book about four unusually strong women during a time when the world
held very different values and female lives were very restricted, a wonderful
read , sometimes heartbreakingly tragic .
“Violeta”, her latest book coming out January 25nd (thank you Bloomsbury for the early galley) is firmly moored in that tradition. Violeta Del Valle, the heroine of the book, reaching the end of her tumultuous, rich life shares her memories in a letter to a male, Camillo, you find out later who he is.
Born into a wealthy, entrepreneurial family in the 1920ties with a typical patriarch of a father, the family fortune is lost during the Great Depression due to her father's reckless risk taking. After his sudden death, the family is forced out of their mansion and Violeta and her mother find themselves in a remote rural part of the country. Her oldest brother becomes the fixed star in her life providing the support for her astonishing talents who are the source for her financial independence giving her the freedom to love whom she pleases during a time when this was extraordinary. Allende never names the country but in my view it is modeled on Chile, her home country, as are actual historical events in South America she weaves into the narration.
The book provides perfect escapism; a great story full of colorful characters, drama, passion, heartbreak, love and historical events.
“The Girl she was” tells the story of Hope Miller who survived a serious car crash with total amnesia and no memory of her past life. In her new life Hope develops an exceptionally close bond with her friend Lindsay Kelly, a lawyer who is surprised when Hope decides to start a new life on Montauk. When Hope gets entangled in a murder case, the need to find out who she really was before becomes very pressing for Lindsay.
“The Girl she was” keeps
you in suspense for a very long time, with many twists and turns
until the last pages.
Ray Carvey unlike most of the very colorful characters
in the book is trying hard to be an upstanding citizen and businessman having
started his own business selling
furniture to Harlem clientele. His
cousin Freddie however has opted for a career as a thief and unloading
merchandise from suspicious sources at Carvey store is proving to be the extra
business Ray needs to stay afloat with his start up. When Freddie drags him into robbing the Hotel
Theresa which of course does not go as planned, Ray’s career as a sometimes
crook is propelled into another dimension. Shady cops, Harlem gangsters and
lowlifes, jewelers who look the other way become part of his daily life. At home he maintains the front of a caring
father and businessman / husband although his father in law, not completely kosher
himself, suspects that not all of Ray’s business is legal…
For me one of the great fun parts of the book was to see how Ray learns to use the curveballs that regularly land in his yard
to his own advantage. There are several terrific characters that shape this
book but Ray and his cousin Freddie stand out the most. “Harlem Shuffle” is a terrific mix of a crime
novel and a Harlem life saga of the early
Sixties with the first race riots causing havoc and changing the social landscape not only of
New York.
