I noted Bad Things by Michael Marshall in a recent In The Mail post. Below the author talks about changes in his life and how they have impacted his writing, about how his books have been categorized, and about his latest work. My review of The Intruders is here.
In the Mail: Paperbacks
–> The Frozen Ship: The Histories and Tales of Polar Exploration by Sarah Moss
From Booklist
This book is a chronicle of journeys–from the Vikings to such adventurers as Byrd, Amundsen, Scott, Peary, and Shackleton–to the Arctic and the Antarctic. Moss also relates the adventures of little-known explorers, missionaries, and archaeologists from Europe and North America. The book, Moss writes, is primarily concerned with ways of imagining the polar region as alien and remote but also covers the Arctic as part of Canada’s present and future national identity.” Moss delves into such topics as medieval Norse sagas, women explorers, arctic imagery in English poetry and novels (there is much here about the literature of polar travel), and descriptions of indigenous communities. This remarkable book offers the most vivid account yet of polar exploration.
–> The Maxims of Manhood: 100 Rules Every Real Man Must Live By by Jeff Wilser
Product Description
Your dog must be larger than a toaster. Tip well. Never use the word “blossom.” Outperform the GPS. Know how to chug a beer (and know that you shouldn’t). Always hold the door. Never use emoticons.
These are The Maxims of Manhood. They cover every aspect of life: women, sports, sex, the office, family, entertainment, fashion, fitness, and more women. Some of these you’d expect. Some you wouldn’t, as they usher in a modern code of masculinity (Your favorite book may not be The Da Vinci Code). In a series of 100 essays, the rules are analyzed, explained, vigorously defended and openly mocked. Every rule has an authorized exception. Except the ones that don’t.
This book might not be for you. It’s only intended for people who fall into one of these seven buckets: 1) you are a man; 2) you will become a man; 3) you were once a man; 4) you are related to a man; 5) you are dating or have married a man; 6) you think that in the future, perhaps, you will date or marry a man; 7) you know, or think that at some point you will know–whether casually or formally–a man.
–> The Islamist by Ed Husain
Product Description
The true story of one man’s journey to Islamic fundamentalism and back
Raised in a devout but quiet Muslim community in London, at sixteen Ed Husain was presented with an intriguing political interpretation of Islam known as fundamentalism. Lured by these ideas, he committed his life to them. Five years later, he rejected extremism and tried to return to a normal life. But soon he realized that Islamic fundamentalists pose a threat that most people-Muslim and non- Muslim alike-simply don’t understand.
Based on first-hand experiences and written with pervasive clarity, The Islamist delivers a rare inside glimpse of the devious methods used to recruit new members, and offers profound insight into the appeal fundamentalism has for young Muslims in the Western world.
Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi
One of the clear signs you are a book addict is that even though you have more books than you can possibly read you are constantly on the lookout for more. Related to this is the attempt by book addicts to acquire as much information about books as is possible. I am guilty of both.
And the steady stream of email feeds this problem. Whether it’s emails from authors, publishers, publicists, magazines or just friends with recommendations it is like drinking from the proverbial fire hose.
All of this does prove useful, however, when you find books you love and/or might not have heard about otherwise. One book I have come across lately, and am tempted to move up the TBR pile, is Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer.
In case you haven’tt heard about it, although it seems to be one of those books with buzz, I thought I would share snippets from a couple of reviews that came to my inbox.
Hunter Jackson reviews it for Boldtype:
On the surface, this is a slight departure from the youthful romanticism of Dyer’s previous fiction. The travel and parties are still enjoyable, although this time, they’re competing with a nagging angst that rarely goes away. But at second glance, the old Dyer is still there, still waging a war against the tedium of modern life — he’s simply older, calmer, and less naïve. The two writers in Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi are ultimately caricatures of two clichéd approaches to finding happiness, and the book ends so absurdly that it’s clear Dyer still finds humor in the drama of existence.
Flavorpill‘s Chelsea Bauch also discussed the novel:
Wide-ranging British writer Geoff Dyer’s bizarre new novel, Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi, is really two stories in one — or is that one story in two?
Dyer reworks Thomas Mann. Structured as a diptych, the book begins with a reinterpretation of Mann’s famous novella, Death in Venice, set amid a decadent Venice Biennale. In the second half, however, the story journeys to Varanasi, where an unnamed narrator — who may or may not be the same as the first — ponders the philosophy of existence.
The stories raise Q’s without A’s. Dyer is deliberately vague about the twin stories’ relationship to one another, but the book’s thematic lifelines — love, water, death, art — make it more about asking provocative questions than laying them to rest.
He‘s an experimental expert. Having written the award-winning jazz novel-cum-mosaic But Beautiful, Dyer is well equipped to tackle an unconventional concept. At its core, Jeff in Venice is a story about the pursuit of love, but also a deft cultural portrait painted in passing.
I am behind in my reading and reviews but this seems like a very interesting book.
Oh well, I will put it in the “maybe read when I have a chance” list. If anyone has read it I would love to hear your thoughts.
In the Mail: Fiction
–> Dust and Shadow: An Account of the Ripper Killings by Dr. John H. Watson by Lyndsay Faye
Publishers Weekly
Following in the footsteps of such crime writers as Ellery Queen and Michael Dibdin, Faye pits Sherlock Holmes against Jack the Ripper in her impressive if flawed debut. In the autumn of 1888, the savage slaughter of two prostitutes in London’s East End piques Holmes’s curiosity. Inspector Lestrade, no fool in Faye’s rendering, calls on the unconventional sleuth for help. As the killer continues to claim more victims, the Baker Street duo spare no effort to bring the Ripper to justice. Meanwhile, a disreputable journalist accuses Holmes of being the Ripper. The author uses a convincing Watsonian voice to present versions of Holmes and his chronicler faithful to the originals. While the paucity of suspects makes guessing the killer’s identity too easy and the motive for the crimes is less than convincing, Sherlockians will hope to see further pastiches of this quality from Faye.
–> Bad Things by Michael Marshall
Product Description
Three years ago, lawyer John Henderson watched his four-year-old son tumble from a jetty into the lake outside their Washington home. In a terrible instant, a life all too brief and innocent ended. But it wasn’t drowning, the fall, or even some previously undetected internal defect that killed the little boy. Scott Henderson had simply, inexplicably . . . died.
Today, John is a different man—divorced, living a solitary existence in a beach house in Oregon, working as a waiter in a restaurant that caters to the summer crowd. Withdrawn from a life and past too painful to revisit, he touches no one and no one touches him. Then one night he receives a short and profoundly disturbing e-mail message from a stranger. It reads: I know what happened.
It’s enough to pull John back to Black Ridge—the one place on earth he’d hoped never to return to—in search of answers to the mystery that shattered his world. In this small, isolated Pacific Northwest community, populated in large part by descendants of the original settlers, the shadows now seem even darker and more sinister than when tragedy first drove him away—and the wind whipping down out of the primal forest can chill a man to his soul. It seems that bad things have always happened in this town of generations-old secrets—and are happening still.
The deeper John digs into his own past, and into local history, the more danger he draws toward himself . . . and toward his estranged and helpless family. And though he doesn’t know it, he’s not the only one who’s been called back to Black Ridge.
And that’s a very bad thing . . .
I am putting aside the thrille…
I am putting aside the thrillers for the moment. Off to read Secret Son by Laila Lalami http://tinyurl.com/dx9n2e
RT: @bdomenech: It'd be easier…
RT: @bdomenech: It’d be easier to evaluate the ebook’s generational impact if Amzn would release Kindle sales figures. http://is.gd/tmbl