Collected Miscellany

One Square Mile of Hell by John Wukovits is a perfect example of great military history. It is a well-researched piece that brings the human factor into a brutal fight between the Americans and Japanese in World War II for the Tarawa atoll (specifically Betio Island).

Wukovits does a superb job retelling one the most crucial battles in the Pacific – possibly even the entire war. It is a gripping tale of death, heroism, and survival. Wukovits narrates the battle through the experiences of several men – “two corporals who had boyhood friends, three brothers, a colonel, a corpsman, a combat photographer, and a Medal of Honor winner”.

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In a world where disaster seems to be a daily occurrence, where war is constant companion, the Indonesian tsunami of 2004 is a distant memory for most of us. But as the people of Mississippi and Louisiana know all too well, you don’t just recover from events like this in a few weeks or months.

Richard Lewis knows this as well because he lives in the area and volunteered in Aceh after the tsunami. Lewis was born and raised in Bali, Indonesia as the son of American missionaries. His first book, The Flame Tree, was also set in Indonesia and is “a remarkable look at religious conflict and personal relations in a post 9/11 world.”

In his latest book, The Killing Sea, Richard Lewis reminds us of the devastation that struck the region that day two years ago and the horror that transpired in its wake. But he doesn’t leave it there, he also reminds us of the courage and the generosity that flowed into the region as the water receded. Lewis manages to give us both a gut wrenching reminder of the pain and suffering as well as a poignant story of friendship and loyalty.

The Killing Sea focuses on two teenagers caught up in the tragedy: Ruslan, an Indonesian boy searching for his missing father, and Sarah, an American – at least according to the book flap – girl whose family vacation ends up being in the path of the devastation. In trying to get medical treatment for her sick brother, Sarah meets up with Ruslan and they decide to travel together. The story follows them from the day of the tsunami up to the point where rescue workers arrive and the media descends in mass on the area.

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Always interested in books about the Battle of the Bulge during World War II, I decided to read 11 Days in December: Christmas at the Bulge, 1944 by Stanley Weintraub. It is an interesting and brief look at the battle from both sides – more from the American than the German.

As the title infers, the book does not cover the entire Bulge campaign, but begins with the offensive on December 16 and ends with the relief of Bastogne on December 26. The book is not a true narrative, but a collection of stories about combat on the frontlines and the chaotic scenes behind the frontlines.

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Competent. Interesting word. A sort of back-handed compliment. Solid. Serves its purpose. Gets the job done, but lacks the wow factor. No shame in being competent these days, but it isn’t exactly the type of praise we are looking for now is it?

What’s behind all this musing? No, it isn’t my own writing, which I am not sure quite even gets to competent – derivative is probably a better term, but rather my recent reading of The Perfect Assassin by Ward Larsen. Publishers Weekly has this to say about this recently released spy thriller from Oceanview publishing:

Larsen’s competent debut has many of the right ingredients for a successful spy thriller: plenty of action, technical detail that would do Tom Clancy proud, and a hero with almost superhuman skills . . . What’s missing is that no character, except for Palmer, has an inner life.

As a person who can’t really comprehend creating all the things that must go into writing a novel of any kind (plot, setting, dialog, characters, etc.) much less a competent one, I have a hard time sniffing at competence. But in the end I think PW is right. Larsen has assembled an interesting set of ingredients, but the book never quite manages to get beyond its genre limitations.

As long as I am stealing PW material, allow me to use their plot description:

When Christine Palmer, an American doctor sailing solo across the Atlantic, retrieves the almost lifeless body of David Slaton in the middle of the ocean, Slaton commandeers her small boat and demands she deliver him to England. A member of Kidon (Mossad’s special assassination team), Slaton is the sole survivor of a ship that sank with a super-secret cargo-a pair of unaccounted for nuclear weapons. Double agents within Mossad want to kill Slaton before he uncovers their convoluted plot to use the weapons to undermine Israel’s international support. Needless to say, they’re soon after Palmer as well.

The book’s beginning is one of its strengths. The plot gets off to an interesting start as Larsen keeps the reader focused on the mystery of the stranger plucked from the ocean and the events behind his near death. Larsen meticulously plots out the details of Slaton’s spy craft and survival tactics. There is a nice blend of action, backstory, and intrigue.

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Competent. Interesting word. A sort of back-handed compliment. Solid. Serves its purpose. Gets the job done, but lacks the wow factor. No shame in being competent these days, but it isn’t exactly the type of praise we are looking for now is it?

What’s behind all this musing? No, it isn’t my own writing, which I am not sure quite even gets to competent – derivative is probably a better term, but rather my recent reading of The Perfect Assassin by Ward Larsen. Publishers Weekly has this to say about this recently released spy thriller from Oceanview publishing:

Larsen’s competent debut has many of the right ingredients for a successful spy thriller: plenty of action, technical detail that would do Tom Clancy proud, and a hero with almost superhuman skills . . . What’s missing is that no character, except for Palmer, has an inner life.

As a person who can’t really comprehend creating all the things that must go into writing a novel of any kind (plot, setting, dialog, characters, etc.) much less a competent one, I have a hard time sniffing at competence. But in the end I think PW is right. Larsen has assembled an interesting set of ingredients, but the book never quite manages to get beyond its genre limitations.

As long as I am stealing PW material, allow me to use their plot description:

When Christine Palmer, an American doctor sailing solo across the Atlantic, retrieves the almost lifeless body of David Slaton in the middle of the ocean, Slaton commandeers her small boat and demands she deliver him to England. A member of Kidon (Mossad’s special assassination team), Slaton is the sole survivor of a ship that sank with a super-secret cargo-a pair of unaccounted for nuclear weapons. Double agents within Mossad want to kill Slaton before he uncovers their convoluted plot to use the weapons to undermine Israel’s international support. Needless to say, they’re soon after Palmer as well.

The book’s beginning is one of its strengths. The plot gets off to an interesting start as Larsen keeps the reader focused on the mystery of the stranger plucked from the ocean and the events behind his near death. Larsen meticulously plots out the details of Slaton’s spy craft and survival tactics. There is a nice blend of action, backstory, and intrigue.

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I have been fascinated by Cannongate’s Myth series from the start. I have been trying to read each new book in the series as they come along (see previous reviews here: A Short History of Myth by Karen Armstrong; The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood; and Weight by Jeanette Winterson). A number of additional works in the series have been published and I thought it time to catch up.

As a part of this effort I recently finished David Grossman’s take on Samson entitled Lion’s Honey. The Helmet of Horror: The Myth of Theseus and the Minotaur by Victor Pelevin and Dream Angus: The Celtic God of Dreams by Alexander McCall Smith remain in the TBR pile.

Lion’s Honey is somewhat unique in that it isn’t really a fictional retelling or re-imagining of a famous myth so much as a psychological and literary discussion of the story and characters. This involves Grossman’s unique viewpoint on Samson, which certainly counts as a re-imagining, but it doesn’t involve straightforward storytelling. Instead, Grossman provides a sort of read along commentary and analysis. Here is how the Complete Review describes it:

Grossman both re-tells the Samson-myth and interprets it, lingering over a variety of detail in trying to understand what might have motivated Samson (and the other actors) in these various scenarios. He has a nice touch — midway between teacher and raconteur (with a touch of the Talmudic scholar as well) — and manages to convey both Samson’s entire life-story as well as offering a specific interpretation.

Grossman’s take involves both a non-traditional take on Samson and a political commentary on the state of Israel. Many reviewers touch on the former but emphasize the later. I found neither quite as useful as many. It is perhaps my innate skepticism toward psychology, particularly any sort of Freudian analysis, and my conservative political perspective that prevented my appreciation of Grossman’s insights, but the approach left me underwhelmed. More below.

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