Reviews

The Dictator’s Last Night by Yasmina Khadra

Posted on by Jeff Grim / 0 Comment

With the recent release of the movie 13 Hours, focus has been put back on the debacle in Benghazi and the downfall of Gaddafi’s Libya. Yasmina Khadra writes his take on Gaddafi’s final hours in The Dictator’s Last Night.

Khadra successfully attempts to get the reader into the mind of one of the Arab world’s first modern dictators. He focuses on the megalomaniac that is Gaddafi – from his humble origins as a bedouin tribesman to his ascension to dictator of Libya. He captures Gaddafi perfectly.

Here is a great quote from the book that captures Khadra’s portrayal of Gaddafi:

People say I am a megalomaniac. It is not true. I am an exceptional being, providence incarnate, envied by the gods, able to make a faith of his cause.

It is not easy to write about the thoughts and feelings of one of the most divisive leaders in the Arab world. But, Khadra is able to do it with excellent insight.

The most interesting part of the book is Gaddafi’s attempts to flee from capture. Khadra narrates from Gaddafi’s perspective the actions of Gaddafi and his men as their convoy tries to avoid rebel forces. The part climaxes with Gaddafi’s capture in a drainage pipe and his death.

The book provides an excellent window into the black soul of a despot.

Reviews

Their Last Full Measure: The Final Days of the Civil War by Joseph Wheelan

Posted on by Jeff Grim / 0 Comment

Joseph Wheelan recently wrote a book covering the last days of the Civil War in Their Last Full Measure: The Final Days of the Civil War.

Here is a brief synopsis of the book form the publisher:

As the Confederacy crumbled under the Union army’s relentless “hammering,” Federal armies marched on the Rebels’ remaining bastions in Alabama, the Carolinas, and Virginia. General William T. Sherman’s battle-hardened army conducted a punitive campaign against the seat of the Rebellion, South Carolina, while General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant sought to break the months-long siege at Petersburg, defended by Robert E. Lee’s starving Army of Northern Virginia. In Richmond, Confederate President Jefferson Davis struggled to hold together his unraveling nation while simultaneously sanctioning diplomatic overtures to bid for peace. Meanwhile, President Abraham Lincoln took steps to end slavery in the United States forever.

As I have mentioned before, I enjoy reading about the Civil War – not just the battles, but also the causes of the war and social changes that occurred during the time period. It has always amazed me how quickly the bitterness between the two sides developed. To think that the adversaries were from the same country is hard to believe.

Wheelan brings his excellent writing skills to the final chapter of the Civil War. After the countless deaths and other casualties, the Confederacy was on its last legs and yet its soldiers continued to fight and Jefferson Davis was willing to sacrifice them. The Union and its armies also suffered high casualties, but it (with Lincoln at the forefront) sensed the end was near and wanted to make the killing blow to the Confederacy.

Although the entire book is great, the part on the surrender of the Confederate armies is particularly well done. Wheelan captures the depressive mood of the Confederates as they surrendered and the boundless joy of the Union troops as the final arms were laid down.

Out of the divisiveness of the war came one final act – the assassination of Lincoln. Wheelan discusses the events surrounding the assassination, but also the reaction. Although many in the South were happy at Lincoln’s death, many others were saddened because they knew he was a key to a faster reconciliation of the two sides.

Simply put, the book is an excellent read.

Reviews

Jesus’ Son: Stories by Denis Johnson, Will Patton (Narrator)

Posted on by Kevin Holtsberry / 0 Comment

Listened to Jesus’ Son: Stories by Denis Johnson on the commute and enjoyed it for most part despite the dark and disturbing nature of the stories.

Though I am not sure “enjoyed” is the right word. It kept me entertained? Hmm, let’s say it was an interesting way to spend time in the car. To be honest, I think I really just enjoyed the way Will Patton voiced the character.

I haven’t read anything by Johnson so don’t really have anything to compare it to or to put it in context. But at times, Patton’s voice and Johnson’s prose gave the feeling that you were listening to a real person describing their life. In this way it drew you into both the language and the process of imagining the life that would lay behind it.

But this happened only is spots rather than throughout. I am not sure I would have had the patience without the audio format.

Publishers Weekly captures some of the problems:

Some disturbing moments do recall Johnson at his inventive best … But for the most part the stories are neurasthenic, as though Johnson hopes the shock value of characters fatally overdosing in the presence of lovers and friends will substitute for creativity and hard work from him. Even the dialogue for the most part lacks Johnson’s usual energy.

The Amazon.com review also captures the nature of the book:

In “Work,” while “salvaging” copper wire from a flooded house to fund their habits, the narrator and an acquaintance stop to watch the nearly unfathomable sight of a beautiful, naked woman paragliding up the river. Later the narrator learns that the house once belonged to his down-and-out accomplice and that the woman is his estranged wife. “As nearly as I could tell, I’d wandered into some sort of dream that Wayne was having about his wife, and his house,” he reasons. Such is the experience for the reader.

 

Reviews

The Good Liar by Nicholas Searle

Posted on by Kevin Holtsberry / 0 Comment

Something about The Good Liar by Nicholas Searle caught my attention. Maybe it was the fact that it was a something of a publishing phenomenon last year. Maybe it was the possibility of a literary thriller. Perhaps it was the historical elements.  Whatever it was, the publisher’s marketing material worked, and I decided to read it.

I found it to be an at times slow-moving, but creative, mix of history, espionage and confidence games. The beginning took patience.  It wasn’t so much that  I wanted to stop reading but it felt like the story took too long to get started.  Somehow the early set-up between Ray and Betty felt both slow and yet thin.  Perhaps that feeling is meant to push you forward to unravel the mystery; the unease part of the tension.

But once the novel finds its rhythm and momentum, it is a captivating exploration of how each character came to find themselves facing off in their twilight years. Betty’s back story was particularly well done and tension filled. But again when the present and the past come together it feels a bit of let down and I thought the ending section on Roy a little odd and over-the-top.

Editorial reviews breakdown on a glass half full or half empty type spectrum.

Publishers Weekly is glass half full:

Equal parts crime novel and character study, the tale is itself an elegantly structured long con. The pace is almost maddeningly deliberate, with details about the characters and their schemes doled out like a controlled substance, but patient readers will be rewarded with devastating third-act twists and a satisfying denouement.

Kirkus is glass half empty:

The plot twist that leads to this revelation is complex and rooted in World War II. But once we understand the true natures of both characters, their past relationship, and their plans for revenge, the ending is relatively unsurprising. One of the greatest strengths of the novel is how Searle recounts Betty’s troubled history with sensitivity, but Roy never advances much beyond what he first appears: a gruff sociopath who, expectedly, will finally get his comeuppance for past sins. Despite the efforts to comment on a time in history when people made unimaginable choices that led to devastating tragedy, the novel mostly fails to resonate. Even with layers, the characters fail to inspire much deep interest or sympathy.

The truth is interesting and unexpected, but it takes too long to unravel.

I can see both see both sides. It does take a while to build momentum and the ending felt odd. Still, the multi-layered meaty middle was quite compelling and for a debut model it is pretty impressive.

Reviews

81 Days Below Zero by Brian Murphy

Posted on by Jeff Grim / 0 Comment

Most people know that World War II spanned the entire globe and many know that the war was fought in North America in Alaska, but most do not know that the United States had airmen stationed in Alaska. The airmen were there to send aircraft through Lend/Lease from the United States to Russia and also to test aircraft in the cold conditions. Brian Murphy writes about these transfers and tests as he retells a gripping story of Leon Crane and his survival in the Alaskan bush in   81 Days Below Zero: The Incredible Survival Story of a World War II Pilot in Alaska’s Frozen Wilderness.

Here is a brief summary of the book from the publisher’s website:

Shortly before Christmas in 1943, five Army aviators left Alaska’s Ladd Field on a routine flight to test their hastily retrofitted B-24 Liberator in harsh winter conditions. The mission ended in a crash that claimed all but one—Leon Crane, a city kid from Philadelphia with no wilderness experience. With little more than a parachute for cover and an old Boy Scout knife in his pocket, Crane now found himself alone in subzero temperatures. Crane knew, as did the Ladd Field crews who searched unsuccessfully for the crash site, that his chance of survival dropped swiftly with each passing day.

But Crane did find a way to stay alive in the grip of the Yukon winter for nearly twelve weeks and, amazingly, walked out of the ordeal intact.

Murphy perfectly captures Crane’s predicament of trying to survive in some of the most brutal terrain and weather on the planet. Crane was blessed with a perseverance that many people do not have and also by a series of fortunate events. One of these fortunate events was that he stumbled upon an unoccupied cabin that was fully stocked with food and other supplies.

Although Crane did not speak much on his ordeal, Murphy pieced together the story from various accounts. The book is the first complete telling of Crane’s story. Murphy puts Crane’s incredible feat in perspective by describing other Arctic survival stories so that the reader can fully understand what Crane had to overcome in order to survive.

This book is an epic story of one man’s will to survive in a harsh environment.