Pony, by R. J. Palacio.                     Junior Fiction.

 

            The celebrated author of ‘Wonder’ has produced something completely different for children this time round:  a novel set in 1859 in Ohio, just before the start of the American Civil War. 12 year-old motherless Silas Bird lives with his father Martin, a photographer and engraver in a small town where one would think, given the difficulty of spreading news in those days, that Mr Bird’s solid reputation for producing wonderful portraits by new methods self-invented would remain in the immediate vicinity.  Sadly not – good work spreads by that best advertisement, Word of Mouth, and very late one night, Mr Bird is visited by a gang of men with two spare horses, one for Mr Bird – and one for Silas.  They are to come with them to visit their boss for a week, and earn more money than they can imagine in their wildest dreams – but if they refuse ….. well, who knows what could happen?  The house set on fire?  A terrible accident befalling Silas?

            The upshot, to Silas’s horror, is that his Pa finally agrees to go off with them, but only if Silas stays put:  he is not to leave the property no matter what.

            And this is a promise that Silas is utterly unable to keep.  He cannot sit idly by, waiting for Pa to come home – or not - especially when next morning, the pony that the men had brought for him to ride with his father suddenly turns up in the yard, waiting. And, despite the uncomfortable fact that Silas has very little experience horse riding (their donkey’s back is the closest he has come to equine travel) he decides to start the search for Pa – much to the horror of his ‘imaginary friend’ Mittenwool, who councils against breaking his promise to Pa.  Mittenwool is the reason Silas has been home schooled all his life by his father, for Silas talked to Mittenwool when he went to school and earned the contempt and derision of not only his class mates, but his horrid teacher as well;  consequently Silas’s education covers many wondrous subjects, but his only companion is Mittenwool – until the mysterious and wondrous arrival of Pony.

            Ms Palacio gives the reader a wonderful combination of wild-west adventure and heroics, nail-biting suspense, and familial love, both actual and spiritual – for Silas also sees spirits – whether he wants to or not, and the spirits he encounters all help him on his quest to find his father.  This is a singular, beautiful book, and deserves to be the children’s classic that ‘Wonder’ has become.  SIX STARS.         

 

Razorblade Tears, by S. A. Cosby

 

  

          S. A. Cosby has done it again:  proven he is no One-Hit-Wonder with his second brutal, stunning novel about Black life south of the Mason-Dixon Line.  He’s here to tell you that it’s still less-than-satisfactory, not to say downright dangerous for a Black man to try to carve a new, different life for himself when he finishes a five-year jail term, then tries to rehabilitate himself – which Ike Randolf does, starting a landscaping business with a fair measure of success.  But there is still suspicion aplenty as to how that Nigger is driving his  Black Ass  around in such an expensive truck, when all the Good Ole Boys are not so lucky.

            Whatever.  Ike is glad to be back home with his family, even though his reporter son Isiah is an enormous disappointment to him, having come out as gay recently, and even marrying his boyfriend Derek, a chef, and a white boy, too.  Ike is full of rage whenever he thinks of his boy, so he tries not to think of him at all – until Isiah and his husband are brutally murdered outside a restaurant, pumped full of so many bullets that their faces are unrecognisable.  And it’s not because they were gay this time, though God knows, crimes against gays are right up there with crimes against Blacks, but because Isiah had been given damaging information about someone prominent that he was going to publish in the newspaper for which he worked.  They were marked men.

            To add terrible insult to unbearable injury, Ike hears from the Police that they are making no progress with the crime because the boys’ friends refuse to speak to them;  it’s impossible to get the time of day out of them, let alone any information, so they are declaring the case ‘inactive’.  Just another example in Ike’s eyes of yet more discrimination, so he and Buddy Lee, father of Isiah’s husband decide to team up and see what they can find out themselves, for they want vengeance for their sons – need vengeance, as a sop to all the times they refused to accept what their boys were, all the memories of their intolerance and angry rejection, now leaving them with the saddest words in the world:  ‘If Only’.

            Mr Cosby has shocks galore here (not to mention some wild metaphors) in store for the reader;  his prose is savage and his characters brilliant and unforgettable.  Blood flows freely through the second half of the book, but he also asks the big, gnarly questions about all the ‘isms’ and ‘phobias’ that must keep on being asked, especially by a writer of his calibre.  I hope his third novel isn’t far off.  SIX STARS!           

 

Gone by Morning, by Michele Weinstat Miller.

 

   

        
68-year-old Kathleen Harris is having a morning trip on New York’s vast subway system.  Her carriage is full of happy tourists, and ordinary folk who try to ignore them – until a bomb goes off just up the line and everybody scrambles in panicked hordes to gain the safety of the street:  it transpires that the bomb in a backpack was placed in a garbage bin and has caused huge loss of life and enormous damage.  Kathleen’s aborted trip to the city results in a four-hour walk home to her suburban apartment in a building - which she owns.  For Kathleen is a retired Madam;  she has seen much more of the harsh side of life than your average sweet little old lady, having been a crack addict and serving a 5-year jail term for buying the heroin on which her husband fatally overdosed.  She lost custody of her only daughter Lauren too whilst in jail and has been estranged from her for many years, her daughter blaming her for all their misfortune.  So, despite her material security, Kathleen has lost everything she ever loved on her way to respectability.

            In her own way she has tried to make amends, secretly helping her granddaughter Emily get an influential job in the Mayor’s Office, and making available one of her apartments for her to rent.  So far, so good, until Kathleen receives a call after the bombing from one of her ‘girls’ who needs to see her urgently, something she can’t speak of on the phone – then doesn’t arrive.  Her body is found dumped days later.  Her throat has been cut.

            Ms Miller also has the reader by the throat, and doesn’t let go:  she is masterly at directing suspense in whichever way she feels inclined, and she has plenty relevant to say about the hypocrisy of people’s attitude towards sex workers, and what drives those women towards The Life – with Kathleen being a perfect example.  The plot thickens most satisfyingly, veering off in unpredictable directions, especially concerning the Bomber - and that is enjoyable;  there is nothing worse than knowing WhoDunnit before the writer reveals all.  Ms Miller’s prose can be a bit rough around the edges and she must know just about every eatery and café in New York, giving them all a plug, but she raises some very cogent arguments in favour of those who live The Life and do the dirty jobs – because they must.  FOUR STARS. 

 

 

 

 

   

 

Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr.

  

       

          Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anthony Doerr has long been a master of the literary magic that engages us, thrills us, and compels us to keep reading until the story is finished.  Now he has excelled himself:  after the wonder of ‘All the Light We Cannot See’, he has again proven his  mastery with a tribute in praise of The Story, the tales that keep us reading,  and searching for more when the tale is finished.

            It’s not immediately clear where we are being directed by Doerr in this sometimes confusing travel through time, starting two hundred years in the future on a spaceship voyaging to a new unpolluted planet after Earth becomes uninhabitable – not every traveller expects to arrive in their lifetime, but Konstance, barely a teenager, has high hopes that she and her beloved father will arrive safely.  She hopes.

            Back to 2020:  Octagenerian Zino Ninis is rehearsing five children in a local Idaho library to perform a play he has written based on an ancient Greek legend by Antonius Diogenes about Aethon, a simple shepherd who longs to fly, to be an owl, to live in Cloud Cuckoo Land, where rivers flow with wine (Aethon likes his wine!), and turtles plod by with honey cakes on their backs – in short, Paradise.  Zino and his five ‘actors’ are presenting their play For One Night Only, and tonight is the dress Rehearsal. Sadly, they haven’t anticipated the arrival of Seymour, a severely disturbed and angry young teenager with a pistol and a home-made bomb.

            Then there is a dizzying shift in time to the Siege of Constantinople by the Ottomans in 1453:  Anna, a young Greek orphan who needs money for her sick sister, chances across (steals) an ancient text from an abandoned monastery;  she sells as many of these precious papyri as she can before her Italian customers flee the besieged city, but keeps one codex – the story of Aethon, and his efforts to reach Cloud Cuckoo Land.

            We learn more about Zino Ninis, too – a solitary man who was unable to acknowledge his true self, even to the man whom he most loved when it most counted, but who redeemed himself with a great act of heroism, an act which saves his child actors – and his translation of Aethon’s adventures in his efforts to get to Cloud Cuckoo Land.

            Until just before the end of this wonderful story, it wasn’t clear to me how all the different times would join up;  each section and its engaging characters seemed to be separate stories within The Story, but the link is Diogenes’s simple shepherd who, after various disguises and frightening adventures decides that he’d like to go home now, thanks.  Fair enough!

            Konstance from the future has the last chapter in this wonderful tribute to the written word:  she uncovers shocking truths, helped by clues furnished by a man whom society has justly rejected and, thanks to him, she manages to escape, to live a productive life.  Anthony Doerr asks all the big questions of us here – and provides many of the answers.  What a journey!  SIX STARS.

             

               

 

Silverview, by John Le Carré.

 

 

                

             Former high-flying City man Julian Lawndsley has recently renounced his ‘heavy metal’ job (moving other people’s money around) and, in a concerted attempt to lead a completely different life, has started a boutique bookshop in an East Anglian tourist town.  It doesn’t take him long to realise that there is much more involved in running such a shop than he first envisaged, and practical advice – any advice is welcome, even from an elderly, charming Polish gentleman who mysteriously appears at closing time on several different occasions ‘just for a chat’ about books in general, but with some surprisingly sound suggestions about opening up his basement as a ‘Republic of Literature’, complete with wi-fi access to the world’s great publications – along with hard copies, of course.  Yes, Edward Avon is fast becoming his first friend in his new environment, and when Julian receives an unexpected dinner invitation from Edward’s terminally ill wife to join the family at Silverview, the nearest thing the town has to a mansion, he feels that socially at least, he has arrived!

            But the opposite is true:  the dinner is inexpertly served by Lily, the couple’s daughter, herself more a force of nature than an observer of social etiquette, and the conversation between husband and wife is fraught with barely-concealed animosity, causing Julian to make his excuses at the first decent opportunity – only to be joined on the way home by Lily, who needs a friend.  And only a friend, for now.  Whilst not wanting to be involved in anyone’s family dramas it doesn’t take long to discover that Edward is many things to many people, that his dying wife belonged to MI5, and that she suspects Edward of passing along British Intelligence to Britain’s enemies.

            Indeed, Julian was asked by Edward to be the conveyor of a letter to a ‘dear friend’ when he travelled to London on business for the day – no problem, Edward.  Happy to help.  Until he receives a visit from MI5’s Mr Proctor, detailing the treasonous nature of his assistance, and the various ways in which he could redeem himself in the eyes of his country.

            In his last posthumously published novel, John Le Carré demonstrates yet again why he has always been the peerless master of Spy fiction, not least for his matchless characterisations, wonderful dialogue – and dialects, but the cleverness and intricacy of his plotting.  He knows definitely whereof he speaks, but sadly will speak to us no more.  I am sad.  FIVE STARS.     

 

 

The Man Who Died Twice, by Richard Osman.

   

         ‘The Thursday Murder Club’ was TV presenter Richard Osman’s first and (he said) ‘finest novel’.  Fair enough.  The story of various elderly residents of a Retirement Village solving not only a cold case murder, but two very recent ones was a smash hit, and endeared its characters to millions.

            Could he do it again?  And with the same flair and riotous humour that left readers sorry they had reached the last page?

            Of course he could, and it’s the perfect antidote for doom and gloom in these Covid times.

  The Thursday Murder Club is still meeting, having become very fond of each other whilst solving crime.  Elizabeth, Ron, Ibrahim and Joyce are now firm friends and it isn’t long before the next mystery  demands to be solved:  Elizabeth has been sent a letter from a man thought to be long and most definitely dead, and when she makes reluctant contact, discovers to her horror that the ‘deceased’ is her ex-husband Douglas,  a marriage she ended for all the right reasons – his infidelity; utter unreliability;  irresponsibility – and fatal charm.  He was also, like Elizabeth, an excellent MI5 Operative.  Now, he wants to stay for a short time (unspecified) at the retirement village:  it's the perfect safe house.  Who would think of looking for him in an Old Folk’s Home?

Meantime, retired Psychiatrist Ibrahim has been attacked by street toughs in front of – of all places – the police station, and has to spend several days in hospital.  When he returns home he is a frightened old man and decides never to leave his apartment again, which incenses his best friend Ron, ex union-organiser (among other things until old age caught up) who always has his ear to the ground:  it doesn’t take him long to find out who the attacker was and plan a fitting revenge.

Once again, Richard Osman delivers a complex plot with well-drawn lesser characters, several different corpses, and everyone getting their just desserts at the story’s conclusion.  All I’s and T’s are dotted and crossed.  And again, he explores the vulnerability and loss of confidence that old age brings, and the fear that should never be felt when walking past teenage boys.

And the fear that the three friends feel when they hear that ex-nurse Joyce is contemplating getting a rescue dog!  There’s one at the local shelter called Alan, and his online credentials look sound. We’ll find out if that’s true in Book # three.  Scary stuff!  FIVE STARS.

 

   

 

Salt to the Sea, by Ruta Sepetys.                      Young Adults.

 

            On January 30^th 1945, German passenger liner the ’Wilhelm Gustloff’, was attacked by torpedoes from a Russian submarine as she sailed for Kiel in Northern Germany.  The ship was carrying thousands of evacuees from the Baltic and East Prussia, mainly women and children, plus hundreds of wounded German troops, on the run from the approaching Russian Army.

            The ship sank within an hour, with an estimated loss of 9000 people, 5000 of whom were children.  It is the worst maritime disaster in history, dwarfing the Titanic and Lusitania disasters – but the least known.  Until  Author Ruta Sepetys (of Lithuanian ancestry) decided to write a novelised version of this dreadful event:  the characters she has chosen to tell the story are heartbreakingly, appallingly real enough for us to care deeply for them and their goal, which is to eventually board a converted ocean liner at the Polish port of Gotenhafen, thence to Kiel, and safety in Der Fuehrer’s Germany.

            Emilia:  Polish, but trying to hide the fact, for everyone knows what Germans think of Poles:  they are subhuman.  Well, this subhuman has already met the advancing Russians, was brutally raped and is now pregnant.

            The Wandering Boy:  he comes out of the trees to walk with their growing numbers.  He is 6 years old and ‘his Oma didn’t wake up’.  His name and a Berlin address is pinned to his coat.

            Florian:  a young restorer of fine art, (with a clever, hidden talent for forgery) who has also committed the theft of one of the most precious pieces of art from the art thieves he worked for.  He rightly trusts no-one.

            Joana:  a compassionate Lithuanian nursing assistant, who feels perpetual guilt for leaving her family behind – as they all do:  uppermost on everyone’s mind is the fate of their loved ones caught up in this cruel, inhuman maelstrom:  will they ever see each other again?

            More people join them, wounded, suffering, but buoyed by the hope of eventually being evacuated to Germany – even though the news they hear on the road is ominous:  the Fatherland is obviously losing the war, but the main objective is to keep ahead of the Russians.  Terrible tales have been told of their brutality.  And they’re all true.  Still, the evacuees are in front,   There will be no-one left to slaughter;  they’ll all be gone by the time those beasts arrive.

            This novel reads like a thriller.  Ms Sepetys ratchets up the tension with every chapter, but her characters never lose their authenticity or humanity.  It was a privilege to read this book, and it should be read by everyone, not only Young Adults, as a testament to the goodness of people, as well as to their worst excesses.  SIX STARS.