FIRST GREAT READS OF THE YEAR! JANUARY, 2014
Light
of the World, by James Lee Burke
This is the first of Mr
Burke’s books I have read involving his two Southern protagonists, New Orleans
Sheriff’s Detective Dave Robicheaux and Robicheaux’s dearest friend and
colleague, private investigator Clete Purcel.
They have shared many hair-raising and desperate adventures, and despite
me making their acquaintance so late in the piece, Mr Burke manages to give a
good synopsis of the traumatic events of their respective pasts so that no
reader is in doubt as to what kind of men they are: flawed, broken more than once by life’s
vicissitudes, but still honourable men according to their own lights – which do
not always follow conventional and acceptable moral standards, especially when
their families are threatened.
Dave and Clete are on an
extended visit to Montana with their families, staying with old friend
professor Albert Hollister and all is well until Dave’s daughter Alafair is
shot at with an arrow that barely misses her.
Dave is outraged that his complaints to the local sheriff’s department
are regarded as a nuisance, but the police have bigger fish to fry: the adopted 17 year old granddaughter of one
of the richest men in the U.S. has been murdered not far from her home
(Billionaire granddad has many homes and at least two in Montana), and in their
fawning efforts to show Mr Younger that they are on the case, the police
discard as mischievous Dave and Clete’s own detective work, showing that an
escaped serial killer, Asa Surrette, could be behind the granddaughter’s death
and the attempt on the life of Alafair.
For Alafair has met
Surrette before: she interviewed him for
a series of articles she wrote about the mindset and motivation of serial
killers, and Surrette has never forgotten or forgiven her for her excoriation
of his narcissism; in fact, the overpowering evil of his presence and his smug
satisfaction at the success of his grisly deeds caused her to write that she
had never espoused the death penalty – until she met Asa Surrette: only then could she see the need to remove
such evil from the earth.
Now he is coming for her
and anyone else who stands in his way, including Clete’s daughter Gretchen,
retired Mob assassin. And this is where
the plot descends into farce – at least for me:
perhaps it would have been more credible if I had read some of the other
books, but coming in cold as I did, I found it very hard to accept that coldblooded murderer Gretchen has now turned her life around and
has just finished a course at film school so that she can make documentaries
about the rape of the earth by big business – particularly big business as
practised by Mr Younger.
I am bound to say that the
numerous, confusing directions in which the plot veered were a major
disappointment, especially as Mr Burke is an accomplished, cerebral writer of
suspense; for the most part his
characters are wonderfully entertaining and some of the dialogue is a delight
to read, whilst his descriptions of the physical world are superb. Sadly, Alafair and Gretchen come across as
comic book Superwomen, two-dimensional and unconvincing; hardly the effect intended. That said, (and I had to say it!) ‘Light of
the World’ is still a classy read and Mr Burke’s beautiful imagery makes me
wish I could travel to Montana to see all that beauty for myself.
Beautiful
Ruins, by Jess Walter
‘Beautiful Ruins’ was one
of the New York Times Notable Books for 2012 and deservedly so: it is a lovely story and merits all the
glowing tributes from its myriad other reviewers. Well, it’s my turn now – and I confess that I
heard about this book, not by reading the blurbs, but by that tried and true
source: word-of-mouth. Better late than never.
Starting in 1962, Mr
Walters’ novel spans fifty years in the lives of Dee Moray, a beautiful
American actress, and the lasting connection she has with Pasquale Tursi, a
young Italian called home from his university studies in Florence to a dying
fishing village at the end of the Cinque Terre. His mother is very ill and
unable to manage the tiny Pensione which is now his responsibility, and despite
his lack of business experience he makes up for that with a boundless
enthusiasm that increases hugely when Dee Moray is booked by 20th Century
Fox into his humble establishment –
supposedy terminally ill with cancer.
She has been working on ‘Cleopatra’, the arch flop of 1962, as the only
blonde lady-in-waiting (!!) to Liz Taylor’s Egyptian siren but unbeknownst to
Ms Taylor, currently wed to Eddie Fisher, Dee is engaged in a passionate affair
with Richard Burton, Liz’s latest Appasionata.
And despite a diagnosis of terminal stomach cancer (from Ms Taylor’s
Doctor) it transpires that Dee is actually pregnant to Burton, who suffers from
fleeting pangs of conscience when he’s not ruining his liver and staging
monumental battles with Liz.
Pasquale is disgusted by
the way Dee has been spirited away by the studio and hoodwinked into believing she
will die, all to prevent a scandal and keep Liz happy: he becomes her champion and eventually lays
the blame squarely on the shoulders of Michael Deane, reptilian Fixit Man for
20th Century Fox, but it is up to Dee to decide what she is going to
do with her life, and her unborn baby.
Richard is too heavily involved with the breathtaking Liz in the long
term, so Dee must make her own decisions:
have an abortion and a career, or have the baby and leave her life to
fate.
Mr Walters has written a
tragicomedy of the first order; all his
characters are deftly realised and their lives over fifty years are portrayed in
flashbacks and forward leaps in time that are beautifully managed. He also provides the reader with a ruthless
portrayal of Hollywood, birthplace of the Art of the Deal and the sale of the
Perfect Pitch, where small men live like the heroes of the movies they make –
and the people they destroy to achieve that.
Mr Walter unashamedly admits that it took him fifteen years to write
‘Beautiful Ruins’. It was the novel that
he kept leaving and coming back to, but its lengthy gestation is well worth the
wait: it’s a gem, and – ironically - is
now being made into a film. Highly
recommended.
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