THE DECEMBER FIRST FIFTEEN!
2014 – not long now before this year fades
into history and we will be greeting a brand new year: here at Te Takere, our beautiful library and
community centre in Levin, New Zealand (check out our Facebook page), the staff and volunteers (that’s me!)
wish you a most happy and healthy 2015 and, in common with all the (marginally)
more well-known lists of what’s currently hot in the world of contemporary
fiction, I present for your entertainment MY list of the very best books I have
reviewed this year: MY FIRST FIFTEEN. They are not in order of preference, but in
date order as I reviewed them; the full
review of each title can be accessed on that month’s posting.
The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt reviewed January
My Notorious Life,
by Kate Manning reviewed April
The Blind Man’s Garden, by Nadeem Aslam reviewed May
The Enchanted, by Rene Denfeld reviewed June
Prince of Fools, by Mark Lawrence reviewed June
He Who Kills the Dragon, by Leif G.W. Persson reviewed July
Love and Treasure, by Ayelet Waldman reviewed August
Remember Me Like This, by Bret Anthony Johnston reviewed August
The Guts, by Roddy Doyle
reviewed September
The Secret Place, by Tana French reviewed September
The Giver, by Lois Lowry
reviewed (finally!) October
The Drop, by Dennis Lehane
reviewed October
The Wolf in Winter, by John Connolly reviewed
November
All the Light we Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr, reviewed
November
Revival, by Stephen King
reviewed December. (See below)
If I had to nominate top
titles, then it would be a toss-up between Donna Tartt’s ‘The Goldfinch, and
‘All the Light we Cannot See’ by Anthony Doerr, both masterworks of modern
fiction, followed by ‘The Enchanted, by Rene Denfeld. How lucky are we to enjoy such peerless
writing, but the same can be said of all the titles on the list, and how lucky
are we that we have such great titles in the library stock, readily available
to all.
Revival,
by Stephen King.
One
of the secrets of Mr King’s enormous success as a writer is that his
protagonists are the usual flawed, everyday people that we can all identify
with - then he unleashes his soaring
imagination and has unbelievable things happen to them, and part of his huge
talent is to make the reader believe utterly in the credibility of his
plotting. I am constantly amazed at the
unflagging energy that he possesses to produce a new book each year; each one completely different, and each one –
if that is possible – better than the last. ‘Revival’ is the latest addition to
this enormous body of work, and yet again Mr King takes us on a journey that we
would rather not make, but find impossible to resist.
Jamie
Morton is six years old in 1962 when he first meets young Methodist minister
Charles Jacobs who has come to the Morton’s small Maine town as a replacement. Like every other Methodist in town, Jamie and
his family are charmed by Charles, and all the young boys are in love with Mrs
Jacobs because Mrs Jacobs is gorgeous – ‘youth was her makeup’ and it makes her
glow. The reverend and his wife also have
a sweet little five-year-old boy, Morrie, and appear to be very happy with
their new placing.
When
the reverend isn’t occupied with his pastoral duties he indulges himself in an
unusual hobby: a big interest in
electricity - not its obvious power to heat or to light the surroundings but
most of all, a belief in its power to heal.
He is convinced that eventually electricity will be used for curing all
kinds of illnesses, even the hopeless cases.
Jamie is not convinced: he thinks
the reverend has his wires crossed – God figures out who should be healed, not
electricity!
As
time passes, Jamie comes to love and admire the reverend, as do most of his
congregation – until a shocking tragedy occurs which transfixes the whole town: reverend Jacobs loses his wife and son in a
terrible road accident, causing him to
lose his faith and to preach one last homily ‘The Terrible Sermon’ in which he
professes his rejection of God and all religion. The townsfolk are stunned and Charles Jacobs
disappears from Jamie’s life forever – he thinks. But as the years go by and his life path
takes several bad turns, it is Jamie’s fate to meet up with the reverend again
– whether he wants to or not.
By
the time Jamie has reached his lowest ebb, the reverend Jacobs has become Dan
Jacobs, carnival trick photographer, masterly at relieving ‘rubes’ of their
money; regardless, he is still there to
help and ‘heal’ Jamie when his need is most desperate: when Jamie sees him again many years later,
Dan Jacobs has become Pastor Danny, renowned faith healer, dispenser of that
good old fashioned hallelujah religion he scorned and rejected after the deaths
of his beloved family – but scarily, many of his professed cures appear to
work. Notwithstanding, Jamie knows from
his own experience of being ‘healed’ that there are vicious and inexplicable
after-effects. If he investigates his
old friend further and tries to stop more ‘cures’ and electrical experiments,
will he have a tiger by the tail?
We
are all propelled inexorably towards the last terrible electrical ‘cure’, the
object of the reverend’s lifelong quest to speak to his dead family once more,
and I have to say (cynic that I am) that I found the climax to be the weakest
part of an otherwise superb story.
Various allusions to Mary Shelley and her masterwork were clumsy and the
monsters who made an appearance caused me to quake with laughter rather than
fear – but, hey! After 400 pages,
Stephen King only fell at the last hurdle:
most times he wins the race. (see
July 2014 review below). STILL highly
recommended.
Mr. Mercedes, by Stephen King
Former
Detective K. William Hodges is nearing the end of his tether. Since he retired from the city Police Force,
life has lost its edge; there is nothing
meaningful to relieve the boredom of his days, most of which are spent watching
inane TV shows, eating junk food and drinking too much.
Some days are worse than
others: on those days he contemplates
suicide and sits in front of his TV with his father’s gun by his side – until
the day he gets a letter, purportedly from a man who mowed down a line of job seekers
in a stolen Mercedes, a case that was still unsolved when he retired.
The letter writer seems to
know a lot about Bill Hodges, including details of his first name (Kermit);
information about his farewell bash (it was a drunken riot of fun!); and even
more chilling: insider knowledge of
Bill’s suicidal thoughts. Is this
monster a mind-reader? How does he know
so much?
The
general tenor of the letter is designed to increase Bill’s feelings of
worthlessness, to push him into that last act with his father’s gun: ‘it would be too bad if you started thinking
your whole career had been a waste of time because the fellow who killed all
those Innocent People ‘slipped through your fingers’.
But you are thinking of
it, aren’t you? I would like to close
with one final thought from ‘the one that got away’. That thought is:
F--- YOU, LOSER.
Just kidding!
Very truly yours,
THE MERCEDES KILLER.’
Once
again, Mr King takes the reader into the dark places of minds and hearts with
his usual effortless skill. In this
latest opus there is nary a hint of the supernatural for which he is so famous;
not a spectre in sight: instead he
writes of the monsters that contemporary society creates who walk among their
unsuspecting victims disguised by spurious normality - as here, where the Mercedes killer is revealed
early in the plot as Brady Hartfield, dutiful son of an alcoholic mother and
hard worker at two jobs, one as a computer technician, the other driving an ice
cream van. What could be more normal;
(even a little sad – the sacrifices that boy makes for his mother!) he works
super hard at blending in with everything and everyone – why, he’s practically
invisible!
But
not infallible. Contrary to his
expectations, his letter has given K. William Hodges (Det.Ret.) a huge
boost; the depressive clouds have parted
– his mind, always keen, has something to grapple with again: start playing the game, Mr Mercedes. Let’s see who wins!
As
always, Mr King provides his main protagonists with great supporting
characters, in this case Jerome, Bill’s 17 year old lawn and odd job boy – who
just happens to be black, highly intelligent and a computer whizz – but not
half as whizzy as Holly, a true PC Maestro who unfortunately is plagued with
‘issues’. They are Bill’s doughty
assistants. Their dialogue is perfect,
crackling and comic (how I wish I could remember some of those one liners!) but
it never distracts us from the horror and creeping suspense of a great
story. Mr Mercedes is going to strike
again. But where? When?
And can they stop him?
Stephen
King has once again held a mirror up to contemporary society, and it shows a
chilling image, one that is very hard to look at. Highly recommended.
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