Book Review/Discussion: The Prophet by Michael Koryta

This is one of the books I hastily pulled off the shelf as the library was closing. Just a few pages in, I realized that I was NOT in the target demographic. Even remotely. I am in a woman in her mid-twenties. I think this was written quite exclusively for middle-aged men who have at least a moderate interest in football. But, I will say that the plot kept me interested just enough to press on. 

For those who have not yet read The Prophet 

Koryta tells the story of two brothers whose lives were shattered due to the murder of their sixteen-year-old sister, Marie. Now around 40, both men have taken an extremely different path in life. Older brother Adam, a senior and star high school football player when Marie was killed, is now a bail bondsman living with a married woman whose husband is in prison. Younger brother Kent, who was a freshman at the time of Marie's murder, is head coach of the acclaimed Chambers High School Cardinals, who both he and his brother played for. Besides coaching, Kent is also involved in prison ministry and has a wife and two young children. The two brothers have not spoken in years. 

Everything they have settled into, however, is shaken by the murder of 17-year-old Rachel Bond, the girlfriend of one of Chambers' star players and a frequent babysitter of Kent's children. Both men are drawn into the case when they realise they both played an unwitting role in her murder. Driven by guilt, both due to Rachel's murder and Marie's, the brother have to reach a tentative truce--and maybe even rekindle a genuine relationship--to get to the bottom of things. 

Fair enough, right? I'll admit the description I wrote sounds interesting. The problem with the novel, though...is that it's really not. Interesting, I mean. It's not interesting. I think this is partly due to the fact that (and please please I hope he never googles this book and reads this and I'm super sorry in advance, Michael Koryta, but this is how I feel) Michael Koryta is not a particularly gifted novelist. His prose falls flat. The brothers seem like caricatures. The twist is dropped out of nowhere, built from nothing, just a sinister perversion of a deus ex machina out of the sky. One of the villains, a prison-hardened stalker, speaks in such an exaggerated erudite way that Koryta may as well given him a monocle and a mustache to twirl. I half expected him to skip off to the railroad tracks and tie a damsel to them. 

Listen, here's the deal. I love a well-plotted story. I love twists and turns. As much as it pains me, and it does pain me, I like thrillers. I don't want to be the type of reader who likes thrillers. But I do. However, I have standards. I want my thrillers to be beautifully written, as much a work of art with the prose as with the plot (for example, see anything written by Liz Jensen). This book did not give me beautiful writing, at all. And the plot wasn't really anything to write home about, either. So I felt that this book really didn't have much to offer me, and I'll leave it at that. Maybe it has something to offer to you. 

Recommended? 

Not really. But I'll say this; I admitted from go that I was NOT in this book's target audience. Maybe you are. I personally give it 2 out of 5 stars. So I do not recommend it to readers like me. I would give it a tentative recommendation to people who like James Patterson and football.

Tips

This is a library find so I'll repeat the advice I always give: check your library first! Be ready to skim or even skip several pages at at a time if football is not your thing or you are just a casual football viewer. 

For those who have read The Prophet

Book Review/Discussion: Fever by Mary Beth Keane

A few days ago I raced to the library right before it closed, and arrived with about 15 minutes to spare. When the librarian's quiet, soporific voice filled the library, announcing over the speakers that the library would close in five minutes, I panicked. I had not picked a single book. So, I rushed over to the new book section, grabbed four books that didn't look at first glance sappy romances or westerns, and checked those out. 

When I got home, I reviewed my hastily-selected haul to see what exactly I had ended up with. To my astonishment, one of the books, Fever by Mary Beth Keane, was about Typhoid Mary! Just the previous day I had been visiting my parents and we'd talked about Typhoid Mary, which is a pretty unusual topic of conversation. Needless to say, I was pretty astounded by the coincidence, and decided to read Fever first. 

Now is the time to confess my finicky-ness when it comes to fictionalized accounts of real events or people. In theory, I love the idea. Why not take something interesting from history and use it as a basis for a great work of fiction? But the logical part of my brain, which I have trouble turning off, doesn't quite know what to make about fictionalized history. I am constantly trying to decipher what is real, what isn't, desperate to be able to separate the truth from the speculation or outright invention. But, what the heck, I decided to give it a whirl. 

For those who have not yet read Fever 

For those of you who aren't even passingly familiar with the story of Mary Mallon, aka Typhoid Mary, let me give you a primer: she was an Irish immigrant to New York identified as an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid in the early 1900s. That pretty much sums it up. Many of you probably know how things eventually turned out, but in case you don't or have forgotten, I'll leave that for those who have already read the book. 

There is no doubt that Mary Beth Keane is a talented writer, though I've not read her other book and, to be honest, won't seek it out. I thoroughly enjoyed Fever even though I knew what was going to happen at the end, being familiar with Mary Mallon's story. To write about someone so well known means that Keane had to invest more in the journey than the destination, and I feel that she did that quite successfully, inviting us to be privy to Mary's rich and often contradictory inner thoughts. In fact, only a brief courtroom scene makes this feel like a medical drama at all. It's much more about an immigrant woman with a strong will, a temper, and a dubious boyfriend. The whole "typhoid" part of "Typhoid Mary" is really quite secondary, the "Mary" part being the most important to the novel. 

The best part of Keane's novel is that we as readers are forced to grapple with our own feelings towards Mary. Do we like her? Do we despise her? Can we like her and despise her simultaneously? Do we root for her, or for her enemies? Can getting to know a person on a human level make their mistakes, even crimes, all the easier to forgive and even forget? At what point is a person complicit to, or even actively courting, disaster? These are tough questions that Keane makes us at least try to answer, and I applaud her for that. 

I do feel Fever suffered some mishaps. There was a jump in point of view that I found unnerving. The novel was written in third person prescient with the focus on Mary, except for a small section where the focus jumped to her lover, Alfred. It was a strange and awkward leap, unnecessarily jarring for the reading experience. Besides that, I thought the story was handled skilfully, and some passages were truly beautiful. 

Recommended? 

Yes, especially for people who like character-driven works. Three out of five stars. 

Tips

As always, check your local library!  I also recommend doing some quick googling about Mary Mallon either before or after you read, so you can start to pick apart what is real and what is fiction. 

For those who HAVE read Fever 

Book Review/Discussion: The Burning Air by Erin Kelley

I pulled this book off the shelf of the library, it sounded pretty interesting, so I took it home. I must admit that I didn't have huge hopes for The Burning Air, but my curiosity was piqued just enough to give it a go. And...I am so glad I did!

For those who have not yet read The Burning Air 

For some reason, the last, like ten books I've taken home from the library have turned out to be from British writers and set in Britain. This is NOT something I'm doing on purpose! I think it's a pretty funny coincidence. So, yes, Erin Kelly is a British author and this book is set in England. 

The Burning Air tells the story of the MacBride family, a very close, well-to-do family that has just lost their matriarch, Lydia (this is not a spoiler, you find this out from go). As a way to seek some closure after Lydia's death by scattering her ashes, the MacBride clan gathers at their Dorset country home, Far Barn, for a get-together. Arriving at Far Barn are the widower Rowan, his oldest daughter Sophie, her husband and their four children, his daughter Tara, her long-time boyfriend and her child, and his son Felix and his new girlfriend. But, as they come together to grieve, a threat long-since brewing in their midst is about to come to a head. 

This book is predominantly about one thing: obsession. I mean, straight-jacket-worthy obsession. It is what drives one of the major characters and all of the events. This novel is full of twists and turns, and Kelly is a skilled enough author to handle them masterfully. I also enjoy how we see several of the pivotal scenes from two perspectives, adding an interesting dimension to the novel. The aforementioned obsession does come off as a little much at times, could someone really be that obsessed?, but the outcome speaks for itself....I couldn't put this book down. 

Recommended? 

I can definitely say YES. This is an enjoyable read and Kelly is clearly a very talented writer. My heart ached with these characters. Four out of five stars. 

Tips

This is another library find, so check your library first as they might have it. Also, try to read this novel quickly, as having details fresh on your mind is important. 

For those who HAVE read The Burning Air 

Book Review/Discussion: The Rapture by Liz Jensen

Every now and then I discover an author, quite by accident, that I become completely enamored with. Liz Jensen is one of those authors. After reading her latest book, The Uninvited, I then read two more in rapid succession: The Ninth Life of Louis Drax and The Rapture, which I just finished. 

For those who have not yet read The Rapture 

The Rapture is an amalgamation of things that could easily stand on their own, filling a novel entirely and then some:

Dealing with sudden paralysis. What is means to be a woman. Severe mental illness. Ecological disaster. Religious fundamentalism. 

Our protagonist, Gabrielle Fox, is working at a hospital for severely, dangerously mentally ill children. At the same time, she is also dealing with the aftermath of a severe car accident that left her life irrevocably changed. One of her charges in the hospital, Bethany, seeks to change Gabrielle's life even more. 

This novel is set in an undefined future in England, a future in which severe national disasters have shocked the world and thousands upon thousands of British citizens have turned to Christian fundamentalism in order to cope. Bethany's father was one of those caught up in the "Faith Wave," but Bethany is anything but a goody-two-shoes churchgoer: foul-mouthed, angry, and painfully cruel, Bethany sets out to, let's just say, not cooperate with Gabrielle. But that's not the half of it: Bethany also begins to predict natural disasters with shocking precision. And she's right. 

Gabrielle, with the help of a physicist friend, is now left to make sense of Bethany's predictions. Because if they keep coming true, not acting is not an option. 

Like all of Jensen's work, The Rapture moves quickly and lyrically at the same time. Despite the natural disasters at the forefront of the novel, this would NOT be made into a Michael Bay disaster pic. It is beautifully nuanced, and I found myself so rooting for the characters. I also found myself not wanting the novel to end, but being unable to put it down as it raced towards its finished line. 

Recommended? 

I heartily recommend all of Jensen's work, including The Rapture. Five stars for sure! 

Tip

Check your local library. That is where I found my copy. They also carried The Uninvited and The Ninth Life of Louis Drax.

For those who HAVE read The Rapture

Welcome Aboard

Choosing a title for a blog is really dang hard. I've come up with all sorts of clever names for a blog about books and writing, only to discover that they are all taken. Finally I gave up and copped out with a movie quote.

The title of my blog, Nothing Is Written Unless You Write It, comes from my favorite movie, Lawrence of Arabia. After discovering that a man had drifted away in the desert, Lawrence goes to rescue him, refusing to believe that the man's death "is written" as Prince Feisal and Sherif Ali believe. Upon Lawrence's return with the (living) man, Lawrence declares that "nothing is written," and Sherif Ali concedes that "for some men, nothing is written unless they write it."

Besides being incredibly moving in the world of the movie, it's also true for literature. Nothing is written until we write it. We owe our literary heritage to people who put the pen to paper. This blog will celebrate those people who choose to write, and the treasures they give us.

What exactly this blog will end up being will probably be up to my whim and fancy, but one thing I want to predominate is book reviews and discussions. These will be pretty cool because there will be a part for people who have read the book and a part for people who haven't. Maybe I'll also include some things about my own journey as a writer. Who knows? At any rate... welcome to my blog! I hope you stick around!