When Maggie Smith died recently, her role in the move version of “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie”, novel by Muriel Spark (1961), was often cited as herWhen Maggie Smith died recently, her role in the move version of “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie”, novel by Muriel Spark (1961), was often cited as her best. I realized I’d never read the book and wanted to do so before seeing the 1969 film.
Well, it’s not quite like anything I’ve ever read before! Spark uses a unique way of telling the story – it’s sort of “inside out”; you know what’s going to happen, but you are still interested in seeing how it plays out.
It’s set in the 1930s at a girls’ school in Scotland. Miss Jean Brodie, who self-proclaims she’s in her “prime” has six young girls in her thrall. But as they age, and the events of the 1930s play out, they begin to see her in a different light.
“The Magus”, by John Fowles (1965, revised in 1977), is an engrossing psychological thriller. It’s best to read it from the era in which it was writte“The Magus”, by John Fowles (1965, revised in 1977), is an engrossing psychological thriller. It’s best to read it from the era in which it was written and not by today’s values.
A magus is a sorcerer or a magician.
Our first-person narrator, Nicholas Urfe, is a feckless young Englishman who takes a teaching job on a Greek island and soon finds himself befriended by an older, rich, enigmatic tycoon, Maurice Conchis, who welcomes him, wines and dines him, at his estate on the island. There Conchis introduces Nicholas to a beautiful young woman who may or may not be who she seems.
Nicolas soon finds himself the center of a psychological “experiment” and as the mind games begin, the reader is as uncertain of reality as Nicolas is!
Twists upon twists ensue and the pages fly as the reader rushes to find out the “truth”. ...more
Shift over Huxley, Orwell, Dick, Wells, Burgess (to name a handful), “The Dream Hotel” by Laila Lalami, is an intense near-future dystopian psychologiShift over Huxley, Orwell, Dick, Wells, Burgess (to name a handful), “The Dream Hotel” by Laila Lalami, is an intense near-future dystopian psychological roller-coaster that captures the reader from the first page.
When we first meet Sara she is being held in a “retention center” run by the Risk Assessment Administration (RAA) where she is closely monitored for her “risk levels” and her dreams are recorded. It’s not a prison or a jail by name only. She is required to stay there until her risk levels are at a low enough level for her to return to her husband and toddler twins.
The risk is that she MIGHT commit a crime. This is a crime prevention scheme run by corporations called Safe X and PostPal (get it?) Sara hasn’t committed a crime, but her dreams indicate she might.
What an intriguing (and creepy) premise!
The futuristic world Lalami has created is all too believable. Her writing is brilliantly evocative, and her plot-pacing is perfect, ratcheting up the reader’s suspense and ill-ease skillfully.
Corporate surveillance, who owns our data, mines our data, manipulates our data, and markets to us based on our data is a very timely topic - think Tik Tok. While many of us have become somewhat comfortable with our massive loss of privacy via social media and the Internet, the idea of having our dreams recorded, owned, and used against us seems to be crossing the line into mind control. What is more private than our thoughts and dreams?
As Sara seeks to regain the dignity that she’s lost in the retention center, we wonder what we would do under these circumstances.
I not only predict that this will be a highly successful novel when it’s published in March, but that it will also be made into film or a series. At least I hope so!
Many thanks to Pantheon Books for this gripping and thought-provoking advanced reader’s copy. ...more
Full disclosure, I LOVE Jess Kidd’s writing! I’ve read all her novels and thoroughly enjoyed each one, so I was primed to love “Murder at Gulls Next” Full disclosure, I LOVE Jess Kidd’s writing! I’ve read all her novels and thoroughly enjoyed each one, so I was primed to love “Murder at Gulls Next” her latest and the first in a series about the character Nora Breen, a former nun with a nose for investigating mysteries!
Set in a fictional village in Kent, England, called Gore-on-Sea in the early 1950s, middle-aged Nora has left the monastery where she was a cloistered nun/nurse for three decades to find a young friend and former novice, Frieda, who has disappeared from a boardinghouse called “Gulls Nest”.
The things I love about Jess Kidd’s writing: her characters are magnificently unique and interesting! Her humor is dry and intelligent, and she bestows such delicious wit in her characters’ dialogue: it’s easy to envision this novel as a play or TV series.
Kidd is also brilliant at crafting a sense of time and place. England emerging from WWII, with all the horrors still fresh, plus huge changes in the social order, make Nora’s re-entry into the world both fascinating and touching. Nora has her own secret past which we gradually learn, and is a clue to why she cares so much about Frieda’s well-being.
The denizens of the run-down and distinctly unappealing Gulls Nest are each wonderfully and uniquely grotesque, and SO MUCH fun to read about. (The descriptions of their shared evening meals will hilariously kill your appetite!)
As a reader I cared more about Nora’s journey and metamorphoses than the “whodunit” aspect of this mystery (there are multiple bodies), and by the end when (almost) all is revealed, I was so happy that there will be more of Nora to come!
Many thanks to Atria Books for an ARC of this first installment of the Nora Breen Investigates series. ...more
“Fire” in the third novella in John Boyne’s The Elements series after “Water” and “Earth” with “Air” to come. Each novel follows a minor character fro“Fire” in the third novella in John Boyne’s The Elements series after “Water” and “Earth” with “Air” to come. Each novel follows a minor character from the previous novel, but you do not have to have read the others to enjoy this compelling, dark and disturbing, novel. There are scenes of physical, mental, and sexual abuse.
Are sociopathic monsters born that way or are they created by their environment?
Freya is a brilliant and beautiful physician who specializes in burn victims. We learn right away that she was traumatized when she was twelve, and we soon see that the darkness she experienced has perhaps changed her into the compulsive person that she is. Or was she always that way?
“Fire” is a perfect psychological thriller and Boyne, a master storyteller, completely captivates his readers from the first page to the last.
I’ll be pre-ordering “Air” which comes out in May 2025....more
“All stories are love stories.” Column McCann’s first-person narrator Anthony Fennell tells us in his new novel “Twist”, and indeed this fascinating s“All stories are love stories.” Column McCann’s first-person narrator Anthony Fennell tells us in his new novel “Twist”, and indeed this fascinating story of repairing a break in an undersea fiber-optic cable is more about human love with its breaks, snaps, and malfunctions and the repairs, fixes, and cures that may or may not “heal” successfully.
Reader, did you know that there are a multitude of undersea fiber-optic cables that ferry all the information on the planet, and that these regularly break, and special ships are deployed all over the world to repair these breaks and restore communications? Fascinating stuff!
First-person narrator, middle-aged novelist and playwright, Anthony Fennell, is telling us about a profound experience he had while writing an article onboard one of these ships that constantly repair the breaks in the tubes on the ocean floor and the men that work on them.
Fennell is trying to break an alcohol addiction, and to flee broken relationships especially with his only son. The themes of brokenness abound, so much so that this quote will often be used to sum it up: Everything gets fixed, and we all stay broken.”
On the coast of Africa while waiting to set out on the repair boat, Fennell meets an enigmatic young man (and fellow Irishman) named John Conway who is the chief engineer on the boat he will soon board. Conway is also an accomplished “free diver”, a person who dives vast depths without breathing equipment. Fascinatingly, they can hold their breath for many minutes! (I did an internet deep dive into this – see what I did there – and some of these divers have recorded more than 20 minutes holding their breath!)
Conway is in love with a South African actress, Zanele, who has recently left him to pursue her acting dreams in London. This relationship rupture causes Conway to break in other ways, and Fennell is there to witness and record it.
“Twist” is captivating, thrilling, shocking, and quite educational!
Many thanks to Random House for an advanced copy of this turbulent and propulsive novel. ...more
I read “The Housemaid”, by Frieda McFadden (2022), on a long plane flight and it was just the twisted tricky tale I needed to take me away from the miI read “The Housemaid”, by Frieda McFadden (2022), on a long plane flight and it was just the twisted tricky tale I needed to take me away from the misery that is plane travel today!...more
What an arresting, unusual, and thought-provoking novel “Not Long Ago Persons Found” by J. Richard Osborn, turned out to be!
Husband and wife forensic What an arresting, unusual, and thought-provoking novel “Not Long Ago Persons Found” by J. Richard Osborn, turned out to be!
Husband and wife forensic scientists are asked by their government to investigate the death of a seven-year-old boy found floating in a river in their country.
He did not drown. In his lungs and stomach, they find pollen from a far away country that has recently experienced a violent regime change. The couple has also been investigating mass graves in that country; this activity is secret and has not been sanctioned.
Was the boy murdered for political reasons? Was it a satanic sacrifice? Do the authorities really want to discover the truth? If the couple finds the scientific evidence they seek, will it even matter?
With a propulsive plot and a Kafkaesque setting, Osborn’s debut novel sweeps the reader into a horrific world of atrocities, corruption, and violence. Osborn’s writing is spare with nary a wasted word, yet he skillfully builds suspense and disquiet.
Many thanks to Bellevue Literary Press for this short novel that packs a punch!...more
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