Conservative Book Talk

Part 3 of 6: the blah club

This is the interesting part about an anthology of so many different authors: some are great, others just don’t stand out in the crowd. Not bad, not exceptional, here are is the mediocre of the crop of mysteries…
• The Puzzle lock, by R. Austin Freeman, Dr. Thorndyke. A big gang bust is in the air for the police, but first, they must find the criminals, who have mysteriously disappeared. The whole city ahse been searched, except the room behind one particular locked door…
• The Secret Garden, by Bilbert K. Chesterton, Father Brown. A gathering at the constable’s house turns deadly, and even the victim is not all he seems. Father Brown is a very boring person to listen to, full of half ideas that only come to fruition after the murderer has accomplished all his ends.
• The Man Who Spoke Latin, by Samuel Hopkins, Average Jones. A truly average mystery, with some fun twists and several missing plot points (and, for those of you who know Latin, even more plot holes). A new man in town cozies up to an eccentric professor and claims to have woken from a Coma speaking only Latin.
• The Long Dinner, by H.C. Bailey, Mr. Fortune. A disappearing artist, a orphan’s boarding school, and two dead children are connected across the English Cahnnel. The idea is interesting, but the red herrings prove gruesome, and the eternal yaking between the two protagonists is futile as regards enlightenment or entertainment.
• The Tragedy At Brookbend Cottage, by Enerst Bramah, Max Carrados. A woman’s isster is caught in a loveless marriage to a… you know the story. Our author tries to add a twist of tragedy to cliché, but its really quite insulting to feminity (and therefore not in the “Great” section).
• The Borderline Case, by Maragary Allingham. A man is shot from a window at a club he wasn’t near, with no apparent witnesses. The mafia rule the town on this one, as is made clear at the beginning, and we end with the same murkiness that borders on stupidity but just manages to be above it somewhere in the realm of annoying.
• The Mystery of Mrs. Dickenson, by Nicholas Carter, Nick Carter. The editorial comments on this one (to the effect that Nick Carter is infamous) seem unfounded, but whatever his reputation, it’s a rather mediocere storyline. A con is being pulled, in a rich
• The Doomdorf Mystery, by Melville Davisson Post, Uncle Abner. The twists and turns in the story are clever, as is the (also clever but very much impossible) climax. It’s the blathering boredom of Abner and his sidekick talking the whole story long that leaves you sleepy.
• Introducing Susan Dare, by Mignon Eberhart, Susan Dare. Another whodunit where all but the crucial clues are withheld, and the reader is, in the end, left thoroughly confused as to why the who and how the dun it.
• The Tea Leaf, by Edgar Jepson, Ruth Kelstern. A by now very cliché story of a murder without a weapon, a lover without an alibi, and a controlling father who can’t let go even in death.
• The Mackenzie Case, by Viola Brothers Shore, Gwynn Leith. Written in classic format, our heroine must navigate a series of differing clues on her cruise ships’ most interesting personalities: a millionaire and his companion, washed overboard one at a time in Cuba’s warm waters.

Overall, an unprepossessing group. I must say, in writing this review, I was struck by how unfun it is to write a lukewarm review. The truly pathetic are rife with sarcastic availability, while the great rise above in praiseworthy verbage; but there just isn’t much to say when its lukewarm middle-of-the-roadness all around. It brought to mind that scripture about being more desireable to God as hot or cold water (lukewarm being just no use : the Supreme writer of His Story would know that feeling.

Tags: Ellery Queen, fiction, Mystery, Sincerelyornot

This isn’t a book review in the traditional sense, mostly because I am not certain I want to tell people what I just read. We’ll get back to that. What I did do was this: I explored two genres that I have traditionally frowned upon and was surprised at my findings.

First, was anime. Now, anime is a Japanese style of cartoon (manga == comic book; anime == cartoon). I have had a negative approach to anime because those I knew who liked it also tended toward more adult materials. Turns out that in the Oriental societies, anime is considered to be an art form equal with live action cinematography. Anime runs the gamut from children’s shows to adult action flicks and everything else. Now one problem with anime in the US is that it is seems to be closely linked to pornography. I don’t recommend performing Google searches on anime as you will often be just one or two clicks away from seriously objectionable content. If you read (and can search in) Japanese then your search will be less problematic.

So, a few weeks back, I came in contact with anime over the course of daily life and as usual my gut reaction was to condemn it. Then I recalled a friend who had told me about how anime in Japan is no different then Disney (or Pixar) films in the US. So I decided I should get to know the genre a bit better before writing it off. moreover, it turns out that Disney has released several films by Hayao Miyazaki. These films have been re-dubbed with experienced US actors that include the famed Patrick Stewart.

Turns out my friend was right. I’ll probably not go digging up anime because its tough to find good stuff in the US, but I learned that I shouldn’t discount it as a style or genre. What I watched was excellent material with good (albeit different due to Eastern perspectives) stories.

Result: if you have the opportunity to watch Miyazaki movies like Castle In The Sky or Porco Rosso, take the chance and watch them to broaden your horizons. Another good anime is Steamboy which has an interesting discussion about the role of science within society.

Next I read Marvin Olasky’s article in a recent World Magazine. He spoke highly of another genre that I typically disdained: graphic novels. Now if you are like me, you look at a graphic novel and see pictures instead of words. Obviously it is inferior to real novels, right? Or maybe not so much. Since I was trying out new genres, I went to the library and requested the only one I knew. I was both surprised, impressed and saddened.

Let’s start with the good: the story was well written and told primarily through pictures. It amazed me that quite a few of the first ten pages had few words. Of those words, most were in Arabic. Yet intriguingly, I knew exactly what was going on as if the author had spent pages detailing the scenes. This was surprising. The skill used to tell the story was fantastic.

The depth of the author’s story and literary knowledge also surprised and impressed me. I wouldn’t have expected an author with such knowledge and skill to be writing extended comic books. Maybe there’s something to these….

One thought before I reach the bad. I do not see graphic novels being a good substitute for books because they lack words. That might sound odd, but actual words on a page can boost spelling, grammar skills and more accurately direct your thinking than a picture. In some ways, they complement each other, or can do so if both are well written stories.

The bad: graphic images and content littered several sections of the book. This was a great disappointment not just because the material was offensive, but because there was so much talent wasted here. I wish I could recommend the book, but I can’t and won’t.

This lead me to a decision: do I continue reading this one book despite its obvious problems just so I could explore a new genre, do I just write off the genre due to the content of this book (and quit reading it), or do I wait until a more promising sample manages to cross my path? My decision was to keep reading, though I am not sure if I should have.

What do you do when you reach objectionable material? Some material in a book can be ignored. I can turn a page or ignore some element. (Mind you I try not to make it a habit to have to deal with such issues, and these are typically only a problem in novels.) With a movie, I would probably and usually shut it off. With a graphic novel, a picture is worth a thousand words. You can skip a page, but you still saw several thousand words….

Honestly, I continued partially because I wanted to read the story and partially because I wanted to learn more about the genre. Now, I’m not sure if either reason was a legitimate reason.

What do you do when presented with objectionable elements?

Tags: Anime, books, fiction, Genre, Graphic Novels, Matt Gardenghi

Book three of the Alex Rider series. Alex Rider is British, and really, he shines in England. Something about the interactions across the pond seem to flow naturally and be so lifelike I can see the book unfolding in my head. Once you add Americans into the picture, its another story. Or maybe just less of a movie-in-book-form than previous volumes; either way, the Americans stand out like cardboard cut outs on a live action set. Thankfully, that is rectified when our main bad guy shows up (he and the main minions are Russian), and things kick into high gear for another rousing adventure.

PLOT: revolves around Alex getting roped into another mission, this one in America, involving a Russian nuclear nutcase. Instead of the British spy agency backing him all the way, he has to work with two American CIA agents (who aren’t supposed to tell the kid anything), and as usual, nobody knows what they’re actually after, even Alex. Alex, one female agent, and one male agent are soon in Florida, trying to get into the mansion of an impressively protective former Soviet general. His house consumes an entire island, and only a deep underwater cave is left unguarded…

POSITIVE: The world of spies is murky and uncertain in this series (as in real life), and Alex, while clearly brilliant, doesn’t know anything more than the agents he’s assigned with. As in, yay for adult competence! He saves everyone, but only once he’s willing to admit that he doesn’t know very much and so approaches each new thing with caution and humility. The story line also flows very naturally, making the transition from rainy London to the swamps of Florida and eventually the Russian Arctic Circle very natural. One of my pet peeves is “crazy” bad guys who are really just deluded idiots; this one is genuinely crazy, so he’s creepy, but he acts like you’d expect a lunatic to act, with unexpected logic, especially regarding his treatment of Alex. And the supporting minions are developed well enough that they supplement the performance, by treating his insanity as normal. And yes, that will only make sense once you’ve read the book. In short, the author has figured out what makes a good horror story, and applied the principles to his spy tale. He also discusses, subtly, several adult themes of women in the workforce, pride going before a fall, nuclear ethics, manipulation of the media, and security systems and their effectiveness being based on the people running them. These are positive because as an adult I enjoyed finding something to think about over the course of the book, and they are subtle enough that a kid could miss them entirely.

NEGATIVE: This is the darkest book in the series, in my opinion. Usually, authors forget to make the minions behave as if they’ve been minions for a long time, and the illusion of craziness is broken. Horowitz does a good job here of making it very real and therefore very scary. And something like seven different horrific ways to die are presented. Two bad words; many action scenes including bad guy sends minions to their death among the alligators, several life-threatening scenes where a young person is in danger of being electrocuted, eaten alive by sharks, chomped on my mechanical teeth, blown up, nuclear poisoning, ripped in pieces, etc –not graphic, and thereby more terrifying; our hero is unkind to a deformed minion (who wants him chopped in pieces); one stereotypical macho American guy who does stupidly risky things; and several characters consume alcohol liberally and one gets raving drunk.

OVERVIEW: four stars, because as a kids book it’s really rather more mature than it should be, with regard to the creepiness and violence levels. Otherwise, though, it’s very well crafted and though provoking.

Tags: adventure, Alex Rider, Anthony Horowitz, fiction, Mystery, Sincerelyornot, Skeleton Key, youth