Detour Abroad

Well, after a short detour to mystery and other fiction I finally finished the letter A with Of Love and Shadows, by Isabel Allende.  It was a good book, but towards the end I think she went overboard a little bit with describing the atrocities of the military junta that dominated Chile for so many years.  It pretty much stopped the narrative, which is not what a writer should do in a work of fiction.  I think Allende should go ahead and write a non-fiction book about that era (if she hasn't already done so), and get it over with.

During my detour I read one of Ruth Rendell's mysteries, Tigerlily's Orchids.  It was quite good and a fast read, fortunately.  Following that, I read J.K. Rowling's latest book, this time for adults, The Casual Vacancy, which reminded me quite a lot of Ruth Rendell, especially in the way Rowling writes of the class warfare that is endemic in English society. It was a very good book, well written and fast paced, if a bit disturbing and sad, especially at the end. Rowling seems to have a mission of presenting the world from an adolescent's point of view.  Not knowing any adolescents in today's society, I can't attest to her accuracy in portraying them, but I do admire her desire to do so.

I will now get back to reading my book collection, starting this time with the letter T.  There are a number of books in this group, some fiction, some non-fiction.  I'm not sure yet which I will begin with, but I'll be sure to report on it here.

Stay tuned . . .

From Molecules to Magic

Well, I finished The Year of the Flood this week and I must say I was somewhat disappointed.  I never did understand all that was happening to the people in scientific terms.  Who perpetrated the "flood"?  I think it was done deliberately, but I'm not sure, because Atwood did not really make it clear.  The story surrounding the characters was interesting, and I did care about what happened to them.  But the rest of it was pretty incomprehensible. 

I don't know if Atwood researches the science before she writes a book like this, but I found the descriptions and explanations for how things got the way they are kind of vague and sometimes confusing.  It reminded me of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, where the information about how the not-so-good doctor managed to bring his patched-together person to life is never provided.  (Movies made from the book simply make up that part.)  Since Shelley's was one of the first science fiction novels, I suppose Atwood is in good company.  But today's readers expect more realism in their sci-fi, or at least more plausibility, and that comes from being specific about how the science works (or could work in the future).

I don't recommend this book unless you must know what happened to the characters in Oryx and Crake.

After Atwood, instead of leaping into the "T" collection, I decided to finish off the "A"s with the second novel I have by Isabel Allende, Of Love and Shadows.  It was made into a movie, apparently, starring Antonio Banderas.  It takes place in Chile, as most of her novels do, during the rule of Pinochet.  As usual, there is the spirit world familiar to magic realism fans, as well as the super-real world of life under a ruthless dictator. 

In contrast to Atwood, Allende doesn't leave you guessing about anything.  Her lush description is legendary and always compelling.  So far I'm enjoying it.

In between the two novels, I read a short book, John A. Roebling, about the man who designed both the Cincinnati and the Brooklyn bridges.  It was somewhat informative, but lacking information about the building of the bridge, I thought, especially of the deaths of the workers.  It was a quick read, though, and was written by Don H. Tolzmann, which satisfies the "T" requirement of my next list.

Until next time . . .