At last! Murders!

Portreeve, SK - Prototype of Portreau, town in Canada
taken from Google Maps

Well, I enjoyed reading Canada, by Richard Ford, at least for a while, anyway. If you haven't read this book by now, I wouldn't recommend it, even though it got a glowing review in the New York Times when it first came out.

Right from the beginning, the narrator and also main character, Dell, kept hinting that there were going to be murders in the future. By the time I was two-thirds through the book, I was tired of hearing about those murders, and by the time the murders actually happened, almost at the end, I couldn't care less about the victims. In fact, I wanted to shout "Hallelujah!" when the poor fools were finally dispatched. Sad, I know.

The writer did a good job of developing the protagonist and even some of his fellow characters, but I think Ford broke the cardinal rule of fiction: never make your protagonist passive. As far as I could tell, Dell never did anything to make his situation better in all the time that he was suffering through it. He accepted mutely whatever he was told to do, even to the point of helping with the murders. Dell was a lot like his mother that way. The most active character in the book was Dell's bank robber father, who at least made decisions, even if they were usually the wrong ones.

I have to say that Dell did not deserve to get off with a good life after all he failed to do. The conclusion, therefore, was unsatisfying in a number of ways in that the baddest bad guy got away with murder--three times--and Dell failed to show any character. He wasn't even a very good story teller in that he built up the murder business so much it was anticlimactic when it finally came to pass.

The best part of the book was the description of the parents and what led up to the bank robbery. Once that was over, things were suspenseful for a time while we waited to learn what would be Dell's fate. But he started to get on my nerves when he wouldn't act and just kept going along. Perhaps he inherited that bad brain chemistry his parents seemed to display.

My next reading choice is another "F" book: Missing Persons: A Writer's Guide to Finding the Lost, the Abducted and the Escaped, by Fay Fanon. It's part of the Howdunit Series, books designed to help murder mystery writers with the various aspects of crime and detection. I own a few others in the series, but this will be the first one I've read.

Stay tuned!

Champlain's Dream Ends

Taken from Montreal Rampage.com

Well, I finally finished Champlain's Dream. It was a very complete account, as far as I can tell, of the founding of New France. The latter half of the book was involved with Champlain's efforts to keep the new colonies going once they were established, part of which meant to navigate the often turbulent waters of French politics at the time, and to fend off the encroachments of the English who wished to take advantage of the resources the French territories had to offer.

Another change affecting New France was that the English as well as some of the French entrepreneurs were not interested in maintaining good relations with the native inhabitants and in fact were disrupting the patiently constructed inter-cultural affiliation that Champlain and his supporters believed was essential to the success of their colonial project. Selling alcohol and firearms to the Indians was lucrative for the traders but disastrous to the Indians. Moreover, the diseases that came along with each new wave of settlers were also devastating to the various groups of indigenous people who contracted them.

It's a pity that Champlain died, somewhat unexpectedly, at the time he did, in 1635. Had he lived a few more years he might have been able to see Quebec through the transitional period between kings, kept the English from taking Maine and other French held territory, and kept relations with and among the Indians peaceful. It's hard to say, however, whether that arrangement would have lasted much longer anyway with all the colonists' arriving and filling up the area with their farms and towns. Eventually, the Indians would have seemed to be encroaching rather than the other way around.

All in all, I enjoyed learning about this period in history, especially as it relates to my own family's history. I realized how little I knew about the founding of New France, and now appreciate the complexity of the events of the early years of the seventeenth century and the extraordinary character of the man who was largely responsible for making it all happen.

Richard Ford
Photo by Daniel Erath

Next on my list: Canada, by Richard Ford. I've never read anything by this author before, but I'm enjoying this novel quite a bit. It takes place in the 1960s and is a kind of coming-of-age story about a teenage boy, Dell, whose parents rob a bank, are caught, and go off to prison. What results from this calamity is the subject of the rest of the story. The book is quite well written and is keeping me in suspense, waiting to find out what happens to Dell. I'll let you know in the next post, so stay tuned!

More of Champlain's Quebec

The only known depiction of Champlain:
a self portrait from one of his books
copied from Wikipedia

I did enjoy the Fleming book, The Perils of Peace. And continuing with the "F" authors, I'm now reading Champlain's Dream, by David Hackett Fischer. It tells the story of Champlain and his quest to start a French colony in the New World.

This is a very detailed book, and so is somewhat slow going, but the story is very interesting, particularly for me because one of my ancestors, Pierre Rancourt, immigrated to Quebec, the first permanent French colony in Canada, started by Champlain.

The adventures of the French settlers were at times quite harrowing, especially since it took them several tries before they succeeded in starting a permanent settlement. Many people died of diseases associated with starvation (scurvy, most often) and other mistakes such as eating bad meat.

This author seems to really like Champlain, and wants to refute some of the bad press Champlain has gotten over the years that accuses him of imperialistic actions, particularly against the natives of that region. He believes Champlain was different from the other French explorers in that he liked the Indians and wanted to live in peace with them. Certainly his ideas were different from other nations' colonial enterprises, especially the Spanish, who were the most ruthless in dealing with the Indians.

So far in the book, the colonists have survived their first winter at Quebec (later Quebec City), but just barely. This was 1608. My ancestor emigrated from France in 1633, I believe. So by that time the colony was well established, no doubt.

I'll be on this book for quite some time as it is very long and not a quick read. But I'm enjoying it so far.

Stay tuned for more insights into Champlain's quest.

We Haven't Changed

Gen. George Washington Resiging his Commission
painting by John Trumbull from Wikipedia

Well, I'm almost finished with The Perils of Peace, and I must say that it really opened my eyes to how messy democracy is. Far from smooth, the transition from British colony to independent collection of states was quite rocky, even--maybe especially--after the war was essentially over. The many different factions existing at that time made for a very complicated peace process that included not just Great Britain but also France, Spain, and the Netherlands, all of whom had a role to play in the U.S. obtaining their independence and ending the war against England.

Although the outcome was known from the beginning, the suspense of "Will America get her independence?" has made this book a very entertaining read. It has been at times a bit difficult to wade through, though, with trying to keep the names and positions straight of all the diplomats and government officials who were involved in negotiating the eventual treaty that gave us our independence as well as increased territory and fishing rights on the Grand Banks.

From this book I've gained quite a lot of awareness of as well as respect for the diplomatic function in government. These folks are quite brave and talented in navigating usually very turbulent waters to come up with what are sometimes brilliant agreements. What was also brought home to me is the necessity of compromise--each side giving up something to get something--in the establishment of any agreement. Very rarely, it would seem, does one side hold all the cards in a negotiation, and to hold out for everything when that stubborn position would prolong a war is unconscionable, in my opinion. This was brought home to France, England and America when it came time to set aside their most cherished desires and do what they needed to do to end a war that was emptying the coffers of all three nations.

For example, in hammering out the peace that gave America its independence, the U.S. wanted the British to compensate them for the property they destroyed during the war; the British wanted the Loyalists to be compensated for the property they gave up when the rebels confiscated it. The two countries agreed to add up the value of all the property on each side and whoever came out as being owed more would be paid by the other side.

What was especially interesting to me (and strangely comforting) is the realization that our congress was just as deeply divided back then as it is now and will always be, apparently, as that is what comes from putting together a nation composed of many sovereign states and expecting them to act in concert when they all have different, often competing interests. That we have managed that feat all these years, despite a civil war that threatened to destroy us, is testament to our belief (most of the time) that we are better together than we are apart. And I believe we will survive this latest chapter in our history as well because of our central pledge to uphold our brilliantly crafted and resilient constitution that binds us in our continuing quest to form a more perfect union.

I'm still reading this book, so stay tuned for my take on the aftermath of the Revolution.

After Yorktown

Thomas Fleming

Well, I got off on some tangents with library books the past several weeks, but now I'm back reading my own books. I finished the "D" category and decided to start on "F" authors, with a history of the American Revolution by Thomas Fleming, The Perils of Peace: America's Struggle for Survival after Yorktown. It's quite interesting. I didn't know anything about the immediate aftermath of the victory over Cornwallis in 1781.

Times in our fledgling republic were tough, apparently, with a lot going on. So far Fleming draws a very chaotic picture of people's response to the surrender of Cornwallis, some thinking the war was over, others trying to get the Army back together to continue the fight since the war was decidedly not over. George III was not conceding defeat and the new American government was out of money. It looks like this will be a good story.

A Year of Pride

Thulani Davis, taken from UW website

My latest choice in the "D" category is a novel by Thulani Davis, 1959. It's a very interesting story that takes place in a small town in Virginia during 1959. The black residents of the town are confronting the changes coming with the civil rights movement that was then starting to gain momentum in the country.

It starts with the black residents of the town trying to get the schools to integrate in accordance with the Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education, which took place in 1954. There is much resistance on the part of the white residents and officials, but the idea takes root in the minds of the black people who then start to think perhaps they should try to win other freedoms such as being able to eat in a Woolworth's lunchroom, or even to register to vote.

The people and the students of a nearby black college stage a sit-in which then leads to a boycott of white businesses and buses, including picketing the stores. There is much resistance and ugly, violent retaliation by the white people, who include law enforcement and the KKK. But the black people are undaunted and though they are beaten up and jailed and blocked at every turn, they don't quit and feel a renewed sense of pride at finally standing up for themselves.

The narrator is a twelve year old girl, who tells it from a future time when the strife of those days is past. So it's a young girl's perspective, but with the wiser understanding of an adult.

But it's not exclusively told from the girl's POV. Some of the events are told from the POV of several adults in the community. At least one of those characters was around during Reconstruction and provides a historical perspective that informs the events of the present time of the story. I often felt that part of the purpose of the novel was to inform readers--black as well as white--of what that time was like for people who lived in a place that didn't get any publicity.

It's a very well written book and I highly recommend it. I may also check out some of the author's other works.

Doctorow's Picks

Taken from E.L. Doctorow

Well, I kind of got away from reading the "D" list for a while, but I got back to it with the annual anthology of short fiction, Best American Short Stories, the 2000 collection, edited by E.L. Doctorow. Doctorow, as some of you may know, wrote the famous book, Ragtime. The stories he selected for this volume were mostly enjoyable to read. Some were sweet and uplifting, others kind of depressing, but all were representative of the human condition.

The authors included were: Geoffrey Becker, Amy Bloom, Michael Byers, Ron Carlson, Raymond Carver, Kiana Davenport, Junot Diaz, Nathan Englander, Percival Everett, Tim Gautreaux, Allan Gurganus, Aleksander Hemon, Kathleen Hill, Ha Jin, Marilyn Krysl, Jhumpa Lahiri, Walter Mosley, ZZ Packer, Edith Pearlman, Annie Proulx, Frances Sherwood. Some of these writers were not as famous in 2000 as they would later become. Juno Diaz, for instance, is now well known and the winner of prestigious writing prizes, but in 2000 he had not yet produced a novel. A few others, however, have not gone further in their careers, despite early acclaim. One such writer is ZZ Packer, whose debut short story collection was highly praised. She continues to have difficulty following up that early success.

I read Ragtime and one other book by Mr. Doctorow. Both were very good. I was sad when he died last year from lung cancer.

Now on to the next "D" book, although I'm not sure yet which one it will be.

Five Books Considered; Three Make the Cut

I did finish Making Gray Gold and found it to be very informative and a little bit scary, especially when I got to the part where the author talks about how nursing homes make their money, treating care of the elderly as a commodity, using "beds" as shorthand for the people who were being cared for as if they were objects to be sold. This book was published more than twenty years ago; some things have gotten better, thanks to patients' rights advocates and changes to laws, but other things have stayed the same. And with the tsunami of baby-boomer elderly looming, it's likely that states will not be able to afford to care for those who need it. Those who sell these services may find that they've priced their customers out of the market. It's going to be interesting to see how this problem will be solved.

After that book, I began reading Jared Diamond's Pulitzer prize winner, Guns, Germs, and Steel, which was well received when it first came out in 1999. After a while, though, the book seemed a bit dated and perhaps just a tad too scholarly for a popular history, so I decided to let it go and moved on.

Granite Quarry

Next I turned to a couple of small volumes dealing with Deer Isle in Maine--both historical accounts. One is an Images of America: Deer Isle and Stonington, the other a history of granite quarrying in Stonington and other towns of the island, Stone Slabs and Iron Men. Both were interesting, especially the book about granite, since it contained more history than the other. I learned a lot that I didn't know about stone quarrying. It is much more complex and intensive than I had imagined. I gained more respect for those who did this work, especially before the introduction of powerful machines. Both books are worth reading.

Following the Deer Isle books, I turned to A Book of Common Prayer, a novel by Joan Didion, a famous writer of the 20th century. It started out interesting enough, but ultimately, the characters failed to elicit my sympathy. All seemed rich and whiny and deserving of their fates, so I put it down about half way through. I've never read any of her books before, but I know that she is popular among some readers, so if you are a fan, you will probably enjoy this book. As for me, I won't be returning to Ms. Didion's work.

Alexandre Dumas

Finally, I thought I'd check out a classic novel I'd never read but heard much about: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, who also wrote The Three Musketeers. Monte Cristo was published in serial format from 1844-1845 in France and later translated into English. The book has a historical backdrop: the post-Napoleon period in French history. It is already quite entertaining and that's a good thing, because at 783 pages, it's very long!

So, as you can see, though I haven't written here for more than a month, I've been very busy! Until next time, happy reading!

Mysteries, Puzzles and Alchemy

The Jeffery Deaver book went fast, as all his do. He's a master craftsman of the clever twist, and there were plenty on offer in this novel. Check the synopsis at this link: The Mistress of Justice. I won't reveal any more than that because I really do recommend you read this book if you're a murder mystery fan.

The next book I started to read, The Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws, by Margaret Drabble, was less engaging. Apparently a memoir, it started out well with the introduction giving me hope that I would learn about how jigsaw puzzles helped her with her depression. But I quickly got lost in a meandering, confusing journey through the history of games and the writer's childhood in England.  I gave up trying to make sense of it after only about 30 pages. I was disappointed, as I had hoped to learn something. The book got good reviews, so some people must like that sort of approach to telling a story. I've never read any of her novels, but this book left me wondering if her technique in those is similar.

Dr. Timothy Diamond

Now I'm reading a much more interesting book by another "D" author, Timothy Diamond: Making Gray Gold: Narratives of Nursing Home Care, published in 1992. I bought the book some years ago when I was considering writing a history of nursing assistants and read a part of it. Taking it up again, I'm struck by how interesting and well written it is. The author, a sociologist, tells the story of the current state of nursing homes and the people who work and reside there. Part of his research involved actually working full-time for more than a year as a certified nursing assistant in a variety of care facilities, during which time he interviewed and collected stories from the workers, most of them fellow nursing assistants. He also visited many facilities to get a broader view of the industry. At the end, he gives his recommendations on how to improve care homes. I'm looking forward to that.

My recent experience with care homes makes me realize that some of his observations would still be accurate today. Nursing homes have changed for the better in many ways since 1992, but some things have gotten worse. Certainly the impending wave of baby-boomer elders will have a significant impact on how care homes evolve. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Anyway, I'll keep you posted on what I learn!

The End of an Era - "At Last!" Say the Whales

Taken from the Whaling Museum website

Well, I've finally finished Leviathan, and I must say it was a very good book! The section about the Civil War was very interesting; not surprisingly, the war took its toll on the whaling industry. Dolin focuses primarily on how the whaling ships were subject to being raided and destroyed by Confederate ships tasked with disrupting shipping and damaging the economy of the North, since most whalers were based in the northern states. One captain in particular made it his special mission to destroy as many whaling ships as possible, although he did spare the crews, allowing them to be transported to a nearby island. He attacked whaling ships around the globe and did particular damage to those in the Arctic, as they had no where to go to escape the attacks. He even continued his destructive mission well past the end of the war, claiming that he didn't know it was over. (That claim is suspect; he saw the newspapers in California and heard reports from sailors, but supposedly didn't believe them.)

After the Civil War, whaling in the old way started a serious decline. Not only were lamps being lighted by the cheaper kerosene, but the discovery of petroleum left the whaling industry with no market. Even the market for whalebone was diminishing. The early 20th century, however, gave the industry a temporary boost. Women's corsets were still in fashion, and baleen was being used for other manufactured products, including practice bayonets for soldiers. World War I provided a market for a while, too--whale oil was used to lubricate machines and people began eating whale meat as a substitute for beef and other meats that were in short supply because of the war effort.

By the 1930s, though, whaling was over as an American enterprise. It was done on a more industrial scale after that, by countries such as Norway, but for the US, whaling fades to a memory, its glory days captured in films and novels--and history books like Leviathan.

I recommend this book highly.  It is well-written and very informative, although the stories of wholesale destruction of whales are sometimes hard to read.  The writer does warn us of this in the beginning of the book, saying that his purpose is to give us the history of whaling, and not the sad, bloody saga of the ill-fated whales. He leaves that task to another author.

Next:  back to fiction with an early Jeffery Deaver novel: Mistress of Justice.