Category: BookLust II

Man Who Was Taller Than God

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Adams, Harold. The Man Who Was Taller Than God. New York: Walker and Company, 1992.

Reason read: to “finish” the series started with Hatchet Job in November (in honor of South Dakota becoming a state). Yes, I am reading them backwards.

This won’t take you anytime at all to read. Barely 156 pages it is a quick one. You could read it in one sitting, for sure. Anyway, the plot:
It’s the first murder the town of “hopeless” Hope, South Dakota has ever seen. Felton Edwards, a tall, womanizing, good for nothing and better-off-dead man, is found face down in a gravel pit. Some shot to death this tall drink of water and like Hatchet Job there is no shortage of suspects because everyone had a beef with Mr. Edwards. Never mind the fact he hasn’t been in Hope for the last 15 years. Enter Carl Wilcox, our hero. As a retired police officer he has been called back into service by Hope’s mayor, Christian Frykman. Frykman can’t bear the thought of a murder happening in his little town. Wilcox may have an unorthodox way of solving crimes (he makes more dates with single women than finding clues), but he always gets the job done.

Quotes I liked: “A man who talks as much as he does is bound to strike truth now and then” (said by Christian Frykman on page 20) and “It was enough to make my tired ache” (said by Carl Wilcox on page 136).

Book trivia: …Talller Than God is actually book number nine in the series. The title of the books comes from the fact that the dead man was “long enough to be taller than god”. Whatever that means.

Author fact: the inspiration for the Wilcox series is Adams’s own uncle, Sidney Dickey. I wonder if Mr. Dickey smoked like a chimney, had a sarcastic wit and a way with the ladies?

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “The Great Plains: Dakotas” (p 106).

Dark Hills Divide

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Carman, Patrick. The Dark Hills Divide. New York: Scholastic, Inc., 2005.

Reason read: November is Fantasy Convention month in some places in the world.

I need to preface this with the obvious: Dark Hills Divide is a book for kids. Okay, so onto the plot. Alexa Daley is twelve years old and is spending a month with her father in the town of Bridewell. Bridewell is no ordinary place as it is surrounded by huge walls that are 42′ high and 3′ thick. What Alexa wants to know is what is beyond, in the world she can not see? All her life she has lived behind those thick walls. All she knows is what her mayoral father tells her: that a mysterious man by the name of Thomas Warvold had the walls built by an army of prison convicts. Legend has it, the walls have kept out an unnamed evil.
And so begins the first book of the Land of Elyon series. As with any good fantasy book there is a menacing villain, talking animals and one brave-as-all-get-out kid. Pervis Kotcher, Bridewell’s head of security and resident bully, will stop at nothing to keep Alexa from seeing what is beyond the walls but like any determined kid, Alexa finds a way out. From there, things get weird and Alexa realizes everyone has secrets and the motto is “trust no one”.

As an aside, I was pleasantly surprised to see the traditional poem “Six Men of Indostan” or “The Blind Men and the Elephant” reimagined by John Godfrey Saxe. I know the John Godfrey Saxe version as interpreted by Natalie Merchant on her “Leave Your Sleep” album.

Author fact: I don’t think it would surprise you to learn Carman has his own website here.

Book trivia: Dark Hills Divide doesn’t have illustrations throughout the text, but there is a beautiful drawing of a wolf on the second page and illustrations of Alexa’s chess moves. Another detail, Dark Hills Divide is the first book in a series called “The Land of Elyon.”

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Fantasy for Young and Old” (p 85).

Hatchet Job

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Adams, Harold. Hatchet Job. New York: Walker and Company, 1996.

Reason read: South Dakota became a state in November.

Hatchet Job is such a short book (barely over 150 pages) that it can be read in one sitting and because it is so short it ends almost before it really begins. Here are a couple of other things you need to know about Hatchet Job: it’s the thirteenth book in the Carl Wilcox series but you do not need to have read the other twelve before enjoying Hatchet. Also, even though Hatchet Job was published in 1996 it takes place at least fifty years earlier. Details like Wilcox driving a Model T, women wearing or not wearing girdles, and lots of references to the Great War helped set the time frame.
Now for the plot: someone has murdered the town cop of Mustard with four chops with an ax or hatchet. The blows are precise and predictable. No one is shocked Lou Dupree is dead and if the town could cheer about such a demise, they would and loudly. Our hero, Carl Wilcox, is called in to solve the mystery and stand in as Mustard’s law enforcement until they can find a replacement. When Carl isn’t asking a million questions he’s trying seduce all the single ladies, but he has an eye for the married ones as well. It’s just a matter of time before Carl solves the case and gets a date. The real question is, which will happen first?

Author fact: in 1996 Harold Adams was the retired director of the Minnesota Charities Review Council.

Book trivia: Hatchet Job is part of the Carl Wilcox series.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “The Great Plains: the Dakotas” (p 106).

Disorderly Knights

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Dunnett, Dorothy. The Disorderly Knights. New York: Vintage Books, 1997.

Reason read: to continue the series started in August in honor of Dorothy Dunnett’s birth month.

The year is now 1551. Francis Crawford of Lymond, the blond-haired, blue eyed rebel of Edinburgh Scotland has a new mission from the King of France: to come to the aid of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John in Malta as they battle the Turks to defend their island. It begins as a confusing battle, and as with all great stories in history, not everyone is who they first appear to be. There is a traitor among them. Who can it be? It’s up to Francis to figure it out and in doing so discovers his worst enemy. On a personal note, in this installment of the Lymond Chronicles I was pleasantly surprised to see a more personal side to the dashing and devastatingly cruel Francis. This time Dunnett didn’t have him constantly drinking to falling down drunk, and while I wasn’t always agreeing with Lymond’s actions, they shed light on the complexities of his personality.
On another note, I was sad to lose key characters.

Quotes I liked, “Hatred shackled by promises to the dead was the vilest of all” (p 218) and “But that’s just immaturity boggling at the sad face of failure” (p 322).

Author fact: According the back cover of Disorderly Knights Dunnett was, to critics at that time, the “world’s greatest living writer of historical fiction.”

Book trivia: this is the third installment of the Lymond series.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Digging Up the Past Through History” (p 79).

Pawn in Frankincense

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Dunnett, Dorothy. Pawn in Frankincense. New York: Random House, 1997.

Reason read: to continue the series started in August in honor of Dunnett’s birth month. This is book #4.

When we last left Francis Crawford of Lymond in The Disorderly Knights the year was 1552 and Francis had just uncovered and defeated a spy within the ranks of the Knights of St. John of Malta, Graham “Gabriel” Malett. Francis also had fathered a son, Khaireddin. It’s this son, hidden away somewhere within the Ottoman empire, that presents Lymond with his next challenge. For Khaireddin is being held as a political pawn in a very dangerous game. While Francis had defeated his enemy Graham, he also had to reluctantly let him go to ensure the safety of his missing son.
Some of Dunnett’s best characters return for the plot of Pawn but it’s the addition of Marthe that is intriguing. Marthe, a girl much like Francis in attitude and appearance adds sex appeal and a feisty fire to the plot. You later find out later she is his sister. Duh. Could have seen that coming. Another character I liked seeing return is Phillipa. She turns out to be a little spitfire herself.
Of course there are the intricate twists and turns you have come to expect from a Dunnett book. The chase across seas and deserts is pretty intense and as always, Dunnett does a fabulous job describing the people and places. The “live” chess game is intense.

Only quote to grab me, “With children, you have no private life” (p 293). Not very profound, but I liked it.

Book trivia: Pawn in Frankincense is book #4 in the Lymond series. I said that already. The other thing I would like to add is that you can definitely tell the Lymond series was written by a woman. There is so much attention given to clothing: fabric, style and fit.

Author fact: “In 1992, Queen Elizabeth appointed [Dunnett] an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.” I wonder what one gets out of that besides an impressive title?

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Digging Up the Past Through History” (p 90).

Crows Over a Wheatfield

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Sharp, Paula. Crows Over a Wheatfield. New York: Washington Square Press, 1996.

Reason read: October is Domestic Abuse Awareness month in some states. In Massachusetts we run a 5k to benefit Safe Passage (although in December).

Picture a small town where barely anything of interest disrupts the landscape; no mountains, no oceans, no canyons, nor rivers. Nothing as far as the eye can see except farmland and fields. This is Wisconsin and Crows Over a Wheatfield is the thirty-year story of Melanie Klonecki, first growing up in such a small town, then becoming a judge in New York City and trying to escape memories of an abusive but brilliant criminal defense lawyer of a father (a “diabolical Atticus” as one of his colleagues described him). Told in four parts (Crows Over a Wheatfield, Muskellunge, Custody, & Mirror Universe) we begin Melanie’s recollection in the year 1957 when she was seven years old. Her 41 year old father has just remarried someone 17 years his junior. Ottilie comes to the family with a seven year old child of her own, Matthew. These outsiders are not immune to the abuse handed out by Joel Ratleer either.  His abuses come in many forms: subtle as in not being allowed to go to church or forcing Matthew to call his mother Ottilie, and violent in the form of severe beatings without provocation or warning. And yet, curiously, Melanie’s recollection of this abuse is fuzzy. She uses such phrases as, “must have bullied”, “no longer recall”, and “barely evoke any memory”. It’s as if she cannot face her terrible childhood with any clarity and as a result it clouds her entire adult life. When faced with another abusive situation Melanie is forced to “wake up” and take action. This time, as an adult, she is able to make choices. Her career as a judge hangs in the balance as she considers how far one would go to protect the ones they love.

I enjoyed the symbolism the wheatfield brought to the story. It is the portrayal of a descent into madness. Van Gogh’s painting is on the cover (and we all know his story). Czepeski (victim in Ratleer’s case) was the only farmer to grow a small patch of wheat not to harvest, but because “he liked to watch it move in the breeze” implying Czepeski was mad enough to kill his own children, implying it was not Ratleer’s defendant who outright admitted to it.

Lines I liked, “Uneasiness or wariness or fear blocked the way to my heart” (p 19) and “I could not remember the last time anyone, sane or insane, had looked inside me and unearthed anything there” (p 350). Probably the most telling line in the whole book.

Author fact: Sharp is also a practicing lawyer in New York.

Book trivia: a national bestseller.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Big Ten Country: the Literary Midwest (Wisconsin)” (p 32).

A Prayer for Owen Meany

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Irving, John. A Prayer for Owen Meany. Read by Joe Barrett. Michigan: Brilliance Audio, 2009

Reason read: Even though most of A Prayer for Owen Meany does not take place in Canada I am reading this in honor of September being the best time to visit Toronto.

I don’t know where to begin with a review for A Prayer for Owen Meany. I have been driving to and from work everyday, listening to this incredible tale about a boy named Owen for a month now and I’ve been thinking there is no way I can sum this up story succinctly. Like other Irving tales, this is multifaceted and wrought with symbolism. As an adult living as an ex-pat in Toronto, Canada Johnny Wheelwright remembers his childhood and best friend, Owen Meany. They grew up together in the fictional seaside town of Gravesend, New Hampshire. To describe Owen as special is as inadequate as saying the Grand Canyon is “big”. There is so much more to Owen and his story from every angle. For starters, there is his size (barely five feet) and his voice (high-pitched and distinct). Then, there is his personal belief that is he is an instrument of God. Even when he accidentally hits Johnny’s mother with a line drive baseball, killing her instantly, he believes it was meant to happen that way. Owen is smart, witty, kind and considerate, but you can’t sway him from his political or religious beliefs (don’t get him started on John F Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe or later, the Vietnam war). I don’t want to spoil the story except to say you can’t help but fall in love with Owen and be shocked by the outrageous things he does.

My favorite scene was when Owen asks his dad to take him and Johnny to the beach in the middle of the night. The image of Owen banging on the cab of the truck, urging his father to drive faster will always stay with me.

Author fact: According to Irving’s website his birth name was Blunt but changed to Irving after his mom remarried.

Book trivia: the movie “Simon Birch” is based on A Prayer for Owen Meany but because the film is so dissimilar to the book Irving asked that the title and names of characters be different as well.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter “Lines That Linger; Sentences That Stick” (p 142). The line (or sentence) Pearl is referring to from A Prayer for Owen Meany is the opening sentence, “I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice – not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother’s death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.”

As an aside: I love John Irving’s work so much I thought Pearl should have included a “Too Good To Miss” chapter for him.

Mysterious Affair at Styles

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Christie, Agatha. The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Duke Classics, 2012. Epub 2015.

Reason read: September is Christie’s birth month.

Told from the point of view of Hastings, a guest at Styles, The Mysterious Affair at Styles tells the tale of a woman poisoned for her inheritance. Desperate for answers, Hastings introduces his friend, Inspector Hercule Poirot, to the dead woman’s son and to the crime in the hope the detective can solve the mystery. As with any mystery there is a revolving cast of characters, all suitable for the label “guilty.”
Having never seen film or television versions of Hercule Poirot, I picture him as a smug little man. His review of the crime scene is fascinating and I could picture his scrutiny perfectly. His relationship with Hastings is humorous, almost patronizing. The key to remember with this mystery is once a man is acquitted of a specific crime he can never be tried again for the same offense.

Lines worth mentioning: “Imagination is always a good servant and a bad master” (p 91) and “Who on earth but Poirot would have thought of a trial for murder as a restorer of conjugal happiness” (p 238).

Author fact: There is a lot of mystery surrounding Christie’s own life. At one point she herself became the center of a mystery as a missing person.

Book trivia: The Mysterious Affair at Styles is Inspector Hercule Poirot’s first appearance in an Agatha Christie mystery.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Tickle Your Funny Bone” (p 220).

Queens’ Play

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Dunnett, Dorothy. Queens’ Play. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1964.

Reason read: to continue the series started in August in honor of Dunnett’s birth month.

Queens’ Play is the second book in the Lymond series starring “cool, daring, strangely haunted” Francis Crawford of Lymond. [By the way, don’t you just love that description of him? Not my words, though.] The year is 1550 and Mary, Queen of Scots is now a precocious seven years old. Actually, she’s not in this enough for me to call her precocious, I’m just imagining her that way. She has been sent to France as the betrothed to the Dauphin. Francis (or Lymond as he is sometimes called) goes “undercover” to follow her and protect her. There are a lot of other people who have designs on the throne and she is constantly at risk. As “Thady Boy Ballage” Lymond has dyed his hair jet black and poses as the companion to an Irish prince. He doesn’t stand on the fringes of politics and just watch for enemies. True to Francis form, Thady prefers and enjoys being in the thick of it, causing most of the trouble. He still drinks like a fish and plays just as hard as he protects.

I thought the cheetah/hare hunt was pretty outrageous and not nearly as fun as the rooftop scavenger hunt.

A word of warning – there are a great many characters in Queens’ Play and while Dunnett introduces you to the main players (three pages worth), there are more. I have read that Queens’ Play is the “slowest” of all the books in the Lymond series. For that I am grateful because I don’t want to give up quite yet. I still have several books to go!

Quote I liked for some weird reason, “Strong wine and stretched muscles disregarded, Lymond strode to the window and stayed there, gripping his anger hard until he could speak” (p 165).

Author fact: Dunnett was also an artist.

Book trivia: Queens’ Play is the second book in the six-book series.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Lines That Linger, Sentences That Stick” (p 142).

Game of Kings

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Dunnett, Dorothy. The Game of Kings.New York: Random house, 1997.

Reason read: Dunnett’s birth month is in August. How boring of a reason is that?

16th century Edinburgh, Scotland (1547). The Game of Kings sets the stage for the subsequent five additional volumes in the Lymond series. Master Francis Crawford of Lymond is the anti-hero with “elastic morals.” He is smart, funny, sarcastic and knows how to steal, kill, and charm. I’m sure he’s handsome, too. That is, if you like blondes. Dunnett refers to Lymond’s golden or yellow head quite frequently. Crawford has a chip on his shoulder. His reputation is shot and everyone is after him, friend and foe alike. He’s a scapegoat with a band of misfits (some not to be trusted) who traverse the countryside trying to clear his name. There are enough characters and subplots to make your head spin, but stick with Lymond! He’ll cheer you up.
If you read Game of Kings make sure you pick up the Vintage publication. Dunnett wrote her own foreword and confesses that the text has been “freshened.” Having not read other versions I have no idea what has been “freshened.”

Best lines, “You are not being badgered; you are being invaded” (p 21). See, Francis Crawford of Lymond has a sense of humor! More great lines, “My brilliant devil, my imitation queen, my past, my future, my hope of heaven and my knowledge of hell” (p 237), “There’s nothing to stop you from associating with my servants if you want to, but I’d prefer not to have the younger ones reduced to a state of crapulence for your purposes” (p 397), and “Open your mouth too far and someone will fill it with rubbish” (p 502).

Author fact: Dunnett also wrote the House of Niccolo series (also on my list).

Book trivia: The Game of Kings is “First in the legendary Lymond Chronicles” according to the front cover. Additionally, The Game of Kings is a self-contained novel and doesn’t leave the reader hanging.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Digging Up the Past Through Fiction” (p 80).

Sixty Stories

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Barthelme, Donald. Sixty Stories. New York: G. P. Putnam & Sons, 1981.

Reason read: Barthelme died July 23, 1989 of throat cancer. This is read in his honor.

I wanted to review this book by writing one sentence about each short story (60 sentences in all), but I have to confess this: I wasn’t sure what some of the stories were even about. I am glad I found other “I’m so confused” reviews. It’s nice to know I wasn’t the only one lost from time to time. I’m like the sober party-goer who doesn’t get the drunk joke that everyone else is cracking up about. Even the writing structure was strange. Sometimes a story wouldn’t have paragraphs. Other times the story was without punctuation. Or. Or! Or, something like this – the word butter written 97 times. Most of the time it was people acting oddly like writing letters to their lover’s therapist or living in the church of their denomination or killing 6,000 dogs after buying Galveston, Texas. Some stories were profound especially when they centered on the human condition. Others were just plain strange and I couldn’t wrap my brain around his motive or meaning.

Lines I liked but didn’t understand, “But stealing books is metaphysically different from stealing like money” (p 13), “Strangling the moon is wrong” (p 99), and “The bad zombies banged the Bishop’s car with a dead cow, at night” (p 351).

Book trivia: Sixty Stories even has illustrations. That’s how chock full of weirdness it is.

Author fact: Barthelme wrote novels and books for children in addition to short stories.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “All in the Family” (p). Brothers Donald and Frederick were both writers.

Light in August

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Faulkner, William. Novels 1930 – 1935: Light in August. New York: The Library of America, 1996.

Reason read: I was thinking I should read this in August, just for the title. Instead, I’m reading it in July because of Faulkner’s death month. How morbid of me.

I found this to be one of the more enjoyable Faulkner stories. There was more plot and less stream-of-consciousness. The characters are fewer and more fully developed. Lena Grove is a pregnant white woman from Alabama looking for her man in Jefferson, Mississippi. Gail Hightower, a former reverend is forced into retirement and nearly run out of town for his wife’s erratic behavior and subsequent suicide. Joe Christmas, one of the strongest main characters, is an orphan who thinks he has “nigger blood” despite his pale skin.

There are several elements of repetition to Faulkner’s work. Most stories take place in Jefferson, Mississippi. There is usually one character that is mixed race and as a result, struggling with identity. A fire usually breaks out somewhere. Someone usually is pregnant. Probably the most typical reoccurring element is style. Faulkner uses flashbacks to either tell a story or fill in the gaps of one. Light in August was one of the more easier ones to follow.

Author fact: Like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Faulkner died of a heart attack in the month of July.

Book trivia: Faulkner began writing Light in August in August 1931 and it was published in October 1932.

BookLust Twist: first, in Book Lust in the chapter called “100 Good Read, Decade By Decade: 1930s (p 177). Second, in More Book Lust in a chapter that doesn’t really make sense to me. “You Can’t Judge a Book By It’s Cover” (p 238). But, Pearl isn’t bringing up Light in August because its cover contradicts what it’s about. Faulkner is just one of the books in Alan Powers’s Front Cover.

Murder Duet

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Gur, Batya. Murder Duet: a Musical Case. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1999.

Reason read: this is the last book I need to read to finish the Michael Ohayon series, started in March in honor of that month being the best time to visit Israel. Note: there is one last book in the series but I read it first, before I knew there was a whole series. Like the last two Gur mysteries, I am listing the characters here so that I can keep them straight.

  • Aliza – baby sitter
  • Andre Kestenbaum – medical examiner
  • Ariyeh Levy – Jerusalem Subdivision chief
  • Avigail – police; former girlfriend of Michael Ohayon
  • Avigdor – concertmaster
  • Becky Pomeranz – mother of a friend Michael had an affair
  • Carlo Maria Giulini – musician
  • Dalit – police recruit
  • Danny Balilty+ – police
  • Dora Zackheim – music teacher
  • Drora Yaffe – Theo’s fake alibi
  • Dr. Schumer –
  • Dr. Solomon – pathologist
  • Eli+ – police
  • Elroi – police psychologist
  • Emanuel Shorer+ – head of Criminal Investigation Unit
  • Even-Tor – conductor
  • Eyal – Tzilla’s child
  • Gabriel van Gelden – second murder victim
  • Ido – Nita’s five month old son
  • Irit – Izzy’s daughter
  • Itzhak Halevi – Zippo’s real name
  • Itzik – police
  • Izzy Mashiah – Gabriel’s boyfriend
  • Jacques+ – Michael Ohayon’s uncle (mother’s brother), dead
  • Jean Bonaventure – scholar of Baroque
  • Joann Schenk – German singer
  • Kochava Strauss – sergeant
  • Machluf Levy – police; has two kids
  • Malka – police
  • Margrit Fischer – musician
  • Matty Balilty – Danny’s wife
  • Maya+ – old girlfriend of Michael Ohayon’s
  • Meyuhas – lawyer
  • Michael Ohayon* – lead character; divorced 20 years; lives alone
  • Motti – police
  • Mr. van Gelden- first murder victim
  • Mrs. Agmon – violinist
  • Nurse Nehama – from the Child Welfare Bureau
  • Nira+ – Michael Ohayon’s ex-wife
  • Nita van Gelden – single mother
  • Professor Livnat – art expert
  • Rimon – childhood friend of Michael’s
  • Ronit – girl who had broken Yuval’s heart
  • Ruth Mashiah/Zellnicker – Director of the Child Welfare Bureau, Izzy’s exwife
  • Sergeant Malka – friend of Tzilla’s
  • Sara – Ethiopian babysitter
  • Shimshon – forensic investigator
  • Sima – forensics documents lab tech
  • Sonia – ?
  • Teddy Kolleck – Mayor of Jerusalem
  • Theo van Gelden – conductor; brother of Nita
  • Theodore Herzl – friend of the first murder victim
  • Tzilla+ – police
  • Van Gelden – neighbor in Michael’s apartment building
  • Yaffa+ – part of the forensic team
  • Yehudi Menvahin – ?
  • Yosefa – Tzilla’s child
  • Yuval – Dora’s student
  • Yuval Ohayon+ – Michael Ohayon’s son
  • Yvette+ – Michael Ohayon’s older sister
  • Zippo – older police officer
  • Zisowitz – orchestra manager

(* = main character; ? = name was mentioned only once, + = has been mentioned in several Gur mysteries)

So continues the murder mysteries of Israeli policeman Michael Ohayon. It has been two years since our last adventure with him. In the meantime he has been away from the force, studying law. Upon his return he becomes entangled in a murder with a family twist. Murder Duet starts with Ohayon wanting to spend a quiet holiday alone, listening to music in his apartment. His solitude is broken when he hears the cries of an infant in the basement of his apartment building. Abandoned in a cardboard box the baby girl is barely a month old and for some reason Ohayon takes it upon himself to care for the newborn. This gives Gur an opportunity to show Ohayon’s sensitive side and reveal some of his personality outside of work. After finding the baby Ohayon meets his neighbor, Nita van Gelden, and develops a relationship with her. That relationship is compromised when Nita’s father and brother are murdered and Ohayon is on the case.

Out of all the Gur mysteries I have read this one was my favorite. Even though the character list was extensive I felt it was more manageable than in previous stories. It was refreshing that not everyone had a name or detailed history. Some characters were just “young woman” or “fat Russian.” Past Gur books have included a detailed description of an autopsy. This one has a play by play of how a polygraph test works. There is no doubt Gur does her homework!

Line I liked, “When you want something, anything, so much you become easy prey to anyone” (p 82).

BookLust Trivia: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Crime is a Globetrotter: Israel” (p 61).

Literary Murder

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Gur, Batya. Literary Murder: a Critical Case. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1993.

We first met Michael Ohayon in The Saturday Morning Murder. Since then he has been promoted to Superintendent and his new case is the violent death of a famous poet, lecturer, critic and literature professor from Hebrew University. Curiously, at the same time, albeit miles away, another murder has taken place and this victim is also a member of the same department at the same university. Very interesting. What makes this case so interesting is that Ohayon must wrestle with the complexities of literary criticism, intellectual integrity, and ethics in a world of competitive academia. Everyone at the university becomes a suspect when the motive is simple envy.

One of the things that trips me up about Gur’s writing is the sheer number of characters she puts in her books. While many are well developed interesting characters many more of them are only mentioned once and never again. For some reason I decided to list them all (in alphabetically order):

  • Adiel – scholar
  • Adina Lipkin – faculty secretary
  • Agnon – poet
  • Aldandari – police
  • Anatoly Ferber – poet
  • Andre Sakarov
  • Ariyeh Levy – Major General Jerusalem Subdistrict commander
  • Ariyeh Klein – Medieval poetry professor previously on sabbatical at Columbia
  • Avidan – department investigations officer
  • Avigdor  – head of criminal identification division
  • Avraham Kalitzky – professor
  • Azariya – deputy recovering from back surgery
  • Becky Pomerantz – Uzi’s mother
  • Bialik – poet
  • Boris Zinger – Russian
  • Dana – daughter of Henry Wolf
  • Danny Balilty – intelligence officer
  • Davidov – Host of Book World
  • Dita Fuchs – professor; had an affair with Tirosh
  • Dovik – works in personnel
  • Eli Bahar – police medical examiner
  • Emanuel Shorer – Michael’s predecessor
  • Emuna Yaron – daughter of Agnon
  • Gilly – police spokesman
  • Guy – diving instructor
  • Dr Henry Wolf
  • Helena Radovensky – parent of Tirosh
  • Hirsh – pathologist worked with Michael 8 years
  • Hrabal – poet
  • Iddo Dudai – young, poet, murder victim
  • Illan Muallem – Ofakim police
  • Jan Schasky – parent of Tirosh
  • Kalman Aharonovitz
  • Malka “Mali” Arditi – Klein’s mistress
  • Manfred Herbst – condemned to a leper’s hospital
  • Manny Ezra
  • Meir Shatz – historian
  • Menucha Tishkin – teacher
  • Marom – president of the college
  • Max Lowenthal – lawyer/professor
  • Maya – Michael Ohayon’s girlfriend
  • Michael Ohayon – inspector
  • Motti – diving instructor
  • Natan Zach – poet
  • Nathan Yaron
  • Nechama Leibowitz – professor
  • Nira – Michael’s ex-wife
  • Noa – Uzi’s second wife
  • Ofra Klein
  • Perla Lindborg – Swedish biologist
  • Pnina – Crime Identification Division; forensics
  • Rabbi Sharabi
  • Racheli Luria – third year psychology undergraduate; secretary’s assistant
  • Raffi Alfandan- police
  • Raffi Weizer – Agnon archives
  • Rina – comes to comfort Ruth
  • Ruchama Shai – Tuvia’s wife, had an affair with Shaul
  • Ruth Dudai – Iddo’s wife
  • Sara Amir – frumpy professor
  • Schlomo Ibn Gabriol – poet
  • Shmaya – reporter
  • Shatz – police
  • Shaul Tirosh/Pavel Schasky – lecturer, poet, ladies man, murder victim
  • Shaul – crime scene investigator; married 10 years
  • Shaul Tchernichowsky – poet
  • Shulamith Zellermaier – older, popular lit and folklore professor
  • Tali Shatz – daughter of proefessor who supervised Ohayon’s MA
  • Tsippi Lev-Ari (Goldgraber) – Aharonivitz’s assistant
  • Tuvia Shai – married to Ruchama; professor
  • Tzesha – Racheli’s aunt
  • Tzilla Bahar- Eli’s wife & pregnant
  • Tzipporah – coworker of Ruchama
  • Uzi Rimon – Michael’s childhood friend
  • Yaakov Gafni – Tirosh’s favorite painter
  • Yael Eisenstein – wife of Tirosh (divorced 6 months later) teaching assistant
  • Yehezkiel – poet
  • Yehuda Halevi – poet
  • Youzek – ex-father-in-law
  • Yuval Ohayon – son of Michael Ohayon
  • Zvika – photographer, crime scene investigator

I’m sure I missed a few people here and there, but you see what I mean. It’s not enough for a crime scene photographer to pop in and out of a scene. He, too, must have a name and a story.
Reason read: to continue the Michael Ohayon series started in March.

Author fact: This Ohayon mystery must have been particularly close to Gur’s heart for she was a literary professor in Jerusalem (as of 1993).

Book trivia: This is book #2 in Gur’s series about Inspector Michael Ohayon.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Crime is a Globetrotter: Israel” (p 61).

Broom of the System

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Wallace, David Foster. Broom of the System. Read by Robert Petkoff. New York: Hatchette Audio, 2010.

Odd. Outlandish. Offbeat. Quirky. Inventive. Crazy. These words and more drifted through my head as I read Broom of the System. Meet Lenore Stonecipher Beadsman. She is looking for her great-grandmother who has gone missing from a Shaker Heights nursing home. When twenty-five other inmates are unaccounted for, all hell breaks loose, in an undefined kind of way. That’s the “plot” even though it is buried under pages and pages of other seemingly unrelated ramblings and doesn’t surface that often. But, don’t worry – the ramblings? they are all connected. You’ll meet Rick Vigorous, Lenore’s obsessed boss; Judith Prietht, a nosy coworker; Spatula; Alvin Spaniard; Sigurd and Blanchard Foamwhistle; the gymnast Kopek Spasova; Candy Mandible; Mindy Metalman, Peter Abbott (who must descend the tunnel to fix a cable – get it?) and many, many others. There’s a cockatiel named Vlad the Impaler who quotes the Bible and talks dirty. He gets his own religious talk show. There’s Norman Bombardini who orders nine steak dinners in one sitting. People think he’s trying to eat himself to death; Mr. Bloemker who frequents a Gilligan’s Island themed restaurant with an extremely lifelike blow-up doll (which explodes – a really funny scene). Don’t forget the Antichrist, Lenore’s brother with the wooden leg complete with built-in drawers for drugs. I could go on and on. There is a love triangle, a love square, therapy sessions and competition between baby food companies. I feel like I have covered the whole book but really, I haven’t even scratched the surface.

By the way, Robert Petkoff does an amazing job with all the different character voices. Norman Bombardini and Vlad were my favorites.

Reason read: Ohio was founded on March 1st, 1803.

Author fact: Broom of the System is Wallace’s first book.

Book trivia: This is a long book, nearly 500 pages long.

I listened to this as an audio book to and from work every day for a month. As an audio it was long and rambling. While there are solid characters and there is somewhat of a plot those details were lost on me. It was a joy just to listen to the language – even if on the surface it didn’t make sense. I know I missed a lot because I wasn’t reading the words (Case in point, the Great Ohio Desert otherwise known as G.O.D.). As I was listening I couldn’t help but picture Wallace at a party – one of those large, no one really knows anyone else, sprawling kinds of party. This is Wallace’s first go at getting published, so he wants to be noticed. He’s talking loudly for the benefit of the few people outside the circle, the ones apparently not listening to him. He keeps one eye on the people he wants to impress, hoping his witticisms will draw them into the cluster. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I found that Wallace was trying too hard to be clever. Every sentence was witty word play, full of idioms and literary tricks.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Big Ten Country: The Literary Midwest (Ohio)” (p 29).