Tag: Fiction

All Hallows’ Eve

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Williams, Charles. All Hallows’ Eve. New York: Pellegrini & Cudahy, 1948.

Reason read: This is a spooky story so I’m reading this for Halloween, of course.

This is a love story that thrives beyond the grave. Lester and Richard were married only the day before when Lester is killed by a falling airplane. What are the chances? Now Lester is caught between two very different worlds – the living world where Richard still walks about grieving and Lester’s dead and silent world in limbo. She hasn’t made it into either heaven nor hell. Some people can sense her and some can even see her outright. Still others, she can walk clean through and they wouldn’t feel even the slightest whisper. Lester feels alone but she is not. Not really. Also killed in the bizarre crash was her living best friend, Evelyn. Both seek the afterlife forgiveness of a third girl, Betty, who Lester and Evelyn were cruel to in school. Betty is under the spell of evil in the form of her mother, Lady Wallingford, and religious and biological Father Simon Leclerc. Father Simon, better known as The Clerk, is seen as a prophet, a religious leader, a powerful orator able to sway large masses with his preaching…a devil in disguise who practices magic. He has Evelyn under his power as well. She turns out to be the evil one.

Williams is a strange author. His storytelling is dense and sometimes confusing. I likened it to hacking through a thick and oppressive jungle with a dull machete. You spend a lot of time slogging through the narrative and sometimes miss the finer nuances of the story. I found myself frequently rereading passages if only to orient myself to time and place.

Quotes (or imagery) I liked, “The two dead girls went together slowly out of the park” (p 22), and “She did not dichotomize; mechanics were not separate from spirit, nor from imagination, nor that from passion” (p 225).

Confessional: I had to look up two words from this book: sacerdotalism and susurration. Learn something new everyday.

Author fact: Williams wrote All Hallows’ Eve as part of a series called “The Aspects of Power.” It is #7 in the series and is the only one I’m reading for the challenge. for once, I am glad to be missing out.
Second author fact: Williams died following an operation.

Book trivia: All Hallows’ Eve has been compared to James’s Turn of the Screw. Second piece of trivia: T.S. Eliot wrote the introduction to All Hallows’ Eve.

Nancy said: Nancy called All Hallows’ Eve a “lost classic” (p 99); “Williams’s own spiritual beliefs lend a spellbinding conviction to the ensuing struggle between good and evil, magic and art” (p 100).

BookLust: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Ghost Stories” (p 99). True enough.

Beautiful Children

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Bock, Charles. Beautiful Children. Read by Mark Deakins. New York: Random House Audio, 2008.

Reason read: As some of you know, my cousin was homeless and lived under the neon in Las Vegas. In October of a certain year he was found dead. Beautiful Children was read in his honor, but now I have a new event to memorialize: the Las Vegas concert massacre earlier this month. October is a cruel, cruel month and Beautiful Children is a cruel, cruel book.

I don’t know how to review this book. I was not expecting to dislike every character, even the missing kid, Newell. I hated that I liked him least of all. The premise of the story is twelve year old Newell goes missing on the streets of Las Vegas. Vegas gives Bock a huge canvas to work with. Think about it: the seedy and spectacular people, the gritty and shiny atmosphere, the ever-lurking potential for danger around every corner. It’s Sin City, after all! Bock does take advantage of the expanse of his canvas but not in a good way. It’s almost like he had too much space so he overfilled it with garbage. Story lines are jumbled and discombobulated. Like marbles scattering in a hallway, Bock careens from one time and place to another. Yes, there are criminals, strippers, homeless kids, drug addicts, pawnshop owners, gamblers, sex addicts, comic book illustrators, beggars, liars, thieves…all of them sad and pitiful. The center of this story is supposed to be focused on a missing kid. Yes, the parents are grief stricken and the marriage suffers, but not enough attention is paid to the here and now of that intense drama. Instead, Bock delves into what intense sadness does to to a sex life. There are no FBI agents anxiously hovering over wire-tapped telephones while hand wringing, pale faced parents look on. There are no episodes of pounding the streets, littering them with Have You Seen Me? fliers. Instead, Bock focuses on the underbelly of the beast; a world where pedophiles and pornographers feel at home.

Maybe it’s because I listened to this on audio. Maybe it’s because the sex scenes were practically pornographic. Maybe it’s because the story couldn’t stay linear for two minutes. Maybe it’s because I couldn’t find a character to love or even like. I suspect, if I look for the truth closer to home, I didn’t like Beautiful Children because, for all of his over the top, down and dirty descriptions of Las Vegas, when it came right down to it, he was describing my cousin’s last home. My cousin could have been that homeless kid on page 122.

Author fact: Charles Bock is a native of Las Vegas.

Narrator fact: Mark Deakins has appeared on the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Never saw an episode.

Book trivia: Beautiful Children was Charles Bock’s first novel.

Nancy said: Nancy described the plot but also mentioned the sins in Beautiful Children are not the ones you would expect of Vegas.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the very simple and obvious chapter called (drum roll) “Las Vegas” (p 129).

Amazing Mrs. Pollifax

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Gilman, Dorothy. The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1970.

Reason read: to continue the series started in September in honor of Grandparents Day.

Once you get beyond Mrs. Pollifax’s naivete: her willingness to go anywhere on a moment’s notice, for example, you can’t help but fall in love with the retired widow. Never mind the fact that the last time she agreed to go somewhere (spur of the moment) on such an unknown trip she almost died several times over. When you catch up with Miss Emily Pollifax in The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax you learn she is now taking karate lessons. Small reveal (and big bummer for me), Mrs. Pollifax doesn’t use her newfound martial arts skills but she does fly a helicopter! See what I mean? Most of Mrs. Pollifax’s feats in Turkey are nothing short of incredible, but the overall story is fun. Can’t wait for the next one!

Confessional: there is a small part of me that thinks Gilman is poking fun at the CIA. More than once, the agency is two steps behind the enemy and seem more concerned with trivial things like how did Mrs. Pollifax lose her garden hat?

One of the best lines comes from Colin when he says, “…these men stole my uncle’s jeep, dumped a dead man in our garage and kidnapped your friend” as if it’s the most normal day in his young life (p 72).
Another funny quote, “But we must stay alive a little longer to annoy him, yes?” By all means, survive long enough to annoy someone!

Author fact: Gilman was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey same as her heroine, Mrs. Pollifax.

Book trivia: I am reading five of the Mrs. Pollifax series. There are fourteen total.

Nancy said: The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax is just the ticket if you are “looking for something a lot lighter in tone and mood that still gives you a sense of Turkish life and customs” (p 240).

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Turkish Delights: Fiction” (p 239).

We Are Betrayed

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Fisher, Vardis. We Are Betrayed. New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1935.

Reason read: to continue the series started in August in honor of Idaho.

We started the story of Vridar (Vreed) Hunter as a young boy in In Tragic Life. In Passions Spin the Plot Vreed is college age and still obsessed with his childhood love, Neloa. By the time we catch up with him in We Are Betrayed Vreed has married Neloa and she has given him a child without fanfare. Much was made of his virginity and his preoccupation with sex in the previous installments, so it was a surprise fatherhood was treated so nonchalantly. New also to Vridar’s character is his commitment to fight in the war. He develops a new sense of courage at the thought of fighting for his country in France. His desire to be a writer and scholar also takes hold. Fisher does a great job of maturing Vridar before our eyes. His attitude towards fraternities was the first admirable demonstration for me, but there is no doubt Vridar is a tortured  and obsessed soul. The terrible games he played to test Neloa’s love for him are despicable. In fact, it’s Neloa and Vridar’s relationship I found the most disturbing. I won’t give away the ending, but I found myself not wanting to finish the series because of it.

My personal gripe has been how depressing Fisher is with Vridar’s life. True to form, Fisher starts We Are Betrayed with, the sentence “When Vridar married Neloa Doole he was ashamed of her…” (p 5). Vreed can’t be happy about anything.

As an aside, there was one section which confused me the most. Vridar and Neloa have their first child and Vridar leaves for war shortly thereafter. In a letter to Vridar, Neloa talks about Agnes singing about daddy being somewhere in France and she tells Vreed, “your daddy has been preaching to Agnes…trying to make a Mormon of her” (p 93). Who is Agnes? Lincoln is Vreed and Neloa’s first child, a boy. Did I miss something?

Author fact: Fisher was married three times. Will Vridar marry three times?

Book trivia: this is the penultimate book in the Vridar series.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Idaho: and Nary a Potato to be Seen” (p 121).

Boo to You October

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The month had finally arrived for the half marathon, my first and only of 2017. Enough said about that.
Here are the books I have planned:

Fiction:

  • The Aristotle Detective by Margaret Anne Doody ~ in honor of Greece’s Ochi Day
  • All Hallows Eve by Charles Williams ~ in honor of what else? Halloween.

Nonfiction:

  • Whatever You Do, Don’t Run by Peter Allison ~ in honor of the first safari leader’s birth month (Major Sir William Wallace Cornwallis Harris born October 1848. How’s that for a name?) (AB / print)
  • Sense of the World: How a Blind Man Became History’s Greatest Traveler by Jason Roberts ~ in honor of James Holman’s birth month (AB)

Series Continuations:

  • The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman ~ to continue the series started in September in honor of Grandparents Day.
  • Henry James: the Master by Leon Edel ~ to continue (and finish) the series started in April in honor of James’s birth month
  • We are Betrayed by Vardis Fisher ~ to continue the series started in August

Early Review for LibraryThing:

  • Riot Days by Maria Alyokhina ~ and we are back to nonfiction.

If there is time:

  • Breakfast on Pluto by Patrick McCabe (fiction)
  • The Discarded Duke by Nancy Butler (fiction)
  • In the Valley of Mist by Justine Hardy (nonfiction)
  • I Will Bear Witness (vol.1) by Victor Klemperer (nonfiction)

So Long September

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What an absolutely bonkers month. September was…How to describe September? The family had a reunion of sorts. The island suffered its fifth shock of the season with a quadruple murder. Running was another head-scratcher as I officially resumed physically therapy for my twisted hips. But. But, But! I was able to log over 30 miles. Nowhere near the 70+ I wanted, but it’s something. At least I haven’t stopped entirely. And the reading? Here are the books:

Fiction:

  • Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald (AB/print)
  • The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman
  • Burton And Speke by William Harrison (fictionalized history/historical fiction…whatever)
  • My Dream of You by Naola O’Faolain (AB/print)

Nonfiction:

  • O Jerusalem! by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre – Confessional: didn’t quite get all the way through this)
  • Everybody was so Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy, a Lost Generation Love Story by Amanda Vaill
  • Living Well is the Best Revenge by Calvin Tomkins

Series continuations:

  • Passions Spin the Plot by Vardis Fisher
  • Henry James: the Treacherous Years (1895 – 1901) by Leon Edel

Early Review for LibraryThing:

  • Boat Runner by Devin Murphy (fiction!)

Burton and Speke

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Harrison, William. Burton and Speke. New York: St. Martin’s, 1982.

Reason read: September is National Curiosity Month. What better way to satisfy curiosity than to go exploring the source of the Nile?

Richard Francis Burton was a legendary adventurer who also had a reputation for being a great lover. John Hanning Speke also had a reputation for being an adventurer and a lover, albeit of a different kind. When they first met, Speke needed Burton in order to get to Africa. Luckily, Burton was already going that way. Burton’s mission in Somaliland was in four parts:

  1. Discourage slavery
  2. Establish a camp for later use
  3. Search for gold
  4. “Examine” the women to study their sexual practices

As with any expedition into the unknown, Burton and Speke encounter many trials and tribulations. More often than not, their equipment and supplies were either being broken or getting lost. Crews and guides were constantly deserting them. It didn’t help that Burton and Speke couldn’t be more different from one another when it came down to leading the expeditions. Burton prided himself on his intellect, especially when it came to native languages across the regions. (He would go on to translate Arabian Nights and  The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana.) He had an understanding of the necessity of breaking down language barriers. Instead of brains, Speke valued his brawn, his hunting capabilities and his sheer physical strength. While Burton sought the company of many different beautiful women, Speke wouldn’t turn away a pretty boy. Their differences soon drove them apart and made them fierce rivals. In the end, it was Speke who discovered the source of the Nile but because he lacked the scientific evidence to explain how this came to be he was ridiculed and almost discredited. Richard Burton became faithful to one woman and became an anthropologist.

As an aside, I liked manservant End of Time’s name. That’s it – End of Time.
A cringe worthy moment – when the beetle crawled deep inside Speke’s ear and he went mad trying to dig it out with a knife.

Quote I liked, “Aloofness was a bore – especially when practiced amidst life’s frailties” (p 133).

Author fact: Harrison has written a bunch of other works, but this is the only one I am reading.

Book trivia: Confessional: I thought this was a nonfiction before I received the book.
It’s actually a historical novel.

Nancy said: Burton and Speke tries to solve an age-old debate of who found the source of the Nile.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Explorers” (p 85). Pretty straightforward.

My Dream of You

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O’Faolain, Nuala. My Dream of You. Read by Dearbhla Molloy. Hampton, NH: BBC Audiobooks America, 2002.

Reason read: September is supposedly the best month to visit Ireland.

Irish born Kathleen De Burca has arrived at a crossroads in her life. Nearing fifty she loses her best friend and coworker to a heart attack. As a travel writer, Kathleen has lived in London for nearly thirty years and has never married or had children. Jimmy was the closest person she could call family. But, when she is presented with the lifetime achievement award she was supposed to share with her best friend she realizes there is more to life than travel miles and exotic venues. Why not go home to Ireland? Why not research a century old crime that has long fascinated her?
So begins Kathleen’s story. Her past is as complicated as her future is a blank slate. Giving up everything, she lays herself bare to the tragedies of the past; remembrances of long ago transgressions; all the cringe-worthy scars of yesterday. But, as she says on page 408, “Tragedies end.” And so they do. Kathleen learns to pick up the pieces and face the black slate of tomorrow with a different kind of courage than it took in order to come home.
As an aside, I felt the ending gave O’Faolain room for a sequel. Just saying.

Quotes I fell in love with, “I envied her both the Alzheimer’s and the caring husband until I realized that if she had the one she didn’t know she had the other” (p 410), “Happiness keeps you poised, and you do the right thing without effort, whereas you get things wrong when you’re struggling with lack of life” (p 438), and “Either take account of other people from now on, or go back to the bad old days” (p 484). On a personal note, I took a lot from Kathleen’s words. I, too, am a woman who has repeatedly shunned the thrum of humanity, preferring my own seclusions. I, too, need to embrace and take stock of others around me.

Author fact: O’Faolain also wrote a best selling memoir about her life as an Irish woman.

Book trivia: My Dream of You is O’Faolain’s first novel.

Narrator fact: Dearbhla Molloy won an Audio Award for the abridged narration of My Dream of You.

Nancy said: My Dream of You is “a good novel set in Ireland” (p 126). She also said it is a first novel she was “delighted to have read” (p 89).

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust twice. First, in the chapter called “First Novels” (p 88) and again in “Irish Fiction” (p 125). Also, in Book Lust To Go in the chapter appropriately called “Ireland: Beyond Joyce, Behan, Beckett and Synge” (p 111).

Passions Spin the Plot

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Fisher, Vardis. Passions Spin the Plot. Caldwell, Idaho: The Caxton Printers, Ldt., 1934.

Reason read: to continue the series started in August.

From the very first sentence of Passions Spin the Plot I had a certain dread about reading this. As you may recall, I got sick of how whiny Vridar was in In Tragic Life. (Although I should have known better from the title!) So, when I read the very first sentence, “Vridar felt sick and lost” (page 13) I knew I was in for more of the same. Every thing about Vridar is very dramatic. He has bouts of hot grief, he is insecure, he feels very sheltered, guilty and lonely. The one connection I felt early on with Vridar was his love for libraries. Like me, Vridar found sanctuary amidst the books.
But, anyway! About the plot: Passions Spin the Plot continue the Vridar story. At the end of In Tragic Life Vridar was about to set off to college. Passions Spin the Plot picks up with Vridar at college in Salt Lake City. He finally makes a friend who becomes a partner in crime, so to speak. Vridar demonstrates he has a lot to learn especially about fashion and women in the “real” world so this new friend tries to guide him in the ways of dating. But, all in all Vridar is an odd duck. His childhood love for Neloa continues to be obsessive and yet his high morals cause him angst when he hears she sees other men. He hates her. He loves her. He hates her. He loves her. He comes across as high and mighty, very self-righteous but he himself is not all that pure during these college days.

Favorite lines, “She was as chaste as a June morning and as unapproachable as the philosophy of Kant” (p 47) and “A lot of men wasted themselves on love” (p 154). A favorite phrase was “vomit of rage”. I think I’ll use that the next time I am mad enough to spit nails.

Author fact: Since Vardis’s passion for Neloa is the focus for this book the author fact is that Fisher married three times. His first marriage only lasted seven years.

Book trivia: Passions Spin the Plot is the second book in a four-book series.

Nancy said: nothing specific about Passions.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Idaho: and Nary a Potato To Be Seen” (p 121).

Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax

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Gilman, Dorothy. The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax. New York: Fawcett Books, 1966.

Reason read: September 10th is National Grandparents Day. In an odd twist of ironies, I am connected to someone who just killed his grandparents this weekend. I am in a state of shock.

Mrs. Pollifax is a bored, retired widow looking for excitement. So, what does she do? She takes a trip to Washington D.C. and inserts herself as a spy for the CIA. It’s really quite simple. They need an unassuming, nondescript individual to pick up a package in Mexico City and Mrs. Pollifax has nothing better to do but volunteer. What starts off as an innocent vacation turns dramatic when the package isn’t there and Mrs. Pollifax goes missing. It’s a hard-to-believe tale but one thing is for sure, Mrs. Pollifax is definitely unexpected. You will fall in love with her immediately.

Author fact: Gilman died on my birthday at the age of 88 years old.

Book trivia: Each installment of the The Mrs. Pollifax series takes place in a different foreign country. The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax takes place in Mexico City, Mexico and an unknown location in Albania.

Nancy said: if you are planning a trip to Albania the perfect accompaniment for the trip is The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax (p 12).

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the ever so simple chapter called, what else? “Albania” (p 12).

Tender is the Night

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Fitzgerald, F. Scott. Tender is the Night. Read by George Guidall. Prince Frederick, MD: Recorded Books, 1996.

Reason read: F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in September…

How many people remember this from their English lit days? Tender is the Night is a study in the push-pull of relationships at their strongest and weakest. Dick Diver is a wealthy psychiatrist who falls for the mentally unstable Nicole Warren. A doctor marrying a patient begins as a dance between crazy and sane. Both are wealthy, society driven people with magnetic, charming personalities. The French Riviera serves as the backdrop and Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Murphy serve as the inspiration for the the first half of Tender is the Night. Zurich, Switzerland and Fitzgerald’s relationship with his mentally ill wife, Zelda, help finish the rest of the story. Overall, it is a tragic display of how mental illness infects like a contagion, bringing down even the most solid of minds.

Lines I liked, “He had long been outside the world of simple desires and their fulfillments, and he was inept and uncertain” (p 206) and “Well, you never knew exactly how much space you occupied in people’s lives” (p 211).

Author fact: Fitzgerald was a Princeton graduate.

Book trivia: Tender is the Night bombed commercially. Just goes to show you, you can’t judge a book by its sales. It’s now considered Fitzgerald’s masterpiece. Another piece of trivia: Tender is the Night was made into a 1962 film starring Jason Robards (who played Heidi’s grandfather in a much later movie).

Nancy said: Tender is the Night needs to be read with Everybody Was So Young by Amanda Vaill and Living well is the Best Revenge by Calvin Tomkins.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the previously mentioned chapter called “Companion Reads” (p 45).

Boat Runner

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Murphy, Devin. The Boat Runner. New York: Harper Perennial, 2017.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing, this is the September book awarded to me.

Told from the first person perspective of fourteen year old Jacob Koopman. He lives in a Dutch town during the early stages of World War II with his artistic older brother, Edwin, light bulb manufacturer father and musician mother, Drika. His father, in an attempt to build better relations with the Germans for their Volkswagon business, sends Jacob and Edwin to an SS training camp where they learn different aspects of warfare through fun and games. It seemed innocent enough until all hell breaks loose. It starts with a forbidding crack. Suddenly their quiet town is overrun with soldiers imposing curfews and taking over Father Koopman’s factory, then Edwin goes missing and Uncle Martin starts running ammunition and supplies for the Germans. When the Allied bombs begin to fall Jacob’s life changes forever. This is a tragic story of loyalty and survival; of doing whatever it takes to take your next breath.
I thoroughly enjoyed Murphy’s style of writing. There were certain angular sentences that really stuck out to me. You couldn’t help but catch your breath on their sharp corners. I still have scars…

Word of warning: do not read this right before bed. I had vivid dreams of war and some reason World War III was being fought against Darth Vadar. I was on a small pleasure boat somewhere off the Caribbean with his son…
As an aside, this is the first fiction I have received from the Early Review program in a really long time. I’m glad that I received it even though it is a truly tragic book.

Back to School September

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September starts out with sunny skies and a promise of a return to normalcy. What is “normal” anyway? I’m hoping to run without pain (have a whopping 72 miles scheduled). I’m also hoping to get back on track with the reading:

Fiction:

  • Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald –  in honor of F Scott Fitzgerald’s birth month.

Nonfiction:

  • O Jerusalem! by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre
  • Burton and Speke by William Harrison – in honor of September being Curiosity Month (and isn’t that what exploring as all about, being curious?)
  • Living Well is the Best Revenge by Calvin Tomkins – in honor of F Scott Fitzgerald’s birth month (& the reading of Tender is the Night)
  • Everybody was So Young by Amanda Vaill – in honor of F Scott Fitzgerald’s birth month (& the reading of Tender is the Night)

Series Continuation:

  • Passion Spins the Plot by Vardis Fisher – to continue the series started in August in honor of the day Butch Cassidy robbed a bank in Idaho.

Early Review for LibraryThing:

  • The Boat Runner by Devin Murphy (the first fiction I have received in a long time!)

August Awakenings

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What can I tell you about August? I still have moments of wanting to hurl myself off a cliff. But, but. But! The good news is, by default, that recklessness has made me shed my fear of flying, ants, and flying ants. I went zip lining in Alaska and found myself the first to volunteer; literally throwing myself off every platform.
I was forced to dedicate more time to the run while I punished myself with late-read books from July. As a result of all that, August’s mileage was decent considering 10 days were spent traveling (25 – the most since April) while the reading list was a little lackluster:

Fiction:

  • Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein (AB left over from July)
  • In Tragic Life by Vardis Fisher – such a sad book!

Nonfiction:

  • Hawthorne: a Life by Brenda Wineapple (left over from July)
  • Miami by Joan Didion

Series Continuations:

  • The Eagle Has Flown by Jack Higgins
  • Henry James: the Middle Years by Leon Edel (left over from JUNE)

Early Review:

  • Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color by Andrea J. Ritchie

For Fun:

  • Pharos Gate by Nick Bantock – I know, I know. I shouldn’t be reading anything for fun while I had so many July books still on my plate. This took me all over an hour to read and besides, Bantock is one of my favorites. How could I not?

In Tragic Life

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Fisher, Vardis. In Tragic Life. Caldwell, Idaho: The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1932.

Reason read: Originally, I chose it for July for when Idaho became a state. However, the book took so long in getting to me that I decided to still read it even though July is long gone. I found a new reason to read In Tragic Life: Butch Cassidy robbed an Idaho bank in August 1896. In Tragic Life starts roughly around that same time.

Vridar Hunter is a young boy growing up in rural Idaho. Wait, isn’t all of Idaho untamed wilderness? Just kidding. Anyway, In Tragic Life details young Vridar’s coming of age into his teenage years. Poverty, education, family & schoolboy crushes are the focus at this time. Confessional: I thought Vridar was a little whiny in the beginning. He was constantly in terror or frightened over something. He was afraid of nearly everything – the dark, his father’s hands, nature, night, himself. Vridar had paralyzing fear, blinding fear and was haunted or desperately afraid. All the time. But, in reality that fear was founded. The “tragic” in In Tragic Life is truly justified. If Vridar wasn’t watching animals die in horrific ways he was being verbally abused by his family. If that wasn’t enough, when he finally went to school he was bullied on a consistent and continual basis. He never has any close friends. His only companions seem to be his brother and the kids he beat up previously. Parts of In Tragic Life were very painful to read, especially the cruelty, particularly towards animals.

Author fact: Fisher was born, raised and died in Idaho.

Book trivia: In Tragic Life is the first in the tetralogy.

Nancy said: I shudder if this is true, but Pearl called In Tragic Life “sprawling autobiographical” (p 122).

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Idaho: and Nary a Potato to be Seen” (p 121).