Category: Stu’s Reviews

Genre: Book/Stories

Grade: B

Notable People: T. Coraghessan Boyle

Title: The Relive Box and Other Stories

Review: Several years ago I noted in a review that T. C. Boyle was one of our finest writers of short stories after reading several such volumes. I am somewhat perplexed by this set of stories. Boyle has always been one our darkest and most brooding writers (check out his picture which looks like a sort of psychopath from a David Lynch film)….but this set is way too dark and too brooding even for me. The title story is a gem as are few others- but some of them are so despairing I had trouble finishing them. Boyle lives with monsters and with extremely desperate people who make one bad decision after another…nobody has relationships in these stories. They are very well written..…the man knows how to compose….but too little heart for me.

Genre: Book

Grade: A-

Notable People: Annie Proulx

Title: That Old Ace in the Hole

Review: This one was a real shocker-an extraordinary departure form Proulx’ previous stories and novels (“The Shipping News, “Postcards”) that I have read. She has now take her writing imagination from the northeast and Canadian sea coasts to the Panhandle of West Texas for quite the story about a culture most of us know nothing about. There’s a lot to this book- funny, complicated and moving all at the same time….in some ways the story of a young man trying to find himself; in other ways about the corporate annihilation of our lands (vis a vis big agribusiness hog farming). There are truly wonderful characters here and a portrayal of a remote, dusty, often forsaken land and culture that has somehow survived for centuries….with a touch, taste, feel and smell all its own. If you have not ever read Proulx- better to pick up the “Shipping News” but this slow moving, meandering (sometimes disjointed book) is well worth the effort.

Genre: Book

Grade: A-

Notable People: Jon Talton

Title: The Concrete Desert

Review: I read one of Talton’s David Mapstone series a few months ago and was only moderately intrigued, but decided to go back and start at the beginning; always the right idea with serial novels. This is Talton’s first novel from 1991 in which he introduces the sometimes college history professor and sometimes deputy sheriff…..and it is a barn burner. Mapstone’s boss and confidente, Mike Peralta, is a character for the ages and the descriptions of the Phoenix heat make you want to jump in a pool. Talton is fourth generation Arizonan and knows the desert inside and out, as well as the extraordinary change of The Valley from a small town unencumbered to mega-city for the retired and wealthy. I’ll be heading out to get the next one right away.

Genre: Book

Grade: B/B+

Notable People: Reed Farrell Coleman

Title: Walking the Perfect Square

Review: Coleman is new one for me…one of many on my annual list from my friend and mentor on all things literature- Neil Berman. This was a good read, though maybe not as stimulating as some of the other hard boiled urban detective type series he has guided me to. Coleman’s protagonist, Moe Prager, is a recently retired (because of knee injury) NYC cop in the late 70s. He is Jewish (significant), self-effacing and really aimless….until he gets pulled into a high level political stakes drama. Well written with a very real feel of the city in the late 70s with lots of timely cultural references ( CBGBs, Son of Sam, etc.) I got lostt at times in the chronology of the story, which occasionally moved forward to the late 90s…but enjoyed the read and will try more of the series.

Genre: Book

Grade: B+

Notable People: Taylor Brown

Title: Gods of Howl Mountain

Review: Interesting first novel I took a lark on. Set in the hollers of North Carolina after the Korean war, it is an astute portrayal of the moonshine culture and the poverty and lawlessness associated with it. There is a grandmother- healer- witch woman charter for the ages and a well woven story. The characters, in general, seemed a bit stereotypical to me and I tired of the “picking up serpents” religious stuff…but an engaging and pretty quick read if you have interest in all things Appalachian.

Genre: Book

Grade: B

Notable People: Anne Enright

Title: The Gatherings

Review: found this one in the community library’s junk pile and took a chance. VERY tough read. Not badly written, but very slow and laborious. I wanted to stop, but too stubborn. Rural Ireland story told by a sister after the mysterious death of her younger brother…a tortured lad all his life. They were two of 12 siblings and the story goes back and forth to the time of the grandmother, and their growing up and the present. A LOT of anguish, with not much redeeming about the characters. Hard lives, broken promise, incest and a family that more or less hates each other. A lot of sex and religion underneath…well, I got through it. aye?

Genre: Book

Grade: A

Notable People: C.J. Box

Title: The Disappeared

Review: This is the most recent of Box’s Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett series….and after 15 years of these, the best to date. If you like The West, Falconry, government conspiracies, wild and wooly characters, and great descriptions of Wyoming……plus magnificent yarns…these books are for you. Read it in a whirlwind.

Genre: Book

Grade: A-

Notable People: Philip Kerr

Title: Greeks Bearing Gifts

Review: This is the most recent in Kerr’s very long running Bernie Gunther series. The books started taking place in Pre-War Berlin in 1939 and have now followed reluctant Nazi Bernie, through much sturm and drang, to 1957, where he finds himself acting as a pseudo insurance adjuster first in Munich and then in Athens. Kerr’s’ books are historically vivid and rich with characters and story lines and this one is no exception. I was captivated by the mostly true story until I thought it fizzled out a bit at the end…seeming less plausible after being so dead on for 500 pages. But, I’ll line up for the next one anyway.

Genre: Book

Grade: B+/B

Notable People: Bill Bryson

Title: Neither Here Nor There

Review: I was so smitten by Bryson’s “A Walk in the Woods” that I got three more Bryson books from the local library (they have a lot of them- apparently he is more popular than I realized-especially in Vermont- since he lives in Dartmouth, NH area). Frankly, it was a disappointment. Bryson is witty and acerbic-and a great social and political commentator in his travels….but it got kind of thin the second time around-for me. This one is his 1992 reprise of a back packing trip across Europe that he had previously taken in 1972 The reminiscences about the earlier trip were much more enjoyable to me- partially because they included the great irascible Katz sidekick character- and partially because I too backpacked Europe in 1972 and there were very familiar signs of the times. Katz being missing took a lot away from this book, I thought….and the jokes became over familiar. Still, he is quite the unique travel writer…but I think I’ve had my share for a while As an aside, the film version of “A Walk in the Woods” is available on Amazon Prime, and though not as rich as the book, Nick Nolte is gem as the bedraggled Katz…though Robert Redford as Bryson seemed like a stretch.