Hergé: Tintin: The 7 Crystal Balls; Prisoners of the Sun

     Hergé: Tintin: The 7 Crystal Balls; Prisoners of the Sun. Seven crystal balls explode and put seven explorers into deep comas. Tintin and Capt. Haddock set out to solve the mystery, and find it in a remnant group of ancient Incas in Peru, who jealously guard the ancient religion and customs. The explorers had desecrated holy sites in the pursuit of archeological knowledge.
     Well, I didn’t like Tintin much when I was a kid, and I don’t like him much better now. Hergé allows himself the most awful errors, such as a brown bear in the middle of a Peruvian jungle. The errors show the more because Hergé otherwise includes accurate depictions of local artefacts and clothing, and flora and fauna. His characterisation is of the most primitive kind, consisting mostly of caricaturing draughtsmanship and tics of speech whose first mild charm soon begins to grate. His crude humour contrasts with his subtle wit, to the credit of neither. I think he hasn’t made up his mind whether he’s writing fantasy or adventure stories, nor is he clear about his intended audience: children (mostly boys), or adults?. He does move the story right along, so that one keeps reading just to find out what will happen next; but that sense of narrative is his only virtue. A collaborator might have helped him develop his ideas into well structured and characterised tales. But when he was writing, the graphic novel was still seen as a merely a longer comic strip. Very few people took it seriously, perhaps not even Hergé himself. *½ (2006)

Fay Weldon. Polaris and Other Stories (1985)

     Fay Weldon. Polaris and Other Stories (1985) Weldon’s stories are generally depressing slices of suburban women’s lives. Chick lit in the 70s and 80s focussed on how men messed up marriage and in general done women wrong. Weldon’s observation of human weaknesses, those so-called minor vices that too often cause major damage, is sharp and accurate. But the gloomy tone wears after a while, and counters the pleasures of reading a skillful writer. ** (2006)

Alison Baird. The Dragon’s Egg (1994)

     Alison Baird. The Dragon’s Egg (1994) Baird has a nice idea, but her sense of narrative is weak. Mr Lien returns from China with a present for his daughter Ai: a rock he picked up on the shore of the Yangtze River. It is in fact a dragon’s egg, and when it hatches, Ai has a friend to help her overcome the sad feelings caused by a bully at school. The dragon, Ling Tau, is the eldest son of the King of Dragons. When he reaches maturity, he takes her to his palace under the waters of the Yangtze, where she is suitably rewarded; and the dragons will be her friends for the rest of her life. Dragons can shape-change, as well as command the weather, etc, so there is opportunity for a good deal of poetic justice. The grownups of course refuse to believe that Ai’s friend is real, but that just helps him hide his true nature. Baird’s dialogue is good, but she doesn’t use it often; she tells too much, and doesn’t show enough. Still, a nice story for the tweenagers. Bria (11) liked it. ** (2006)

John Greenwood. Murder, Mr. Mosley (1983)

     John Greenwood. Murder, Mr. Mosley (1983) Mosley is one of those seemingly bumbling ‘tecs who manage to accomplish a good deal more than their more up-to-date, always-active, and ambitious colleagues. He not only solves the murder of the Brenda Thwaites, village hoyden returned to her home after many years absence; he also gives his colleague the evidence and pointers needed to bring another villain to justice. The murder itself was motivated by that most pathetic of motives, the desire for respectability. But Brenda was mixed up with a bent lawyer, so Mosley gets the goods in him too. Sergeant Beamish, one of those young fellas who knows better than his elders, becomes a loyal disciple of Mosley’s roundabout methods. This looks like the beginning of a promising series, but I haven’t found anything else about Mosley or Greenwood. **½ (2006)

Gary Larson. The Pre-History of The Far Side (1989)

     Gary Larson. The Pre-History of The Far Side (1989) Larson tells and explains the development of his cartoons. He’s not quite as weird as his drawings and their subject matter suggest, but he comes close. Like all true artists, technique and style matter to him as much as content. I doubt that this book will interest others than Far Side aficionados and graduate students, but for them this will be a treasure and a pleasure. *** (2006)

Colin Watson. Bump in the Night (1960)

     Colin Watson. Bump in the Night (1960) A number of explosions eventually result in a death. Insp. Purbright is dispatched to sort out the clues, which he does with the reluctant help of the local man, Insp. Larch, whose marriage to a Councillor’s daughter has placed him a little too close to the action. Well plotted, nicely characterised, but uncertain about its focus: detective story or social comedy? This was Watson’s second book; I don’t know whether the series developed any further, but it would work well on TV. ** (2006)

Bharati Mukherjee. Darkness (1985)

    Bharati Mukherjee. Darkness (1985) Mukherjee has developed into a moderately successful but undervalued writer. This collection shows her early work, before she achieved renown and success. The stories are uniformly depressing and sad, occasionally brutal in their depiction of the difficulties of immigrants attempting to adapt and assimilate into their new culture, and their inevitable failures. These are bad enough for European immigrants, much worse for Indians, especially the upper caste Indians that make up the bulk of the Indian immigrants to America. The burden of class consciousness merely exacerbates the problem of becoming an ordinary American or Canadian. A couple of the stories deal with an Indian woman married to a white man; one wonders whether these reflect or refract Mukherjee’s experience as the wife of Clarke Blaise, a writer much overrated by himself.
     A good book, but a depressing one. **½ (2006)