P. D. James. Original Sin (1994)

     P. D. James. Original Sin (1994) I’d seen the video version of this novel, but never read it, in fact, it wasn’t on my shelves. Fay gave it to me when we visited in July, and I started reading it in Camrose. It lasted all our visit, and the flight home, and a couple of days after that. A big, fat book, with lots of digressions and back stories. The plot is simple: an ancient grudge results in murders that the perpetrator sees as doing justice. Dalgleish, Miskin, and Aaron assemble the clues, but they don’t have a case until the very end. However, the murderer spares them the inconvenience of a difficult trial.
     James was a very good writer. Her narrator  engages one’s sympathies for all the characters, and can convey the ambience of a place or a room. By the time she wrote this book, her publishers and her fans were willing to accept whatever she gave them, no matter how irrelevant or tangential to the plot. She created a world that the reader feels at home in, even when horror and evil stalk through it. Like Austen (whom she admired), James focussed on what she knew. The landscapes and cityscapes feel real. Her characters have the same mystery as real people; no matter how much we know of their thoughts and feelings, there is an unreachable core. The effect is that despite the detail James provides, there is a distancing from the story: we observe it, we don’t live it. Paradoxically perhaps, this deepens understanding. ***

Tanith Lee. Delusion’s Master (1981)

 
Tanith Lee. Delusion’s Master (1981) Well written ‘adult’ fantasy, but it palls after a while. The Gods are indifferent to humans, the Demons care about them, but are offended when humans reject them. Lee riffs on Babel and holy cities and priests etc. All very visual, in a graphic novel sort of way. The book would probably have worked better as graphic novel, actually.

     The language is lush, it echoes the quasi-archaic styles that seem to be de rigeur for these efforts. Problem is, after the Prologue there are no characters. Humans are unnamed, but despite being given names, Chuz and other demons are mere figures in a landscape. The landscape and figures shapeshift, everything is described as occurring on an epic scale, and eventually I surfeited. Rich language, dream-like plotting, fantastic imagery aren’t enough. I want to care about the characters one way or another. In this book, only the Prologue, a terrifying story of lust and love and murder and vengeance and lethal ambition, does this. In later books, Lee does give us characters we care about, we want them to succeed or fail, but not here.

     I stopped reading about halfway through. Those who like this genre will no doubt rate the book much higher than I do. *½

Peter Robinson. A Necessary End (1989)

     Peter Robinson. A Necessary End (1989) During a demonstration against nuclear power, a policeman is murdered. Because of possible political motives, Burgess, a superintendent, is dispatched from the Met to take over the case. This puts Banks at a disadvantage, especially when he suggests that the murder may have been targeted. Burgess, a nicely drawn bigot and bully, refuses to take up this line of inquiry. Banks has a lucky break: one of the dead coppers work mates passes on information about his sadistic behaviour towards demonstrators of all kinds. Banks’s hunch proves accurate, but much unnecessary harm is done before the perpetrator suicides, and Banks discovers that it was indeed a targeted killing, and the pain will continue even after the case is officially closed.
    This is the second Inspector Banks novel. I’ll be looking for more, although I doubt I’ll be able to read them in order of writing. We care about his characters one way or another, and if we ever needed a lesson on the differences between law and justice, his books will provide them. Recommended. **½

Keith DiSantis. Sax in the Sand

     Keith DiSantis. Sax in the Sand With Dean Schneider (piano), Andy Lalasis (bass) and Clarissa Joy (vocals). Self-published CD ca. 2012. I first heard DiSantis at Niobe’s renewal of vows celebration, then a few days later on New Year’s Eve at a restaurant in Port Isabella, Texas. DiSantis is a skilled sax player, who knows how to make his instrument do exactly what he wants it to do. He and his sidesmen have played together many times, they know each other’s styles, and listen to each other. The result is a disk of standards that’s a pleasure to listen to. DiSantis doesn’t mark out any new ground, he just gives you lovely renditions of music you already know. A few of the eleven titles:  Lullaby of Birdland, the Girl From Ipanema, Misty, All the Things You Are. The cuts are longer than the 3-minute radio standard, you get about an hour of music. Recommended, if you can find it. Hang around Brownsville and Padre island, or look him up. He teaches at Los Fresnos High School. ***

Jane Johnson et al. Toasts & Quotes (2009)

     Jane Johnson et al. Toasts & Quotes (2009) Over 2,000 quotes and proverbs about all manner of subjects. Some of the attributions are suspect, but as far as I can tell, at least 99% are accurate. Reading such a compilation over several days leaves one with a funny buzz in the brain: most of the epigrams are witty, but the wit is often dark. Humour is not the aim, insight is.
     A few quotes at random:
Writing free verse is like playing tennis without a net. (Robert Frost)
The White House is the finest jail in the world. (Harry Truman)
It is only when they are wrong that machines remind you how powerful they can be. (Clive James)
Sex is like pizza. Even when it’s bad, it’s still pretty good. (Helen Childress)
     An excellent reference work, and fun to read. ***

Louis L’Amour. The Iron Marshal (1979)

     Louis L’Amour. The Iron Marshal (1979) Tom Shanaghy grows up in the criminal section of New York City. A rumble prompts him to flee, and he ends up in a small collection of shacks and barns in the middle of Kansas. The people living there think of it as a town, and they need a marshal, since the current one is more of a crook than a protector. Tom takes on the job despite his desire to take the first train back to east. A cattle rancher who wants to revenge himself for the murder of his brother, a gang of thieves planning to steal the cash and gold coming into town in anticipation of the cattle drive, a wife who wants to double cross them, the family of the previous marshal, and the gear and guns of the marshal that the town was expecting, are the complicating elements of a typical L’Amour plot. All’s well that ends well: the bad guys are caught and/or killed, Tom falls for the cutest girl and decides to stay. Average for L’Amour, in other words, a pretty good entertainment. **½

Uh-oh, NSA is watching me. (Link)

Cory Doctorow did some digging, and found out tht if you read Boing-Boing, NSA considers you a "target" for surveillance. Shades of J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI! More here.

Proof, if one was needed, that the spooks have no sense of irony, humour, the absurd, or anything other than their absurd paranoid fantasies. Follow the link at your peril.