Amagansett

I was reminded of John Dunning's Two O'Clock Eastern Wartime when I read Mark Mills' period mystery set on the south fork of Long Island right after WWII ( Also published under the title The Whaleboat House). Place is richly drawn and the history of the area and the cultures are well-researched and handed out in digestible chunks. Son of a Basque fisherman, Conrad Labarde, immigrated to this country when a child, and continues the tradition of fishing for a living. When the book opens, his catch includes the body of a beautiful and wealthy young woman, who we eventually learn was Conrad's love and lover. So we are introduced to the class wars that prevail between the rich (the "summer people") and...just about everyone else, but especially the locals.  Although the death is apparently a drowning in treacherous currents, both Conrad and the Deputy Chief of police, Tom Hollis, find it odd that the woman, Lillian Wallace, was wearing pearl earrings for her swim. Independently, they undertake to find out who killed her and why. Hollis is hampered by being new to the area and by having a lazy and corrupt boss; he must undertake the investigation without really seeming to, and without ruffling the feathers of her wealthy family, who we come to suspect pretty quickly are involved in Lillian's death. Conrad is hampered by being a local who had a secret and unacceptable affair with a wealthy woman, and by a past that haunts him. His war experience involved working behind enemy lines in a special forces unit, so he is not your ordinary fisherman, and eventually he stages the drama that will reveal those responsible for the murder. There are many additional characters of note who are also well-developed and intriguing: Conrad's fishing partner Rollo Kemp, Hollis' friend and local photographer Abel, Hollis's love interest Mary,  the wealthy Wallaces and their "fix-it" man, and the local fishing family scions. You will not regret reading this book--in fact, I'm tempted to sit down and read it again! Fortunately, Mills already has 3 other books published, so I may read those first ;-)

The Darling

I have not read any other novels by Russel Banks, so I wasn't going on reputation; either my pal Anne Zald or I picked this up at ALA Midwinter and it rose to the top of my reading pile this summer. It was challenging to start but eventually so compelling that I had to finish. It is set largely in Liberia between 1975 and 1991, with some portions set in New England prior to that, and in upstate New York 10 years after that period. The plot is incredibly complicated, but revolves mainly around Hannah Musgrave, who was raised by a liberal white family, and left medical school to become a political radical. Her activities resulted in her having to go underground and assume a new name, and eventually events required her to leave the country--or so she thought. Because of her medical training, she was always able to find low level lab work and eventually she ended up in Liberia, when Tolbert is president, and marries a minor government minister, Woodrow Sundiata. She bears him three sons and becomes the opposite of what she been heretofore; where she was outspoken, opinionated and independent, now she is nearly silent and directionless. Some of this is no doubt due to finding herself part of a tiny minority of whites in a country ruled by one corrupt government after another. The CIA, Russia and anyone else interested in the diamonds and other resources of this tiny West African nation are constantly bribing and pulling strings and the ordinary people as always suffer; while those at the top become abusive in their power. Tolbert is assassinated in 1980 and succeeded by Samuel Doe, who is in turn murdered by Charles Taylor's rebels 10 years later. (I found a brief chronology here.) Although her husband survives the first coup, he does not survive the 2nd and we know early on in the book that he is dead. We also know that she abandoned her sons and a sanctuary she had created for chimps, and came back to America to buy and run a farm in the Adirondacks. What we don't know initially is why and how these things happened and that is what keeps you coming back. I was reminded of the award winning movie, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, about a group of women who finally put a stop to the killing under Taylor's regime. The incredible cruelty and violence --to men, women, children and animals--simply sets me back on my heels. The NYT Review describes the protagonist in this way, "Banks takes the risk of evoking the kind of woman whose love for animals is more passionate than her love for humans -- including her children. But he succeeds in making Hannah sympathetic, if not always likable." I couldn't agree more.

Portraits of Creative Aging

As I approach my 60th birthday and hopefully a not-too-distant retirement from my current job, I can't help but wonder, "What comes next?" This book by Joan Kadri Zald (the sociologist aunt of my colleague Anne Zald) is a collection of interviews with people who have retired and gone on to new careers, expanded interests and hobbies, and/or social activism. They inspire the reader with multiple examples of finding tremendous satisfaction in service to others, pursuing previously unfulfilled passions, or finding new directions altogether.  She sought to represent elders from ages 60-90's, of various cultures/ethnicities and geographic bases. A concluding chapter pulls together her observations about what characteristics these folks have in common: "passion and commitment...for the activities in which they were engaged" (p.221), meaningful and important endeavors that added "excitement and zest to their lives" (p.221). There were also some necessary preconditions: financial security, freedom from a full-time caregiving role, social connections, maintenance of cognitive and physical functioning. Their paths and undertakings are diverse and there is a lot here to chew on...I recommend it for all my fellow agers.

The Midnight Palace

Another YA novel from Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Midnight Palace did not engage me to the degree that The Prince of Mists or Shadow of the Wind did. As always, Zafón does an excellent job of capturing and conveying atmosphere and setting, this time of Calcutta, India in 1932. But the characters are not as well developed or engaging, and the plot feels more labored with a Star Wars revelation of paternity in the end that was somewhat predictable and not very satisfying. The protagonists are all just turning 16 years old, a time when they must leave the haven of St. Patrick's orphanage; these seven (6 boys and a girl) have bonded as friends and formed a secret club they call the Chowbar Society that meets periodically in an abandoned mansion--their "midnight palace." The leader of this group, Ben, is reunited with his heretofore unknown twin sister when their grandmother, Aryami Bose, returns to warn Father Carter that Ben is in danger from a mysterious man who wants to kill the twins. This threat, which began with the murder of the twins' parents, was the reason the infant Ben was left at the orphanage and Aryami fled with the other twin, Sheere, in 1916. Sheere is made an honorary member of the Chowbar Society and the group agrees to help the twins get to the bottom of the mystery and defeat the evil man who seems able to materialize at will in his quest to destroy them. The story is told as a sort of memoir by one of the original group of orphans, and closes in modern times with a post-scripted update on the fate of the other members of the Chowbar Society.