The Book of Illusions

A very smart and well-read friend of mine, Bob Nye, said that Paul Auster was one of his favorite authors because he was able to capture dialogue so well. This came up as part of a ranging conversation about books we had been reading, favorite authors, etc. So I checked into this Auster guy and turns out he has written LOTS of books and that our local public library had lots of them on the shelf. The Book of Illusions is about the disappearance of a silent film comedian, Hector Mann, in the late 1920's and about the academic, who, in contemporary times, took on a critical review of the comedies Mann made. David had recently lost his wife and sons in an airplane crash and was pretty certain he was going to drink himself to death; then one late night, in a drunken stupor, he happened to see a snippet of one of Mann's films on TV and it made him laugh--something he had not done in months and that he thought he would never do again. Having come into insurance money from the deaths of his family members--he was already on leave from his college teaching job--he undertook to find all the silent films Hector Mann ever made and eventually wrote a book about them. Some months after the book's publication, he receives a note in the mail, ostensibly from the wife of the same Hector Mann who was presumed dead all these years. Is it a hoax? There are stories within stories throughout this novel and indeed Auster is a master craftsman at writing. You will never fault him on style or structure and his prose is very readable. But these characters didn't move me in the sense of coming alive or evoking my sympathy or walking off the page. I may give another of Auster's books a try. He is a critically acclaimed author, after all, and I certainly respect my friend's opinion, so I should give him a second chance...not sure which one it should be, though...any recommendations?

Something Red

In spite of rave reviews in a number of sources, this novel by Douglas Nicholas never captured me in the sense of really compelling me to come back and find out what was going to happen next or wanting to know more about the characters. Set in medieval England, we join a small band of travelers, Maeve (aka Molly), her granddaughter Nemain, a adopted apprentice Hob, and Maeve's lover and ex-soldier Jack. Maeve is a healer who is always welcome along the route as her herbs and concoctions can ease pains and cure ills. Jack is strong beyond his appearance. Hob is an orphan taken in from a monastery by this small group. They travel with whatever others they encounter on the road--pilgrims, merchants, etc., but now some horrible beast seems to be dogging their path, killing indiscriminately. Maeve and Nemain also have some witch like powers to see beyond what is right in front of them and they know they are being stalked but can't tell by what. Fear has now become their constant companion. Little do they realize they have themselves already become bewitched and that what appears at first to be an impregnable shelter from the threat without has instead become a trap holding them all captive for the beast who is already within it's walls.  In spite of my lukewarm introduction, however, it was well-written prose with an abundance of historical detail, and for those who like the supernatural, a pleasant enough read.

Dead Ever After

This is it folks, the last of the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. As I have said before, I love the characters in these books and thought the HBO TV series ("True Blood") based on them was just a terrible misrepresentation of characters--at least based on the 2 or 3 I could stand to make myself watch. I have actually "read" all 13 of these books, but mostly via audiobooks, which I highly recommend since the reader has a great southern accent! In this episode, Sookie gets unmarried from vampire lover, Eric, at the insistence of his new boss, the King of Louisiana. Eric was promised by his maker to the Queen of Oklahoma as a consort and is apparently pretty angry that Sookie did not use her magic wish, granted by her faerie kin, to release him from this contract. Rather she raised business partner, boss, and long-time friend Sam from the dead when he was killed in a big showdown between rogue werewolves and the established pack that occurred at the end Deadlocked. There seem to be several creatures out to get Sookie, and if they can't get her by framing her for murder, they may take a more direct route. But Sookie's friends turn out in force to stand up for her in court,  help find the real murderer, and protect her from dark forces. Pretty satisfying ending to the series, although I hate to see them all go, just as I hated to see the end of the Shakespeare series :-(