The Separation (Christopher Priest)
Another swing-and-a-miss historical fiction novel from a genre I'm having no luck with recently. I made it to page 100 hoping that this book's setting would be enough to carry it (World War II ended in 1941, when Rudolph Hess' crazed peace mission was successful). Unfortunately, the book itself is just deadly dull. Weather it's the author's dry writing style or the too-long coverage he gives of two brothers going to Germany to row in the Olympics, I don't know, but this book is a heck of a slog. Even reading about what should be an exciting bomber run one of the brothers makes had me skipping pages after a while. Skip this one.
Grade: D
Monday, June 20, 2016
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
Kalki
Kalki (Gore Vidal)
A book that is, unfortunately for me, simply far too of-its-time - this book is so 70's it hurts, and having missed that decade, I could almost feel my hair getting rustled as most of the book flew straight over my head. I've really enjoyed some of Vidal's historical novels before, and I think perhaps I'm going to stick to those in the future.
Grade: N/A
Monday, June 13, 2016
Resurrection Day
Resurrection Day (Brendan DuBois)
Ooooh, I did not like this book. The setting is interesting - it's the 1970s, and America is still reeling after a nuclear exchange during the Cuban Missile Crisis. In this world, the US got hit by enough nukes to destroy Washington DC, NYC, Florida, and, um, Omaha, Nebraska, losing 10 -12 million people, while the USSR was completely destroyed in return.
The problem is the execution. There's a passage I just couldn't get past where our hero is explaining to a Brit that America feels guilty, comparing the nuclear exchange to when a neighborhood bully throws trash into your yard and in return you shoot him, murder his family and burn his house down. My problem here is that the person saying this had his entire family killed in the incident he describes as "throwing trash in your yard". On top of that, a big part of his character is that he was in the Army doing radiation cleanup and saw horrible things that haunt him to this day. So would he be comparing all of his family dying and the haunting, terrible aftermath that makes up his largest character trait as throwing trash in someone's yard? What?
One more complaint and I'm done. The author hints that England is getting ready to invade the US, taking advantage of the US' weakness even 10 years on after the bombs and missiles fell. However, the author also states that the US is now the only nuclear power left in the world, with all the other countries having voluntarily given up their nukes. I couldn't get past this either: England is going to militarily challenge and attempt to invade the world's only nuclear power? What?
(To be fair, maybe the Brits have some counter measure, like they secretly have their own nukes - but the author attempts to build tension by hinting at this invasion, and since he does not address the nuke issue, this comes off as a damp squib and frankly a waste of pages.)
Take a pass on this one.
Grade: D-
Ooooh, I did not like this book. The setting is interesting - it's the 1970s, and America is still reeling after a nuclear exchange during the Cuban Missile Crisis. In this world, the US got hit by enough nukes to destroy Washington DC, NYC, Florida, and, um, Omaha, Nebraska, losing 10 -12 million people, while the USSR was completely destroyed in return.
The problem is the execution. There's a passage I just couldn't get past where our hero is explaining to a Brit that America feels guilty, comparing the nuclear exchange to when a neighborhood bully throws trash into your yard and in return you shoot him, murder his family and burn his house down. My problem here is that the person saying this had his entire family killed in the incident he describes as "throwing trash in your yard". On top of that, a big part of his character is that he was in the Army doing radiation cleanup and saw horrible things that haunt him to this day. So would he be comparing all of his family dying and the haunting, terrible aftermath that makes up his largest character trait as throwing trash in someone's yard? What?
One more complaint and I'm done. The author hints that England is getting ready to invade the US, taking advantage of the US' weakness even 10 years on after the bombs and missiles fell. However, the author also states that the US is now the only nuclear power left in the world, with all the other countries having voluntarily given up their nukes. I couldn't get past this either: England is going to militarily challenge and attempt to invade the world's only nuclear power? What?
(To be fair, maybe the Brits have some counter measure, like they secretly have their own nukes - but the author attempts to build tension by hinting at this invasion, and since he does not address the nuke issue, this comes off as a damp squib and frankly a waste of pages.)
Take a pass on this one.
Grade: D-
Friday, June 10, 2016
Hitler at Home
Hitler at Home (Despina Stratigakos)
I got this book as a gift, and I'm glad I did as it's the kind of thing I would never pick for myself, but ended up enjoying quite a bit. The author explores Hitler's, uh, homes, using this as a base to explore the difference between the way Hitler really lived and the image that was projected in propaganda. This is really interesting stuff, and the only complaint I have is that reading about chumps like Hitler decorating their palaces with stolen art can really get your blood boiling. (Of course, on the other hand, reading about all of his chalets and hideouts getting bombed into the ground, looted, and paved over is good for a giggle.) I'd recommend this to anyone, even people with WW2 fatigue - the subject matter is so off the beaten path I couldn't help but be interested.
My one caveat is that if you, like me, take your books out to read while you're eating, you might want to take the dust jacket off this one; fellow guests at TGI Fridays aimed a couple hard stares at me while reading this.
Grade: A-
I got this book as a gift, and I'm glad I did as it's the kind of thing I would never pick for myself, but ended up enjoying quite a bit. The author explores Hitler's, uh, homes, using this as a base to explore the difference between the way Hitler really lived and the image that was projected in propaganda. This is really interesting stuff, and the only complaint I have is that reading about chumps like Hitler decorating their palaces with stolen art can really get your blood boiling. (Of course, on the other hand, reading about all of his chalets and hideouts getting bombed into the ground, looted, and paved over is good for a giggle.) I'd recommend this to anyone, even people with WW2 fatigue - the subject matter is so off the beaten path I couldn't help but be interested.
My one caveat is that if you, like me, take your books out to read while you're eating, you might want to take the dust jacket off this one; fellow guests at TGI Fridays aimed a couple hard stares at me while reading this.
Grade: A-
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