I just finished Ron Irwin's fine debut novel, Flat Water Tuesday. It's a rowing-team-going-for-glory story set on a New England prep school campus--old buildings, manicured lawns, and boathouse included. I found it to be a predictable clash of the haves and have-nots with edgy, adolescent boys and--to keep things interesting--a tough, green-eyed coxswain named Ruth. If the first few pages didn't tell you it was coming, you'd surmise tragedy was in the works. It's a theme that I've encountered before.
A few years ago I read Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep, which I liked but hardly remember. Forty years ago there was A Separate Peace, the 1959 classic on my high school English teacher's suggested reading list that lots of us tried because it wasn't too long. That book stuck with me, as I think Flat Water Tuesday might. There's an outsider who lands among the privileged and learns to make his way. The journey is never easy and by the end there are big lessons learned and an unsettling fatality.
At first glance Flat Water appealed to me because of the cover. Sometimes we just have to fess up and admit covers grab us and make us read. If I hadn't seen the photograph of rowers skimming over that glassy water I may have passed on this book. But the kayaker in me, the person who loves that serene flat water, seized the book and relished the trip inside the elite 'God Four,' the four-man rowing team with cream-of-the-crop status at Fenton School. The training and try-outs are murderous, and Irwin, who has boarding school and rowing team experience, skillfully puts us inside those damp, foul-smelling rooms with 17-year-old boys--and Ruth with her stopwatch--who sweat and strain and pull and nearly lose consciousness. It's a lot more than callouses on your hands, people. After this book I truly understand the torture of a rowing machine, a close race, and how much vomit an exhausted athlete can produce.
Flat Water's protaganist is working-class sculler Rob Carrey, who's at Fenton on a post-high school scholarship. Carrey will provide the power the Fenton team needs to reclaim the trophy from arch rival Warwick, but Carrey likes to row alone. And if he wants that free ride at Fenton, he's got to join the God Four. No negotiation. Rob's journey from single sculler to team rower, amid the demands of his coach and boatmates, kept me engaged throughout the entire story.
Irwin, however, is giving us Rob Carrey in two parts. He balances his life as a student with his life 15 years post-Fenton. We know that Carrey makes it through, but he's back to being a loner. He's a freelance documentary filmmaker, and instead of fitting into a rowing team bound for glory, he's trying to salvage his personal life with love interest and film editor Carolyn. The story moves back and forth with Rob as a teenager and Rob as an adult, although I believe I preferred the prep school narrative a bit more. Whether he's trying to mesh as one of the team or with his lover, Rob grapples with his ability to be a part of something bigger--at least that's what I took away from the story.
I recommend this book to anyone who wants the inside scoop on the sport of rowing. Before you're on that flat water going head to head with another boat, there are weeks and months of gut-wrenching training. The descriptions of the conditioning regimes and the intricacies of keeping athletes in sync while they row were fascinating. The only time I see rowing competition is during the Olympics. When the races end the athletes look like they're physically defeated, whether they win or not. Now I know why.
The Push from the Book: I am now officially in awe of any athlete involved in this sport. Rowing at an elite level demands year-round dedication and great physical commitment. And, those tiny people who yell into a megaphone? Now I understand what it is a coxswain does and why he is necessary.The sport is more than moving down the river. It's keeping time, digging deep, matching your teammates stroke for stroke.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Someday, Someday Definitely.....
....you should read Someday, Someday, Maybe. You'll love Franny Banks, the quick-witted, aspiring actress/waitress who is on the verge of a major career move. Within the next six months she's promised herself that she'll land a meaningful acting job or pack it up and head home. There's always teaching.
Franny gave herself a three-year window to hit it big in New York City, or at least hit it medium, and during her final days things are starting to percolate. In between her waitressing shifts at a local comedy club, she fits in acting classes with a well-established drama coach. The book opens with Franny preparing for the class showcase where she'll perform in front of the city's top casting and talent agents. It's now or never.
Of course, when her big moment arrives, Franny tumbles across the stage. She recovers with her trademark humor and you feel in your bones she's on her way, but with Franny it's never easy, despite her comedic timing, her talent and her beauty, which she seldom acknowledges. There are bumps--maybe even a few huge potholes--along the way.
Before going on I must report that this entertaining debut novel comes from well known television actress Lauren Graham, the former Lorelai Gilmore of "Gilmore Girls" and current star of "Parenthood." Who knew she was a double threat--actor and novelist? Well, actually, she's a triple threat, let's be honest. She's gorgeous, too. Grrr.
Graham created a character so agreeable and down-to-earth that I felt like I was catching up with a friend each time I returned to the story. The title alone, Someday, Someday, Maybe, suggests hope amid great uncertainty. Sure, Franny wavers at times, but she's always good company. At times her conversations resemble Graham's rapid-fire Gilmore Girls' patter, and I swore I could hear her voice during exchanges with casting agents or while hanging around with friends. She's fast on her feet, clever and a tad sarcastic. My kind of girl.
I wanted this book to go on forever, but Wait--There's More!! It will be recreated as a CW television show, and Graham will write the adaptation as well as executive produce! Does this make her a quadruple threat? Probably.
Someday, Someday, Maybe is set in the mid-1990s, and I presume some of the novel's description of Franny's absurd auditions and interviews were rooted in Graham's world before she hit it big. Ugly sweater commercials included.
Those of us in the non-acting world realize, I think, that making the cut in the entertainment industry is a mixture of talent, looks, luck and connections. The odds are against lots of beautiful people who try to jump start their careers in New York or Los Angeles. Graham gives us a close look behind the scenes of what it's like to live with a few spare bucks in her checking account while waiting for that elusive big break. The absurdity---the sheer unlikelihood--of ever making it really comes through, which makes you cheer for Franny with all your heart.
The Push From the Book: You can tell I had fun while reading this book, but there's a strong, serious undercurrent pulsing through Franny's story. Stick with it. Stick with your dreams. Give it a go, with all your heart, and see what happens. You're never too old to think about this.
Franny gave herself a three-year window to hit it big in New York City, or at least hit it medium, and during her final days things are starting to percolate. In between her waitressing shifts at a local comedy club, she fits in acting classes with a well-established drama coach. The book opens with Franny preparing for the class showcase where she'll perform in front of the city's top casting and talent agents. It's now or never.
Of course, when her big moment arrives, Franny tumbles across the stage. She recovers with her trademark humor and you feel in your bones she's on her way, but with Franny it's never easy, despite her comedic timing, her talent and her beauty, which she seldom acknowledges. There are bumps--maybe even a few huge potholes--along the way.
Before going on I must report that this entertaining debut novel comes from well known television actress Lauren Graham, the former Lorelai Gilmore of "Gilmore Girls" and current star of "Parenthood." Who knew she was a double threat--actor and novelist? Well, actually, she's a triple threat, let's be honest. She's gorgeous, too. Grrr.
Graham created a character so agreeable and down-to-earth that I felt like I was catching up with a friend each time I returned to the story. The title alone, Someday, Someday, Maybe, suggests hope amid great uncertainty. Sure, Franny wavers at times, but she's always good company. At times her conversations resemble Graham's rapid-fire Gilmore Girls' patter, and I swore I could hear her voice during exchanges with casting agents or while hanging around with friends. She's fast on her feet, clever and a tad sarcastic. My kind of girl.
I wanted this book to go on forever, but Wait--There's More!! It will be recreated as a CW television show, and Graham will write the adaptation as well as executive produce! Does this make her a quadruple threat? Probably.
Someday, Someday, Maybe is set in the mid-1990s, and I presume some of the novel's description of Franny's absurd auditions and interviews were rooted in Graham's world before she hit it big. Ugly sweater commercials included.
Those of us in the non-acting world realize, I think, that making the cut in the entertainment industry is a mixture of talent, looks, luck and connections. The odds are against lots of beautiful people who try to jump start their careers in New York or Los Angeles. Graham gives us a close look behind the scenes of what it's like to live with a few spare bucks in her checking account while waiting for that elusive big break. The absurdity---the sheer unlikelihood--of ever making it really comes through, which makes you cheer for Franny with all your heart.
The Push From the Book: You can tell I had fun while reading this book, but there's a strong, serious undercurrent pulsing through Franny's story. Stick with it. Stick with your dreams. Give it a go, with all your heart, and see what happens. You're never too old to think about this.
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Aussie Angels 'Over There'
First, look at this picture:
http://www.greenhowards.org.uk/womans-war/jpg-files/ww1-nurse-001.jpg
And then, this one:
https://cas.awm.gov.au/screen_img/E01304
This one too:
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTA2OFgxNjAw/z/3iYAAOxyV85R1cMJ/$T2eC16hHJGUFFh1bIIu0BR1cMJcBy!~~60_35.JPG?set_id=8800005007
If you have any desire to insert yourself into one of them, then you must read The Daughters of Mars by Thomas Keneally, the Australian writer probably best known for Schindler's List. Say this for Keneally, he doesn't turn a blind eye to pain, tragedy or violence. While Schlindler's List went inside the effort to save Jews during WWII, The Daughters of Mars chronicles the lives of two Australian sisters who travel to far flung and hostile territory as nurses in WWI. The story is epic, and the sisters are cool customers who never seem to flinch when desperate times and situations envelop them.
Once they depart from the Macleay Valley, New South Wales, Naomi and Sally Durance sail around their home continent with the rest of the Aussie nursing recruits bound for the Middle East. They see the Nile, the Pyramids, the Sphinx, and the teeming markets of Cairo before wounded begin arriving on their hospital ship, The Archimedes.
Kineally's re-creations of crowded ship decks, the frantic triage assessments on board, the bandaging, wrapping, cutting, sterilizing, stitching, and comforting seemed so realistic to me. It was almost like I could hear the moans and groans of the injured or smell the blood and mud on boots and uniforms. He conjures up dazzling images of medical wards during the aftermath of combat at Gallipoli. Australians took huge losses there but this was but a small taste of what the Durance sisters had yet to encounter on their ship and in Western Europe.
Eventually, the war grinds on and both sisters land in France--Naomi in a private hospital, Sally laboring in a military clearing station. They tend to the wounded, gassed and shell-shocked troops, while trying to carve out time and space for themselves and men who crossed their paths years before.
The book spans the length of the war, and by 1918 medical personnel were facing another potent enemy--the influenza virus. It is here that Kineally throws a bit of a bomb himself, and I'm reeling from it. There is no clear cut ending. In fact, he creates two of them, and I'm not convinced I've got it right. Three times I went over pages 505-513 and am still dazed by this "choose your own adventure" closing. Somebody out there needs to read this so we can talk.
The book will stay with me for a long while. I loved it, yet I wanted to know more, know the truth of the story, know how it all ends. But Keneally doesn't allow it. Can I love the book and yet seethe at its author? Yea, I think so.
The Push From the Book: I'm too stunned to process this, but this much I know. Those nurses were heroes. Doctors and nurses in all wars are, I suppose, but without the medical tools and technologies of today, their jobs back in 1915-1918 must have been strenuous and demanding and not for the weak of heart. Just take a closer look at those pictures. I'm not sure I'm made of the right stuff.
http://www.greenhowards.org.uk/womans-war/jpg-files/ww1-nurse-001.jpg
And then, this one:
https://cas.awm.gov.au/screen_img/E01304
This one too:
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTA2OFgxNjAw/z/3iYAAOxyV85R1cMJ/$T2eC16hHJGUFFh1bIIu0BR1cMJcBy!~~60_35.JPG?set_id=8800005007
If you have any desire to insert yourself into one of them, then you must read The Daughters of Mars by Thomas Keneally, the Australian writer probably best known for Schindler's List. Say this for Keneally, he doesn't turn a blind eye to pain, tragedy or violence. While Schlindler's List went inside the effort to save Jews during WWII, The Daughters of Mars chronicles the lives of two Australian sisters who travel to far flung and hostile territory as nurses in WWI. The story is epic, and the sisters are cool customers who never seem to flinch when desperate times and situations envelop them.
Once they depart from the Macleay Valley, New South Wales, Naomi and Sally Durance sail around their home continent with the rest of the Aussie nursing recruits bound for the Middle East. They see the Nile, the Pyramids, the Sphinx, and the teeming markets of Cairo before wounded begin arriving on their hospital ship, The Archimedes.
Kineally's re-creations of crowded ship decks, the frantic triage assessments on board, the bandaging, wrapping, cutting, sterilizing, stitching, and comforting seemed so realistic to me. It was almost like I could hear the moans and groans of the injured or smell the blood and mud on boots and uniforms. He conjures up dazzling images of medical wards during the aftermath of combat at Gallipoli. Australians took huge losses there but this was but a small taste of what the Durance sisters had yet to encounter on their ship and in Western Europe.
Eventually, the war grinds on and both sisters land in France--Naomi in a private hospital, Sally laboring in a military clearing station. They tend to the wounded, gassed and shell-shocked troops, while trying to carve out time and space for themselves and men who crossed their paths years before.
The book spans the length of the war, and by 1918 medical personnel were facing another potent enemy--the influenza virus. It is here that Kineally throws a bit of a bomb himself, and I'm reeling from it. There is no clear cut ending. In fact, he creates two of them, and I'm not convinced I've got it right. Three times I went over pages 505-513 and am still dazed by this "choose your own adventure" closing. Somebody out there needs to read this so we can talk.
The book will stay with me for a long while. I loved it, yet I wanted to know more, know the truth of the story, know how it all ends. But Keneally doesn't allow it. Can I love the book and yet seethe at its author? Yea, I think so.
The Push From the Book: I'm too stunned to process this, but this much I know. Those nurses were heroes. Doctors and nurses in all wars are, I suppose, but without the medical tools and technologies of today, their jobs back in 1915-1918 must have been strenuous and demanding and not for the weak of heart. Just take a closer look at those pictures. I'm not sure I'm made of the right stuff.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Stopping to Smell the Roses
Margaret Dilloway's The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns was a summer escape to central California, full of lush backyard gardens, sea views, rose competitions, and a cantankerous biology teacher and rose breeder named Galilee (known as Gal, for short) Garner. She kept me chuckling, sympathizing, admiring, and sometimes fuming during the entire book. I won't forget her for a long time because Dilloway created a character whose life struggles and passions opened up whole new worlds to me.
In her spare time Gal plunges herself into a unique hobby--rose breeding. She works feverishly to keep her roses fed, watered, fertilized and fungus free while swapping pollen and harvesting rose hips. The goal-- to create a fabulous and exotic new type of Hulthemia rose and bring it to market. But Dilloway adds another layer to Gal's life that makes her even more complicated. She's coping with life threatening kidney disease and must undergo dialysis every other day.
What I thought was going to be a simple story about a woman who liked flowers was so much more than I expected. It thrust me into the botanist's greenhouse laboratory, the cutthroat world of rose competition, kidney disease and organ transplantation.
And we didn't even address the side order of family dysfunction affecting Gal's life. She's got a devoted mother and father who arrive when Gal has health setbacks. She's accustomed to them, but not to her 15-year-old niece Riley. She pops up when her mother, Gal's sister Becky, heads to Asia for a long-term job assignment. Becky was healthy while Gal's childhood was marked by one health crisis after another. Gal got all the attention while Becky was on cruise-control. She became a rebellious teen, a rebellious young adult and then a single mother still battling addiction issues.
Riley now lives with Gal and is as complex as her aunt. Her moods shift with the weather and Gal does the best she can to deliver Riley to school on time, in uniform and on point. Riley struggles with her aunt's biology course, the Science Olympiad team, friends and the long absences from her mother.
The roses, Gal, Riley. They all have their seasons of growth, bloom and regeneration and reading Roses with Thorns was a nice blend of story and discovery. Rose breeding, a subject I've never ever contemplated, became the centerpiece of the book and I enjoyed reading about all the care and precision that's involved in creating something new in the natural world. I won't ever look at a rose the same way next time I wander through a garden center or plant nursery. It probably took years to arrive, considering its creation and time spent growing in a test garden somewhere. Also, sometimes when I go shopping I pass a dialysis center, never giving it a thought. I won't be so cavalier next time. I'll wonder how many people are inside getting their blood cleaned while waiting out a new kidney. Where are they on the list? Who is at home caring for the kids while they are connected to a machine in there?
No surprise. I give this book a big green thumbs up. The story is satisfying. The characters are unique, and I guarantee that you'll learn a lot about subjects that are new to you.
The Push from the Book: Someone I know has a signature closing to her e-mails: "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." Gal's daily struggle with her failing kidney brought renal disease into my consciousness. I was going to say "off the back burner" but truthfully, it wasn't even on the stove. I cannot imagine having to plan a full life around dialysis, yet so many people must. The book made me count my blessings. Which are many.
In her spare time Gal plunges herself into a unique hobby--rose breeding. She works feverishly to keep her roses fed, watered, fertilized and fungus free while swapping pollen and harvesting rose hips. The goal-- to create a fabulous and exotic new type of Hulthemia rose and bring it to market. But Dilloway adds another layer to Gal's life that makes her even more complicated. She's coping with life threatening kidney disease and must undergo dialysis every other day.
What I thought was going to be a simple story about a woman who liked flowers was so much more than I expected. It thrust me into the botanist's greenhouse laboratory, the cutthroat world of rose competition, kidney disease and organ transplantation.
And we didn't even address the side order of family dysfunction affecting Gal's life. She's got a devoted mother and father who arrive when Gal has health setbacks. She's accustomed to them, but not to her 15-year-old niece Riley. She pops up when her mother, Gal's sister Becky, heads to Asia for a long-term job assignment. Becky was healthy while Gal's childhood was marked by one health crisis after another. Gal got all the attention while Becky was on cruise-control. She became a rebellious teen, a rebellious young adult and then a single mother still battling addiction issues.
Riley now lives with Gal and is as complex as her aunt. Her moods shift with the weather and Gal does the best she can to deliver Riley to school on time, in uniform and on point. Riley struggles with her aunt's biology course, the Science Olympiad team, friends and the long absences from her mother.
The roses, Gal, Riley. They all have their seasons of growth, bloom and regeneration and reading Roses with Thorns was a nice blend of story and discovery. Rose breeding, a subject I've never ever contemplated, became the centerpiece of the book and I enjoyed reading about all the care and precision that's involved in creating something new in the natural world. I won't ever look at a rose the same way next time I wander through a garden center or plant nursery. It probably took years to arrive, considering its creation and time spent growing in a test garden somewhere. Also, sometimes when I go shopping I pass a dialysis center, never giving it a thought. I won't be so cavalier next time. I'll wonder how many people are inside getting their blood cleaned while waiting out a new kidney. Where are they on the list? Who is at home caring for the kids while they are connected to a machine in there?
No surprise. I give this book a big green thumbs up. The story is satisfying. The characters are unique, and I guarantee that you'll learn a lot about subjects that are new to you.
The Push from the Book: Someone I know has a signature closing to her e-mails: "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." Gal's daily struggle with her failing kidney brought renal disease into my consciousness. I was going to say "off the back burner" but truthfully, it wasn't even on the stove. I cannot imagine having to plan a full life around dialysis, yet so many people must. The book made me count my blessings. Which are many.
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Trains and Lovers......and Yawns
I could never seriously dump on Alexander McCall Smith, author of the recently released Trains and Lovers, and creator of one of the most beloved book series, The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Any writer who imagines such benevolent and wise characters ( first Botswana female sleuth Precious Ramotswe, for example, and her intrepid assistant Grace Makutsi) and then inserts them into a uniquely beautiful African location can only be a man of playful good humor and tender passions. His characters' flaws are compassionately rendered, the mysteries are gentle, and the life lessons present in each novel are easy to swallow. He seems absolutely grandfatherly and adorable and until I learn otherwise that's what I'm going to believe.
So how do you tell grandpa you're a bit disappointed with his latest gift to you? You don't.
Instead, you offer, "How nice of you." "Thanks for thinking of me." "You're too kind."
And all of that is appropriate commentary for Smith's last effort. The highly portable book (small enough to carry in a coat pocket, purse or backpack) is not without its charms. I like the idea of listening in to the chatter between strangers leaving Edinburgh by train destined for London. I imagined the rocking train car, the green landscapes flying by their window, and Scottish, British and Australian-tinged accents going back and forth across the miles. But the events that I hoped would occur on that train never materialized. There were no love connections en route, just talk. And the stories exchanged weren't as interesting or compelling as the plot lines that Smith brought to life with his legendary detective series.
Trains and Lovers has a simple premise. It's set in a train compartment with three men and one woman whose conversation starts as slowly as a train engine gathering steam. Once underway, however, they grow more comfortable with each other and begin to reveal tales about their lives, families and loves, all remarkably affected by trains. An art history intern spies an unlikely train in an old painting; a train carried one of the rider's parents to a new life in the desolate Australian Outback; another gets off at the wrong train stop but finds a new friend, and finally, a sighting of two friends parting while one of our passengers waits to board rekindles memories of a lost love.
And all that was good. It just wasn't as great as usual. For a varying point of view, watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTWoUjVpeVY.
The book was a very quick read, and you could do it in one sitting, especially if you were on a train or plane and had a few hours to kill. That's if you don't strike up conversation with somebody along the way.
The Push from the Book: This time around, I'm passing. I spent one summer day on this book. It was a pleasant ride, but no lasting memories or changes of heart.
So how do you tell grandpa you're a bit disappointed with his latest gift to you? You don't.
Instead, you offer, "How nice of you." "Thanks for thinking of me." "You're too kind."
And all of that is appropriate commentary for Smith's last effort. The highly portable book (small enough to carry in a coat pocket, purse or backpack) is not without its charms. I like the idea of listening in to the chatter between strangers leaving Edinburgh by train destined for London. I imagined the rocking train car, the green landscapes flying by their window, and Scottish, British and Australian-tinged accents going back and forth across the miles. But the events that I hoped would occur on that train never materialized. There were no love connections en route, just talk. And the stories exchanged weren't as interesting or compelling as the plot lines that Smith brought to life with his legendary detective series.
Trains and Lovers has a simple premise. It's set in a train compartment with three men and one woman whose conversation starts as slowly as a train engine gathering steam. Once underway, however, they grow more comfortable with each other and begin to reveal tales about their lives, families and loves, all remarkably affected by trains. An art history intern spies an unlikely train in an old painting; a train carried one of the rider's parents to a new life in the desolate Australian Outback; another gets off at the wrong train stop but finds a new friend, and finally, a sighting of two friends parting while one of our passengers waits to board rekindles memories of a lost love.
And all that was good. It just wasn't as great as usual. For a varying point of view, watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTWoUjVpeVY.
The book was a very quick read, and you could do it in one sitting, especially if you were on a train or plane and had a few hours to kill. That's if you don't strike up conversation with somebody along the way.
The Push from the Book: This time around, I'm passing. I spent one summer day on this book. It was a pleasant ride, but no lasting memories or changes of heart.
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Gone Girl--A Visit to the Dark Side
Darkness unnerves me. Whether it's rooms, basements, starless nights or stories, darkness makes me jumpy. Cowardly lion jumpy. And when surrounded by it, I want to fix it or escape it. Maybe that's why I read Gone Girl so quickly. It was a dark, deceptive and unsettling novel, and I was eager to get out of the scary shadows.
Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn, is pitch black in terms of its themes of murder, treachery, revenge and retribution. Yet, it's wickedly good, and I couldn't stop reading it. I heard about the book last year, and its advance praise was lavish. Every review was enthusiastic, full of stars. I read the gist of the story--and yes, it sounded dark--but it was a book I needed to read.
Here's the lowdown--Nick and Amy, a perfectly beautiful couple, meet in New York City, marry and when both lose their jobs, move back to Nick's hometown in Missouri. His mother is dying from cancer and his estranged father has Alzheimer's. Nick taps into Amy's trust fund to buy a bar, and the couple starts over. Then, on the day of their fifth wedding anniversary, Amy is gone. Vanished after an apparent scuffle in the couple's living room.
The novel has three parts. It begins with Boy Loses Girl and sets the pattern of alternating Nick and Amy chapters. Nick's first commentary, "The Day Of," offers a look at the couple's present life and events surrounding Amy's disappearance. Amy's chapters are in the form of diary entries that begin when the couple first met, seven years before her disappearance. Her chapters give us the background we need to understand the couple's perfect romance, courtship and decline. Nick, Amy, Nick, Amy. Back and forth, present and past. The story flies by.
By the conclusion of Part One, seven days have passed since Amy's disappearance. Meanwhile, Amy's diary entries have moved us into 2012. Flynn started the book with the characters' voices being years apart and by the half way point the timelines converge. The big take-away here is that during their brief marriage, Nick and Amy have fallen on tough times personally and professionally and now live inside a marriage that is circling the drain. Someone has to pay.
And while you read these early chapters you have strong hunches about the source of evil. Flynn gives the reader just enough information to form theories and make educated guesses, but then the police make discoveries or Amy reveals something new in her diary or Nick finally divulges something nasty he's been hiding.
Gillian Flynn writes like someone who has dominated the suspense genre for decades, but judging by the book jacket photo, she's a thirty-something. Her writing is slick and clever, and she's got one very devious imagination. Gone Girl, Flynn's third book, has catapulted her onto my must-read-author radar, and I believe I'll need to go back and catch up with Sharp Objects and Dark Places---when I'm feeling brave.
Even Hollywood is on board with Flynn's work. Gone Girl is destined for the big screen, and recent media reports say that Ben Affleck has been cast as Nick. A-list actresses Natalie Portman, Charlize Theron and Emily Blunt are in the running for the part of Amy.
Push From the Book: I married after knowing my significant other for less than a year, but after reading this book, I'd advise others to invest some time and really get to know your future mate. Sometimes you have to dig deep to find the flaws. And once you find them, what are you prepared to do?
Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn, is pitch black in terms of its themes of murder, treachery, revenge and retribution. Yet, it's wickedly good, and I couldn't stop reading it. I heard about the book last year, and its advance praise was lavish. Every review was enthusiastic, full of stars. I read the gist of the story--and yes, it sounded dark--but it was a book I needed to read.
Here's the lowdown--Nick and Amy, a perfectly beautiful couple, meet in New York City, marry and when both lose their jobs, move back to Nick's hometown in Missouri. His mother is dying from cancer and his estranged father has Alzheimer's. Nick taps into Amy's trust fund to buy a bar, and the couple starts over. Then, on the day of their fifth wedding anniversary, Amy is gone. Vanished after an apparent scuffle in the couple's living room.
The novel has three parts. It begins with Boy Loses Girl and sets the pattern of alternating Nick and Amy chapters. Nick's first commentary, "The Day Of," offers a look at the couple's present life and events surrounding Amy's disappearance. Amy's chapters are in the form of diary entries that begin when the couple first met, seven years before her disappearance. Her chapters give us the background we need to understand the couple's perfect romance, courtship and decline. Nick, Amy, Nick, Amy. Back and forth, present and past. The story flies by.
By the conclusion of Part One, seven days have passed since Amy's disappearance. Meanwhile, Amy's diary entries have moved us into 2012. Flynn started the book with the characters' voices being years apart and by the half way point the timelines converge. The big take-away here is that during their brief marriage, Nick and Amy have fallen on tough times personally and professionally and now live inside a marriage that is circling the drain. Someone has to pay.
And while you read these early chapters you have strong hunches about the source of evil. Flynn gives the reader just enough information to form theories and make educated guesses, but then the police make discoveries or Amy reveals something new in her diary or Nick finally divulges something nasty he's been hiding.
Gillian Flynn writes like someone who has dominated the suspense genre for decades, but judging by the book jacket photo, she's a thirty-something. Her writing is slick and clever, and she's got one very devious imagination. Gone Girl, Flynn's third book, has catapulted her onto my must-read-author radar, and I believe I'll need to go back and catch up with Sharp Objects and Dark Places---when I'm feeling brave.
Even Hollywood is on board with Flynn's work. Gone Girl is destined for the big screen, and recent media reports say that Ben Affleck has been cast as Nick. A-list actresses Natalie Portman, Charlize Theron and Emily Blunt are in the running for the part of Amy.
Push From the Book: I married after knowing my significant other for less than a year, but after reading this book, I'd advise others to invest some time and really get to know your future mate. Sometimes you have to dig deep to find the flaws. And once you find them, what are you prepared to do?
Friday, June 21, 2013
The Last Man-- Last Words from Vince Flynn
I needed some adrenaline pumping prose to jump-start my summer reading. Which is precisely why I chose the counter-terrorism thriller, The Last Man, by Vince Flynn. CIA operations in Afghanistan with a kidnapped agent were certain to give me a jolt, and its fearless, incorruptible tough guy hero Mitch Rapp was the ideal character to keep me riveted to the page.
Four dead men on the floor of a safe house demand your attention, and in no time I was sucked into the well-knit story of FBI/CIA investigations, torture scenes, gunfights and deceptions. Why, I thought to myself at the end of the first few chapters, had I not heard of this author before. Who is Vince Flynn anyway?
Before I tell you more, just know that this wasn't Flynn's first outing with Mitch Rapp. The Last Man was 13th in a series. Obviously, I'm a little late to the Rapp party.
A few days later I was half-way through the book and while watching a news program that afternoon the cover of the book suddenly appeared on the screen. One of the news panelists was talking about Flynn, whose books had become favorites of real-life intelligence officials, as well as Presidents Bush and Clinton. The 47-year-old author was dead after a two-and-half year battle with prostate cancer.
I'm sure I wasn't the only person in American reading a Flynn novel at the time of his death, but it came as a bit of a shock anyway. Certainly this healthy looking guy on the back of the book couldn't be gone, could he? He looked rugged, capable, strong, and smart. Just like the Mitch Rapp character I envisioned while reading his stories.
Still unbelieving--although I knew the reports were accurate--I wanted to know more. Who was this writer who churned out these heart-thumping stories?
The more I learned, the more dejected I felt. Flynn was a huge success story and a widely popular novelist. He sold 15 million books in the US alone and had legions of fans.
In his hometown newspaper's obituary, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that Flynn was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child and started writing in the 1990s to combat his disability. He self-published his first novel before Simon & Schuster picked it up. Two years later he wrote another book introducing Mitch Rapp and the series was born. He produced a new Mitch Rapp novel each year, and now it seems like I've got to back and get acquainted more formally. One book at a time.
Here's an excerpt from the obituary:
Former CIA official Rob Richer was chief of Middle Eastern Operations when he befriended Flynn during a 2003 research trip to Washington, D.C.
“This is a guy who wrote the books, but he also walked the talk,” said Richer. “He would vet his books to make sure he wasn’t giving away secrets while remaining true to what we did. When people were up in arms about the war on terror, he defended us. He also made sure hundreds of his books were mailed overseas to our servicemen and women. He was a guy who cared. And he was a real patriot.”
If you'd like more information about Flynn or his series of Mitch Rapp thrillers, visit his website:
http://www.vinceflynn.com/
The Push From the Book: Flynn's book dedication on the opening pages struck me when I first read it and will stay with me for a long time: "To all of my teachers and coaches at Saint Thomas Academy who taught me that to succeed in life, you need to raise the bar, not lower it."
Four dead men on the floor of a safe house demand your attention, and in no time I was sucked into the well-knit story of FBI/CIA investigations, torture scenes, gunfights and deceptions. Why, I thought to myself at the end of the first few chapters, had I not heard of this author before. Who is Vince Flynn anyway?
Before I tell you more, just know that this wasn't Flynn's first outing with Mitch Rapp. The Last Man was 13th in a series. Obviously, I'm a little late to the Rapp party.
A few days later I was half-way through the book and while watching a news program that afternoon the cover of the book suddenly appeared on the screen. One of the news panelists was talking about Flynn, whose books had become favorites of real-life intelligence officials, as well as Presidents Bush and Clinton. The 47-year-old author was dead after a two-and-half year battle with prostate cancer.
I'm sure I wasn't the only person in American reading a Flynn novel at the time of his death, but it came as a bit of a shock anyway. Certainly this healthy looking guy on the back of the book couldn't be gone, could he? He looked rugged, capable, strong, and smart. Just like the Mitch Rapp character I envisioned while reading his stories.
Still unbelieving--although I knew the reports were accurate--I wanted to know more. Who was this writer who churned out these heart-thumping stories?
The more I learned, the more dejected I felt. Flynn was a huge success story and a widely popular novelist. He sold 15 million books in the US alone and had legions of fans.
In his hometown newspaper's obituary, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that Flynn was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child and started writing in the 1990s to combat his disability. He self-published his first novel before Simon & Schuster picked it up. Two years later he wrote another book introducing Mitch Rapp and the series was born. He produced a new Mitch Rapp novel each year, and now it seems like I've got to back and get acquainted more formally. One book at a time.
Here's an excerpt from the obituary:
Former CIA official Rob Richer was chief of Middle Eastern Operations when he befriended Flynn during a 2003 research trip to Washington, D.C.
“This is a guy who wrote the books, but he also walked the talk,” said Richer. “He would vet his books to make sure he wasn’t giving away secrets while remaining true to what we did. When people were up in arms about the war on terror, he defended us. He also made sure hundreds of his books were mailed overseas to our servicemen and women. He was a guy who cared. And he was a real patriot.”
If you'd like more information about Flynn or his series of Mitch Rapp thrillers, visit his website:
http://www.vinceflynn.com/
The Push From the Book: Flynn's book dedication on the opening pages struck me when I first read it and will stay with me for a long time: "To all of my teachers and coaches at Saint Thomas Academy who taught me that to succeed in life, you need to raise the bar, not lower it."
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