Synopsis:
In antebellum Charleston, a Catholic priest grapples with doubt, his family's secret African ancestry, and his love for a slave owner's wife.
Joseph Lazare and his two sisters grow up believing their black hair and olive skin come from a Spanish grandmother—until the summer they learn she was an African slave. While his sisters make very different choices, Joseph struggles to transcend the flesh by becoming a celibate priest.
Then young Father Joseph meets Tessa Conley, a devout Irish immigrant who shares his passions for music and botany. Joseph must conceal his true feelings as Tessa marries another man—a plantation owner who treats her like property. Acting on their love for each other will ruin Joseph and Tessa in this world and damn them in the next.
My thoughts:
I did not deserve this novel! This gem of historical and psychological authenticity left me speechless and humbled. I started following the author pre-publication posts and had high expectations for this novel, and the final product exceeded my expectations tenfold. It does not have any of those formulaic "crowd pleaser" elements that you find in most novels published by the Big Six. There are more massacre scenes than love scenes. Three worlds, three major geographic locations are involved: the island of Hispanola, Europe and the American south. The main character, Joseph Lazarre, is a cultural and spiritual product of those three locations. Born in Charleston, tracing his roots to the Caribbean, educated in Europe, he is both determined and conflicted. Ironically, it is the secrets surrounding his ancestry that set him on the path of ultimate truth. Sometimes you have to harbor lies to be a truly honest man. Sometimes you have to sin to understand holiness. He must overcome a few prejudices and break a few vows to become a true man of God.
Greetings, commies and WWII enthusiasts!
I got T-34 as a gift for my 17-year old son who is really into military history and military technology. The title of the movie is straightforward and naive - "T-34". It is what it is. The main figure in the movie is a tank. The human characters are two-dimensional pawns. Don't look for psychological complexity. They are superficially sympathetic, the good guys and the bad guys. There is just a hint of moral conflict, not enough to shift the focus away from the tank. I am not sure that all viewers will love the CGI effects, the slow-mo tank battle scenes. Anyway, we made a family movie night out of it. Turned off the lights, cuddled up on the couch with smoked Polish sausages and root beer floats. It's that kind of a movie. My son praised the structural authenticity of the tank, and that means a lot.
Greetings, commies!
Some of you have kids, which means, for some of you it's back to school time! What did YOUR kids read this summer? If they are done with their mandatory reading, it's not too late to squeeze in another YA book. Consider Annie On My Mind, a story of two high school senior girls whose shared interest in art leads to an anticipated romance that threatens to destroy their social and academic lives.
When Liza Winthrop first lays eyes on Annie Kenyon at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she knows there’s something special between them. Soon, their close friendship develops into a deep and intimate romance. Neither imagined that falling in love could be so wonderful, but as Liza and Annie’s newfound sexuality sparks conflict in both their families and at their schools, they discover it will take more than love for their relationship to succeed.
One of the first books to positively portray a lesbian relationship, Annie on My Mind is a groundbreaking classic of the genre. The subject of a First Amendment lawsuit over banned books and one of School Library Journal’s “One Hundred Books that Shaped the Century,” Nancy Garden’s iconic novel is an important story for anyone discovering who they’re meant to be.
My thoughts:
I am not a member of the LGBT community, but this book was on the suggested read list at my old high-school. I like taking chances and reading books outside of my regular "comfort zone" (military and historical fiction). I must say, the literary quality of "Annie on My Mind" is superb. I understand it was written in 1982 and was one of the first books depicting and advocating for a same-sex romance, but it feels like it was written in the 19th century. The language is very elaborate, articulate and exalted. Kids just don't talk like this anymore. It made me pine for the "good old days" when people, regardless of age, actually spoke in complete sentences and maintained eye contact - God forbid. How did we go from such gorgeous prose to one-liner grunts "Like ... you know ... whatever." The two girls in the novel are very intelligent, articulate and creative without coming across as pretentious. I wish more modern teens read this book just to make them realize what they are missing: real language, real conversations, real feelings.
Greetings, commies!
Courtly romance is not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of post-WWII Soviet culture. Think again! The 1946 blockbuster The First Glove is a great example of a counter-trend project. The world was weary of tragedy and violence. It needed a touch of comedy, tenderness and humor. The First Glove tells the story of an aspiring boxer who falls in love with a rhythmic gymnast. What makes that film stand apart is the famous romantic song Our Boat. The leading actress, Nadezhda Cherednichenko died just last month at the age of 91. She looks like a mixture of Maureen O'Hara and Judy Garland. She confirmed to the Western beauty standards and had an affinity for the West. It's not surprising that USA was the place of her death. Her performance of Our Boat transcends all linguistic and political barriers. The song itself dates to the 1930s.
Hello, commies!
If you enjoy the recent HBO miniseries Chernobyl but were overwhelmed by the amount of science jargon, there is a lesser known Russian language 4 episode miniseries from 2013 called Inseparable (original title is "Fireflies"). This particular project offers a more balanced mix of science, politics and human drama. There is an actual central love story that will make you think of the one in Titanic. A privileged girl and an underprivileged boy fall in love against the backdrop of a major disaster. Hm.... Sounds familiar? Allie is a straight A student who comes from a family of doctors and army officers. Paul, a young soldier, is an orphan who was raised in an orphanage. I must point out, for a ward of the state, Paul is impressively articulate, temperate and well-mannered, while Allie comes across as impulsive and entitled at times. Under normal circumstances these two probably would not have even met. The world's greatest nuclear disaster erases their socioeconomic differences. They find themselves alone in the abandoned city of Pripyat, caught in a dream world that is incredibly surreal, creepy, lyrical and humorous at the same time. Tragedy and dirty humor go hand in hand.
It's not really fair to compare the two projects, but there are definite benefits to watching a Chernobyl show made by ethnic Slavs. As much as I appreciated the research behind the HBO series, you just can't find those broad Slavic faces in English and Scottish pubs. If you happen to be a native Russian speaker, you will catch yourself smiling at the linguistic nuances and the references.
What I loved about Inseparable was that the writers do not pull any punches. No sugar coating, no silver lining, no last minute rescues, no miraculous cures. The fatalistic misanthrope in me is very pleased.
Greetings, commies!
It is no question that I am a bit of a misanthrope and a traitor to my own sex, so reading a romance novel with utterly repugnant female characters feeds my soul the fuel it needs to spout ashes ;-) Maggie Tideswell, a South African romance writer, provides that fuel. There's nothing like selfish, predatory women falling into their own traps. Poppet Nicole is the second book in her Moragh saga.
Synopsis:
She'll never finish falling in love, but she has priorities no one understand.
Nicole’s story continues in Poppet Nicole. Will she get her revenge for the abominable way Joshua, her fiancé of four years, treated her when he brought home a stranger he introduced as his wife?
Even though she’d admit it to no one, Nicole knows she made a hash of things. She should have married Joshua when she had the chance, but instead, she’d gone and fallen pregnant by another man. And then her father disinherited her, leaving everything she’d been brought up to expect to own one day, to Joshua, with the instruction to marry Nicole within a month. As he isn't really married to Holly, nothing is standing in his way.
Without warning, Ned, the father of her unborn child, comes back into her life to complicate everything. Him, she wants with a passion, but first, she has to reclaim her inheritance. Joshua has no choice but to marry her as her father instructed. Then she’d divorce him and claim half of everything he owns. As an independently rich woman, she'll let Ned sweep her off her feet.
Just how far is Nicole prepared to go to get her own way? Will Ned stand by while she tries to ruin another man’s life?
My thoughts:
Heads up: I am not a reader of romance of any sort, so to me, picking up a romance novel is like a vegan going to a steak house, so I am reviewing this work as an outsider. I surmise the author was raised on the works of Daphne du Maurier and the Bronte sisters. Her contemporary romances have a strong Gothic vibe. I did not read the first novel in the series, so reading the brief summary helped gain a better of understanding of the characters. In "Poppet Nicole" the title character reminds me of Catherine Earnshaw from "Wuthering Heights". Entitled, selfish, with a strong sense of victimhood, she is not your typical vanilla romance heroine. She is eager to take but gives very little in return and refuses to accept the consequences for her actions. It is very hard to sympathize with her or relate to her, but nobody said that the main female character has to be likable.
To an average American reader, the author's language might sound a bit too proper and formal. It's important to understand that South Africa is a very stratified country, and the way people behave and talk is linked to their ethnicity and social class.
Greetings, commies!
I have a new gem to share: Dragon Marks Eight by Gary Clifton. I admit that I have not read many noir novels, but this one is so superb from the psychological and literary standpoint, that it will tickle your taste buds and your nerve endings.
Synopsis:
In the mid 1980s, Kobok, a hard drinking, cynical, veteran ATF Agent, is caught between an inept supervisor and a system that demands results to avoid transfer to Butte, Montana, or a duty station where mail comes monthly by tramp steamer. Under the gun to produce a major case, he’s summoned to an arson homicide in an affluent Dallas neighborhood where the only survivor is the ex-stripper wife of the victim, the owner of a brassiere factory.
The ghastly crime scene discloses two pre-teen sons also dead in the debris. Kobok discovers a child’s journal depicting what appears to be a game involving mythical characters and a twelve-sided dice. Thinking it might shed light on lives of a dysfunctional family, he tucks the journal away, but it soon drifts out of mind.
With a rookie agent partner, weeks out of the academy, and Bull Hooper, a hard-nosed, kick-ass Dallas Homicide Detective, he wends his way along the seamy underside of Dallas, through strip clubs, an outlaw biker gang war, a variety of back alley characters, and sudden, deadly violence. In the end, he realizes with sobering clarity that what seems to be, often isn’t, and the journal scribbling of a child exposed to horrors beyond his comprehension, could be more insightful than any reasoning mind could possibly understand.
My thoughts:
The fans of James Elroy and Mickey Spillane should add "Dragon Marks Eight" to their collection of urban noir fiction. There is something to be said for novels set before the era of the internet. There is an extra layer of secrecy and anonymity - and more opportunities for fraud. Kobok is a seasoned but not entirely jaded cop who is not above indulging his own whims and sexual cravings while on duty, a cynic with a conscience. The author's narrative style is blunt, graphic, unapologetically masculine - definitely not for those who have panic attacks when women are "objectified". Definitely not for those who crave a "strong, empowered female character". Although, there is a very competent female forensics doctor, but she is an exception to the pattern. As a female reader, confident in my femininity and human dignity, I don't find that style offensive at all. However, those readers who are sensitive to cruelty to children and description of mutilation should probably take a few anti anxiety pills. There are very graphic scenes of human combustion. Overall, this novel is a decadent, sensual treat - like a good shot of scotch with a cigar.
