"1222" by Anne Holt: Was the Suspense Lost in Translation?

Haiku to 1222

Snow blast, train crash. Trapped.

Foul play. Hanne save the day?

Nice; but low suspense.

Norwegian author Anne Holt is reportedly a very popular author of crime/mystery books in her home country as well as in Germany, Italy and Sweden.  She has written eight books featuring police inspector Hanne Wilhelmsen.  1222 is the both the latest book in the series and the first to be translated into English.

The book has interesting elements, but to me they didn't add up to very much suspense.  In 1222, a passenger train crashes at an isolated mountain station during a brutal blizzard.  The passengers take refuge at a nearby hotel.  Subsequently, one of their number is murdered.  Isolated by the storm and mountain location, Hanne Wihelmsen, a retired police inspector who is wheelchair bound as a result of being shot in an earlier book in the series, is reluctantly drawn into solving the murder.  Sounds exciting, right?  Unfortunately, it wasn't for me. I found this read a bit dull, and wondered a number of times whether the story suffered in the translation to English.  Disappointing.

 

   

The Tucson Festival of Books is This Weekend.

The Tucson Festival of Books starts tomorrow.  I'm planning my schedule now. 

"Today" by David Miller: An interestingly constructed novel that has a lot to say.

Thirty pages into Today, David Miller's short novel about the reactions of family and friends to the sudden death of one of their number, I thought, what is going on here?

I finished the book a few hours later and thought, what was that?

Then, after considering the book for a few days, I read it again.  Like certain works of poetry or jazz compositions, it asks the reader to bring something to the piece, which makes Today engaging and interesting to unpack.  I found this tasteful novel to be well worth reading - and even worth reading twice.

Today takes place over a few days in August 1924 during which the author Joseph Conrad becomes ill, dies and is buried.  Conrad wrote such classics as Lord Jim, The Heart of Darkness, and much more.  He was born in Poland in 1857.  In 1896 he married Jesse George, an English woman, and they had two sons.  By 1924, Conrad and Jesse live near Canterbury, where the action in Today takes place.  In the book as well as in real life, Conrad had a secretary "of sorts" named Lillian Hallowes.  Hallowes, Jesse, and the two sons, John and Borys, are all central actors in Today.  Conrad is off stage while these people - and a multitude of other characters -  react to events and each other.

When the novel begins, a gathering is being organized at the Conrad home to enjoy the August bank holiday and to celebrate the birthday of Conrad's son John.  Everything changes completely and suddenly with Conrad's illness and death.  Author David Miller does a very fine job showing how the various characters experience this loss, and how they cope with each other and the formalities that subsequently arise. Miller steers clear of becoming overly sentimental.  Instead, the characters have truthful observations and reactions to the death of a friend, a father, and a husband.  That truthfulness about death is often touching.

To the central story of Today, Miller adds many elements which make the book entertaining to read.  There is dry humor, such as when Borys, telling a caller from France that his father could not come to the phone as he was dead, says to the agitated man " . . . yes, dreadfully inconvenient for you, yes." Also, many details are added to establish the atmosphere of Great Britain in 1924:  Miss Hallowes reports about attending the Olympics during her trip to Paris that summer and seeing Eric Liddel win a gold medal.  (The story of Liddel's Olympic run was told in the movie Chariots of Fire.); and everyone - including Joseph Conrad - seems to be reading E.M. Forster's A Passage to India which was first published that year.

There are also relationships to puzzle over:  What was the full nature of the relationship between Miss Hallowes and Joseph Conrad?  Is Borys actually married to the mother of his son?  One puzzle presented in Today I could only solve by turning to Google.  It came up early in the book when a telegraph arrives at the Conrad home from Sidney Colvin announcing the death of his wife, Lady Colvin.  Although the folks in the book know who Colvin is, I didn't and they didn't bother to tell me.  Colvin, it turns out, was an influential art and literary critic who lived from 1845 to 1927.  His wife did die in August 1924.

This brief appearance by the Colvins in Today is another example of a detail added to make us feel we are present in 1924 at the Conrad home.  However, it also illustrates one of the challenges of the book, which is keeping track of who is who, particularly at the start of the novel.  I enjoyed this aspect of Today as it creates a feeling of being part of the tumult caused by Conrad's sudden death, however other readers might be annoyed.

When I picked up Today, I was looking for a change of pace.  It certainly filled the bill; I can't think of the last time a novel sent me to the internet to figure out a plot element.  While this book does call for a bit of patience and demands the full attention of the reader, it is worth it.  Today is wise, moving, and entertaining.  It was a pleasure to read.  





 

Welcome March!

Is March coming in like a lamb or a lion where you are?  Strong winds have been blowing around my home for several days now.  Perhaps March is historically windy.  When I was a little girl in grade school, the arrival of March guaranteed an art class in which we made kites.  Which reminds me that it's fun to fly kites, and maybe I'll get around to doing that this month as we segue into spring.

What I am definitely getting around to in March is reading Roberto Bolano's novel, 2666.  Here is a link to Janet Maslin's 2008 review of the book in the New York Times.  Maslin found the book "mesmerizing"; I think it will be challenging to read.  March seems like the perfect month to take it on, this final work by the Chilean author and poet who died in 2003.

Good Night, Night Circus

March is also the time to tell you that after months of having the book, I've only gotten through 82 pages of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.  I am not going any further with it.  Many people love this book, but the story just doesn't appeal to me.  That's the way it goes with books and art.

What do you plan to read during the blustery days of March?  Let us know in the comments below!

    

Tucson Festival of Books March 10 and 11, 2012.

Night sky in the Sonoran Desert, south of Tucson, Arizona.

Everybody:  If you can, get to Tucson, Arizona, on March 10 and 11 for the Tucson Festival of Books.  It's a great event with lots of authors participating. There is also food, exhibitors, a movie screening on Saturday night (the 1963 classic HUD staring Paul Newman), cool science stuff, and warm, sunny, southern Arizona weather.

While there is a lot going on, the Festival is all about books, reading, and literacy.   I'll be there and tweeting when I can, so check the 'Follow on Twitter' link in the side bar to get the latest up-dates.

Harry Dolan's "Very Bad Men" is a Disappointing Follow-Up to the Excellent "Bad Things Happen".

Harry Dolan's first novel, Bad Things Happen, is great fun.  Very Bad Men is, by comparison, a great disappointment.  Here in a nutshell is the set-up for Very Bad Men: Anthony Lark has a list of men he urgently wants to kill.  All the men were involved in a failed bank robbery that took place 17 years ago.  Lark's actions may be connected to a Michigan State Representative named Callie Spenser who is running for the United States Senate. Spenser's father is a former sheriff who was paralyzed after being shot by one of those bank robbers.

While Lark's motives for murder are unclear, we do know that he suffers from headaches and a condition called synesthesia,which causes him to see written words as having color and movement.  We also know he likes to read mysteries (the written words in most mysteries are manageable for him), which leads to David Loogan, the editor of a mystery magazine called Gray Streets.  Loogan receives a manuscript in which someone confesses to murdering a man named Harry Kormoran and provides the next name on his hit list.  It just so happens that police are investigating the murder of a man named Harry Kormoran.  Thus, the game is on.      

The game, however, doesn't prove to be very exciting.  A key problem with Very Bad Men, in my view, is that it doesn't create and retain the same cool, noir ambiance that made Bad Things Happen such a neat book.  Perhaps one reason for this change in ambiance is that Loogan is really more of a second banana in Very Bad Men.  Although he does engage in various bits of freelance investigating that get him into trouble, he is also frequently riding the coattails of his girlfriend, Ann Arbor Police Detective Elizabeth Waishkey.

Indeed, Waishkey and her colleagues who are investigating the murders seem to receive significant attention in this book.  While they are interesting characters, bringing them further into the forefront of the plot makes the book much more ordinary.

Perhaps another reason for the change in ambiance between books is that in Bad Things Happen,  Loogan was an unknown, potentially dangerous man.  Mr. Dolan so completely resolved many of the mysteries surrounding Loogan in his first book that there is a loss of tension and suspense surrounding the character. For me, the transition of Loogan into just a nice guy who likes to help solve crimes is not much fun.  There is also less fun in following the numerous plot twists and turns in Very Bad Men, a technique that had made Bad Things Happen so fresh and gripping to read.  The numerous plot twists become tiring in Very Bad Men when not supported by the old mysteries surrounding Loogan and the noir atmosphere.

Although I found Very Bad Men to rate only 3 points on a 5-point scale, I'm not ready to give up author Harry Dolan.  Bad Things Happen was very enjoyable and quickly reproducing that level of quality is likely challenging.  I'll keep reading Mr. Dolan's work to see what he does next.      

Planning a Spring Break Trip? What Books Will You Bring?

It's finally February.  That means spring break is just around the corner.  Is anyone planning a trip this winter?  a few days at the beach, perhaps?

If you are bound for Mexico and looking for a Spanish phrase book, check out Rick Steves' Spanish Phrase Book & Dictionary.  Although the guide is oriented to Spain, not Latin American, the vocabulary and phrases are great.  In addition to all the usual things a tourist needs, such as words and phrases for changing money and ordering in a restaurant, the book includes gems such as the translation for "I've fallen and can't get up" as well as the popular favorite for taxi rides, "Slow down or I'll throw up."  The book is useful and fun.

But what to read when on the plane or at the beach?  Here are a few books I'm interested in checking out.  If you've read any of these, or have recommendations for good books to take on vacation, please share your thoughts in comments!

1222 by Anne Holt.

The Fifth Witness by Michael Connelly.

Miss Timmins' School for Girls by Nayana Currimbhoy.

Gillespie and I by Jane Harris.