WELCOME TO HELL

THE GLISTER
John Burnside
Doubleday/Nan A Talese
2008


This is not horror of the Stephen King variety (though i have nothing against SK)....rather it is cerebral....almost to a fault..meaning one can get lost in the atmosphere, both of the writing itself, and the setting of the story....to the point that one forgets that not much is actually happening,,,,that being said.

An abandonded chemical plant still awash in toxins...becomes the refuge of disaffected youth in the town that once depended on it..the town itself dying from civic apathy, cultural decline..the vestiges of corporate greed...severe ennui...and various odd cancers

Every year or so a boy from the local school has gone missing in the local Poisoned Woods. The local policeman, aware of the fact that these have actually been deaths..ritual killings......is also aware of the means by which they have been covered up...and suffers the usual pangs of guilt.A group of local youth decides to take matters into their own hands...or at least bring someone to Justice....with disastrous results..after a particularly violent bit of Avenging, one of the boys, Leonard, teams up with a fellow denizen of The Bad Place...and all hell proceeds to break loose in ways brutal, pathetic, and Biblical..ritual killing and an Infernal Machine.complete the steps to Oblivion

Imagine being a witness to your own death? Imagine that you are but one in a chain? Imagine being aware of these facts at the one moment when it is too late for that awareness to matter?

this was one of the best books i have read in a long while
5 Stars


*this is a review of an ARC*

AW SHUCKS!

Just want to thank everyone who has stopped by and posted comments lately. I am amazed that anyone, besides myself, is interested in these reviews....no, seriously. So again, a big thank you to my "visitors"..I have one review...in the works...and a couple more "books on tap" to be read..and far more coming into the house than are "necessary".....shelf space is becoming a serious problem...ahem.

Oh, well...enough of this. I must go to read...

And You Think Your Job Is Difficult...

MISTRESS OF THE ART OF DEATH
Ariana Franklin
G P Putnam’s Sons
2007
280 pages




“Name of the Rose” crossed with “Silence of the Lambs”???? Whichever, the premise is as old as Time. Someone is savagely murdering children, and Someone Else has to discover who and, more importantly, why.

In this case, the year is 1157 AD, the city is Cambridge, England during the reign of Henry II,who is held,to this day, responsible for the death and subsequent canonization of Thomas a Becket..Someone is murdering English children and the Jews are being blames..the same Jews who fill the coffers of the realm..the eternally scapegoated Jews....enter Simon of Naples, himself a Jew and well-known “fixer”; his erstwhile sidekick, Adelia Vesuvia Aguilar, a “mistress of the art of death”, and a Physician to boot..which fact, if widely known, could condemn her as a Witch in the society of Cambridge...throw in a Saracen bodyguard and watch them enter the story among a troupe of pilgrims returning from Canterbury with relics, sickness, and a murderer in tow...so the story begins.

and what a story! i was impressed with Ms Franklin’s scholarship regarding the historical aspects of this tale...its Politics and mores. her portrayal of everyday life and death was a joy to read. her characters were actually Characters and not dialogue-spouting cutouts. my only qualm was the intrusion of a Romantic Aspect..which sells books, i know. But Adelia was subject to self-doubt on her best days...once she encountered the Studly Rowly she went all soft and girly and nearly lost her head.....but that’s a minor quibble, given the strength of the rest of the book. i had no problem with the rather savage end of the SICKLY NUN...and the MURDERER got his just desserts as well

I’m not sure i want to read the sequel(s) in the series but i strongly recommend this first foray....4 stars at least

Rock n Roll..in Novel Form?

DARK SIDE OF THE MORGUE: A Spike Berenger Rock n Roll Hit
RAYMOND BENSON
A Leisure Book/Dorchester Publishing
305 pages
March 2009



Someone is killing Progressive Rock musicians in Chicago-one by one. Only thing is, the sole suspect is a ghost. Enter the intrepid ROCKIN’ SECURITY team, summoned from NYC at the behest of a potential victim. Considering the fact that Chicago never had a Progressive Rock movement, this story is a bit of a stretch from Jump Street. Given that the dead musicians-and Spike Berenger, head of said ROCKIN’ SECURITY- are all past the prime of life...the novel creaks along with a certain charm..and an equally certain annoyance factor.

i found the plot intriguing- the psychological deterioration of rock musicians is always so...However, the amount of information imparted-most of it fictitious-was done so, i thought, in a didactic fashion that hampered the characters’ portrayal...i thought
Spike Berenger lacked a certain “charm” because he was too busy spouting “old history”....and he tried awfully hard to play a Tough Guy...

other than that, i thought it was an enjoyable book. i don’t usually read Rock n Roll novels, which tend to be either overly sentimental or painfully HIP..this one skirted the pitfalls, but barely.. i read the entire book in order to find out how Mr Benson handled the ending..not bad. i have recommended this title to people who already like the Genre..no one has complained yet

i still can’t figure, though, if this story is “....just another brick in the wall”...or not?

AMERICAN RUST by Philipp Meyer

American Rust
Philipp Meyer
343 pages
Spiegel & Grau (ARC)
2009




Two young men from a dying Pennsylvania steel mill town are involved in a murder and its aftermath.....their desire to leave a hometown that offers no future...the ties of friendship and family that both strengthen and strangle..guilt and innocence, both in a legal and social sense...intensely dramatic...at times, the characters’ interior monologues seem to go on forever but there is a method to the madness.

i find the comparisons to Steinbeck a bit premature, but i see a lot of potential in Mr. Meyer’s debut novel...shades of Pete Dexter (PARIS TROUT) and Russell Banks (RULE OF THE BONE) are strong

this was not an easy read for me since i live not far from Western Pennsylvania...and if you swap Coal Mines for Steel Mills you do have the area where i live..in the late 70s-80s when the coal mines started to close. the characters in this book could be my neighbors and their grandsons..the voices in this book rang true for me, albeit painfully. i enjoyed this book and look forward to Mr Meyer’s next effort


this is a review of an ARC....

I Return...bearing a Review

THREE MINUTES ON LOVE
Roccie Hill
274 pages
2008
The Permanent Press


this is a review of an ARC:

I tend to avoid books set in the 60s-70s like the Plague. I lived through the Era and bear no Sentimentality toward it

This book is different. Granted, it's the story of Rosie Kettle and David Wilderspin-a Photographer and Musician, respectively-set against the backdrop of wretched excess that was the Southern California music scene in the 70s...but the backdrop stays that way. This is the story of two talented people trying to "make it" and make a life against the odds...of their own temperaments and the "business' of Art.

From the giddy, erotic beginnings of Love..to the Growing pains of Marriage...to the loss of a child....the story unfolds, crumbles, but does not die. the music scene is still full of excess and greed but money is tighter..Artists still battle their demons daily. Rosie Kettle's voice rings true here...from a whisper to a scream.

I liked this book..it gave me much food for thought...Roccie Hill knows her stuff..but more than that, she knows her heart. i still avoid books set in the 60s & 70s, though.

Dead

Dead is Dead.....and will be...for a while, here

Sorry/Sari

J