Archive | April, 2010

Biblioholic Review: Gourmet Rhapsody

30 Apr

I just finished Mureil Barbery’s Gourmet Rhapsody and since I picked this book up because I enjoyed Barbery’s Elegance of the Hedgehog, this review will be a twofer.

First, Elegance of the Hedgehog was the much talked about novel from the French author that hit the American market in 2008.  This book is a little hard to get into and admittedly not a lot happens so if you are looking for action or an easy read, this book is not for you.  However, if you are a lover of books and all things culture, then this book speaks directly to you!

The main character, Renee, a concierge of a fancy-pants apartment building, is a low-class peasant with the heart, mind and soul of an aristocrat.  She plays dumb for the residents, who are more than happy to believe her, all except for two, an elegant Japanese man and a precocious, perhaps suicidal, 12 year-old.

Please don’t think of these two as sidekicks, they are fully formed characters with lives of their own.  Now back to ‘not much happening,’ this may be unfair.  Although the comings and goings of the residents are secondary, and Renee hardly leaves her flat, her life is a fertile ground of good books, good movies and good conversation.  Her passion for all things aesthetic transports her, and you, away from the drudgery of the over-privileged into the world we all wish to live in.  Of course, this is a french novel and at times tragic, but ultimately I was moved by the beauty Renee sought in a world outside her own.

And now for Gourmet Rhapsody, (technically this book precedes Elegance,) this book cleverly turns one of those over-privileged residents into its main character.  A loathsome Parisian food critic is on his death-bed, literally.  As any of us can manage, with death looming, one takes inventory of his life, searches for something missing.  The foodie scribe is searching for the perfect taste.  This book differs than Elegance in that the food critic is not likable, where it would be a privilege to know Renee.  But despite that, Ms. Barbery imbued so much passion into the critic’s recollections that you can imagine a man worth knowing, if only his fond memories were about his family rather than his meals.  He recalls times from early in his life where he first experienced a taste that leads him anew in a search for his final taste.  He is a snob, has made a career of being a snob but at the end of his life, he begins to glimpse this may have been the wrong path.

There is no happy ending or redemption here, but the prose is so beautiful that it really doesn’t matter.  The lesson is learned in the final minute but does it really matter at this point?  After reading both books, I wonder if I knew french and read the originals, would it be as beautiful?  Or maybe some of the credit should really go to the translator, Alison Anderson.  In any case, I feel lucky to have read these words.

These books, Gourmet Rhapsody and Elegance of the Hedgehog, were purchased by Boston Book Bums for our biblioholic enjoyment.

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On Deck: Harvard University Press Fall Offerings

29 Apr

Harvard University Press released their Fall 2010 catalog this week and there are a few titles that piqued our non-fiction interest.

Batting lead in our early interest book lineup is Sean McMeekin’s The Berlin-Baghdad Express.  The book examines how the German government and their industrialist allies sought to undermine the British Empire throughout the Levant in years leading up to World War I. The Berlin-Baghdad Express is due out in September.

Next up, Poetry and Police from Robert Darnton follows “subversive” poems spread throughout 18th century France and how the government attempted to crack down on this earliest form of viral networking. Poetry and Police is due out in November.

Michael Rawson’s Eden on the Charles sketches the development and methods used to grow our great city of Boston. Eden however shows the growth from an environmental point of view, through diverting bodies of water to filling in “Back Bay” and the ring of parks that make Boston unique. Eden on the Charles is due out in October.

The Gnostics by David Brakke handles the debated topic of Gnosticism and its relationship with the foundation years of the Christian faith. The Gnostics is due out in January of 2011.

Sublime Dreams of Living Machines by Minsoo Kang tackles the European fascination from the earliest technological ages with the automatons and how humanity and machinery interacted through the Industrial Age. Sublime Dreams of Living Machines is due out in February 2011.

Of course we at Boston Book Bums look to review these upcoming works through the year.

Any book reviewed at Boston Book Bums will be clearly marked as purchased or free. Books purchased by BBB for our “Biblioholic enjoyment” will be noted as will those received freely from publishers for review.

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Biblioholic Review: The Crimes of Paris

28 Apr

It’s notable that many really good book bloggers skip over non-fiction or history books. Sure you’ll see the bios pop up here and there, but what about those meaty histories that engage as well as educate? As a person once told a Boston Book Bum, ‘Why would I read that for fun when I wouldn’t even read it in college.’

Fair enough, but we at Boston Book Bums believe history, when told right can be just as engaging or gut wrenching as any work of fiction. One such example is The Crimes of Paris by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler, published by Little & Brown.

Crimes of Paris is truly a non-fiction thriller. How do you initiate the average reader into the world of early 20th century Parisian criminology? Steal the Mona Lisa. When the famous painting vanished from the walls of the Louvre, the country and the world wrung its hands in collective angst. Was it the work of a lunatic, or a ransom plot or perhaps a move by the German government to weaken or provoke the Third Republic government?

The theft is just the set piece in the larger tale of Belle Epoque Paris, ravaged by crime, assaulted by anarchists, murders and thieves. The Hooblers’ carry off the unusual fête of combing astounding levels of details (which pleases the uber-detail geek in me) with fiction perfect pacing.

What adds to Crimes of Paris value as social history is its exploration, without belittling or over stating, the French admiration for the criminal element. It’s especially interesting when you compare it to the American lauding of the law man. Justice at the end of the gun or with two fists embodied the American desire for rights against wrongs. Sure the U.S. flirts with gangsters, but the French titter with unbridled delight at the exploits of the world’s greatest literary criminal Fantomas.

As the Hooblers’ note, “More terrorist than criminal, Fantomas is a ruthless killer who decapitates people, blows up ocean liners, spreads plague germs through Paris, fills perfume bottles with acid in a department store, and hijacks a Metro train- all with no apparent reason.”

Their exploration of Fantomas is a broad side note which helps fully contextualize the crime ridden world of the City of Light. And yet while fiction gave the French the prototypical villain, real-life crime fighting methodology was pioneered by Frenchman Alphonse Bertillon.

Bertillon, the policeman who essentially gave birth to scientific crime scene investigation, launched early biometrics, cataloging of criminals, mug shots and crime scene photography. His skills made Bertillon the real-life version of British sleuth Sherlock Holmes.

And in Bertillon the Hooblers’ find the perfect ‘straight man’ to contrast the crooked dispositions of the anarchists and gun-wielding bank robbers. Page after page Crimes of Paris bounces around the city itself without being too tangential.

The layers of fact, fascinating stories and acute appreciation for French culture at the turn of the century, come together for a near perfect non-fiction work.

The Crimes of Paris, by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler, published by Little & Brown, was purchased by Boston Book Bums for our biblioholic enjoyment.

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Book Blogger Convention: Are You Attending?

26 Apr

Late next month book bloggers from around the globe will gather for the first annual Book Blogger Convention.

We here at the Boston Book Bums are weighing whether we can shuffle, rejigger and otherwise push some tin to attend this special convention (places to go, people to see type of weekend.)

It could be a great opportunity to discuss the issues facing publishing; as well as the media that we inhabit these days. As one member of the BBB team is a former journalist, we are always keen to argue ethics, integrity and responsibility. Rising professional tide lifts all blogger boats.

One could easily argue the field of book blogging is rapidly outstripping old media book reviews in value (especially with the advent of social media as a review force multiplier.) Networking outside of the Web 2.0, some old-fashioned pounding the pavement, pressing the flesh interaction could prove the vital last link in cementing a book blogging bloc.

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Biblioholic Review: Alchemy of Murder

26 Apr

In part one of our Parisian week of reviews, BBB opines on Alchemy of Murder, the inaugural mystery from author Carol McCleary. In Alchemy we follow intrepid American journalist Nellie Bly attempting to unravel a series of continent spanning murders that ultimately reveals a plot to throw the entire world into anarchy.

Bly, a real and pioneering reporter of the late 19th century, has been cooped by McCleary to save the world with the help of Jules Verne (yeah that Jules Verne,) Oscar Wilde (yeah that Oscar Wilde) and Louis Pasteur….yeah, you get it.

We are currently weathering a tempest of historical mash-ups, some good, some bad, others sardonic, others horrific. Alchemy is wedged right in the middle of the pack, not quite good, not quite bad. It claims to be the recovered secret diary of Bly, with the occasional ‘Editor’ footnotes and some rather lackluster attempts at period pencil illustrations.

McCleary is ambitious in her first novel, mostly in page length. As I pushed through this book over the past week, I kept thinking, ‘If this was cut, the story would move better.’ Overall, it seems Alchemy was written in a way to fill pages, rather than create a taut, enjoyable tale. At 365 pages, the story would have been better paced by cutting out 50.

With the makings of a solid, workman talent, McCleary however falls into the tiger pit of verbosity and emotional exposition. She makes the (truly) amazing Bly utterly unlikable for a majority of the book. Strong willed and stubborn are one thing, egocentric and obstinate are another. And Bly’s pining for Jules Verne…misplaced.

The tightness of the climax (while at times a bit, well, goofy) shows McCleary can tell a pulpish tale. Maybe she just needs to admit that herself and drive on with that renewed spirit. And right there on the book jacket we are forewarned (or teased) there is an upcoming Nellie Bly sequel. Hmmm…perchance Around the World in 72 Days?

The 21st century needs a female pulp author, we need more penny dreadfuls, with some tightening of prose McCleary could be that author. If not, she could languish in that literary swamp between brainless block buster and intimate novella.

Alchemy of Murder had potential, but lost it in one too many laps around Paris.

If only Fantomas had been there to school Nellie in the dark arts of crime.

Alchemy of Murder by Carol McCleary, published by Forge , was purchased for our biblioholic enjoyment by Boston Book Bums.

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Biblioholic Cartography: Paris

25 Apr

Over the coming days you will see a theme here on Boston Book Bums, books set in Paris. It was quite accidental on our part, the theme. But late the other night we realized we had three books queued up, freshly read and reviews being crafted, all set in the City of Light.

This week Boston Book Bums will review Alchemy of Murder by Carol McCleary, The Crimes of Paris by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler; and Gourmet Rhapsody by Muriel Barbery.

A Novel Hometown: Books About Your Roots

24 Apr

We here at Boston Book Bums are very protective of our great city of Boston (Cambridge, Somerville, etc.) Through the years we’ve seen some horrendous accents in some cheesy movies depicting our fair metro region. However in recent years, with projects like The Departed and Gone Baby Gone, the tide has turned cinematically in our favor. Literary stabs at our beloved Beantown have been far-ranging as well, from The Bostonians, to Altered States, Handmaidens Tale and Robert B. Parker’s Spenser novels.

So, it got us thinking here at Boston Book Bums, what are your favorite Boston-based books? New or old, it doesn’t matter. What book felt comfortable and familiar, yet strange as a new tale can be?

And if you aren’t from this wonderful metropolis, has there been a book that featured your hometown or hamlet? Let’s hear from your top picks of Boston or beyond.

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Biblioholic Review: Task Force Black

23 Apr

I’ve always been interested in military history, specifically the conflicts in the Middle East going back to the wars of the Bible. No matter your political beliefs on the ongoing war in Iraq, the lessons and stories of the soldiers called to fight in the cradle of civilization is worth exploration. In the United Kingdom, a new book, Task Force Black, explore the role of the British Special Air Service in Iraq.

TF Black, not yet released in the U.S., saw the light of day after the Ministry of Defense fought its publication tooth and nail. Not for its criticism of the overall British campaign, which TF Black did heap scorn on the regular Army’s efforts, but more from the worry that revealing operational details and techniques could harm the special operations machine in the future.

Admittedly certain sections and more in-close details seemed redacted and hastily fleshed out again to keep the history flowing. However, that would be the sole criticism from this detail fiend. If you are gear junkie, outside of several references to the special operations chic Multicam, if you want to know what kind of radios, boots or even skivvies the SAS used in Iraq, this is not the book for you.

Overall author Mark Urban, a BBC defense correspondent, paints a broad picture of the British special forces contingent in the war in Iraq. We are introduced to select warriors and officers and their daily hunts for a variety of terrorist targets around Iraq. While they lack the resources of the United States special operations forces, like the well featured Special Operations Force- Delta, the SAS used their generational counterterrorism experience in Northern Ireland as a spring-board in Iraq. Admittedly not flawless the SAS in Task Force Black are shown to be brave and capable, if less political than their American counterparts. Urban writes the SAS were up to the challenge of a brutal, aggressive operational tempo set by the leadership of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command.

From an American reader’s point of view, insights about the generals leading the effort, like Gen. Stanley McChrystal are interesting as they generally divorced from the political soul-searching embedded in most domestic Iraq war books. Especially interesting is McChrystal’s relationship with the SAS and his ‘industrial counterterrorism’ approach of collecting intelligence, using technology and aggressive multiple raids in effort crush the flow of militants before, during and after their creation.

Task Force Black is not without criticism. The SAS, understandably so, are painted as the sole saving grace of the British forces in Iraq with the larger ‘green’ contingent deploying with the hopes of quickly leaving again. Urban does point out that some in the British chain of command found the U.S. obsession with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi misguided, boosting a terrorist leader beyond his real-world status within the terrorist hierarchy inside Iraq. Only to then leak video obtained in a raid that painted al-Zarqawi as a weapons handling buffoon, cutting the legs from their own terrorist mastermind argument.

Related, Urban gives a good detail into the relationship Iran had with militants and terrorists in Iraq during the bloodiest days of the war. Starting with the deadly Explosively Formed Penetrators, which the U.S. was convinced were coming straight from Iran with the Brits a bit more skeptical, through relatively unknown raids on Iranian quasi-embassy in Irbil to mysterious revenge raids in the south; Urban ably illuminates a war-within-a-war. It might be the strongest, most well-informed portion of Task Force Black.

Urban’s book moves fast, has some harrowing tales of combat, bravery and a few blunders. In the non-fiction canon of SAS Task Force Black serves ably at building the unit’s history in the 21st century.

Task Force Black by Mark Urban, published by Little & Brown UK, was purchased for review by Boston Book Bums

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Biblioholic Review: Devils in Exile

22 Apr
We’ve been meaning to read Chuck Hogan’s works for some time now. When we saw that his newest Boston-centric novel, Devils in Exile, was due out earlier this year, we kept it on the radar (or by BlackBerry calendar.)
Devils follows Iraq/Afghan veteran Neal Maven (nice grizzly noir name) as he lands stateside in Boston. From warrior to glorified valet, Maven spends his cold and lonely nights monitoring the comings and goings in a parking garage downtown.
Immediately, Maven is tragic, real but detached. A classic, correct way to warm up the reader to our anti-hero. After a violent run-in demonstrates his unbridled ass kicking skills, Maven is courted in a macho version of a man-date by a shadowy “Realtor” named Brad Royce.
It seems “Roycey” is no mere moleskin jacket wearing apartment pusher, but more of a hard polished coffin nail. Wooed and recruited, Maven employs his old clock cleaning skills on drug pushers around Boston with a crew of former military types. Royce treats his men like family, feasting, partying and providing them with drink and luxurious accommodations. At times we wondered if Hogan was channeling some 24fps imagery from director Michael Mann, like scenes from Heat and Thief, where the master thief is the loving, but maniacal patriarch.

Thrown into the mix early is the revelation that Royce’s main squeeze is a south shore Italian gal named Danielle Vetti, a goddess that Maven once lusted for. We see her sporadically coming and going, keeping our anti-hero sufficiently aroused and disenchanted with this still unattainable and flawed Venus. We found their encounters and conversations surprisingly genuine, enjoyable because they were awkwardly real.

Of course Hogan makes sure the reader, whether a native, newbie or distant viewer, is given the grand tour of the heart of downtown, mingling around Boylston, occasionally wandering to the South End. Heaping on plenty of restaurants and bars along the way, including the recently closed Chef Chang’s (RIP) in Brookline. At Bukowski’s (my all time favorite bar btw) on Dalton Street he mentions the ‘wheel of beer’ and a comely young barmaid. Two more pluses for the home town crowd.

However, some of his more tangential characters seemed wasted, like the obligatory ‘fuzz’, DEA agent “Lash.” At times the federal law enforcer feels a bit hollow, a left over from an older story, recycled for Devils. Lash came across fine for a world of the 1970s or 80s, but the character doesn’t ring as true as some of the other inhabitants of the 21st century world created by Hogan.

Hogan’s military trade craft employed by the team of righteous drug avenging soldiers felt a bit weak and completely falls when Maven works the “safety” on a Glock. Yeah, no safety on Glock’s to manipulate Sunny Jim. Maven also does some things that a truly fleshed out “operator” would never do. As readers we felt like it might have been Hogan’s way of saving up for a big twist at the end, Maven was a sociopath poser, not a true dyed in the wool snake eater.

Action is pretty satisfactory, outside of some awkward firearms stuff. Stabbing, shooting and beatings, the trifecta of a modern noir thriller.

Dialogue, as explored by Hogan, in certain scenes is strong too. The taut verbal interplay between Maven and Royce, as well as Maven and Danielle, layered tension in otherwise unthreatening scenes.

Hogan has earned quite a few accolades in recent years for his works like, The Prince of Thieves, winning a Hammett Prize along the way. So when we read the book, we kept in mind that at 312 pages, it would be a quick read with some breezy pacing and broad character building strokes. Those elements, Hogan successfully executed. Did the climax seem a bit rushed? Yes, with some creative typesetting and leading filling out the last dozen pages, but overall it worked well in hastening the end of Maven’s story.

Overall, Devils in Exile is a gritty little ride around Boston, with some very unsavory bad guys in the driver’s seat. Hogan creates a thriller noir story with some Mack Bolan-esque touches, without the camp or political machinations. Plus, any story that has an action scene in a Plymouth area cranberry bog will get read by B3.

Devils in Exile by Chuck Hogan, from Akashic Noir, was purchased for review by the Boston Book Bums

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Biblioholic Review: A Foreign Affair

21 Apr

I picked up Caro Peacock’s A Foreign Affair in the bookstore bargain bin but I don’t think it’s an indictment of the book’s quality or author prowess. Probably it’s due to it being an innaugural novel, unknown in the States (originally published in the UK under the title Death at Dawn.) A follow-up novel is already on the shelves in Britain and will  soon see the light of day here.

A Foreign Affair is a straight forward historical murder mystery set at the dawn of the Victorian age. A young, intelligent, pigheaded woman by the name of Liberty Lane, awaits her beloved father’s return from a Continental tour.  I suppose Liberty Lane is a perfectly alliterate heroine moniker but it’s hard not to think of a stripper in patriotic pasties

Liberty’s surprise visit ends in tragedy as she discovers her father has been killed in a duel. Liberty doesn’t buy it for a minute, simply, her father is not that kind of man by any measure. What follows is the adventures of a plucky 22 year-old trying to ferret out the truth regarding her dad’s death by gunshot.

This book has all the hallmarks of  the prototypical precocious 20-something detective, cue Nancy Drew. Except, this mystery is intensely personal for Liberty despite it being set against the momentousness days of  Queen Victoria ascension to the thrown the ripe age of 18-years-old.

Sure there are regal plots afoot, world shaking events are the hook, but what makes A Foreign Affair work is the glimpse of a class of Victorian we normally do not get.

What I find most interesting about the story is this woman may not have money, but that doesn’t mean she is a pauper and she is not of the same social circles that Jane Austen’s characters butterfly around in. It seems to me that one rarely reads about the “middle class” of the Victorian age. I found the characters in Liberty’s  social circle interesting, not as vapid as the upper class, not as put upon as the lower class. In her quest to understand her father’s death, Liberty is united with artists and a simple workman, a departure from a class of fiction populated by bookish gadflys and disconnected effete affluent.

In her loss, Liberty finds connections that transcend simple friendships or blood relations. In death, her father broadens Liberty’s life in ways she could never imagine.

I think I’ll check out Libby Lane’s next adventure.

A Foreign Affair by Caro Peacock was purchased for our biblioholic enjoyment by the Boston Book Bums.

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