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Review List II

Thursday, June 8, 2006 | Permalink | Comments [0]

I’ve been reading a lot of books lately.

While I was a voracious reader growing up, my consumption of fictional literature has slowly declined over the past decade, with occasional flurries of activity as authors such as Neil Stephenson, Michael Chabon, J.K. Rowling, or Paul Auster momentarily caught my attention. That’s not too say that I don’t read anymore, I am constantly reading design, art and computer books and dumping all of my expendable income into comics and graphic novels. It’s my patronage of the novel that has withered. However, I recently rediscovered the public library, which I had abandoned years ago as branch hours were cut and it was impossible to remember on what days it was open. (According to my wife, who is currently getting her Master’s degree in educational technology, California’s library system ranks 51st in the nation, beaten out by Guam.) Even with the shortened hours, technology has made it much easier to get books from the library. I can access Long Beach Public Library’s catalog online, renew my books with a click of the mouse and even reserve books for pick-up at my local branch. With prices on the rise, the library has freed me to try books that I wasn’t willing to drop fifteen dollars on at the store.

My first acquisitions was Bad Dirt: Wyoming Stories 2 by Annie Proulx. While I’ve never been a much of a fan of short stories, I had great hopes for this collection. A few years ago, I happened upon a copy of The Shipping News, which is one of the best novels I’ve ever read. The book’s sharp, clipped Hemingway-esque prose is almost poetic, while Proulx’s description of the land and people of Newfoundland is deeply nuanced and profoundly moving. Unfortunately, the stories of Bad Dirt did not live up to my expectations. Like The Shipping News, Proulx seems to be trying to use the land and history of Wyoming to shape and inform the characters in her stories but with far less success. The stories seemed muddled, unfocused and, worst of all, boring. Even the aforementioned style of prose is absent, replaced by a rather serviceable but bland narrative style that lacks all the magic of her former work. I managed to finish the book, but not without some struggle. I was very disappointed.

The Saxon Stories, a new series of books from Bernard Cornwell is fantastic. I picked up book one, The Last Kingdom, after spotting one of his books on display at Borders. I recalled his name from several Richard Sharpe miniseries I had watched years ago on Masterpiece Theatre (which is remarkable in and of itself, considering that I don’t normally watch the show). With that sort of pedigree, I was surprised to learn that Cornwell is a contemporary author and, after perusing several of his titles, I was intrigued by the subject matter of The Saxon Stories.

As one might infer from my surname, I am especially fond of stories features Vikings.

The series is historical fiction, with Cornwell using what facts he can and making up the rest. The books take place in late-800s England as Danish armies led by Ivar the Boneless, Ubba, and Guthrum storm across the isle, defeating the kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, and East Anglia. Wessex, led by Alfred the Great, is the last kingdom to face the invading Danes. The series is remarkably similar to Harry Harrison’s terrific The Hammer and the Cross trilogy from a decade ago. While it too covered the Danish invasion of England and chose for its protagonist a young English boy of remarkable ability and luck who is adopted and raised by the Danes, Harrison’s work was one of historical fantasy. Instead of Alfred repelling the Danes, he joins them and they go onto conquer much of Europe as well. Cornwell’s series makes for a nice contrast to Harrison’s, as equally compelling but much more faithful to history.

I am eagerly awaiting the US publication of the third book in The Saxon Stories, The Lords of the North.

I read Sharpe’s Tiger after finishing The Pale Horseman hoping that the joy I got from The Saxon Stories would cross over into The Sharpe Series. While I enjoyed the book, it wasn’t nearly as compelling. Sharpe’s Tiger takes place in 1799 in India as the British marched on Mysore. The series is written in the third person, unlike The Saxon Stories which is written in the first, which perhaps lessens the immediacy of the narrative. The book is fairly historically accurate, although major concessions are made so that Sharpe himself can save the day. Overall the book was an enjoyable read and I’ll probably pick-up another eventually, but I didn’t feel the urge to run down to the library and begin the next book in the series immediately.

I’m currently reading 1776 by David McCullough. The book won the Pulitzer Prize, which gave me great hope for the quality of its writing and I have not yet been disappointed. My interest in the Revolutionary War was piqued after extensive genealogy research revealed that one of my own ancestors, my great-great-great-great grandfather William Mapel, served as a private in the Pennsylvania militia in 1779 (the war did not end until the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783). And this book does an excellent job of not only informing the reader as to the thoughts and actions of the generals and politicians controlling the Continental Army, but of the common soldier as well. McCullough makes liberal use of excerpts from letters, newspaper clippings, and memoirs to paint a picture of the entire conflict, both in the colonies and in England, although the book definitely is biased towards the cause of the Americans. It jumps into conflict during the Siege of Boston in the summer of 1775, alluding to Concord and Lexington and the Battle of Bunker Hill without spending much time on either conflict. Instead, the book looks forward towards the larger campaign that Washington would mount against the British and the Americans’ gradual shift from their pursuit of civil rights as English subjects towards the growing cause of colonial independence.

Next up? If 1776 continues to hold my interest, I may attempt reading another of McCullough’s Pulitzer Prize winning histories, John Adams.