fiction

Review: Gentilly Terrace

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Gentilly Terrace, Gordon Peter Wilson. Austin: Greenleaf Book Group Press, 2023.

Summary: A tale of petty and systemic graft interwoven with a troubled family, an FBI investigation and a budding love affair, all centered around a Vietnamese grocery in East New Orleans.

Gentilly Terrace was developed on high ground overlooking Lake Pontchartrain on the east side of New Orleans, literally on terraced blocks. Once a suburban community of Arts and Crafts bungalows built in the 1920’s, the neighborhood had declined as people moved further out. But this was the home of Jerry Sonthonax, a newly elected tax assessor for that part of New Orleans. Sonthonax lived on the edge of financial ruin, “borrowing” from client settlements and escrow accounts in his legal practice, trying to hit it big at the local racetrack. After a loss that nearly wiped him out, a racetrack buddy offered a different kind of tip. A Vietnamese grocery on the east side of his district was rumored to be running an illegal lottery, and might be a source of payoffs to maintain a low assessment.

Sonthonax goes to his mentor, Burton Clayton, assessor for the central business district, who has lined his pockets well in this way. All this goes through a middleman, Glenn Hornacek, who would present himself as a consultant who could “negotiate” lower assessments for a fee that he and Clayton would share. Sonthonax persuades the two to assist him in setting up a similar arrangement starting with the grocery.

Unbeknownst to them, FBI agent Magot Hoang is surveilling the grocery, using her Vietnamese language sills to translate the wiretaps. In the process, she hears the owner’s daughter trying to complain about an outrageous assessment increase, bringing Sonthonax name across her radar. Meanwhile, she has fallen in love with a local police officer, one who does off-duty security.

Lecky and Hildy Calloway are New Orleans socialites mostly by virtue of Hildy and her family’s wealth, which Lecky lives off of, while handling legal settlements for insurance companies. It’s a troubled family. Daughter Caroline has had substance abuse problems and is sent off to a residential facility, where she becomes involved with her counselor, arriving home pregnant until getting an abortion. Lecky is a hen-pecked husband increasing aware that he is gay and is starting to explore New Orleans gay life, including a one off with a salesclerk name Peterbilt, who keeps turning up, and also happens to be Caroline’s drug dealer, and the plaintiff in an insurance case Lecky is asked to handle for a minor head injury from a fallen sign at–you guessed it–the Vietnamese grocery.

And, if you hadn’t guessed it, the grocery is the scene of the story’s climax, and everyone except Clayton is there. For me, it was the predictability of this novel that made it ho-hum. The descriptions of this area of New Orleans are lush. At the same time, the description of the life of Gentilly Terrace, after the beginning of the story, was non-existent as the action of the story shifts to this store on its edges. Even the Vietnamese enclave might have been treated with greater depth. This work, a second novel, strikes me as the work of someone developing his craft, following a John Grisham-type path after a law career. I found the parts that connected to the cultural life of a part of New Orleans about which I knew nothing to be fascinating and wonder if a more skillful weaving of setting and plot may have made this a more interesting work.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book for review from the publisher through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program.

Review: The Book of Susan

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The Book of Susan, Melanie K. Hutsell. Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 2022.

Summary: A woman who seems to have it all, a successful husband, beautiful son, and tenure-track position begins to struggle with apprehensions about another woman who has come into her circle, visions apparently from God, anger and the inability to focus. As life unravels, she is diagnosed with a bipolar disorder and begins a long journey of discovery.

Dr. Susan Huffman seems to have it all together. A successful and esteemed husband, Sam, who is a chancery court judge, a beautiful son and a tenure-track position at a local college. She’s risen from humble beginnings in Clemtown. She has a wonderful circle of friends who have delightful dinner parties.

And then Lorraine comes. She joins the music making and upstages Susan and everyone else with her banjo. She shows effusive attention to Ian, Susan’s son, even giving him a stuffed animal, which becomes his favorite Lammykin. Susan perceives her as a threat to their circle. She starts keeping a journal. She has visions and undergoes a kind of spiritual awakening. But nothing dampens her suspicion of Lorraine who “just wants to be her friend.” There is a blow-up at a dinner party. Increasingly Susan seems to disconnect, sometimes unable to function, sometimes distracted. Then comes her blow-up with Ian as her husband walks in.

Susan knows something is not right and takes the first steps to get help. She sees a doctor who prescribes medication that doesn’t help. Then she sees a counselor, decides to take a leave from her faculty position, and finally sees a psychiatrist who diagnoses her as bipolar. Yet it seems too little, too late and she learns her husband is filing for divorce and custody of Ian. The rock bottom.

She returns to her home town and begins a journey of discovery. There is a kind of going back to move forward. The second half of the book describes not only how she came to terms with her illness through treatment, the kindness of the community, and even a fellow bipolar sufferer who connects her with a support group. Since spirituality was part of her descent into madness, she struggles with both wanting to believe and pray, and the knowledge that this was part of her descent.

Melanie T. Hutsell, the author, has lived inside this story as someone who has been diagnosed with a bipolar disorder for fifteen years. She helps us see how hard for someone with such a disorder to separate illness and reality (in fact, Susan had reason to be apprehensive of Lorraine). She traces the tortuous onset, the awakening to the fact that something is not right with oneself, and the long journey of therapy, care, and self-understanding that is part of the journey anyone with this condition must face. Through Susan, she helps us discover the power of “declaring membership in the fellowship of the flawed.”

In the end, I found myself wondering if the truly “deficient” one was Susan’s husband Sam, who could not tolerate the less-than-perfect marriage, and the uncertainty of the long road to healing for Susan. Perhaps Sam, having seen so much in chancery court, could not face the risk of a condition that wouldn’t get better. Melanie Hutsell does not back away from the reality that not all marriages survive the mental illness of a spouse. What she does is offer a sensitive, probing story of one who faced a bipolar disorder, a story with both loss and the hope, that even with a difficult condition, one may grow and find one’s place.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.

Review: The Deluge

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The Deluge, Stephen Markley. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2023.

Summary: A novel imagining the interaction of accelerating impacts of climate change and the unraveling of societies.

I should say at the outset that there are a number of reasons not to read this book:

  • It’s long–880 pages
  • It’s scary, because it reads like our news feeds on steroids–both in accounts of extreme weather and other climate change impacts and societal unraveling.
  • It involves movement back and forth in narrating the lives and actions of a disparate set of characters, all a part of a growing crisis intermixed with collages of news articles, fictional op-ed columns, and magazine articles. It’s not always easy to keep track of it all.
  • It’s raw with graphic descriptions of violence, of various iterations of sex, and adult language.

Yet, despite all this, I could not put it down and I can’t stop thinking about it and talking about it. The lead character in this book is really our planet–its ice sheets, its oceans, its atmosphere, and its weather. Markley portrays in vivid detail the extreme weather events we already are seeing–in even greater extremes. Unprecedented snow storms. An atmospheric river flooding California (certainly written before the recent actual weather events). Monstrous hurricanes with 250 mph winds. Fires that destroy Los Angeles. Sea levels inundating coastal cities. Midwest flooding. Triple digit heat domes a routine summer event. Melting permafrost and ocean floors releasing methane, leading to cascading increases in global warming.

The novel moves between the stories of a collection of characters. A passionate environmentalist, Kate Morris, founds a creative movement, Fierce Blue Fire, starting both local community development groups and a national lobbying effort to pass environmental legislation, ultimately gutted by carbon interests. Her story is told mostly through the eyes of Matt, her partner in an “open” relationship–the terms dictated by Kate. Tony Pietrus, is a scientist who discovers and models what happens when underwater methane is released through oceanic warming. Then there is the Pastor, a has-been actor who undergoes a conversion and becomes a religious alt-right charismatic figure who eventually runs for president as a tool of the carbon lobby. Jackie is a savvy ad exec, who crafts the media strategy that guts the climate legislation Kate had fought so hard for who goes on to join her partner, Fred, in building a global investment fund leveraging the changing energy and social situation to make lots of money for investors at the expense of the world’s poor–until she regains a conscience. There is a group of climate radicals, 6Degrees, committed to using violent means to stop big coal and corporate America that through compartmented protocols and infiltration of computer networks, evades detection while staging a series of increasingly violent bombings. Keeper, an ex-addict trying to put his life back together with the help of an immigrant pastor in a small town community and gets swept up in 6 Degrees activity. And there is Ashir, who writes memoranda to a congressperson that are really personal narratives. He is a brilliant analyst and mathematician whose predictive algorithm ends up being exploited by everything from sports betting to the investment fund Jackie and her partner, Fred, manage.

All of these characters’ stories unfold against the backdrop of an unraveling country. States seceding, An irreconcilably divided political environment controlled by powerful lobbies. A tanking economy. Food and power shortages. Increasingly violent and aggressive militias. And a similarly unraveling international situation. A series of “martyrdoms” lead to what seems an awakening and embrace of the actions needed to stabilize an ever-warming world, but one requiring generations of brave effort to do so.

While one might find faults with the book, its length, structure, and character development, I thought it all worked in the end. I found myself actually caring about many of the people. As I said, I couldn’t put it down. And it made me ask the question–could all this really happen? I find myself very troubled by the fact that I have no good argument to say, “it can’t happen here?” A society that threatens public health and political officials over wearing a piddly little face mask during a highly infectious pandemic strikes me as ill-prepared or disposed to enact radical and long term societal-wide changes to reduce global warming. Despite all we know and all the talk about energy-saving and renewables our U.S. carbon emissions went UP 1.3 percent in the last year.

Can fiction speak to what all our white papers and models have not? What Markley does is take a holistic look at what happens to a society when increasingly extreme weather disrupts the fabric of our lives on an increasingly pervasive scale. The picture isn’t pretty. He bids us to look into the abyss. While some act with nobility and courage, for many others, the worst nature dishes out brings out the worst in humans. He raises profound questions about whether our democratic republic can survive these stresses. There are indications that he hangs on to hope even while portraying how challenging the world will be for our children and grand-children. And perhaps that is where we need to be–both clear-eyed, and passionately hopeful. Lord have mercy!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.

Review: Josey Johnson’s Hair and the Holy Spirit

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Josey Johnson’s Hair and the Holy Spirit, Esau McCaulley, Illustrated by LaTonya Jackson. Downers Grove: IVP Kids, 2022.

Summary: Pentecost Sunday means a trip with dad to Monique’s salon to get Josey’s hair braided, a new red dress, and questions about why her hair is so different from other children’s.

Josey Johnson is a beautiful black girl whose “hair has a mind of its own,” different from the straight hair other girls at school and in cartoons and videos have. It’s the Saturday before Pentecost Sunday and her dad is taking her to Monique’s salon to get her hair braided and then shopping for a red dress.

Being the exuberant girl she is, she is full of questions. “Why is her hair different?”, “Why is she different?”, “What is Pentecost?” and, when the tongues of fire came down “Were they burned?” What follows is a wonderful conversation between Josey and her father as Monique makes beautiful braids in Josey’s hair, celebrating the beautiful differences of all God’s creatures and of all human beings including Josey. And the different languages of Pentecost proclaim that the work of Jesus is for people of all languages, skin colors, and types of hair.

A look inside (from the publisher’s website)

There are so many delights in this children’s story. Theologian Esau McCaulley weaves into the narrative rich theology of humans as God’s image bearers and the wonder of Pentecost in the proclamation of Christ for the nations. Then there is the sheer delight of a father taking his daughter to get her hair styled, joining Monique, who has “the best voice in the city,” in song at one point, and going dress shopping with his daughter. LaTonya Jackson’s vibrant illustrations are a feast for the eyes. And the concluding Pentecost celebrations struck me as the way Pentecost ought to be celebrated!

Most of all, this is a story for every child who feels “different,” affirming the “unique work of art” each one is. And every Black child will find great joy in hearing that “your black hair, Black lips, and Black skin are God’s work of art!” I found myself smiling and feeling warm inside as I read this book–and I’m a sixty-something, gray, balding white guy. I need the message of this book as well–God loves difference and Pentecost is a sign of how much he loves that difference!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.

Fall 2021 Book Preview — Fiction and Non-fiction

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I don’t only read academic theology. I enjoy history, essays, discussions of current affairs, and of course, good fiction. All of that has arrived at my door in the last months. Many are new books published this year, but mixed in are also some older titles, mainly from authors I’ve discovered I liked.

In the Shadow of King Saul, Jerome Charyn. New York: Bellevue Literary Press, 2018. Recently, I reviewed Swimming to the Top of the Tide. The publisher included a bonus book in their mailing, this collection of essays by the author of Sergeant Salinger, which I had reviewed this spring. I’m intrigued with what he will say in his essay on Saul, a biblical character I happen to have been studying of late.

Absence of Mind, Marilynne Robinson. New Haven: Yale University of Press, 2011. I love Marilynne Robinson’s fiction and essays, and this was a collection I had not read, found while browsing Thriftbooks. Turned out I was able to use a free book credit! What fun. She writes about the relation of science and religion and the new atheism in this collection.

Notes from No Man’s Land, Eula Biss. Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2009. I recently read this author’s Immunity and decided to pick up some of her other essays including this collection on race in America, a winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Having and Being Had, Eula Biss. New York: Riverhead Books, 2020. This is a more recent collection, examining middle class ethics.

After the Apocalypse, Andrew Bacevich. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2021. Argues for a different approach to U.S. foreign policy based on moral pragmatism and mutual coexistence with war as a last resort.

Devil in the White City, Erik Larson. New York: Vintage Books, 2003. I’ve discovered Erik Larson’s books and I’m looking forward to this one on the 1893 World’s Fair and a serial murderer!

Riding High in April, Jackie Townsend. Phoenix: Sparkpress, 2021. Just received this with LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer Program. The book is a tech thriller with a human element of love and friendship written by a former Silicon Valley management consultant.

Abundance Nature in Recovery, Karen Lloyd. New York: Bloomsbury Wildlife, 2021. This is a collection of essays on conservationist efforts in the face of biodiversity loss.

The Power of Us, Jay J. Van Bavel and Dominic J. Packer. New York: Little, Brown, Spark, 2021. Builds on the idea that the groups we are part of shape identity and can enhance performance, cooperation and social harmony.

The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War, Louis Menand. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021. Menand is an intellectual historian whose Metaphysical Club was one of my great reads several summers ago. This one is on the art and thought trends that arose during the Cold War.

Children of Ash and Elm, Neil Price. New York: Basic Books, 2020. The Vikings enter into the history of peoples from the Asian Steppes to North America. This birthday gift gives me a chance to read a history of these people who keep barging into so many others stories!

Cloud Cuckoo Land, Anthony Doerr. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2021. I thought All The Light We Cannot See was one of the best books I’ve read in the last decade. The writing voice I so appreciated in that work is here, but in a story occurring in three distinct times–as you can tell, I’m already into this book.

The Lincoln Highway, Amor Towles. New York: Viking, 2021. Towles is another novelist I’ve discovered in the past year, enjoying both of his deep dives into Jazz Age New York and a Russian hotel. This one is a cross-country flight to New York of several young fugitives on the title highway.

Along the way, I will be mixing in mysteries from Louise Penny, Ngaio Marsh and others. And what’s with the essays? Best I can figure is that blog posts are a version of essay, and I enjoy seeing how those who do it so well practice their craft–as well as the ideas they explore. Maybe this list will suggest some Christmas gift ideas–or not! At least you will know what not to buy me for Christmas if you are family! Whatever the case, you can look forward to hearing more about these books in the months ahead!

Fiction I Would Re-Read

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close up of books on shelf

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com

I wrote yesterday about having a hoard of books to read during stay at home orders or whatever they are called in your part of the world I suggested that at least part of our hoard might be those that you would want to re-read. Here are some of the fiction titles I have loved that I want to come back to and give another read.

Wendell Berry, Hannah Coulter. Really I could have included any of the Port William stories, but this one of tracing a love, the scars of warfare, and generations was quite wonderful.

Anthony Doerr, All The Light We Cannot See. This story of a German boy and a blind French girl whose paths cross as the Germans occupy Saint Malo is one of the most stunningly beautiful books published in the last ten years in my opinion.

Charles Dickens, David Copperfield. A big book. Memorable characters. The mirror image of Dickens (Dickens initials reversed).

Fyodor Doestoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov. For the depths of psychological insights into family and the philosophical explorations of the book.

C.S. Lewis. Till We Have Faces. The book Lewis thought his best, that readers thought his most difficult, and that has grown with each reading.

Alan Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country. Paton’s novel, set in apartheid Africa, focuses on love of country and land and the possibility of reconciliation despite grievous loss.

Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose. The writing of a history of family becomes the summing up of one’s life. I love all of his writing about the American West.

John Steinbeck, East of Eden. Steinbeck considered it his magnum opus. I would agree.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings. People hate Tolkien or love him. I’m in the latter camp, and find each reading richer than the last. My first was in college. My last was around the time of the movies. It might be time again

Homer, The Odyssey. One of the oldest works of fiction and one of the longest journeys home.

These ten books could carry me a long way through this quarantine (which for me really means until there is a vaccine). What books would be on your list?