historical fiction

Review: The Red and the Green

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Cover image of "The Red and The Green" by Iris Murdoch

The Red and the Green

The Red and the Green, Iris Murdoch. Open Road Integrated Media (ISBN: 9781453201190) 2010, first published in 1965.

Summary: The tangled lives and loves of a Dublin Irish family at the time of the Irish Rebellion of Easter Monday 1916.

I’ve appreciated some of the philosophically-oriented writings of Iris Murdoch. So, I thought I would sample one of her novels. It may be that others she has written are better. I’ll be upfront and say I was not impressed with this one. Others have won awards, so I may not give up without trying one of these.

The seting of the novel is the lead up to the Easter Monday Irish Rebellion of 1916. Andrew Chase-White, on leave after a war injury, joins his recently widowed mother Hilda on a visit to their relations in Dublin. She’s planning to live there. While raised an English Protestant, he is connected to the web of tangled relations that make up this extended family. Andrew’s grandmother’s first husband had two children, Brian and Millie. Millie had no children while Brian married his sister-in-law, Kathleen Kinnard, having two sons, Pat and Cathal, before he died. Kathleen remarried Andrew’s uncle Barnabas Drumm, an aimless scholar who had at one time hoped to be a priest. The other Kinnard sister, Heather, had married Christopher Bellman. They had one daughter, Frances, who Andrew grew up with and is expected to marry. Christopher is also a widower. So, do you have all that straight?

So much of this novel revolves around troubled sexuality. Andrew really loves Frances but he can’t imagine having sex with her. She seems to be the only one with sense, and refuses his proposal. At one point, someone comments that Pat isn’t interested in girls. Only in the Irish Republic.

Millie craves the affection of lots of men and nearly every male in this book finds his way to her bed. Barnabas, in a loveless marriage with a wife devoted to religious causes, regularly takes comfort with her. So does Frances father, Christopher Bellman, who is willing to marry her and help her out of financial straits. She also has her flirtations with younger men, including both Andrew and Pat. Both seek her out on the same night. This results in one of the more hilarious scenes when Christopher, riding through the rain, shows up as well. At the same time, there is a quasi-incestuous character to all of this.

But remember that Irish Rebellion? Both Pat and his younger brother Cathal are Volunteers in the cause with Pat as one of the leaders. Pat even stores a cache of weapons with Millie. Murdoch captures the passion for freedom from English rule combined with the inept leadership of the Rebellion. Pat intuits the futility of their plans and tries to keep his younger brother out of the fighting.

The English-Irish tension is also evident between Andrew and Pat. Andrew has always wanted acceptance by Pat. The tension comes to the head in a surprise confrontation on the day of the Rebellion.

I felt like there was too much going on with all the tangled relationships. Barney seemed pathetic, Millie desperate, Christopher just sad and Kathleen something of a stereotype. Perhaps Murdoch’s point was what a muddled mess we make of our relations. All the glorious talk of patriotism conceals an underbelly of frustrated desire and longing. I wonder why Murdoch didn’t just focus on the tension between Andrew and Pat, who represent the Red and the Green. That’s not the novel she wrote however and this one left me wondering what it was all about.

Review: The Prodigal of Leningrad

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Cover image of "The Prodigal of Leningrad" by Daniel Taylor

The Prodigal of Leningrad

The Prodigal of Leningrad, Daniel Taylor. Paraclete Press (ISBN: 9798893480221) 2026.

Summary: During the siege of Leningrad, a docent who had betrayed his grandfather finds himself in Rembrandt’s Prodigal.

At the beginning of the siege of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), the Hermitage, one of the world’s great art museums, shipped the canvases of its collection eastward to a secret hiding place to keep them out of Nazi hands. In this work of historical fiction, the central character, Daniil, is a volunteer docent in the museum. But what does a docent do when visitors arrive but all that is left are the frames? He describes in detail the painting and the story of the artist and its composition.

The most famous of the masterworks was Rembrandt’s The Return of the Prodigal. It was the one on which Daniil spent the most time. The painting holds a personal attraction for him reflecting his dark past.

Daniil, as a newly married father back in 1920, had great hopes for his future as a university student. That is, until he was called in to be interrogated one day. His grandfather, Anatoly Ivanovich Aslanov had been a history professor who became a priest. He went underground and the authorities were seeking him, supposedly to “persuade” him to return to teaching. Daniil, in a moment of weakness, confesses that his grandfather joined the family for Christmas celebrations. They arrested the grandfather that day, sending him to the Gulag. And they still revoked Daniil’s university admission. He has carried the guilt of that betrayal all his life.

The narrative moves back and forth between the grandfather’s life in the Gulag and Daniil, mostly focusing on conditions during the siege. The grandfather sees his imprisonment as a call from God and himself as immortal until he finishes his work. Much of that is to rescue other prisoners from despair. At one point, he and another prisoner are confined in an underground confinement cell from which none had emerged alive. Yet they emerge, kept warm by God.

Taylor describes the conditions of the siege, where rations were grossly inadequate to keep people alive. Daniil and his friends Aleksandr and Lev buoy each other’s spirits. Eventually Lev succumbs to starvation and Taylor describes the agonizing journey Aleksandr and Daniil make across the city, weak themselves to bury Lev and his wife. One of the most moving (and historically accurate), moments was when Aleksandr and other musicians perform the premiere of Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony, the ‘Leningrad.’ They mount speakers so that the Germans can hear the performance and the spirit of defiance of those in the city.

As Daniil weakens in his own body, he keeps telling the story of The Return of the Prodigal. He begins to speak of the spiritual significance of the painting, defying the censors. But will he believe that story for himself?

Daniel Taylor weaves a story that gives an unsparing portrayal of the Soviet Union under communism–the secret police, the Gulags, the effort to exterminate belief. He also describes the heroism of both citizens and soldiers who held out for 900 days until the Germans relented. But above all, he tells the story of both a faithful priest and the grandson who struggles with what seems an unforgiveable betrayal. Taylor explores whether the light of God’s goodness and mercy can reach the darkest corners of the Gulag and the troubled soul of the betrayer.

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

Review: Eden’s Clock

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Cover image of "Eden's Clock" by Norman Lock

Eden’s Clock

Eden’s Clock (American Novels, Number 12), Norman Lock. Bellevue Literary Press (ISBN: 9781954276390) 2025.

Summary: A widowed clocksmith commissioned to repair a clock in San Francisco experiences misadventures enroute and meets Jack London.

In April of 1906, Frederick Heigold spots Jack London in a bar. Heigold wants to tell London his story, not an easy task since Heigold lost his voice to a Civil War wound and uses a slate to communicate. This narrative, the concluding novel in the American Novels series by Norman Lock, reflects the story he wants to share with London, very different than the ones he writes.

After the Civil War, he returned to Dobb’s Ferry and took up his trade as clocksmith. He had a long marriage with his wife Lillian, a suffragist activist, who had recently died from a tragic accident in their home. His talents became widely known, so much so that he had received a commission to repair the Union Deport clock on the Embarcadero in San Francisco. He agrees, and after preparations, goes to New York City to embark on a cross-country journey.

However, that journey will take six months. Through a series of misadventures, he encounters the underside of America. Falling in on arrival, by chance, with the “wrong people” he is arrested and spends months in The Tombs. Finally released, he falls into the clutches of a scamming preacher. Only when he meets up with Bonaparte, a former slave, does he escape, embarking on a merchant ship to the Caribbean. Shipwrecked, he nearly drowns before rescue by residents from Edisto Island. Finally, he embarks on the cross-country trip, meeting a further assortment of characters.

Most of the novel is Heigold’s misadventures. Only the last forty pages chronicle his arrival. A historic detail, reflected in the cover image, is that Heigold’s encounter with London occurs on the eve of the Great San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906. We spend the novel wondering if Heigold will fix the clock and talk to London.

There is a resilient sadness about Heigold. What drew me in was the narrative voice of this voiceless man. But I must admit that I found myself losing interest during the interminable detours. I wondered, will he ever reach San Francisco? Yet the journey serves a purpose. Heigold’s experiences tell a story of the underside of the American experience. This contrasts with both London’s novels and the popular painting of American Progress, by John Gast (reproduced in the book). Heigold’s tale dispels the utopian dreams of his time and resonates with the questions we have about “American greatness” in our own time.

I’ve not read the previous numbers in this series. But if this is the conclusion, I thought the novel anticlimactic. The interesting narrator and the important theme were not enough to carry the story for me. Unlike other series I’ve read out of order, this didn’t make want to go back and read earlier numbers.

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

The Weekly Wrap: November 2-8

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woman in white crew neck t shirt in a bookstore wrapping books
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The Weekly Wrap: November 2-8

Writing for AI

One of the articles I feature this week highlights one writer’s realization that those of us still writing may not only use AI to write but are likely writing for AI.

I know this to be true. My blog software tells me where people are referred from who don’t come directly to my site. On a near daily basis, people visit from ChatGPT and other AI large language models. That tells me that these LLMs regularly “scrape” my website and include it as a source in their answers. I find the text of these answers often reflect the source website. Often, that is all someone will read. I am writing for AI whether I wish to or not. In fact, various AI programs may be among my most dedicated “readers.” But perhaps I flatter myself!

How do I feel about that? Resigned is probably the best word I can think of. It’s one of the prices of posting material on the internet. I like it when it translates into people coming to my website. But I suspect 5-10 don’t for each who does.

The article writer explores how to leverage writing for AI. But I don’t think I want to devote too much energy to figuring out how to woo that black box. I pay attention to SEO and readability. However the writer mentioned one idea about writing that caught my attention. The material AI trains on shapes its “character.” I hope the ethos of goodness, truth, and beauty in books I’ve sought to put forward has at least some marginal effect. At very least I hope for this with a few of my human readers. If nothing else, it has for me.

Five Articles Worth Reading

So, the article to which I’ve been referring is “Baby Shoggoth Is Listening” by Dan Kagan-Kans, writing for The American Scholar. He does make me wonder if most human writing, even books, may be mediated through AI in the reading experience of most people. Tell me what you think.

Conservatives have been busy reasserting their vision of traditional masculinity. Things like empathy, vulnerability, and asking for help are out. They are too feminine. Leah Libresco Sargeant, a thoughtful conservative writer pushes back on this trend in a new book, reviewed in “A Conservative Rejoinder to the Manosphere.”

Among many readers I interact with, historical fiction is more popular than history. However, the question arises of how true the fiction is to history. In “Emma Donoghue on Populating Historical Fiction,” the writer explores these questions.

Then, in “At the Heart of Don Quixote,” James Como identifies a storytelling device that we may miss and that is important to the narrative.

Finally, NY Times critic A.O. Scott says “When I’m Sick of Doomscrolling, I Turn to This Poem.” He even reads it for us!

Quote of the Week

Albert Camus was born November 7, 1913. This quote underscores A. O. Scott’s point:

“We have art in order not to die of life.”

Miscellaneous Musings

A. O. Scott is not the only one who reads poetry online. Every Wednesday is “Bob on Poetry” day at my Facebook Page. Recording poetry is a great way to get it into one’s life. you rarely get it “right” in one “take.” One has to think about meaning, phrasing, rhythm and rhyme. I suspect like many things I do online, I profit as much or more than others!

I learned this week that Thriftbooks now has a special deal for AARP members. If you are in the over 50 crowd and a member, head over to their “Special Offer for AARP Members” and save 5% extra when you buy two or more books.

I’m reading Marce Catlett: The Force of a Story, Wendell Berry’s latest Port William novel. I hope Mr. Berry is with us a good while yet. But the book has a valedictory feel to it, as if Berry is speaking through grandson Andy Catlett, now old himself, about what was achieved for a time in the Port William membership, and what has been sadly lost.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: John U. Bacon, The Gales of November

Tuesday: A. C. Seiple, The Sacred Art of Slowing Down

Wednesday: Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic

Thursday: Rebecca Grabill, illustrated by Isabella Grott, One Star, Three Kings

Friday: Angie Ward, Beyond Church and Parachurch

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for November 2-8.

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page

Review: The Women

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Cover image of "The Women" by Kristin Hannah

The Women, Kristin Hannah. St Martin’s Press (ISBN: 9781250178633), 2024.

Summary: A historical fiction account of the experiences of women nurses who served in Vietnam war combat areas and what it was like to come home.

Frankie McGrath grew up in a strict Catholic household where military service was honored on a “wall of heroes” in the family library. So when her brother Finley enlisted as a Navy helicopter pilot, she decided to follow him in one of the few ways women could, by becoming a nurse. After completing nurses training, she enlisted in the Army, where she could go to Vietnam right away, ill-prepared as she was, leaving her parents in shock. The only “heroes” were men.

But she wouldn’t follow her brother. She would take the place of one who died in a helicopter crash in which no remains could be recovered. And soon she would discover that this was only the tip of the iceberg. She arrives at mildewed quarters amid a mass casualty event. She sees mangled bodies of young men and blood thick on the floors. Nurses Barb and Ethel, who become steadfast friends, walk her through it. A skilled surgeon, Jamie, teaches her step by step how to close wounds and perform procedures to save lives nurses would not ordinarily perform. She not only becomes good, she discovers a calling. Some men live because of what she does. She comforts many in their dying moments.

She re-ups when her friends go home to help the younger nurses. But something is wrong. The war is escalating and young men rushed into service come in droves to her evac. One day, napalm victims come to the hospital and she holds a napalm burned child as it dies. She watches Jamie, wounded severely under attack take off in a helicopter and a medic stopping CPR.. She falls in love with a helicopter pilot, Rye, who she learns died just before he was due to come home.

The second part of the book is about what happened after her tour ended and she returned home. People curse and spit on her when she arrives at the airport. Her parents don’t want to hear about her experiences. They want life to go on as if she hadn’t been in Vietnam. She learns they had given out the story that she was studying abroad in Florence. She’s not a hero to them. Rather, they are ashamed of her.

Then the nightmares begin. She has flashbacks when she hears a loud noise at a party. She can’t keep nursing jobs. Drink and drugs help her self-anesthetize. Frankie seeks help at the VA and is told women didn’t serve or see combat in Vietnam. She cannot find help. Something is broken inside, but she doesn’t understand what. She tries to pull herself together, with the help of Barb and Ethel, only to lose it all when a triggering event sends her spiraling out of control

We watch her self-destruct, despite the people, including her parents, who try to care for her. We wonder as we read if she will get the help she needs to pull out of the death spiral she is in.

Kristen Hannah captures a story too-seldom told. It took nearly twenty years to unveil The Vietnam Women’s Memorial in 1993. It depicts a combat nurse caring for a wounded soldier.

Vietnam Women’s Memorial, Washington, D.C. Photographs in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

I have a friend, a former colleague, who was a nurse in Vietnam. She has never talked about her experiences in the war or coming home. I wonder if they were anything like this book. Kristin Hannah helps me understand why she may have remained quiet. She also helps me understand the debt we owe to all the women who served. I grieve the painful things they saw and the horrible ways many were treated when they returned. I grieve hearing “no women served in Vietnam” when 265,000 did in military and civilian roles. Thanks to Kristin Hannah’s fine account that affirms that “they were heroes, too.”

Review: Arm and Hammer

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Arm and Hammer, Jonathan K. Wade. Culver City, CA: Gambit Publishing, 2022.

Summary: A historical fiction account or the Iran-Contra affair telling the story of US NSC and CIA complicity with drug cartels distributing cocaine in US cities to fund the Contra resistance to the Sandinista government of Nicaragua.

It began with the downfall of the corrupt Somoza regime of Nicaragua to the Communist Sandinistas. The U.S. had watched this happen once before in Cuba. Fidel Castro had brought down a corrupt regime. A Communist regime was just 90 miles from the mainland and stubbornly survived the Bay of Pigs debacle and other covert attempts to bring it down. Now another country in the American sphere of influence had become Communist. Not only did it rankle the staunchly anti-Communist Reagan presidency, there were a group of former Somoza military figures and the resistance they recruited, the Contras wanting to bring down the Sandinistas. There was one problem. The U.S. Congress looked dimly on the whole affair after Vietnam. Initially funding aid, they cut, then eliminated appropriations. The National Security Council was tasked with finding ways to continue to fund the effort. Part was the covert arm sales to Iran, hopefully to secure releases of American hostages in Lebanon. Funds from the sales were diverted to the Contras. But it was not enough.

This book, a historical fiction account, tells the story of the other part of that funding effort. We learn how Nicaraguans in the U.S., who got into the cocaine trade working with Colombian cartels were persuaded to channel funds through CIA operatives to assist the Contra effort in exchange for the CIA securing landing strips and the cooperation of the DEA to look the other way as pilots ferried arms to camps along the Nicaraguan border and drugs back to the US. This book renders an account showing how high officials were “in the know”: William Casey of the CIA, Robert McFarlane and Admiral John Poindexter of the NSC, Elliot Abrams at State. We learn how Oliver North and his deputy, Robert Owen, ran the operation, working with Bay of Pigs assassin turned CIA operative Felix Rodriquez (a.k.a. Max Gomez), how newly affluent Nicaraguans siphoned off money until Rodriquez brought them brutally in line.

Most of all, we learn how cocaine dealers like Freeway Ricky went from two bit operators cooking crack cocaine in apartments to a multi-million dollar business, flooding the streets of Los Angeles and other American cities with crack cocaine. It’s from here that we get the book’s title. Baking soda is a key ingredient in “baking” crack.

It was all illegal. The story is a study of the justifications people used, from continuing the resistance to Communism that failed in Cuba to defending American interest to wanting to earn enough to get out of the ‘hood and the business. It unfolds year by year through the 1980’s up to 1987. Wade moves the story from the jungles of Costa Rica on the Nicaraguan border to the streets of Los Angeles, to offices in San Francisco and Miami where rich Nicaraguans ran drug operations, to the centers of power in Washington. Along the way, the brutality of both the drug trade and black ops is evident in hits and assassinations. Broken trust, or even the danger of it, could be fatal.

Then the reckoning, when a C-123 transport is shot down over Nicaragua in 1986, and one of the crew along with an incriminating black book survives. Over the next year it all unravels as Oliver North and his secretary try to frantically shred documents and a most incriminating ledger as agents knock on the office doors. We see who walks away and who takes the fall.

Wade offers a riveting, fast-moving account of how it all unfolds. My only quibble is his insistence on recording Oliver North “grinding his molars” in every meeting. I suspect this reflects an actual habit, but it is overused here. Aside from this, the story is a disturbing account of our governments complicity in the drug trade we official excoriated in the “war on drugs” and our incarceration policies. The key figures did see prison time, but nothing like the small time dealers and users, if they survived long enough to go to prison. It is a story of hubris and folly and ultimately of betrayal, one those in power do well to read and remember.

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