Staff Review: Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane

Sometimes it’s difficult for me to tell if I’m really enjoying a book while I’m reading it, until weeks later I find the story lingering in my mind. This was the case with Since We Fell, though it has less to do with Dennis Lehane’s writing style than it does with my not frequenting the mystery genre. When you’re trying out something new, there’s a give and take to whether the new stuff sticks or not. Often, the results aren’t settled immediately after finishing the book.

I’ve read a few other reviews of this book online. Some people claim that it took the story a while to get going when compared to other Lehane novels. I certainly didn’t experience that. I had the advanced reader copy on my phone and stayed up late a few nights reading it, ignoring the inconvenience of reading ten lines of text per page and staring into the vortex of the iPhone (sometimes with one eye shut) in the night bedroom. I often forced myself to stay awake to gather the next piece of the puzzle.

The book opens dramatically; our protagonist has a gun in her hand and she’s just shot her husband. She’s grappling to make sense of the discordant feeling of love she has for him. The gun has been used, and now we want to find out why. We jump backward in Rachel Child’s life to figure out how she got into this situation and what could have brought this unassuming girl to such violence.

The book has three sections with separate plot devices pushing the narrative. In the first, we get an overview of our protagonist’s developing years as well as the first intrigue that drives the plot—Rachel’s search for the father whose identity her mother kept secret. Toward the end of the first section, Rachel departs for a career as a reporter. She makes a name for herself covering large-scale events. She is sent to Haiti upon the catastrophic 7.0 magnitude earthquake to cover the devastation and subsequent cholera outbreak. After some extremely traumatic experiences and an emotional outburst on camera, she loses her job.

The second section attempts to restore some normalcy to Rachel’s life. She’s suffering severe panic attacks and stays mostly within the confines of her apartment, but she has a seemingly comfortable relationship with her new husband. He’s supportive of her fragile mental state and they share a strong connection. They get each other’s sense of humor, share the same friends, and catch each other’s pop-culture references. Toward the end of this section, as Rachel starts to work up the courage to leave their apartment, we begin to suspect that either her husband is leading a double life or Rachel’s paranoia is pulling her further from stability. This triggers the next mystery that continues through the third section.

The third section is the most action-packed and climactic of the book. Rachel is pulled into a dangerous world beyond anything the first part has set up. Murder, more mind games, and two ruthless men with guns keep this section moving along.

Since We Fell was a fast read, with a storyline full of intrigue and suspense and tied to relevant world events from the year 2000 on. Lehane’s characters share a sarcastic sense of humor and refer to pop culture from their formative years on (Radiohead, Tom Waits, Beyoncé). My only gripe is, for all the background provided and events that happen to them, the characters lack depth. They’re written as if Lehane’s more concerned with making them hip than relatable. Rachel has suffered traumatic events, but panic attacks aside, we don’t sense any complex emotions. The characters tend most often to sarcasm and cultural allusion, which makes the dark story more fun, but leaves the characters themselves rather like clichés. The book could be taken to another level with a marriage of its wit to more complex psychology. That would make it another kind of novel though. What we have is still an expertly crafted, hip, and suspenseful storyline sure to be fun for fans of the genre.

~Ben, Adult Services

Staff Review: The Star Diaries by Stanislaw Lem

I’m glad I decided to check out this little book of short stories called The Star Diaries by Stanislaw Lem. I’ve read Lem’s The Futurological Congress and rate it as one of my favorite books, so felt optimistic going in that these further adventures of Ijon Tichy, the space traveler and hero of The Futurological Congress, would be just as outlandishly cartoonish yet frighteningly plausible.

First off, I don’t know how translator Michael Kandel does it. These stories are masterfully translated from the original Polish. The force of the language — the beauty, the puns, the made-up jargon — comes through clearly in the English translation. Only a truly gifted translator could do this. I’ve read the English version of Lem’s most well-known work, Solaris, notoriously translated from a poor French translation, and had to force my way through it. The Star Diaries tales are mind-melting, playful, satirical, and sometimes dark. None of the fun creative wordplay came through in Solaris.

Lem’s been likened to Bach for the artistry with which he constructs his stories and to Einstein for his sweeping intellect — comparisons certainly ripe for scrutiny. I can say that Lem’s mind works on a different level from many of us mere mortals. Tichy’s adventures are a vehicle for Lem’s scientific and philosophical speculation. He often uses other planets and life forms to illustrate an outsider’s view of human behavior or to show how similar intelligent beings evolve far in the future, seamlessly bringing to light many of our foibles. Understanding the scientific jargon or made-up words (both of which are liberally used and often mixed together) isn’t essential to enjoying the stories. The stories are dense, but completely readable and a lot of fun. There are puns-a-plenty thrown around and each re-reading brings about more snorts and chuckles.

To show what one is in for, I’ll share bits from two of my favorite stories. Time slips are always ripe for good humor. The first story in the book is probably the funniest of this kind that I’ve ever read. Ijon Tichy finds himself having to fix a rudder on his one-man rocket ship, a job that takes two. After going through a gravitational field Monday, he’s awakened by the Ijon Tichy from Tuesday. Several time slips later, things turn to chaos as the ship fills up with Tichys from various days of the week and they quarrel over fixing the rudder. It’s not really even necessary to keep things straight as the story moves maddeningly and hilariously forward.

In one of his more satirical/philosophical stories, Tichy finds himself on a distant planet, whose dominant life forms bear many similarities to homo sapiens. Most of the revealing and interesting information about this world comes from the history books being read by our protagonist. One example, illustrating humans’ endless desire for ‘more,’ deals with the inhabitants’ physical “enhancements.” When science has advanced so that people can have whatever appearance they wish, naturally people get restless (see Lem’s humorous illustration of an “Octabod”— a skeleton with 8 legs). The physical and monstrously cartoonish characters that eventually inhabit the planet no longer resemble us, but are eerily within the realm of reason.

These fantastic stories, written in the late 50s through early 70s, will muster up questions pertinent to technological issues we face today. They can be simultaneously frightening and hilarious. In terms of style, Lem has been compared to Borges, Vonnegut, and Philip K. Dick, among others. His stories share elements with these authors but are still entirely Lem. This book is definitely not for everyone, but fans of satire, scientific speculation, and unconventional stories should love it.

~Ben, Adult Services

Staff Review: The Pioneers by James Fenimore Cooper

For the Great Reading Challenge, I’ve chosen to read a book over 100 years old. I read James Fenimore Cooper’s The Pioneers in part because I’ve had a worn dusty edition sitting on my coffee table for the past year, but also (and the reason it’s been taking up table space) because it is set during a time in American history I’ve wanted to better understand. Particularly I’ve been curious about who these settlers were, some of the events that happened in the country before they came, their aspirations, and their continuing effect on the modern world. Basically, I wanted a deeper understanding than the bits I remember from grade school.

The Pioneers is the first book in Cooper’s five stories about his character Leatherstocking. It has a common narrative style of the 19^th century: richly detailed with descriptions of the setting and characters, and it strolls along at a leisurely pace. With the book being over 400 pages, it takes some time to get into the rhythm of plot and language. That being said, this style isn’t for everyone. I was a little skeptical when Cooper warned in the introduction that the book is a “descriptive tale” and that he wrote it solely for personal satisfaction. I figured it could go one of two ways: a directionless rambling with explanations of every type of tree he encountered and a long geological survey of the area; or, since it was inspired by personal passion, it might be a unique glimpse into that time period. I was happy to discover that my second speculation was closer. Although the descriptions at the beginnings of chapters (mostly in the first half of the book) can be quite long before any action happens, I feel they add depth to the story and help place the reader into that world.

The Pioneers is loosely based on Cooper’s own life: his father founded Cooperstown, New York, with the parallel in the story being the fictional town of Templeton, founded by Judge Marmaduke Temple (possibly bearing some resemblance to Cooper’s actual father). This character is treated with fairness – he believes in the justness and fairness of the law, but also believes the land is his because of the document given to him from his country. We find a constant conflict with Temple's beliefs in the character of Nathaniel (Natty) Bumppo, also known as Leatherstocking (the Davy Crockett-like hero of Cooper’s novels).

Even though much of the book is descriptive, Cooper introduces an engaging storyline and scenes of suspense.  The reader is introduced to threatening wild animals, hunting mishaps, wild fires, and blossoming romance. The descriptions and narrative serve the bigger part of pushing forward Cooper’s beliefs. The book is written with much reverence toward the Native Americans' lifestyle, but also pathos toward the settlers (well, some of the settlers). He’s highly critical of the settlers, but makes his characters very human and relatable. The character of Leatherstocking, who fought in the French and Indian War and adapted a loner lifestyle with a Native American friend, represents the wisdom that comes from knowing how to live off the land.  Judge Templeton is an intelligent person and understands the need to be conservative with the environment, but coming from a different background also believes in the fairness of the law invented by civilized men. Although presenting opposing philosophies, Cooper is fair with both these characters and paints them as some of the most reasonable in the book, although Leatherstocking is more clearly the hero. 

Some of the settlers represent what we might recognize as our least admirable qualities. Richard, Templeton’s cousin, amplifies this position in his boastfulness and lavish attitude toward the land and animals. His extravagance is displayed when he wheels in a cannon to shoot at pigeons. Not content with the settlers shooting down as many as they can get, he wants to prove that he can get it done in one “fell swoop of destruction.” Cooper’s environmentalist philosophy is displayed in many of the character interactions in the novel.  These early reflections of our impact on the environment remain especially powerful today.

For those ready to invest themselves in this book, The Pioneers acts as a meditation on our American way of life. Although history already took the course the settlers set in motion, these early insights into the minds of the pioneers help us to connect with a larger picture of what it means to be an American, forcing the reader to think critically about our relationship with the natural world. Besides the strong message, the action and drama set up with Cooper’s characters keep the story fun. All five stories starring Natty Bumppo can be checked out from the library under the title The Leatherstocking Tales, containing perhaps the most famous story The Last of the Mohicans.

~Ben, Adult Services