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An Open Book: Coming of Age in the Heartland by Michael Dirda (2003) – BR00035 (2007) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
May 3 2007

Plot or Premise

The author is a book reviewer for the Washington Post; this is the story of his life up until graduation from university.

What I Liked

Dirda was recommended to me by a colleague from work, whose appetites for reading are far more literary than mine. He actually recommended Bound to Please, which is a collection of Dirda’s reviews of more literary prose from throughout history, but I tripped over this book first. I’m quite glad I did as I probably won’t read the collection of essays until I’ve read most of the tomes reviewed, but An Open Book is a fantastic autobiography.

It reads in some place like Angela’s Ashes without the darkness of Irish poverty. However, it is not without conflict or family dysfunction during the author’s childhood, and he tells the story in places with openness and unashamed personal bias.

The main part of the story recounts Dirda’s intellectual progress as he moved through comic strips from the newspaper (p.49), pun and joke books (everyone sing: “great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts”!), the TAB book club (p.66), the Hardy Boys and Tom Swift series (p.90), a brief stint with romance novels (p.201), and the importance of great literature to challenging society and even changing history (p.290). It also includes his non-literary education – playing with BB guns (p.81), understanding firsthand how hard his father’s job was (p.185), learning about art and music (p.267), the ceasing to care about grades when writing essays and the corresponding improvements in marks (p.310), the contribution of early influences in his life to later character traits (p.320), and looking back at one’s life (p.321).

The book recounts his life relatively linearly in time, yet with lots of interesting digressions that veer away from developments in his personal life and situation with the book he was reading at the time.

What I Didn’t Like

It would have been interesting to see more of the reactions from teachers throughout the author’s life, including perhaps even tracking some of them down. It is hard to imagine exactly how certain ones would have reacted to his precocious reading of more advanced novels, and the existing allusions to some of their reactions are rudimentary at best. As well, the final decision (to become a freelance journalist upon leaving university) is rushed in the story and negates much of the relaxed pace to that point.

The Bottom Line

See the early influences on a literary book reviewer.

Keziah Dane by Sue Grafton (1967) – BR00032 (2007) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
March 17 2007

Plot or Premise

Keziah Dane is a struggling single mother in 1939. Her husband died two years before in a flood, trying to rescue other townspeople, and her son was taken too. This leaves Keziah with no money, and she has to look after four remaining sons and two daughters. In addition, her mother-in-law has gone a little batty with the loss of her son, leaving Keziah to take care of her too. A passing drifter sees the family burying the family dog and figures if they are burying something, it must be money. He ingratiates himself into the family posing as an unconventional minister, and tries to figure out how to get the money. The sub-stories are fairly straightforward – the oldest son wants to go back to the flooded town and dive for salvage, despite the danger; the second oldest son is working for a local farmer and falling in love with the daughter; and the remaining family members are struggling through being at school with much wealthier families.

What I Liked

The sub-story with the second oldest son falling in love with the local farmer’s daughter is really well-done. Her mother is a hypochondriac with a small problem with her foot, but it is interesting to see how the son deals with her, ending up as an excuse to spend time in the house near the daughter. The blossoming romance between the two of them – one practical, one romantic – is really well done, and natural, albeit perhaps mis-placed in time (would work even better in the 1800s, except for the physical side perhaps). I also like the hook for using the farmer himself to drive a plot twist near the end. There is a scene with the drifter and the buried treasure that is beyond disgusting, and made me shudder – a perfectly done description by Grafton. I could see it and I really didn’t want to anymore. Blech. In a good way. The struggle of the children to adapt to their situation, the realization that they are poor and what that means, is strongly written, and captures the heartache, pride, jealousy, desire, fear, happiness, and importance of family that goes along with it. I thought there were a few too many young kids to talk about in the story, and Grafton could have got by with two fewer in my view, but it was not a complete distraction.

What I Didn’t Like

The opening is fairly basic, reminiscent of Old Yeller, and doesn’t do much to hook the reader. I’m almost ambivalent towards Keziah Dane herself as she seems like the perfect mother – understanding when she needs to be, long-time sufferer or martyr who soldiers on, but I would have liked to see more conflict within her. A lover perhaps that she goes to visit occasionally. In addition, there is a conflict near the end of the story that is bizarre in detail, although so confused and disjointed in places that it is hard to tell what exactly is happening. The ending is also a little pat, with everyone better off. Grafton potentially missed an opportunity with the chronology – setting the story in November 1939 could have included a hint of the outside world intruding, but no wind of change is blowing their way. It could have easily been set in the 1800s with no real loss of story.

The Bottom Line

Grafton can write stories without detectives!

Snap Shot by Meg Chittenden (2003) – BR00049 (2005) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
May 25 2005

Plot or Premise

Diana Gordon has retired from being a private investigator after being shot, and is living the simple life in Port Findlay, Washington running her own photography studio. But a local woman is murdered, and when Gordon finds the body, she can’t resist doing a little personal investigating. And she turns up links to her past and how she got shot — for taking a photograph of someone who didn’t want to be captured.

What I Liked

Diana’s character is relatively straightforward, and it is an interesting cast of sub-characters. Hard to tell if this will be a series or a one-off book, but it works either way. The politics of a photography show provide a nice backdrop, and this would work as almost-cozy, except for a little direct violence in two places.

What I Didn’t Like

Her partner in Port Findlay, Conor Callahan, is a bit neurotic and there is a major change in his perspective by the end of the book. Gordon doesn’t reveal her past to everyone as she goes along, and it is a “secret” that causes problems early on — for no apparent reason as she knows she’s going to have to spill eventually. Equally, the reason the photograph is causing problems is so obvious to the reader, it is grating to see our star investigator proceed through most of the book before figuring it out.

The Bottom Line

A great almost-cozy.

Grave Secrets by Kathy Reichs (2002) – BR00048 (2005) – 🐸🐸⚪⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
May 25 2005

Plot or Premise

Tempe finds herself in Guatemala investigating a mass grave, and while she’s there, the local police decide to avail themselves of her forensics expertise to investigate four missing girls and one dead body in a sewer.

What I Liked

The cast of characters is large and there are some historical elements included related to Guatemalan history.

What I Didn’t Like

Tempe bounces around Guatemala too much, helping the only honest detective in a sea of corruption, and figures out missing girls, links to stem cell research, and takes her sweet time doing it. She even finds time to link it to her friends in Montreal, who just so happen to have gone to school with her detective partner in Guatemala. Beyond far-fetched, and casting aspersions on everyone she describes and the way they work, this one should have been a secret Reichs took to the grave. And finally, a bit of a spoiler, she rips off Janet Evanovich’s technique of not finishing the romance part of the book — you know she’s chosen someone but not whom. Stay tuned to the next in the series to find out which one, I suppose.

The Bottom Line

Pass on this one in the series.

Payment in Kind by J.A. Jance (1991) – BR00047 (2005) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
May 25 2005

Plot or Premise

Beaumont’s case with an up-and-coming ambitious partner focuses on a woman working at the local school board office who winds up dead — semi-clothed in a closet with a clergyman-turned-security guard and the hints of an affair.

What I Liked

The school board politics and the politics around the police station office are first-rate, and it is nice to see a positive side to the journalist character who constantly hounds J.P. A large cast of characters helps keep the story interesting.

What I Didn’t Like

The sub-plot is a bit obvious and while the cast of characters is good, it leaves a bit of a feel of happenstance rather than expert detecting.

The Bottom Line

Solid but not quite awesome.