BOOK REVIEW: A Drink Before War by Dennis Lehane (1994)

** Stars

Oh Dennis Lehane. How people like your books. I have to tell you I am a bit on the fence. I'll start with the good, as always, and move onto the other stuff.

Structure of the plot is really good. I enjoyed this in the movie Gone, Bay Gone as well. The false ending that wraps up the current action in a nagging yet continuous manner halfway through the book is great. It makes the third act a lot more interesting and focused. It also helped escalate the “what’s going to happen next” factor as well as show that there is more than one way to skin a cat in terms of plot devices. It shows forethought, care and a genuine interest in the art of storytelling.

As well as being a well-considered plot structure I also liked the compactness of the storyline. It did not seem like you were trying to overreach in this novel, your first published,  that you wrote when you were about 29 years old. Far out, you even one the Shamus Award in 1995 for this one.

You paid homage to genre. There was the damsel in distress who was also a bit of a femme fatale. There were all kinds of bad guys and a blurring between where the law began and where it ended. I enjoyed the headquarters being placed in church. On that note I think you got some good mileage out of that in terms of alluding to the culture of Boston as well as giving us a unique and interesting spin on private-dick conventions.

What else was in the mix? Deadpan, masculine confidence and dialogue. Check. Shoot outs. Check. Anti-heroes. Corruption on the mean streets, protagonist living hard while still possessing an eccentric yet sophisticated automobile. Check. All likeable, all well considered.You are never under any threat of being called pretentious.

BOOK REVIEW: Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz (1956)

***** Stars

Palace Walk is easily one of the best, most uniquely written, books I have read this year and - no doubt - in my life. While I did not feel I was left with an in-depth understanding of Egyptian culture after reading this I was left with a picture of the tensions existing across familial and local relationships. At the heart of this book is an indictment against patriarchy and the way it was practiced in Cairo during the 1950s. This charge is then placed against the slippery issue of character and an individuals struggle to stand up for what they believe in.

Even though this is a relatively long read the narrative is essentially a micro plot that establishes itself around episodes involving each member of the family. What unifies each episode is the protagonist of the story called Al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad. As the father his influence on each member of the family is total. Most of the time it is his influence as an oppressive, autocratic disciplinarian. This "ruling" of his family colours their thoughts and decisions constantly but not invariably. One of the major plot points is Yasin’s veneration of his father’s secret, hedonistic, lifestyle. Yasin is presented as a callow individual who never grows up. A corollary of this is that he is one of the only people in the family that truly respects their father. Yasin spends his life attempting to live up to his father’s pleasure seeking ways, though not his discipline.