HISTORY-MYSTERY

E. L. Doctorow

Periodically I like to look back into the canon of a writer I admire and usually find gems lurking in their past, as well as a glimpse into the accomplished writer they’ve become. In this case, the great E. L. Doctorow, who sadly passed away recently, and Colum McCann, perhaps E.L.’s successor, as both write powerfully compelling fiction within historical context. As it turns out, both novels had at their core a mystery – a mystery of disappearance, a mystery of identities, as well as the greater mysteries of the universe – and both begin in NYC more than a hundred years ago. Add to this mix a first-time, self-published novelist weaving a thriller set in the months after 9/11, which might be said to be fictional history in the making.

WATERWORKS by Doctorow takes place in the years following the Civil War in NYC. Narrated by a newspaper editor, a man with a nose for a story and an abundance of compassion, he goes in search of a missing freelancer with a complicated family history, who seems to have disappeared in search of his father, previously deceased. Or was he? And why are orphans and children on city streets suddenly disappearing? Told in Doctorow’s signature exquisite prose, and profound insights, this mystery is as old as the human race: what does it mean to be human and how do we defeat death? At the core of the mystery, an enigmatic physician who reminds me a little of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Moriarty. Add an unusually sensitive policeman, a clergyman with his own secrets, and the women and children who become collateral damage. Literary mystery at its best, with many insights into the early days of journalism and the darker side of politics and society in late 19th century NYC.

“Our high-speed rotaries had come along around 1845, and from that moment the amount of news a paper could print, and the number of papers competing, suggested the need for a self-history of sorts, a memory file of our work. So that we needn’t always spin our words out of nothing. At the Telegram this enterprise was first put in charge of an old man down in the basement, whose genius it was to lay one day’s edition on top of another, flat, in wide oak cabinet drawers, which he kept immaculately polished. Only when the war came, and it became apparent to the publisher that salable books could be made of collections of war pieces from the paper, did cross-reference filing begin in earnest. Now we had three or four young men sitting down there with scissors and paste pots who were never more than a month or two behind – fifteen New York dailies a day were dropped on their tables, after all…”

Colum McCann

THIS SIDE OF BRIGHTNESS by Column McCann takes place in NYC at the turn of the century when subway tunnels were first burrowed by what became known as the Sandhogs – Irish and Italian immigrants, free black men, who spent their days, and many years, below concrete digging for a living and hoping to stay alive. Three generations later, a subset of the homeless community – their descendants – dwell in the remnants of those digging stations, above and beside the trains. The contrapuntal nature of their tales, and lives, is a signature style of storytelling for McMann, best known for the extraordinary “Let the Great World Spin” and more recently “Transatlantic.” Of Irish descent, his prose has the lilt of a poet and the descriptive clarity of Doctorow. From the optimism and hope of the building of a great city to the despair of those trapped in the rubble, this novel is spellbinding. And the mystery? Well, who is who and how did they get there? Most interesting to me was the title: McCann chose to focus on the light, where he might have called the book, The Cartography of Darkness…

“He opens his eyes, looks at the graph paper, the rows of dots and the squiggled lines. He draws a quick ordnance survey profile of where he has walked. This is his most important ritual he cannot start his day without it. He exaggerates the features to ten times their map size, so that, on the paper, the next looks like a rumple of huge valleys and mountains and plains. Even the tiniest nicks in the wall become craters. Later he will transfer them to a larger map he has been working on for the past four years, a map of where he lives, hand-drawn, intricate, secretive, with hills, rivers, ox-bow lakes, curved creeks, shadows: the cartography of darkness.“

“Consequence” by Steve Masover, takes place in the shadow of 9/11, a techno-thriller with a focus on the northern California Bay area counterculture and general global instabilities. Not so much mystery or history as socio-political fiction in which a group of idealistic and disenchanted environmental activists struggle to maintain integrity and personal relationships as they drift into the more dangerous territory of techno/eco-terrorism. What begins as concerns about genetically modified organisms [GMO] in our plant life, their battle takes on more ominous tones. Although Masover peppers the early narrative with a heavy dose of techno-speak more suitable to hackers, the narrative takes off as the community of self-anointed Knights takes center stage. He also weaves in romance, artistic metaphor, parental conflicts and the essence of communal living, all timely and relevant. The mystery? Who will prevail and at what cost? The writing is neither Doctorow nor McCann, he needs a few more books under his belt for that honor, but sufficiently skilled to have found a good publisher. Nevertheless, thanks to self-publishing technology, you can order a print copy online or e-read.  

REVIEW: DID YOU EVER HAVE A FAMILY/BILL CLEGG

Memoirist Clegg pens a great first novel. 

A terrific novel. The first fiction from memoirist, essayist, and literary agent, Bill Clegg, and before it published in September made the short list for the Booker Prize for literature. 

Deservedly. Although, in truth, “Everything I Never Told You” by Celeste Ng, reviewed here in August, is just as good. Both great reading, with similarities. One might dub these tales literary family mysteries/histories. Both take off from a tragic event. Both delve into the secrets and sorrows of a set of related characters. Both written in elegant prose. And both finales revealed in the last pages. 

“The world’s magic sneaks up on you in secret, settles next to you when you have your head turned. It can appear as a tall boy who smells like fish who pulls your braid one night in a bar and asks you to marry him. Or it can be a kid who shows up on your doorstep.”

Ng was in everyone's head at once and wove their perspectives together. Clegg, however, alternates chapters from the perspective of several characters, some whose relationship to the core family is not apparent until much later in the novel. These intersecting lives form a mosaic that ultimately defines and decipher the tragedy faced by the main character, June, whose daughter and fiancé, her former husband and her lover, die in a fire the night before the daughter’s wedding. No spoiler here, this event happens on the opening pages, and the how and why it happened is revealed slowly through various characters. Just as in Ng’s novel, the how and why is unraveled until at last we what happened gains clarity. 

This form of fiction is sometimes referred to as satellite fiction – the best of which in my mind is Colum McCann’s “Let the Great World Spin” and is the literary technique I used in “Colors of the Wheel.” An opportunity to weave individual sagas into the larger tapestry. Clegg uses this masterfully. And doesn't life work in just this way? A series of otherwise disconnected paths, and seemingly random moments, ultimately converge. In this case, tragically. With far-reaching ramifications. 

Clegg also uses June's profound grief to reveal her ambivalence about her past, ruminating on her perceived sins of omission and commission.

She wonders if Adam registered her ambivalence then and for the first time considers how those feelings might have set an early course for what would later play out in the marriage. … Still, deep down she knew it was more likely to fall apart than succeed. She knew, but she smothered that knowing, with the future that everyone in her life saw for them and that she could, through their eyes, occasionally see. 

June’s ensuing journey is the path to which all others lead, and especially poignant. I too am writing now about how we grieve. Not a new subject. Always good fodder for fiction. And Clegg handles this with tenderness and insight.

“She has no one to call, no one to rush home to. But when has she? She reviews the few possibilities… None of these people were ever hers. They either belonged to someone else or had lives or lies that put them out of her reach, or should have. This is not news, but what surprises her, after being alone for so long, is that it’s only now that it feels unbearable.”

Another excellent new novel. And many more to come this fall, with a great line-up of writers publishing, including Salman Rushdie, Colum McCann and Margaret Atwood. Stay tuned.

EVERYTHING I NEVER TOLD YOU

Celeste Ng's first novel is a winner.

From the opening page to the very last, this work of fiction wows. Hard to label. A bit of mystery, yes. Family drama, yes. Cultural portrait [the 70’s] definitely. Reflection on life on the margins, affirmative, and the power, and potential devastation, of intimate personal relationships, oh yes. This novel has it all.

The writing is pitch perfect. Skillful and elegant, Celeste Ng writes powerfully descriptive prose. She is in everyone’s head at once, and this is a very difficult voice to achieve. Riveting. I was in awe.

The noise outside the car was deafening: a million marbles hitting a million tin roofs, a million radios all crackling on the same non-station. By the time she shut the door, she was drenched. She lifted her hair and bowed her head and let the rain soak the curls beneath. The drops smarted against her bare skin. She leaned back on the cooling hood of the car and spread her arms wide, letting the rain needle her all over.

Ng draws us in and holds us in the palm of her hand on a roller-coaster ride with one mixed-face family [Chinese-American] at a time when mixed marriages had just been legalized. Add the emergence of modern feminism and the conflict between generations of women. And a dose of the Mars-Venus male-female thing. This novel is a great study in contrasts and contradictions. Who pays the price? Everyone, although the children most of all, and in this, Ng skillfully depicts the trauma of loss, from the seemingly benign to the most painful. This was a time when no one was paying much attention to the profound impact of parental behavior on the children.

Simple on the surface. A teenage girl has disappeared. Her brother believes he knows what happened. Her mother, a disappointed woman, living dreams through her daughter, realizes she doesn’t have a clue. The father, a professor, is, in fact, clueless and self-absorbed. And the younger daughter, neglected in the dramatic maelstrom, has unusual powers of observation, although no one is paying attention in the midst of this maelstrom.

It happened so quickly that if she were a different person, Hannah might have wondered if she’d imagined it. No one else saw. Nath was still turned away; Lydia had her eyes shut now against the sun. But the moment flashed lightning-bright to Hannah. Years of yearning had made her sensitive, the way a starving dog twitches its nostrils at the faintest scent of food. She could not mistake it. She recognized it at once: love, one-way deep adoration that bounced off and did not bounce back; careful, quiet love that didn’t care and went on anyway. It was too familiar to be surprising.

We learn where is all started and how it evolved, with a number of surprises along the way, and all is ultimately revealed in a poignant, breathtaking chapter. A literary page-turner, oh yes. 

One of the best pieces of contemporary writing I’ve read in a long time. Ng has published stories and essays, but in this first novel, she proves her mettle. I cannot wait to read what she writes next.

Now out in paperback and of course an e-book. 

Truths

A novel and a memoir to suit your beach and backyard reading pleasure.

THE HARDER THEY COME by TC Boyle. 

TC is a chronic pleaser. And, to my mind, gets better all the time. His books are prototypical page-turners and this novel grips you on page one and keeps you there until the bitter end. A retired principal fights back when accosted and becomes a hero, although he knows better. His son is a misunderstood malcontent, and an undiagnosed schizophrenic, who, like too many these days, stays under the radar until tragedy strikes. The novel sheds light on how easily a youngster can go from “difficult” to dangerous. When the boy takes up with an older woman who has adopted an anti-social conspiracy theory approach to life, the plot, yes, thickens. Yet she cooks like a gourmet, cherishes her abandoned dog, and takes in the younger boy as if her personal reward for superior integrity. In the midst of this, TC manages to weave in the mistreatment of Mexican immigrants, a theme he explored so beautifully in TORTILLA CURTAIN, and also examines mental health as in the fabulous, and lesser known, RIVEN ROCK. Every word counts, every character is true, and every scene is set to perfection, including his trademark descriptions of nature and landscape. Don’t be daunted by harsh realities. Like “True Detective” or “Breaking Bad,” the pacing, the language, and the cultural implications are well worth reading. Available in hardcover or e-book.

ON THE MOVE by Oliver Sacks. 

The latest, likely the last personal narrative by the great doctor/psychological pundit, and perhaps the most personal of all. Dr. Sacks revealed earlier this year, in a poignant published letter, that his days are numbered, and I was thrilled to have one more visit with him. I've read most of his writings, which document, as if fairy tales, unusual genetic and physiological misfires. Even if you haven't read his work, you might have seen "Awakenings" the movie, based on his first major publication, about the revival of patients in long-term comatose states after bouts of encephalitis. This new memoir also reveals the doctor’s hardships as a young homosexual in England, in that era when anything other than heterosexual was considered an aberration, as well as his struggles with writing [an obsessive editor] his older brother’s mental health challenges, which informed his devotion to his patients, and his relationships with parents, editors, mentors and lovers… And I never knew he was a biker boy! Even this becomes the source of contemplation about the mind-body connection. “There is a direct union of oneself with a motorcycle, for it is so geared to one’s proprioception, one’s movements and postures, that it responds almost like part of one’s own body. Bike and rider become a single, indivisible entity; it is very much like riding a horse.” Reading ON THE MOVE feels like sitting by a fire with the good doctor with a cup of coffee, or a beer, content to listen and learn. Good reading and insightful lessons. Dr. Sacks will be sorely missed. Available in hardcover or e-book.

1-2-3: Lila last in trilogy

LILA by Marilynne Robinson

Published last fall, LILA garnered high praise and major award nominations. The writing is lush, characters fascinating, themes universal, and despite being the third in the “Gilead” trilogy, featuring the same people and place, wholly original and heart-wrenching. 

            The trio of novels, which includes GILEAD and HOME, focus on minister John Ames and his relationship with the much younger Lila, who comes into his life forty years after the death in childbirth of his wife and child.

            Writer Robinson is a devout Christian and her intimacy with biblical stories infuses all three novels, although never with a heavy hand. Quite the contrary. Reverend Ames persistently ponders with innocence bordering on naiveté the essence of human nature.  

            Even scenes we’ve read before seem new through different eyes. Ames told his story first in GILEAD, but the subsequent novels are told in a tight third person, so we experience everything now through Lila's eyes, and heart, and it is her autobiography of abandonment, deprivation and dislocation which are the cornerstone of the story, revealed in exquisite detail, and beginning at the beginning when she is stolen away by a migrant worker from other migrants, as if merely a piece of bread.

            The old woman held her standing in a white basin on the floor by the stove, and Doll washed her down with a rag and a bit of soap, scrubbing a little where the cats had scratched her, and on the chigger bites and mosquito bites where she had scratched herself, and where there were slivers in her knees, and where she had a habit of biting her hand. The water in the basin got so dirty that they threw it out the door and started over. Her whole body shivered with the cold and the sting. “Nits,” the old woman said. “We got to cut her hair.” She fetched a razor and began shearing off the tangles as close to the child’s scalp as she dared—“I got a blade here. She better hold still.” Then they soaped and scrubbed her head, and water and suds ran into her eyes, and she struggled and yelled with all the strength she had and told them both they could rot in hell.

            Lila reveals her evolution from waif to wife and mother, but this is not really a tale of redemption. Lila is a lost soul and she knows she will always be. She even tries to wash away the waters of her late life baptism, believes she is not deserving.

            Among the many themes and images, hunger predominates, and food plays a major role. Food as the embodiment of faith as well as sustenance. Flowers too, as Lila discovers a passion for gardening. Every page is rich with imagery and every scene unravels as much as evolves.

            I look forward to whatever Robinson produces next. Her first and only other novel, HOUSEKEEPING, won the 1980 National Book Award, and should be a book group favorite, so if you haven’t encountered that lovely tale yet, start there, but do not miss the GILEAD trilogy. Or, just read LILA, which stands alone. 

Available in hardcover and e-book, but should arrive in paperback for fall reading.