Review: Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas (2020)

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To the outside world, the college, Catherine House, is mysterious, even cult-like. Upon acceptance, it is a full ride with no tuition, room and board are included. But there is a catch. In return, for three years (including summers), the students give up all contact with the outside world: no emails, no social media, no mobile phones, no computers, no letters, no going home for the holidays, no personal possessions. Everything is provided including clothing, toiletries, and school supplies. Despite these strict requirements, Catherine House counts famous scientists, presidents, Supreme Court justices, artists among its successful alumni. It's also like Fight Club —the first rule of Catherine House is you don't talk about Catherine House — and Las Vegas —what happens at Catherine House stays at Catherine House.

The college doesn’t police student behavior — unless it affects their academic standing — and wine and condoms are readily available. So it’s three years of rigorous academics, fueled by sex and alcohol. The school was probably once elegant but is now shabby and run down, peeling wallpaper, leaks, falling apart really.

Into this world comes Ines, a young woman with a troubled history. She has no idea why she was accepted after the rigorous selection process which involves interviews up to eight hours long. She’s probably suffering from a form of PTSD. Ines has a rebellious streak and doesn’t care to follow the status quo. She is particularly curious about the highly desired New Materials curriculum and wants to find out what’s happening within its locked labs. Ines also seems to have the attention of the cool, aloof, enigmatic director, Viktória. As the story moves through each year, the reader, and Ines, begin to wonder why she is at Catherine House. And why is Viktória so interested in Ines.

Whew, is that vague enough for you? There is much more I wanted to write but I didn’t want to give too much away. It’s better for the reader to watch things unfold. I would put the book in the "weird school/things aren't as they seem" genre. There is a gothic feel and a thin mist of horror at play here. With a change in viewpoint and direction Thomas could have a full-on horror story. I hope she does write another book in the Catherine House universe. Actually, I can easily see a trilogy worth of material here.

Catherine House is a first person narrative from the viewpoint of Ines. I know a lot of readers don’t care for the use of first person but it is necessary here. The reader has to see things from the narrow perspective of Ines, to only know what Ines knows otherwise you lose the fun of discovery. Most of the book is about Ines adjusting to life at Catherine House, coming to terms with her past, building relationships — basically Ines’ psychological development. But throughout the story, there are mysteries of Catherine House hovering around the edges.

I think the pacing is effective and doesn’t lag. Ines can be maddening but that works toward building her character. Thomas spaces out new information as Ines goes from the first through third years with the tension and suspense building in the third year.

This is Thomas’ debut novel and it’s a terrific launch for her career as a novelist. I hope to see another book from her soon. She is a real talent.

Keywords: fictional colleges, suspense novels, college life in fiction, weird colleges

Review: For Your Own Good by Samatha Downing (2021)

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First sentences: 

Entitlement has a particular stench. Pungent, bitter. Almost brutal.

Teddy smells it coming.

This tells you what you need to know about our protagonist, Teddy Crutcher, an English teacher at the elite Belmont Academy. Teaching the children of very wealthy parents means that Teddy doesn’t have to look far to find entitlement and, if there is one thing that offends him, it’s people who don’t meet his standards. Any exhibition of what Teddy perceives as entitlement — such as asking for extra credit —and someone, including fellow teachers, will have to be humbled. For Their Own Good. Ending up on Teddy’s legendary “shit list” can doom a student as we see. Teddy is supremely confident that he knows what’s  best for the students and the school and if a few bodies fall along the way, well, needs must. 

Teddy has his own personal issue with entitlement. He thinks he is entitled to more recognition. He resents the status afforded faculty who were also students at Belmont, a status to which he isn’t entitled. He does find some solace in his Teacher of the Year plaque that he displays prominently in his classroom and makes sure that it can’t be overlooked during a parent-teacher conference. As Teacher of the Year, Teddy will be delivering the main address at the annual memorial celebration, where he is certain he will shine in front of all the important people.

I didn’t care for Downing’s first book, My Lovely Wife; for me, it doesn’t live up to the promise and hype. With this, her third  book, Downing is firmly on my “watch for” list of authors. Her talent for delivering dark themes is really brought home for me in For Your Own Good. It is a darkly fun read and her depiction of the acerbic and snarky Teddy Crutcher is delicious. He is the teacher you love to hate. I’m wondering if “Crutcher” is a sort of Dickensian name but haven’t yet decided if it works on that level.

Besides Teddy, the story mainly follows three characters: Zach Ward, a student, whose parents got him on Crutcher’s shit list though Zach is quite a good student; bubbly Sonia Benjamin, teacher and Belmont alumna who violates one of Teddy’s sins of entitlement; and Courtney Ross who is actually a favored student but has her own problems because of Crutcher and whose lot is not helped by her overbearing mother. The action shifts mostly among these characters. There are two other characters that I would rather not mention because of possible spoilers.

I enjoyed the way Downing structured For Your Own Good. I’d say it’s propelled by “cascading events”. Something happens that causes something else to happen then that something has to be fixed. Teddy finds himself making adjustments so that the events he sets in motion meet his desired goals. She paces out her revelations well and also plants a clue that appears so minor at the time but has a lovely payoff.

I enjoyed everything about this book: the characters, the plot, the structure, the dark humor, the setting, the shifts in perspective. Oh, and you learn a bit about botany along the way. It was just the kind of book I needed to read.

I’ve just started reading Downing’s second book, He Started It, and it already promises to deliver another well plotted dark story.

Keywords: dark humor, crime fiction, academic fiction

Review: Restless by William Boyd (book 2006; series 2012)

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 We were dropping our subscription to the Acorn streaming service and took one last browse through the selections. Restless popped up and with only one season with two episodes we weren't going to get sucked into a long term binge. We enjoyed it and I decided to read the book to see if it expanded on any of the plot points. As I read, I was pleased that the series adhered closely to the book and then had a doh! moment when I realized that Boyd wrote both the book and the screenplay. Both the book and tv series have a split time narrative, 1976 and the 1940s.

The Series

Selected cast: Charlotte Rampling, Michelle Dockery, Hayley Atwell, Rufus Sewell, Michael Gambon

The story opens in 1976 with Ruth Gilmartin (Dockery) and her young son visiting her mother, Sally Gilmartin (Rampling) in her remote house in the English countryside. Ruth is an English tutor and working on her PhD in History. Sally had always been a bit strange, telling young Ruth that she's likely to disappear one day or be taken away. On this visit she's convinced that she is being watched from the woods. As Ruth is about to leave, Sally hands her a folder of papers with the name Eva Delectorskaya on the cover. Who's Eva Delectorskaya asks Ruth. I am, replies Sally.

The scene then shifts to Paris in 1939. where we learn that Eva (now played by Hayley Atwell) and her family have recently arrived from Russia. Her brother Kolia is beaten to death by — she later learns — fascist thugs. After the funeral she is approached by Lucas Romer who tells her that Kolia was working for him in British intelligence and that he hoped Eva would as well, it was something Kolia wanted. Eva initially resists but later accepts. 

The 1939/40s timeline follows Eva, now  Eve Dalton, a British citizen with a well used passport, through training and joining Lucas' unit, Actuarial and Accountancy Services or AAS. the unit's real job is disinformation and misdirection through planting false news stories which not only to mislead the Nazis to influence US foreign policy. Though AAS is seemingly an office job, Eve does see field work. Later the unit is relocated to the US where a disastrous operation forces Eve to take desperate steps to survive.

In 1976, Ruth finds out that Sally/Eve/Eva needs her help to find a solution to her problem.

The series is riveting with excellent performances from everyone and with terrific production values. The 1939/1940s timeline is visually very appealing. 1976 is, well, 1976. Charlotte Rampling is marvelous as the steely-eyed former spy and Hayley Atwell does justice to the younger Eve who will become Sally. There is one bit of miscasting that I think would be too much of a spoiler.

In the US, Restless is available through Acorn. Not sure about the rest of the world.

The Book

I wrote above that the tv series closely follows the book and the book delivers exactly what I hoped, it provides much more detail. We also see that Boyd altered some scenes in the series to heighten the drama for a visual medium and I agree with the author's choices. There are a couple of examples I can provide that won't be spoilers. We see more of Eve's training in spy school and that level of detail strongly appeals to me. The emphasis on memory is especially interesting. We also see more of the disinformation operations of AAS. For me it rang of authenticity and how I imagined such operations would be carried out. Everything in the early Eve chapters felt real.

Restless is a cracking good WWII spy thriller (both book and series) that spills over into the 1970s. My recommendation is that if you've seen the tv series, then read the book. There's more than enough in the book that you won't be bored. If you've only read the book then watch the series. It's a visual treat with very good performances.

Keywords: WWII, spies

Review: Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby (2021)

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S. A. Cosby's previous novel, Blacktop Wasteland, was a stunning introduction to this author for me. Besides the well executed crime story of a heist gone wrong and with some of the best depictions of cars I've ever read, it is, above all, about being Black in southern America and about family. I reviewed it here. 

 So I was really excited when Razorblade Tears was released so soon after I read Blacktop Wasteland. Would it hit me as powerfully as did Blacktop Wasteland? Short answer— Yes! Cosby isn't just a very good crime fiction writer, he is a top notch writer, period.

Razorblade Tears is set in the same fictional area of Tidewater Virginia as Blacktop Wasteland — Red Hill. Cosby is from Gloucester Virginia and drew upon Gloucester County, King and Queen County, and Matthews County to establish his settings. I live not far away and really enjoy the authentic sense of place he establishes. I can close my eyes and see where he is writing about.

The Story: After his release from prison where he served time for murder —not his only murder but the one he was convicted for — Ike Randolph has put aside the violent gangbanger life and built a successful landscaping business. Ike wants to do right for his family but he is not culturally or temperamentally abl to accept that his only child, Isiah, is gay. He is further estranged from Isiah when he marries his white husband, Derek Jenkins. Isiah is a journalist and Derek works for a caterer and they have a young daughter.

Then the unthinkable happens, Isiah and Derek are gunned down on the street with the gunman further desecrating the bodies by shooting them in the head. Ike not only has to deal with the loss of his son but regret for pushing him away because he was gay. 

After the funeral, Buddy Lee, father of Derek, approaches Ike with a proposal. The cops aren't getting anywhere with their investigation so he and Ike should try to see what they can find out. Maybe people will talk to them because they aren't cops. Ike initially rejects the idea because it doesn't fit with his current life and his fear that it will awaken the violence that was so much a part of his early life. A racial incident makes Ike change his mind and makes him want justice for the two slain men. Ike and Buddy Lee start their personal investigation questioning friends, acquaintances, and workmates, people that won't talk to the cops. At the same time, the leader of a biker gang has been hired to find  and eliminate someone. How these investigations relate and when will they converge jacks up the tension in the story.

What I liked:

The characters. Ike and Buddy Lee are are wonderfully fleshed out characters. Ike is a Black man, formally a lethal gangbanger known as Riot Randolph. Now he works hard to keep his temper in check and walk a straight line. He is sensitive to what it means to be a Black man living in a rural area of the south and is quick to challenge anyone who disrespects him. Buddy Lee is a redneck and grew up with casual racism as a normal way of life.

Ike and Buddy Lee have some things in common. Both are hard men who have done time and have taken lives. Their approach to problems and impediments, if someone doesn't respond to their questions, leans toward an immediate and precise application of violence. Neither man feels right about how they tread their sons' gayness. My take is that they hope for some sort of atonement for how they acted. They loved their children but couldn't find a way to show it. In their own way they are hurting that they never talked to or tried to understand their children. Now that they are gone they are realizing how much they wish that they had one more chance to tell them that they loved them.

Race. Cosby works racial issues into both Blacktop Wasteland and Razorblade Tears. He doesn't do so as a diatribe but a natural part of the story by pairing a Black man and a redneck. For Buddy Lee it is all too easy to unthinkingly utter a racial slight but Ike isn't the kind of man to let it slide. The two men are going to have to find a way to get along, a mutual language and understanding it they are to reach their goal of justice for their sons.

Buddy Lee has a more difficult time of it due to the casual, everyday racism he's experienced all his life. He frequently finds himself having to back off something he said with "I didn't mean nothing" and "No offense or nothing" which doesn't go a long way to mollifying Ike. Ike has to educate Buddy Lee in the everyday realities of being a Black man in the south. Early on in their relationship, they are riding in Ike's truck and Buddy Lee makes an innocent request to hear some music but the request makes a mean turn very quickly. Reacting to Ike's selection, Buddy Lee comments that country music is probably not an option, figuring that country isn't the kind of music "your kind" like.

"When you or some other white boys say 'your kind' it's like I'm some fucking animal that you trying to put in a cage. I don't like that shit. So that's your one," Ike said.

"My one?"

Your one. I'm gonna let it slide because, like you said, we both might be in a weird state of mind."

"I'm not a racist or nothing. Just don't know a lot of Black people," Buddy Lee stammered.

"I never said you was. You just another white boy that don't have to worry about people like me and the shit we go through."

Cosby does a remarkable job building the character of Buddy Lee. The dialogue he gives Buddy Lee, his way of talking feels right when I say his words in my head. The way the author builds the relationship between two very different men is a standout part of the book for me.

Violence. Razorblade Tears is several magnitudes more violent than Blacktop Wasteland. I wrote earlier that Ike and Buddy Lee are hard men and the direct and decisive application of violence is in their DNA. When Ike has decided to team with Buddy Lee to find their sons's killer, he lays it out:

Once we start, I'm prepared to do whatever it takes to find these sons of bitches. If I got to hurt some people, then that's what I'll do. If I have to punch somebodies ticket, I'll do it.... I'm prepared to bleed.

 Ike knows that once he lets Riot Randolph out, there's no turning back. Buddy Lee is ok with that.

Cosby's depiction of violence is part of what makes Ike and Buddy Lee the kind of men they are. It works in the story. There is once scene that might be a bit over-the-top but is also deeply satisfying so no complaints from me there. The use of violence also makes this an outstanding action thriller and I found myself thinking, "ok, this needs to be a movie".

My Take-Away. On the surface, Razorblade Tears is an action, revenge thriller. But it is much more than that. Throughout we have the themes of family, acceptance, love, regret, pain. Cosby eloquently shows Ike's [and Buddy Lee's] pain:

Tears ran from his eyes and stung his cheeks. Tears for his son. Tears for his wife. Tears for the little girl they had to raise. Tears for who they were and what they all had lost. Each drop felt like it was slicing his face open like a razorblade.

It is also very much about race. The cultural divide between Ike and Buddy Lee couldn't be more profound: a Black man and a white redneck. Buddy Lee has to learn to put aside the racism that has been part of him his whole life and Ike has to learn to trust a man who is the very antithesis of himself.

Razorblade Tears is a multilayered and deeply satisfying book and much more than its root crime story. I highly recommend it. S. A. Cosby is firmly on my "will always read" list of authors.

Keywords: action thriller, race, crime fiction, revenge, cultural divide, southern fiction

Review: The Trial of Cecil John Rhodes by Adekeye Adebajo

Available on Amazon Kindle.

I knew very little about Cecil Rhodes before picking up this short (174 pages), creative non-fiction

historical/political novella. I knew that:

• he lived during the height of the British empire

• he wanted to build a Cape to Cairo railway

• there is a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University

• Northern and Southern Rhodesia were named after him

• there was (is still?) a "Rhodes Must Fall" movement in South Africa.

• 
  

I didn't know what Rhodes would have done in Africa to warrant a trial in the afterlife.

Here are some dates to give you a historical context for Rhodes' life:

• Cecil John Rhodes: 1853 - 1902
• Rhodes arrived in South Africa in 1870
• Victorian England - 1820 - 1914
• Queen Victoria reigned 1837 - 1901 
• Height of the British Empire was 1815- 1914 (AKA The British Century)

This is by no means an impartial account of Cecil John Rhodes. I can't imagine anyone not knowing that Rhodes is in for the high jump from the start, but Adebajo lets the facts speak for themselves, though in a dramatic fashion.

Adebajo sets actual people, places, and events in a narrative framework with (I think) the aim of educating the reader in the richness of Africa and the horrors perpetrated on its peoples. I don't want to repeat the details provided by the author so I will confine myself to describing the narrative framework. From further reading outside this book, I see that Adebajo has accurately laid out Rhodes' life and crimes though in a very dramatic manner. For me, this made the details about Rhodes more accessible and interesting. The parties in the trial show how it had an impact on their own lives.

The Narrative: Cecil John Rhodes awakens in total blackness. Feeling around, he finds stairs and begins to ascend. As he ascends, he observes scenes of people undergoing horrendous torture. He emerges into the open and begins walking. After a night sleeping in the open, Rhodes finds his way to the bank of a mighty river where a ferryman awaits. The ferryman is AhmadBen Bella who fought for Algerian independence and later was a leader in the movement to liberate all of Africa. He is to transport Rhodes to the other side where he will meet his guide.

This is the start of Rhodes' —and the readers'— education. You might think this part is a bit dry since it serves to acquaint Rhodes to an Africa he didn't know. For the reader, it's a launching point to learn more about Africa. 

 One the other side, Rhodes is met by Eufa Sutherland, a Ghanaian and pioneer in African theatre. She tells Rhodes that he has been dead for 120 years and is now in After Africa where the departed souls from Africa and the diaspora go after death. Eufa informs him that he is to be tried for what he did in the Herebefore but before his trial he will be given a tour of five of After Africa's seven heavens.

Upon learning about his upcoming trial, Rhodes dryly  asks if any of the judges will be white: I fear my imperial achievements might not be impartially viewed by those who suffered their consequences.

It might be unfair to call this first part dry. I use that term because it is an outline of African history and culture. It is also very interesting.  If you follow the references in the tour section of the book — actually the rest of the book for that matter — you will gain an appreciation of the richness of African history and culture.

The five heavens Rhodes will tour are:

1. Historical Heaven of the Ancestors — tableaus of past African civilizations.

2. Guild of Nobel Laureates — African who have been awarded a Nobel Prize

3. The Dead Poets Society — African writers

4. The Celestial Music Concert — celebrating music from Africa and the diaspora.

5. The Afrolympics — African achievements in sports.

Rhodes' imperialistic self-assurance and arrogance suffers as he sees an Africa that he didn't know existed. For him, African history began with the arrival of Europeans. He seems to suffer the most while observing the Afrolympics. Rhodes was sickly and came to South Africa to improve his health.  My takeaway from this is that Rhodes suffered from feelings of self-doubt and inadequacy and his imperialistic empire building was compensating.

After the tour of the five heavens, Rhodes is sent off to a hotel with the interesting name of Hotel Afropurgatario where he will rest before the trial the next day.

Rhodes is escorted to the stadium where the Afrolmypics was held. It is packed with millions of people eager to witness the events.

Rhodes will be judged by the Council of the Wise, five judges representing the sub-regions of the African continent  and two representing the diaspora —US, Caribbean, & South America. I have a little knowledge of five of the judges:Patrice Lumumba, Boutros Boutros- Ghali, Ruth First, Maya Angelou, and Toussaint L'Overture. I don't know (right now) about Taslim Olawale Elias and Wangari Maathai.

Rhodes will be prosecuted by The Council for Damnation: Stanlake Samkange and Olive Schreiner.  The defense, The Council for Salvation, has Nelson Mandela and Harry Oppenheimer.

If Rhodes is found guilty by all of the judges he will be consigned to the Hades of African Autocrates for eternity.

The chair of the Council of the Wise, Elias, informs Rhode of the five crimes he is accused of committing in the Herebefore for which he will be judged:

1. mass murder

2. racism

3. grand theft of Africa's natural resources

4. exploitation and enslavement of African workers

5. vainglorious quest for immortality

Judge Elias gives a concise history of Rhodes in Africa emphasizing his expansionism activities and concludes by saying:

It is therefore European imperialism as a whole that is on trial over the next two days, and you are the greatest individual symbol and embodiment of this phenomenon in the Victorian age. This is therefore the trial of a system, not just a man.

Samkange is the ideal person to lead the prosecution. He was born in what was then Southern Rhodesia and also very familiar with Rhodes' history having written On Trial for My Country, published in 1966. In this book he put Rhodes on trial. Schreiner's case against Rhodes is more personal, having once been a friend and admirer.

Mandela, as you would expect, takes a conciliatory approach by emphasizing the good he accomplished  through education. Mandela was the only real choice to defend Rhodes. Oppenheimer, on the other hand, doesn't help Rhodes at all; he basically glosses over the bad things Rhodes did and emphasizes "the breadth of his vision and his ultimate achievements...which benefited the greater good."

Basically, the defense boils down to declaring that Rhodes did a lot of good with his educational endowments. Besides, he was a man of his times and considered it his duty to further British imperialism any way he could. Really, he was the embodiment of Kipling's poem, The White Man’s Burden. which holdes that it is the burden of the white race to "civilize" the non-white races. It was a moral imperative to colonize the non-whites for their own good. Kipling wrote the poem in 1899 justifying the Philippine-American War (1899-1902) but the theme certainly applies to British imperialism.

As the trial concludes, each judge gives a statement about Rhodes along with their verdict. Patrice Lumumba's remarks were particularly interesting to me because of what he added afterwards. Lumumba tales to task both his co-council, Olive Schreiner (1855-1920) ] and the lead council for the defense, Nelson Mandela. Lumumba acknowledges that Schreiner condemned Rhodes and advocated for the rights of black people, yet she had the early belief that British imperialism was a force for good. He characterizes her approach as that of a "paternalistic white liberal". Mandela, one of the greatest liberators in the 20th century, is criticized for allowing his name to be linked to Rhodes in the Mandela Rhodes Foundation and going so far as to suggest similarities between himself and Rhodes, something Lumumba stridently rejects. Powerful stuff.

Adebajo displays a remarkable talent in not only laying out the foundation for African civilization and culture but also describing the effects imperialism and colonialism had on Africa, effects that are still seen today. I learned a lot reading this book and learned that there is still more I should know. It wasn't mentioned here but Patrice Lumumba reminded me that I have intended to read King Leopold's Ghost which describes the atrocities and genocide that took place when the Congo was King Leopold of Belgium's personal colony (and after).

I am pleased that I read this book which will also be my guide to further reading. Recommended.

Query for anyone who has read this book:

Rhodes encounters three bizarre human figures covered in gold, silver, and bronze: one has no arms, one has only one leg, and one has an eye in the center of her forehead. They take Rhodes to their hut and feed him. Rhodes abandons his hosts in the night fearing them. These beings seem like they must symbolize something but I have no idea what. If anyone knows, please leave a comment.

Review: The Gospel According to Wanda B. Lazarus by Lynn Joffe

This is a review of the best book you probably won't be able to get your hands on unless you live in South Africa. 

 I'm going to abbreviate the title as Gospel within this review.

Reaction: Loved it. I've read many books lately that I've really enjoyed but none have provided the sheer exuberant fun of The Gospel According to Wanda B. Lazarus by Lynn Joffe. It is a crime against readers that it isn't widely available and I hope an international publisher picks it up soon.

Synopsis: Our hero, Wanda, is an independent-minded young Jewish girl not fond of the status of women. Our story picks up begins in 33 CE where a series of misadventures finds our titular protagonist's passion for music — a major theme in the book — fired by a Roman lover and inadvertently offending Jesus who tells her she will remain on earth until he returns. To be fair to Wanda, her actions toward Jesus were well intentioned.

After the death of her lover, Wanda overdoses herself on nard (spikenard/muskroot).  Instead of eternal death she finds herself in the realm of the nine muses which she learned about from her lover. The muses don't come across as very imposing (more on this later).  She declares that she wants to join them as the tenth muse. Wanda is pretty insistent and the muses decided to get rid of her by giving her a task, delivered in the form of a cryptic poem, that she has to accomplish to be considered for acceptance as a muse.

Her death launches Wanda into the first of her reincarnations that will take her around the world from Palmyra in 272 CE to Norway in 2020 CE. Each time she dies and returns to the muses, she is told that she fell short in the successful completion of her task and is sent off again with another 'what does this even mean' poem to figure out.

What I Liked: Lynn is a master story teller with a wonderful way of imagining events and brings a good dose of humor to the story. I am astonished at what she was able to pack into this book. Nothing is forced, padded, or an infodump. Wanda is the perfect character to react to historical events throughout history. She's funny, resilient, randy, bawdy (also vulgar and raunchy), sexy, and an assertive feminist. On the first page Wanda says about the events in 33 CE, The disciples remember it differently, but they were always going to write their own version anyway. I was there. I saw it all. This is pretty much what happens through all Wanda's incarnations; history is written and her role is left out. Wanda's feminism also asserts itself in each reincarnation.

Let's mention something about the muses first. They are a hoot and not what you would imagine from Greek mythology. They are squabbling — and a little flaky —sisters with a somewhat dysfunctional family dynamic. Their big brother Apollo calls the hots and isn't above forbidding them to exercise their talents. This is a situations that offends Wanda who has no patience for the patriarchy. I think she'd lead a Lucifer style revolt against the heavens if she could. It's fun the way Lynn gives personalities to each muse based on the areas over which each has influence.

Wanda is telling the story of her past lives and she does so with a liberal use of Yiddish, word play, puns, and putting modern vernacular in the mouths of historical figures. I mentioned above that Wanda is a bit vulgar and the way she uses apricots, peaches, and pomegranates for body parts will forever color the way I see those fruits.

This isn't a criticism, but I found I needed to look up a lot of words and historical events. Ok, I looked up some things but rolled with the context for most of the book otherwise I'd have had to stop every few minutes for a web search. This was in no way an impediment to the fun I had reading this book. I mean, I learned the word to describe the hairs standing on your body — horripilate — and a lot about stringed instruments such as the phorminx. There is a lot of music theory that mostly went over my head. But music is fundamental to Wanda's character and is a necessary part of the story. 

Gospel calls out for a reread not only for the story but to look deeper into the language and historical events.

Speaking of history, Lynn deftly inserts Wanda into historical events where she steers the outcome but, naturally, without any credit. I think my favorite incarnation was when Wanda found herself in Petrograd in 1916 with Rasputin. Perhaps that was because I knew more about that part of history but probably because of the really neat twist the author puts on it.

The Gospel According to Wanda B. Lazarus is an expansive and epic journey—and romp— through history with one of the most enjoyable characters I've encountered in a while. Highly recommended and Lynn is firmly on my 'can't wait for her next book'

Keywords: Greek Muses, reincarnation, feminism, history, music

Review: Mermaid Fillet by Mia Arderne

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I was definitely punching above my weight when I took on this book but I couldn’t pass on the tag line “A Noir Crime Novel”; noir is my favorite genre. I don’t think I’ve worked harder to read another novel. It took me two reads and an additional 4+ hours to work through it (see next paragraph). I seriously considered not reviewing the book but, given the amount of time I’ve spent on it, by God you’re getting a review. It takes me a while to get to the actual story and I won’t blame you if you skip to that part.

About the title — Mermaid is amagical realism element. Mermaids swim off the coast of Cape Town. More rare than perlemoen (abalone), their tails are so tender you can cut them with a styrofoam knife. Like perlemoen, they are harvested and mostly shipped out of the country. For one of the characters (The Banggat), they represent the unobtainable, something they want, more than anything, to experience. Now that I think about it, mermaid fillets probably symbolize the cravings of all the characters, or not.

The biggest hurdle for me, a non-South African not fluent in Afrikaans, was language. Mermaid Fillet uses a lot of Afrikaans, Afrikaans slang, Kaaps (a form of Afrikaans spoken by Cape Coloured), Cape slang, and some Cape Malay and Xhosa words. The challenge of slang, whatever the language, is that there is a literal definition and a different meaning when used in a slang expression. For example, take the Afrikaans word for bird. In a different context, it can refer to a penis. Or a character says “Don’t take me for a gaai” and I had to wonder why is it an insult to be called a jay bird. I couldn’t find another definition for gaai. Also, and this is speculation, but I think the author often wrote words and phrases the way they sound in conversation but not as they are actually spelled. For example, “lus” (craving) is pronounced “lis” which is the way the author spelled it. It was a lot of fun for me to work through a different language especially when so much of it is informal. It’s like solving a puzzle. I took notes as I read which includes translations, passages I liked, plot points, etc. It is in no way a formal concordance and no guarantees as to accuracy. Mermaid Fillet Appendix.

So, was it worth spending so much time on one book? Absolutely. I enjoyed the writing, the plot, the characters, the structure, and the way the author turns a phrase. I took to writing down sentences and expressions that I liked. For example, a female child sees older girls walking through the park and observes “They move through space differently” and it awakens something in her. There is something very evocative in that simple sentence. When I posted this review to a Facebook group, someone commented "how [the author] gets into the headspace of all the different characters - different ages, genders class backgrounds - that really confirmed the feeling that a new literary talent is being born right in front of our eyes". This nails how I feel about this book and its author — love both.

Mermaid Fillet won’t be for everyone. Arderne calls it noir so you know it will be dark. It is and includes violence, graphic sex, vulgarity, and the PTSD from suffering paedophilia — two of the characters have PTSD from their experience. The paedophilia is the hardest part to take but absolutely essential to the development of two characters.

The first thing that told me I was going to like this author is the “List of Characters” at the beginning. It isn’t the usual dramatis personae you expect to see. The author gives the reader the name, type/characteristics of the characters: age, sexual preference, preferred pronouns, vice, star sign, mental illness, and where they are from. I thought it pretty clever to assign a type to each character. For example, Letitia is of the type “Tief” which means bitch but not just a bitch but a bitch’s bitch. Isaac, a killer, is type “malnaai” which translates to "bad fucker".  One character is only referred to by their type, “Banggat”, which means scaredy cat. This is a slick way to introduce the story.

The Story (finally): Mermaid Fillet is, at its core, a crime story. Banggat is summoned to face three men: a Grootman (big man), a Genuine ou (probably means a real man or real gentleman) and a malnaai. These three men are the lieutenants of the mysterious crime lord,@M16inyourbek (bek=mouth) who only communicates through Twitter DMs. They have been ordered by @M16inyourbek to retrieve a particular Tamagotchi lost several decades earlier. If you don’t remember them, a Tamagotchi was a digital pet popular in the late 90s. Why @M16inyourbek needs the Tamagotchi, how Banggat goes about searching for it, and the reach of @M16inyourbek’s crime empire makes for a solid crime story. Since this is noir you can figure that the characters are doomed

But there is a lot more going on in Mermaid Fillet than a straightforward crime story. I may be out of my depth here but I think the real story is the plight of women, two women in particular but really all women: Letitia, a Tief (uber bitch), and Michaela, a Sturvy (Sturvy is a Kapps (Cape Coloured) expression that can mean a lot of things but here I think it means a girl who is talking proper English, and acting highfalutin. Overlaying the stories of these two women is a magical realism/metaphorical element. An entity called The Goddess interjects herself into the story with first person observations about society and the treatment of women. She stands for all women. The Goddess is capable of releasing menstrual blood from the skies when a woman or child is mistreated. It can be a single drop or a deluge capable of drowning a malefactor. She can even turn the oceans red in extreme cases.

Letitia was horribly abused as a 9 year old girl. She never got help to work through her abuse and never saw her abuser punished.She is severely afflicted with PTSD, living on the thin edge of sanity. She escaped prostitution to marry the Genuine Ou but can’t trust gentleness and only trusts violence which she considers honest. Contrasted with Letitia is Michaela who is a university student studying anthropology and the ex-girlfriend of Letitia’s husband. She also is sexually assaulted which puts her into a homebound depression. Letitia scoffs at Michaela's trauma, considering it hardly worth mentioning. Two very different women but both suffering the effects of being objectified in their own way and both dealing with it in very different ways. Their stories are both powerful and affecting.

There is a somewhat lighter moment at the beginning. We learn that The Bangatt was born wearing Jordans. He is obsessed with owning Jordans and only works to be able to buy the latest Jordans. A scuff mark on a shoe will devastate him. I had no idea there were so many styles of Jordans and the author isn’t exaggerating when she catalogues The Bangatt’s collection.

The fate of the women and the men make this a bleak but compelling read. No one comes out unscathed. Do I recommend it? Yes, but not if you are very sensitive because it is rough at times. You can be empathic toward the character but your tolerance of the worst in human behavior will be a factor.

I would really like to hear from someone else who has read this book particularly from South African women.

Keywords: South Africa, noir, magical realism, feminism, gangsters