What We Can Know by Ian McEwan-Book

From a Google Image Search – LA Times

Ian McEwan’s new book What We Can Know is a non-dystopian view of how human indifference might change world geography, it’s a celebration of nature, the humanities and poetry, and it’s a mystery. Any story that begins in the Bodleian Library generally offers us a kind of magic. I guess we can blame that on Deborah Harkness and on the academic glamor of Oxford University.

It takes a while to place everything in the correct historical time and to adjust to bouncing back and forth across a century. Tom Metcalfe is living in 2119, but he is a historian whose interest lies in the period from 1990 to 2030. He is trying to find a poem that was written by a writer named Francis Blundy for his wife Vivien. Blundy read it aloud on her fifty-fourth birthday at what came to be called “the Second Immortal Dinner.” Then he gave Vivien the poem, and no one ever saw it again. There are secondhand reports of what was said in the poem, but the poem itself vanished.

The poem was written in a very lengthy and difficult form called a corona. Blundy’s corona consisted of 14 Petrarchan sonnets and a fifteenth which had to repeat the first line of each of the 14 and that had to make sense. A Petrarchan sonnet had 8 lines that rhyme ABBAABBA and 6 lines that rhyme CDECDE. The literary world held its breath, but after almost a century the poem was still missing. Tom has taken on the task of finding the “Corona”. As he searches, we get glimpses of what neglecting to deal with climate issues has done to the planet. There are allusions to Nigeria, although they are rather vague. Tom seems to live in what is left of England, now a series of archipelagos and islands. The Bodleian library has been moved to higher ground making it problematic to travel there.

Apparently, the humanities academics have always been a rather randy bunch, with all kinds of sexual adventures and affairs causing ruffled emotions that are often hidden under polite exteriors (and sometimes not). Vivien was apparently a charming and beautiful woman who had a few adventures before she married Percy Green and a few while she was married to him. She loved her husband very much but only enjoyed his company for a few years as he developed early onset Alzheimer’s. He had been a craftsman making classical-quality violins. Alzheimer’s disease worsens over time and requires extended and intense caregiving. Percy’s Alzheimers was already advanced by the time Vivien met Francis Blundy, although she had already ended an affair with his editor, Harry.

Tom, in an off again, on again relationship with Rose is somewhat in love with Vivien although she has been gone from his world for a hundred years. He loves the property she lived in with Francis, after Percy died and they married. The property was known as The Barn and Vivien had her own office in the dairy building nearby. Everything had been carefully renovated, and since the “Derangement” (wars, and flooding) had not happened yet much of nature was still intact. Tom gets a valuable clue from a colleague about the possible place where the Corona might be buried. What he finds out says more about human nature than it does about poetry. It’s a book to love and ponder about, but it does not mince words about the human condition.

Jackson Brodie Mysteries by Kate Atkinson

From a Google Image Search – Kenyan Library – not all these books are in the series and not all the titles in the series are present

It is Kate Atkinson’s fault that I haven’t been able to do my housework. It’s her fault that my sleep schedule has been upended. I’m not resentful. Bingeing on a great series of books can be just as satisfying as bingeing on those made-for-TV series. More even. Kate Atkinson has written a series of six mystery books featuring the semi-enlightened, always striving for full enlightenment, Jackson Brodie. Her plots are unique and offer some interesting variety. Brodie’s personal friends and family members stay with us throughout the series once they make an appearance. The thread that holds the series together is Atkinson’s passion to raise awareness of the vulnerability of girls and woman in a world where many men embrace male dominance or outright exploitation of women.

The women in this series are shot, stabbed, beaten, kidnapped, and used. There are also strong women who may have once been downtrodden but will no longer tolerate abuse. Jackson Brodie often falls in love with these women and occasionally marries them. Don’t be frustrated if it takes a while for Brodie to appear. All the threads come together in astonishing and very satisfying ways, except for when Jackson thinks he might have stumbled upon the best relationship of all.

In order, Atkinson offers us 1. Case histories, 2. One Good Turn, 3. When Will There Be Good News, 4. Started Early Took My Dog, 5. Big Sky, 6. Death at the Sign of the Rook.

Case Histories: Victor meets Rosemary – “Women seemed to him to be in possession of all kinds of undesirable properties, chiefly madness, but also a multiplicity of physical drawbacks–blood, sex, children–which were unsettling and other. Yet something in him yearned to be surrounded by the kind of activity and warmth so missing in his own childhood, which was how, before he even knew what had happened, like opening the door to the wrong room, he was taking tea in a cottage in rural Norfolk while Rosemary shyly displayed a (rather cheap) diamond-chip engagement ring to her parents.” (p. 23) You can probably guess that this doesn’t end well.

One Good Turn: An incident of road rage involving a timid mystery author escalates due to mistaken identity to reveal a Russian sex trafficking ring hiding behind a maid service. Jackson is married to Julia, an actress he met under sad circumstances, although Julia doesn’t do sad. Atkinson gets to have fun giving us the fantasies of our sensitive mystery author. Jackson is in Scotland with Julia, so he is having a tough time navigating his way through the arts festival that is making for crowds everywhere. As he explores one tourist site, he comes across a beautiful dead woman who drowned but when he tries to pull her back to land, she disappears. He reports the incident, but the police have a hard time believing him. Chaos ensues and Jackson ends up bruised, battered, briefly jailed, and almost killed.

When Will There Be Good News: Gabrielle, Joanna, younger daughter Jessica, and baby Joseph are violently attacked while walking home along a country lane. Joanna is the only survivor. We meet Joanna again, all grown up, now Dr. Hunter, with a feckless husband and child of her own. Reggie (Regina) Chase is Dr. Hunter’s mother’s helper and babysitter. When Dr. Hunter and her baby are kidnapped, it is Jackson Brodie to the rescue.

Started Early Took My Dog: Clearly the Jackson Brodie mysteries are not happening in America. We are in Great Britain in this series of books. What happens to women in America is just as bad though. This we know. Jackson is in Leeds now but we, the reader, are briefly in 1975. We meet Tracy Waterhouse of the police force. Years later, near retirement, on impulse Tracy pays a wayward mom, probably a hooker, and probably on drugs to sell her the child the mom is dragging through the mall, berating the child as they go. Back at the beginning of her career (in 1975) she talks to her partner. “Tracy Waterhouse pressed her thumb on the doorbell and kept it there. Glanced down at her ugly police-issue regulation black lace-ups and wriggled her toes inside her ugly police-issue regulation black tights. Her big toe had gone right through the hole in the tights now and a ladder was climbing up toward one of her big footballer’s knees. ‘It’ll be some old bloke who’s been lying here for weeks,’ she said. “I bloody hate them.”

“I hate train jumpers.”

“Dead kiddies.”

“Yeah. They’re the worst,” Arkwright agreed. Dead children were trumps, every time.” (p.5)

It will be a long time and many side trips before Jackson catches up with Tracy Waterhouse.

Big Sky: Jackson is renting a place by the sea, but as they say, death takes no holidays. Jackson learned he had fathered a son with Julia, who tried to hide the child’s paternity. Nathan, the son, is staying with his dad, Jackson, but he is a teenager and not a happy one. We have crooked cops and ex-cops, money laundering, comics and drag queens. Eventually we have Reggie Chase and Jackson working reluctantly together to solve the mystery of a woman killed by a golf club. The crooked cops are all members of an elite golf club, and they are acting dodgy. The sky may be big and the view beautiful, but humans (especially men) are still up to no good.

Death at the Sign of the Rook: This mystery proceeds like a classic Agatha Christie mystery with all the possible murderers trapped together in a nearly bankrupt estate where they are holding a murder mystery weekend during an unexpected raging snowstorm. What brutal body injuries will Jackson suffer this time. What horrific things will or won’t happen to the women in the story.

You should read these, but just remember they are almost impossible to put down once you start. Kate Atkinson’s point about the vulnerability of women and girls is a good reminder that regardless of how accomplished and powerful women get they still need to take care. She reminds us that we need to work on creating societies where women are not victims.

All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby – Book

From a Google Image Search – LitStack

Listening to All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby comes with the bonus of the reader’s accents, all Southern dialects that vary according to which character is speaking. The accents all share similarities since one reader is speaking but it works and adds flavor to the story. I am listening to books again temporarily because I saved up credits from before my cataract surgery when I couldn’t read print books easily. After briefly subscribing to Audible + I ended up with 6 credits to spend – a dream scenario for a reader.

Charon County (Virginia) has been associated for decades with dark deeds and evil events, perhaps a negative karmic gift that resulted from the mythical reference it was saddled with, and because it was founded in bloodshed against indigenous people, “sown with generations of tears.” “The South doesn’t change” says the author.

Titus is, by some miracle, the first black sheriff of Charon County. Dressing for his day is described with ritualistic echoes of warriors preparing for battle. It’s a good thing Titus is prepared because this is no ordinary day in Charon County. Just as he finishes dressing with his bulletproof vest underneath and his gun belt strapped to his waist, his radio squawks and the news is that there is a school shooting in progress at the high school.

Although mass shootings are right out of the headlines of the moment, it turns out that only one person has been killed. This was a targeted hit. The shooter is a local guy, Latrell (hard to get spelling right from listening to a book). He has killed a very popular teacher of 9th grade geography who has a reputation for going out of his way to help needy students, Mr. Spearman. Why? Titus had hoped to find out by questioning Latrell, but Latrell committed suicide.

What follows is an investigation that uncovers some grisly, hateful, and secretive actions that will weigh heavily on this town for many years to come. These activities do not speak kindly of the darkest bits of human nature, but the author addresses legitimate concerns about real world events. However, this is a mystery novel and not a book that attempts to sort out the human dilemma.

While not for the squeamish, readers will read on to find out the identity of a man who wears a wolf mask to commit heinous acts that act out his deep psychological pain. Titus, an ex-FBI agent, has a warm relationship with his father Albert and his brother Marquis. He has a current girlfriend (Darlene) and an ex-girlfriend (Kelly). These are the core characters showing us a sheriff who is well-adjusted, dedicated to justice, and a bit clueless when it comes to women. Good characters make good books better. If you like mysteries this one is well worth reading.

Camino Winds by John Grisham – Book

Camino Winds takes us back to Camino Island just in time to greet a direct hit by a Category 4-5 hurricane named Leo. John Grisham takes us to revisit Bruce Cable at his very popular bookstore when Mercer Mann is scheduled to do a reading and book signing for her new novel, named Tessa after her grandmother. Bruce Cable is an enthusiastic fan of Mercer and he is an enthusiastic fan of all novelists, although he likes literary fiction best. The island has attracted a small, oddball group of writers who enjoy each other’s company and are happy to be strong-armed into attending the book signings Cable sponsors. His bookstore is a popular stop on publishers’ marketing circuits.

Mercer is with her new beau Thomas, also a writer, but they have to evacuate the island before the book signing can ever take place. Mercer’s grandmother’s cottage may not be able to survive a direct hit by such a strong storm. Bruce moves all his first floor books to the upper floors in the bookstore and decides to stay put in his Victorian home, beautifully decorated by his wife Noelle, an antiques dealer. Noelle is off on a buying trip. Nick, a young student working part time in the bookstore hangs with Bruce through the storm and the aftermath. Bruce has a generator.

The storm is a doozey and there is plenty of damage but it is to the north of where Cable lives, closer to the big hotels. And indeed, the electricity does get taken out by the storm. But one of Cable’s writer friends fares far worse in the storm. When they go to check on him they find him folded over a stone wall in his back yard, dead. At first they think he was hit by flying debris, but young Nick, lover of mystery books, offers good reasons to believe this is actually a murder.

Nelson is an author who has just finished a new book, although he has not yet sent it to a publisher. At first no one except the reader of Camino Winds thinks there is a connection between the manuscript and Nelson’s untimely demise. But we, John Grisham‘s readers knew it. We were right, sure enough there is a connection and it makes for another edge-of-your-seat story, even with a little edge of menace. Watch out or you will be pulling another all-nighter.