Combined reviews of Kenneth Grahame's (1908) "The Wind in the Willows," and Jacqueline Kelly's  (2012) "return to the Willows"

 

For a number of reasons it is best to read/re-read Grahame's 1908 "The Wind in the Willows," before reading Kelly's (one hundred years later 2012, to be exact). You will not be disappointed with either one, since there is an uncanny thread of character analysis, superb use of language (even though there is a distinct difference in the discourse), and a delight that the bestiary genre still is alive and well without the nastiness of the earlier examples, and the sugary-sweet Disney interpretations.

 

The "Wind" plot line centers around the ego-centric Toad who  gets not only himself, but his animal friends embroiled in larcenous "adventures", their resolutions, and finally a vindication as "the good guys prevail over the baddies." 

 

Reading it as an adult, and after a long hiatus of not reading it, what one is struck by, is the rich, luxurious use of language that creates an atmosphere of intense involvement, no matter the plot event. Just this one quote of Mole's first introduction to the river sets the language tone that never lets the reader down. "Never in his life had he seen a river before-this sleek, sinuous, bull-bodied animal, chasing and chuckling, gripping things with a gurgle and leaving them with a laugh, to fling itself on fresh playmates that shook themselves free, and were held again. All was a-shake and a-shiver-glints and gleams and sparkles, rustle and whirl, chatter and bubble." 

 

Michael Hague's 1980 artistic versions reflect the above words for whatever plot event he is illustrating. A winning combination.

 

Jacqueline Kelly's  2012 "respectful sequel", "Return to the Willows," is a must-read for anyone regardless ot age. Kelly keeps ;the character cast the same, with some added, but each is true to the concept set out previously. And in her continuity there is no boredom, nor slavish copying, but she so smoothly and adroitly puts each character into a current historical setting that the difference is seamless.

 

The most obvious difference is Kelly's language usage that is just as vivid, comprehensive, and delightful as the predecessor, though more spare as the following quote illustrates. Again Mole can be an example as he is aloft in Toad's balloon (from motor cars to balloons now): '"The overwhelming panorama of the wide world: meadows of barley neatly divided by the darker lines of hedges and roads, an undulcheckerboard of emerald green and lime green and pale gold. . . . charming hamlets, including their onw familiar village of Toadsworth, punctuated by the steeples of picturesque chuches." 

 

The biggest difference is the continual lacing of Kelly's humor in footnotes to explain certain words, and the plot descriptions of Toad's egocentrism in his persona.

 

Of particular note is Kelly's introduction of scientific and mathematical language and examples. (Back note is that Kelly is a physician.)  Your young listener (and maybe the adult reader) will be introduced  to the Pythagorian Triangle Theory, Euclid's Theory of Prime Numbers (the smallest primes are 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, in case you have forgotten), Archimedes theory that the weight of displaced water equals the weight of a floating object, Fermat's Last Theorem (that still is not sorted out), and the questionable Pangolin Quadratical Equations. 

 

The plot events take on a similar cast, but they are just as fresh as the originals. Note: a love interest comes to Rat, an emotion Graham steered away from. The strength of that love will save the animals in one more battle at Toad Hall.

 

And like artist Michael Hague, Clint Young's imagination and abilityenable the pages to throb with color and emotion. Another winning combination. 

 

A Gulfport Library patron

Review of novel "Flowers for Algernon," By Daniel Keyes, 1966 (last copyright renewal 1987)

 

While this book was originally published  52 years ago, the subject matter, the characterizations, the writing skills are totally current. (Plus every Oscar season, the movie, "Charly" with a backward "r", starring Cliff Robertson in a stunning performance, is on Turner Classic movies.)

 

Charlie is 32 years old with an IQ, or as he says, "an eye-Q of 68," who wants "to be smart." Because of his motivation to learn and be smart, his teacher, Miss Kinnian at Beckman College Center for Retraded Adults, "where I go to lern 3 times a week," suggested Charlie as a good potential for a pilot surgery project to attempt to increase the intellectual capacity of the retarded. The surgery had already been done with initial excellent results on a mouse, Algernon.

 

Two primary plot devices will be Charlie's spelling ability, and, of course, his mental comprehension. Keyes cleverly uses Charlie's in-place spelling for the start of his journey, March 8,  the "operashun that dint hert," to the on-going mental acuity explosion that will be described in ever-increasing sophistication of spelling, vocabulary, and knowledge of a myriad of subject that will  surpass his teachers and surgeons.    

 

The third plot device of "wanting to be smart" is Charlie's growing awareness of the chicanery of the world, and the moral dilemmas of seeing people thorough his new lens of learning. In addition, While Charlie can now grasp the most complicated concepts of just about everything, his ability to deal with morality inconsistencies  has not developed.

 

Before Charlie burns into oblivion from his March 8 operation, it seems that by June Algernon who had been operated on before Charlie, was beginning to show erratic behavior within two months. By early June, realizing the scientists were going to euthanize Algernon, Charlie rescues him realizing that he will be replicating Algernon because they both have enzyme imbalance from the operation, and escapes from the program.

 

After six months (September) Charlie starting to forget, Algernon dies (Charlie buries him), and by end of November: "I wish I could be smart agen rite now. If I coud I woud sit down and reed all the time."  He also asks Miss Kinnin to "put some flowrs on Algernons grave in the bak yard."

 

Review by a Gulfport Library patron. 

 

 

Gulfport patron book review of "Correspondence An Adventure in Letters", a novel  by N. John Hall, 2011

 

This is a "must read" for anyone who enjoys the expert use and application of language, in all its finest nuances, the ability to keep reader interest in the most clever use of letters/e-mail context that I have ever read (the letter format is not one of my favorite writing styles), and an overall reading delight.

 

Hall is a master of minimalism in that in just the first ten pages he sets up the plot range and conflict, and character types. And then he develops those characters from what could be an arid portrayal, but is not, for those many e-mails. He maintains reader interest not only by his character development, but then, intersperses "letters" of Victorian writers which had immeasurable depth to this novel.

 

Even the plot line - Larry Dickerson (interesting fiction name for this era), a non-college educated retired banker discovers a treasure chest of his great-great-grandfather's literary collection. His "ggf" was a book dealer in London in the Victorian era. Not only did he sell the books, but he so loved the literature he engaged in a lively correspondence with many of the famous authors, saving the writers' responses and copies of his letters.

 

Upon discovering this treasure of Victorian authors and book seller answers, Dickerson contacts Christie's in London, hence the e-mails to work out the plot, to sell the collection.

 

A plot anomaly is that  Dickerson, although he does not have the educational background, decides to transcribe the letters (over 200) for content, and do other editorial adjustments.  But Christie's, with good humor and much trepidation, deal with that.  It is Hall's inclusion of a number of Victorian writers' responses/ ideas/reactions that gives "Correspondence" a special and even educational flavor.

 

Another treat is how Hall develops Dickerson's character from a generally educated retired man to a demon for learning as much as he can about these giants of Victorian literature, a learning that is subtly reflected in his discourse.

 

The ending cannot be revealed. It is too delicious. Suffice it to say, it is a literary and financial treat to end a literary romp..

 

Gulfport Library Patron

 

 

James Patterson has started another young adult series, the "Witch & Wizard."

The first is the "Witch & the Wizard" (2009) with co-writer, etc., Gabrielle Charbonnet. The plot development is standard from Harry Potter, the Narnia Series, and others of that genre I have not read. Some of the characterizations and transformations go back as far as the Greek myths.

This repetition is not damaging if the writing skill keeps reader interest in current applications rather than other/past concepts. The first, "Witch & Wizard" is a good read on plot and characterization. If you want a young reader exposed to grim brutality, however, this is the book to read.

When Patterson shifts to Ned Rust as co-whatever, in  the second book of the series, "The Gift" (2010), there is little to recognize, and this is disastrous in a series. The momentum, cohesiveness and character recognition have little to do with Book I. (What happened to Wisty's dog?) A note on the plot, there is hardly any "reprieve of reader emotion" as the plot thunders from one excruciating disaster to another. The cloudy entry into the Building of Buildings that is an important plot event beginning an unending "escape," is just one example of reader mystification.

The reader seeks in vain the  vividness, the humor, the clear characterizations from Book I. But Rust includes page after page of horrific events and developments.

Review by a Gulfport Library patron

William Shatner and Chris Regan, "Shatner Rules  Your guide to Understanding the Shatnerverse and the World at Large" (2011)

William Shatner is a multi-talented Canadian, how 80, who whizzes through the varieties of his multitudinous life events in "Shattner Rules." And from his description of even his current life, he does indeed rule.

The elephant in his room is always the three-year "Star Trek" series that is living in re-runs longer than Methuselah. Shatner found it colored so much of what he did and does, but he would not let it deter him from trying new and different venues of performance, the variety of which will amaze the reader.  

The book is a series of vignettes historically organized in a time-line of his life in show business (that started in McGill University), and continues into his 80th year.

He proudly announces that he never says "no" to proposals (even hawking possible opportunities for possible entries to the Shatnerverse), and this is proof positive of his belief that "there are many lives in a lifetime."

review by a Gulfport Library patron  

 

Alan Lightman, theoretical MIT physicist/novelist with joint appointments in science and humanities, in his novel, "Mr g"(2012), presents an imaginative rendering of Intelligent Design (Mr g is the designer) working within "g's" construct of quantum reality, cause and effect, time/space continuum, concept of Pi, harmonics, energy, matter, rotational motion, atoms,  elaborate structures of elements, ticking hydrogen time clocks.  

Mr. g disclaims any responsibility for "the marvelous ways" in which atoms in molecules formed linear chains, planar triads, tetrahedrons, octahedrons" because it was the laws of quantum that prescribed the electrical attractions. Likewise the planets and stars, he had "nothing to do with that." Those molecules "formed by themselves" based on cause and effect from the principles with which the universe began.

Lightman's "snake" is two "evil-like creatures" who convince Mr. g that he has to include "intelligent beings" to appreciate this universe (Aalam 104729 which is 10,000th prime number in base ten). The discourse from then on begins to wander as Lightman does not seem to come to grips with "beings" as he did with the astrophysics of the first part of the book.

Review by Gulfport patron.

Sam Savage's 2006 first novel, "Firmin," is a first in a number of ways, including the book format that appears to have had a rodent munching on the edge of the book, creating a perfect half circle of empty space. This is a unique reading experience.

Another "first" is that this autobiography is of an "educated" rat who literally consumes education when he resides in the back areas of a book store, and eats his way through a liberal education. 

It is a beast fable in the traditional sense that the beast/rat is the trenchant observer of the human world and foibles, that know no animal boundaries.

It is also a tragi-comedy, but Savage switches that genre heading in the plot, so that the first, and best part is the comedy, and then in the remainder of the book is a non-attached plot shift where the tragedy is a long descent to the abyss as his two human attachments go the way of all flesh.

Savage designates the name/title "Firmin as being a play on "fur man." It could also be a play on "vermin." 

Review by a Gulfport Library fan

 

Alan Lightman's 1994 novel "Good Benito" continues the vignette style he used in "Einstein's Dream" (1993), in this case it is Tom Sawyer/Huckleberry Finn personal experiences of Bennett and friends but in the Space Age.

In the "best" Iowa Writers tradition, Lightman shifts the plot back and forth in time (a serious consideration in all of Lightman's novels), leaving the reader to determine what the shift is all about. Emerging is a very grim picture of a family life (his father is totally withdrawn, his mother is a nut, his uncle totally spoils his graduation party), with not much improvement in interpersonal relationships (although there is considerable space to young Bennett and friend concocting computer-like devices a la Steve Jobs). 

The one bright light in Bennett's life is mathematics, "beautiful mathematics." No interpersonal problems, it is "a world without bodies, . . . a world of clear logic and grace."

While Bennett's positively described his world by equations," that precision was never in his personal life, including the end of the book where is wife replicates the mental instability and rejection of Bennett, just as he experienced with his mother. No "good Benito" anywhere.

Review by a Gulfport patron.

Einstein's Dreams" is theoretical physicist's Alan Lightman's first novel (1993). He has a dual faculty appointment at MIT in science and the humanities.

Lightman uses Einstein in dream sequences to focus on a myriad of human experiences that can be viewed through his  theories on time/space continuum. The "Great Clock" ticks for us all. His various vignettes drift back and forth between "Are we slaves to the Clock", or "Do we ignore the Clock at our own risk." 

The general rhetorical tone of Lightman's discourse is we plod through life's experiences all of which take place in space and time with a variety of outcomes over which our control is questionable. At the end, it appears that Lightman, like Einstein, "feels empty."

(Gulfport Library also has "Good Benito" (1994) and "Mr g" (2012).

By a Gulfport patron.

 

Review by a Gulfport Library fan.

According to the frontispiece of Ken Folltet's 2010 "Fall of Giants" Book One of "The Century Trilogy," this is 20th book he has written, most of which are in the adventure genre.

"Fall of Giants" is a huge volume (985 pages) of a historical overview of a well-worked historical era, 1911-1924. Complete with a huge cast of characters (don't get discouraged) who range from the traditional upper-upper English to the very basic as well as middle class WelchGerman/Austrian, Russians, French, and Americans.

He interweaves this cast of well-thought-out character studies in an interesting chaos version of how their lives will impinge and change the others. His plot arrangements are clear, so even though there are many, they can be kept recognizable, and it is interesting to see how Follett  manages the complexity and chaotic interchange of lives, emotions, and personal out-comes.

Interestingly enough, I found his interpretation of the one of the major "lead" characters, Earl Fitzherbert  to be wobbly and basically uncertain as the novel progressed. But the others were so well-defined, it hardly mattered.

One other note was the necessity of battle descriptions of WWI warfare, much of which has been done in countless other books. But given Follett's time span, it was a necessary coverage. Another reminder of human folly for which millions gave their lives.

Review by a Gulfport Library fan.

 

Review of "Witch & Wizard The Fire"

Review of "Witch & Wizard The Fire" by James Patterson and Jill Dembowski (2011) is the third of the "Witch & Wizard" series ("Witch & Wizard" and "The Gift" precede it).

 

This series is under a general heading of "Readers of all Ages"but it is listed with other books aimed at a younger audience. This series audience seems to be for young adults with the chief characters in middle to high school.

 

A caveat is that Patterson and Dembowski present a constant violent reading diet to young adults of grisly descriptions and events throughout the book. Examples: "horror"; "blood" by the buckets splashed all over the characters, the bodies, and the environment; "pustules"; "hot and oozing mess"; "eyes puff as blood leaks into them"; "burning at the stake" (with full descriptions of smells, and visuals); "vomit and blood"; "rotting flesh"; "rotting flesh, mass of decaying arms, slimy flesh, decay, gagging stench"; etc.

 

You get the idea.  But remember, young readers are reading page after page after page of blood, gore, and decay that somehow, miraculously,  is supposed to result in the With and the Wizard leading the populace into a new and better society.  An oxymoron plot device if there ever were one.

 

This said, this third volume, in contrast to the second (The Gift" with Ned Rust) that started from nowhere and ended there, is clearly plotted with echoes of characterization from Volume 1 that resonate for some humorous  characterizations, at times, as well as what I assume is Patterson's contribution in the emotional responses of particularly the Wizard that have their own resonances to Patterson's Alex Cross series.

 

Review by a Gulfport Library patron.

Review of "Forever Rumpole" (2011) by John Mortimer

You may say "Rumpole, again?" Oh yes, again. Mortimer is such a splendid writer, plot manager (he notes three in every story), and story teller, that a reprise is well worth it.

You can skip some of the 15 stories you have read and probably re-read, but this edition has some that probably you have not read before, and they are just as delicious as the others.

There are two introductory sections: an Introduction by Ann Mallalieu (a long-time associate), and a wonderful Author's Introduction by Mortimer. Both of these give added atmosphere and background to the imagination and talent of an extraordinary writer.

The subtle humor never fails to enliven an intellectual journey into a world that Mallalieu notes is already changed "out of recognition."This volume takes on additional gravitas since there will be no more "Rumpole Stories." Mortimer died in 2009.

Review by a Gulfport patron.