Spook Country-William Gibson

William Gibson is synonymous with science fiction thrillers. After all, this is the man who is credited with coining the term “cyberspace”. So most people who know enough to recognize his name and think they don’t like science fiction would probably be inclined to skip this book. To those folks, I would say you are doing yourself a disservice. After all, take away the technological trappings and science fiction stories are just like any other-at the core there is romance, thrills, and horror, amongst other things. Science fiction is more like a setting, and I could probably write a lot more about the whole science fiction genre-its’ subcategories and while not all science fiction is about robots and aliens. But I’ll save that for another post, and stick to reviewing Spook Country by William Gibson.

At its’ heart, Spook Country is a mystery/crime novel. There are three major groups of characters involved, and each chapter revolves around one set. Hollis Henry is the former lead singer of a band called the Curfew, and she is trying her hand at journalism. She is freelancing for a magazine called Node, which hasn’t yet been published and no one seems to have heard of. Her primary subject is a new form of art that involves GPS and virtual reality style helmets. Tito’s family is involved in the transfer of information. He is Cuban, yet his family speaks Russian and they have all been trained in what seem to be Russian/Soviet spy protocols. Milgrim is a junkie who speaks Russian and has been “recruited” by Brown, who seems to be involved with the government. Brown is tracking Tito’s family, and needs Milgrim’s help as a translator. All three of these sets of characters intersect-Hollis is looking for Bobby Chombo, who is a sort of system administrator for the artists using the GPS techniques, and Bobby is looking for a mysterious container, along with Tito’s family and Milgrim and Brown.

I seem to have a knack for finding stories with short chapters, and this is no exception. The characters are also interesting, and since each chapter focuses on a different set, the reader gets drawn in. The story is also set in 2006, so with references to 9/11 and the Iraq war today’s reader will be comfortable. The references will also help future readers understand the context of the story.

I said earlier that this is a mystery/crime novel. However, this is not a cut-and-dried whodunit. There are questions that remain unanswered, but they are questions that are best left to the imagination. This book is like taking a peak into some sort of spy operation, where maybe you don’t get to see the big picture, only the pieces that you are allowed to see.

I borrowed this from the library, and I recommend you do the same if you’re looking for something different.

The Open Curtain-Brian Evenson

Originally reviewed March 9, 2007

I've just finished reading The Open Curtain, by Brian Everson. I got this at the library, and the cover really caught my eye. The story is about a Mormon teenager, Rudd, who while going through his dead father's things finds a stack of letters that suggest he has a half-brother. He tracks down his half-brother, named Lael, and they form a sort of friendship. At the same time, Rudd starts a research project for school and finds a story about a murder committed in New York in 1903. The murderer is H. William Young, the grandson of Brigham Young. What piques Rudd's interest is a reference to "blood atonement". This supposedly is a part of Mormon teaching (that has been disavowed) which states that some sins are not cleansed by the shedding of Christ's blood, and in order to make it right the sinner's blood must be shed. Rudd is asked by his teacher to stop researching this, but can't get it out of his head. Things get stranger still when he starts "losing time", and when he starts finding blood on his clothes and hearing reports of people being murdered.

One day Rudd and Lael go up to the mountains. The point of view then switches to Lyndi, whose family was also in the mountains and were brutally murdered. Rudd is the sole survivor of this massacre, and he has no memory of what happened. Lyndi is strangely attracted to Rudd, perhaps because he was the last person to be with her family. She's terrified of being alone, and allows Rudd to move in with her. His behavior keeps getting stranger, but Lyndi chalks it up to his trauma. Finally, she convinces him to marry her, thinking that marriage will improve things.

Does marriage heal Rudd, or does he fall even further into psychosis? Who is Lael, and where did he disappear to after the murder of Lyndi's family?

There is a lot of Mormon imagery in this book-the bodies of Rudd and Lyndi's family are positioned in the same manner as the special marks on Mormon undergarments, and the marriage ceremony in the Mormon temple is unlike anything I have ever heard of before. Mormons are very secretive about their temple ceremonies, and in fact the author mentioned in his afterward that much of what he described in that ceremony is no longer practiced.

I must warn you that there are no easy answers in this book, so if you like cut and dried stories, you won't find one here. If you want your imagination stretched a bit, go check your local library for this one.

Black and Blue-Anna Quindlen

Originally reviewed February 4, 2007.

Black and Blue, by Anna Quindlen, is the story of a woman, Fran Bendetto, who is beaten by her husband. The book starts out when she leaves her husband Bobby, a New York City police officer, and takes their son Robert with her. Fran has enlisted the help of a woman she met through her job as an emergency room nurse who works to get battered women away from their spouses. Fran doesn't know where she's going or how she's going to survive.

Fran ends up in Florida, where she becomes Beth Crenshaw. She and Robert start forging a new life and making new friends, and at the same time learn some things about themselves and each other. The story of Beth's abuse is told in memories, and we start learning the reasons that she never left before-she liked their house, she didn't want to ruin family vacations, and most telling of all, she loved her husband. Robert knows what his dad did to his mom, but is reluctant to face the truth. He struggles to work through his feelings, while Beth tries to help him through it.

In order to keep themselves safe, Beth and Robert need to keep their real reasons for living in Florida to themselves. Everything about them has changed, from Beth's hair color to Robert's date of birth. Throughout the book is Bobby's shadow. Beth is in constant fear that Bobby will find her, and knows that he will kill her if he does.

When I told a friend that I was reading this book he laughed and told me I could turn on Lifetime any night of the week and see this story. What sets this story apart from others is the attention to detail. Beth is honest with herself-she loved her husband, and she still has feelings for him. Sometimes she even questions whether it was really that bad. She doesn't blame herself for the abuse, but she can't help thinking that Bobby will find someone who "doesn't make him so mad". These kinds of flaws make her character very realistic. There's also a feeling of helplessness. Beth doesn't even learn her phone number until she has been in her apartment for a couple of weeks, and she can't make contact with her family to let them know she's okay.

This was a very good book, and it was easy to see why it was one of Oprah's Book Club selections. If you find it in a library or bookstore, go ahead and pick it up-it's worth the read.