The Age of Innocence (1919) By Edith Wharton

I do understand why Edith Wharton’s novel The Age of Innocence was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction; she is a masterful writer. It is considered a classic of American literature. What I do not understand is why anyone would find the story appealing enough to read.

Wharton’s book is set in Manhattan during America’s Gilded Age, the later decades of the nineteenth century. It is basically a summation of the lives of a group of elitists, “upper class” people without a serious care in the world – and by elitist I mean financial, definitely not intellectual. They have zero empathy with the outside world. More accurately they have zero recognition of the outside world. F. Scott Fritzgerald’s Great Gatsby from the same era at least acknowledged others.

I think perhaps what I dislike about the story is it reminds me of today’s America. Early in the novel is a ridiculous subplot explaining the necessity of having the largest ballroom in New York City, even if it is used only once a year.

In the novel Newland Archer gets engaged to Mary Weeland, a good match by high society standards, both are from wealthy, respected families. They will eventually marry, prim and proper. Newland however has become infatuated with Mary’s cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska who has recently returned to New York because she is estranged from the Count and is rumored to want a divorce (considered a scandal in that era).

There is one, and only one, interesting plot in the book. Olenska makes the point that women are ostracized for divorce and considered whores if they have an affair. While it is okay for men to get a divorce, and secretly okay for them to have extra-marital affairs. Newland understands and agrees. Yet, they both play by the rules.

My criticism is with the story, not the writing. Wharton is superb, I’ve previously posted blogs on her novels A Son at the Front and Ethan Frome.

A movie was made of the book in 1993 starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Winona Ryder. Despite good performances, they weren’t able to save the movie.

Recommendation: Yes if you are a literature major. No on the pleasure reading scale. And definitely a no on the movie.

The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley (2022) By Sean Lusk

 

If an author decided to write a book specifically for my interests, The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley would be the result. The character development alone would be of interest, but then the book’s setting – Constantinople – seals the deal.

The book is Sean Lusk’s debut full length novel, his next, No Place for Us, is set for release on February 18,^, 2027 and will definitely be on my reading list.

In The Second Sight, Zachary is the son of Abel Cloudesley, a maker of custom clocks in 1800s England. Zachary’s mother Alice died during his birth. The aftermath of her death leaves Abel blaming his desire for a child for the death of the only woman he ever loved. His late wife’s Aunt Frances also blames him.

Because Abel hasn’t a clue how to raise a child Frances insists he turn the baby over to her to raise. She is a childless, monied, eccentric, and controlling widow. Abel refuses and hires a wet nurse named Grace with a new child of her own to nurse him. Grace and her daughter will later move into Abel’s home to take care of Zachary. This arrangement works well for a period of time, but then one day Zachary, who loves to play in his father’s workshop, is injured losing an eye. During a visit by Frances after the injury a loud argument breaks out between Abel, Frances, and Grace over where it would be best to raise him. In the midst of the argument something strange happens, Zachary screams out “stop” silencing them all. Zachary, they will discover is “gifted,” and they will soon also discover he is clairvoyant.

Abel will eventually relent and allow Frances to take the child to Blair House, her country estate, with the understanding that she also takes Grace (& daughter) to care for him. Zachary will excel at Blair House. In the meantime, Frances will secretly arrange to get rid of Abel by having him sent to Constantinople to invent and construct a chess-playing robot for the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire – in reality the robot is an undercover spying operation like a Trojan Horse.

Abel is reluctant but forced to agree to the spying operation. He’s caught by the Sultan and imprisoned in the Topkapi Palace for years, condemned to create a myriad of inventions for the Sultan, some for entertainment, some for violence. When Zachary turns fifteen, he runs away from Blair House making his way to Constantinople to try to free his father. 

The Topkapi Palace intrigues throughout this section of the book are vivid and fascinating to me because I was there on vacation several years ago, and am an avid reader of Orhan Pamuk novels many of which are set in Constantinople and in this time period – the most relevant being The White Castle and My Name is Red.  The gifted children subplot also brings to mind another of my favorite books, Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie.

In The Second Sight the individual stories of the major characters are fascinating and could stand alone as novels, their collective actions are compelling. Not the least of these is the character Tom. He enters the story as a young worker in Abel’s workshop. He invents the “golden eye” used by Zachary to substitute for the one in the accident, and which accounts for the title of the book.

Recommendation: I could supply multiple spoilers here, but I’m not going to. Strongly recommended.

Still Life By Louise Penny

 

Several weeks ago, I read a detective novel I liked and found it relaxing for lack of a better word. Not until I had finished the novel did I realize it was part of a series, it is in fact the twelfth book of a series of twenty-one. I decided to backtrack to volume one.

Still Life by Louise Penny, is the opening novel of what would become her Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series. Gamache at the beginning of the series is an investigator in the Sûreté du Québec in Montreal – the provincial police département. He is sent from Montreal to the small rural town of Three Pines to investigate what is thought to be a hunting accident. The novel’s opening paragraph is a perfect example of Penny’s writing:

Miss Jane Neal met her maker in the early morning mist of Thanksgiving Sunday. It was pretty much a surprise all round. Miss Neal’s was not a natural death, unless you’re of the belief everything happens as it’s supposed to. If so, for her seventy-six years Jane Neal had been walking toward this final moment when death met her in the brilliant maple woods on the verge of the village of Three Pines. She’d fallen spread-eagled, as though making angels in the bright and brittle leaves.

When Gamache arrives to investigate, as often happens in detective novels, the evidence just did not add up. Yet, it is all he had to go on, except for one odd thing. Neal had just entered a painting in the local juried art show. Although an avid artist she had never before allowed anyone to see her paintings, or even so much as invited them into her home beyond the kitchen. And no, I’m not going to tell you a spoiler here.

A Great Reckoning

As Gamache and his wife were frequent visitors to the town during this investigation, they meet all of the eclectic people in the village who will become regular characters in Penny’s future novels in the series. Armand and his wife are so taken by Three Pines they will purchase a home there when the investigation is complete.

Recommendation: Yes, and I suspect futures novels from the series will be on my reading list.

The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell (2018) By Robert Dugoni

 

Bullying seems to be a universal theme of much literature, both fiction and nonfiction … not to mention real life. In Robert Dugoni's novel The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell, the title character as a child was meanly tagged as the “Devil Boy,” real name Sam Hill. The irony in the novel is that he is not the bully in the book, he is a victim.

He has been taunted by the Devil Boy nickname from the moment he entered school. It was an understandable, though mean, immediate reaction to what his mother would refer to as extraordinary: his eyes were the color red. His eyes scared people, children, and adults, even the nurse in the delivery room. His eye color was an extremely rare medical condition known as ocular albinism. People did not know what it was, or if it was contagious. Its association with the devil made his life tough. His family was devotedly Catholic, a condition that meant the highest calling for your son would be that he’d grow up to be a Priest. They realized right away that wasn’t going to happen – who wants to confess to a Priest with penetrating red eyes?

That reality did not however mean that he’d escape Catholic Schools, where the taunting by classmates and Nuns was a problem. He survived childhood by befriending two other misfit kids, one the only Black kid in the school, the other a rebellious girl who truly would not grow up to be a Nun. These two would become lifelong friends.

Another student, however, was/is a bully, not only verbally, but physically as well. His subplot is interesting. He is a text book example of what happens when “the system” fails to punish bullies. Bullies grow up to be bullies and then choose situations and occupations where they can continue to be bullies.

Skipping ahead, Sam will grow up to be an Ophthalmologist.

Sam's family situation is major; this would be a great Mothers Day, or Fathers Day read. Additionally, there are some significant and fascinating theology digressions in this book, including a late in the novel trip when Sam takes both of his health failing parents to Lourdes.

As is often the case in professionally written books, there is a more than adequate humor to be found throughout the book to cancel out the bad.

Recommendation: Highly.

The Man in the High Castle (1962) By Philip K. Dick

 

Alternative History is a distinct genre in literature. Perhaps the best known of the novels in its canon is Philip Dick’s The Man in the High Castle. Written in 1962, the novel supposed a “what if” take on World War II, one where the Axis forces were victorious over the Allied armies.

Another novel in this genre is Shattered Nation by Jeffrey Brooks which presents a different ending to the American Civil War. While these novels are works of fiction, they cause one to realize that current events have consequences, it’s best to pay attention to them. Never is that warning more dire than now, 2026.

Dick’s novel begins by massively undoing American history with a very big “what if.”  What if Franklin D. Roosevelt died by assassination in 1933, shortly after being sworn in to the first of what was four terms as President. How would that impact the Great Depression, the implementation of the New Deal, the entry and outcome of World War II, and a myriad of other events?

This alternative history changes the dynamics of many major events – starting with an economically crippling task of rebuilding a U.S. Navy after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The aftermath of appeasement of Hitler and Mussolini by European powers and a continued isolationist policy by the United States government.

To imagine the results of this changed history, the west coast of America has become a Japanese ruled colony, the east coast becomes a German ruled colony, and the Rocky Mountain States of the former US have been basically ignored, becoming of a no man’s land, ostensibly governed by German appointees. Churchill is portrayed as a doddering old man, the Soviet leaders of the era are neutered, and Africa is being razed for farm land. Tensions remain however because while Germany and Japan are victorious allies, Germany is the undisputed technical and military heavy weight, with missions to Mars taking place; while Japan plays the cooperative junior partner, though is clearly resentful, playing the long game.

Hitler had died soon after the end of the war, now his heir Martin Bormann has also died. As this story begins, the battle of succession takes place.

Dick tells his complicated story through a few rebellious characters operating in the San Francisco and Denver areas, outnumbered but growing. These rebels are fans of a banned book titled The Grass Hopper Lies Heavy, written by Hawthorne Abendsen, a professor and author safely hiding away in the High Castle in the Rocky Mountains. Abendsen’s book tells an alternative history, one where the Allies won the war, and the Axis lost.

There are lots of subtracts in this book about the practices of I Ching, the Book of Changes, which was trendy when Dick authored the book.

Recommendation: Yes. 

The Great Railway Bazaar (1975) By Paul Theroux

 

One needs to read the wikipedia biography of author Paul Theroux prior to attempting his well-known book The Great Railway Bazaar. It is not just a book about trains, or even necessarily a travelogue. It is more like a time capsule; a sociological observation of the world as perceived in the early 1970s.

His journal begins as Theroux leaves London to travel across Europe and Asia and back, on a rather epic train trip which will take nearly four months. He will give lectures on English and American literature in cities along the way.

He left a Great Britain that at the time was in decline, its Empire days long over, its economy struggling. The train will go to the coast of England on rail, but since the English Chunnel is still decades away, he will have to take a boat to the shore in France before his train ride will really begin. Once in Paris, he will board the famed Orient Express, or should I say its remnants as it too has declined with the times and the aftermath of two world wars. Still, it remains somewhat good traveling, though no longer an Express – while one stays on the train, one changes countries, operators, and quality, as it makes its way to the outskirts of Istanbul.

He clearly liked the multi-cultural and urbane aspects of Istanbul, one foot in Europe, the other in Asia. And he clearly did not like the trip segments in the rest of Turkey and northern Iran, with nothing good to say about Afghanistan or Pakistan. His experiences in India, just twenty some years after Independence is a mix of highs and lows. Urban environments left over from the British occupation of Delhi, and extreme poverty throughout the rest of the country. He will again have to resort to boat trips to cross to Sri Lanka and on to what was then called Burma. Travels in Thailand and on the Malay peninsula down to Singapore were better and somewhat unified. Cambodia does not have a well-developed rail system. His trips in Vietnam from Saigon up to Danang are greatly limited because the country was still a war zone in the early seventies.

From Vietnam he will again travel by ship, this time to Japan, which he covers extensively from bottom to top, before transferring across to Vladivostok at the western edge of Russia, where he boards another famous rail line, the Trans-Siberian Express, to Moscow, then trains to Berlin and back to London.

While that is the geography of the trip, his interactions with other passengers, from luxury class to cars that bordered on freight cars is of equal importance in the book. His commentary is biting at times, in fact most of the time. My initial reaction to this was that it was routine American arrogance, but then I had to stop and ask myself: why is this man even associating with poor people, and doing it well? Turns out he wasn’t just “slumming” as a rich tourist, his background was as a journalist, with a history as a Peace Corps volunteer in the early 1960s in Mali and Angola before moving on to Singapore. His interests and abilities to connect with people were real, as were even his harsh commentaries, not only on the populace but also of the so-called “developed” world.

Recommendation: Yes, though it is not always a pleasant read, it is definitely an interesting one.

Over Yonder (2025) By Sean Dietrich

 

After reading and liking Sean Dietrich’s novel Kinfolk several weeks ago, I decided to try another of his novels, Over Yonder. I immediately became concerned that it was a boiler plate of Kinfolk. I was wrong.

My concern was because many of the main characters have a familiar ring to them. Both books feature men who could be called misfits; both have smart, young teenage girls from what we’d call the “poor side of town;” both have storylines featuring men who served time in prison. And importantly, both are set in Alabama and have memorable openings. The plot of Over Yonder however is sufficiently different to overcome all of that. 

Kinfolk

In Over Yonder, the first paragraph of the prologue begins with: “The girl was dead before she ever got to the hospital. Melinda could tell she was dead because the EMTs were unloading her slowly. They don’t move slowly when you are alive.” 

The main character is Woody Barker. He’s introduced in Chapter 1 as he is being released from prison with heart issues that would likely kill him in the short run. Outside he was known as Reverend Woodrow Barker. His father Amos Barker (known as the Major) picked him up outside the prison gate and takes him to a houseboat named “Ship Happens” where Woody plans to live until his heart gives out.

Elizabeth is Woody’s second wife, actually we should say his second ex-wife. She had continued writing to him while he was incarcerated and is now, by default, sort of his caretaker. But she divorced Woody so she could remarry. They have a young daughter named Rachel.

His first ex-wife, Melinda, had drug and alcohol abuse issues, as a user and a supplier. She moved far away long ago. After her move she had a daughter named Caroline – but she never told Woody they had a daughter. On Melinda’s death bed, she told Caroline who her father is, and about a USB-C flash drive -- it will become the focus of the story.

Over Yonder is great, light, reading. With a lot of heart-wrenching and heart-warming subplots.

Recommendation: Yes