Peachy Reads

The traditional Gods of America (Anansi, Wisakedjak, et al) are gearing up for an epic battle against the new Gods—Media, Superhighways, Television, etc.  Shadow, recently released from prison, somehow finds himself the protégé of Wednesday, the New World incarnation of Odin.  This is sort of an adult-version of The Chronicles of Narnia or Percy Jackson & the Olympians.  Gaiman’s creativity and gift for storytelling make this unique novel entertaining, and his travelling of the “blue highways” of America will make the reader want to take a road trip (not the least to the incomparable Rock City, just up the road from Atlanta!).

An elegy is a “poem or song composed especially as a lament for a deceased person”.     Things have clearly been tough for Appalachia’s white population during recent decades.   The author describes his difficult upbringing by a single mom and his grandparents split between an impoverished mountainous area of Kentucky and a southern Ohio town with manufacturing jobs.   Gradually, through the guidance of his grandparents, the discipline of the military, higher education, and a drive to pull himself up, the author defies the odds and leaves his hardknocks life behind. [This book seemed to take off after the election of 2016 with people trying to understand the context of the Trump voter.]

This is the first installment of the author’s Neapolitan novels, a series that has been translated from the original Italian into many languages and has become something of an international publishing sensation.    Focusing on the friendship of Elena and Lila, the first novel in the series follows the girls from elementary school to Lila's marriage.  A central theme is the limited opportunity afforded women at that time.  Elena pursues an educational path beyond elementary school, a path that is not easy and which she at first struggles with, but eventually excels at.  Lila, whose intellectual abilities might even surpass Elena's, instead drops out of school and helps out with the family shoe repair business before becoming engaged at the tender age of sixteen.  My Brilliant Friend is a wonderful look at growing up in a poor 1950s Naples neighborhood, but has universal touchstones that anyone of a certain age will identify with.

James Ivory makes beautiful films from beautiful books, so after seeing the Oscar-nominated movie, Call Me by Your Name , I was intrigued.  Would the sumptuous Italian setting get an E.M. Forster treatment like Room with a View ?  Were the characters as complex as those in The Remains of the Day ?  Was the social commentary as sharp as in Howard’s End ?   Well, the novel  Call Me by Your Name is basically a love story with plenty of young angst.  If it’s an ode to Italy you’re looking for (which I think I was), it really isn’t that.  There are many differences between the book and the movie, and as often is the case, many scenes from the book don’t make the cut, and an interesting character in the book is not in the movie at all. In fact, the seaside town in the book becomes a landlocked village in Lombardy in the cinematic version.  The trip at the end of the summer is to Rome in the book and not Bergamo as in the movie.  So...

Michael Crichton, author of Jurassic Park , died a decade ago, but his estate is still finding new   (actually old) manuscripts to publish.   This one has the tantalizing cover that might make the reader think it’s a prequel to his dinosaur saga, but it ends up being more of a western.   Which is okay. It follows a paleontological expedition to the untamed west in the late 1800s, when the new discovery and pursuit of the fossilized remains of dinosaurs coincided with the lawlessness of the Wild West.   There are shootouts, Indian raids, stagecoach chases, and the like.    The historical foundation is interesting, but I sort of understand why this manuscript remained at the back of the drawer.

Richard Mayhew leads a rather ordinary London life—humdrum job, average flat, and a   totally controlling fiancée...   It all turns topsy-turvy when a gravely wounded girl almost literally drops in front of him on his way to a restaurant and he is introduced to “London Below” and all its oddities. Readalike:   Rivers of London

The setting for this installment of the Bernie Gunther series takes place during the complicated post-war years, in which former Nazis frequently went to South America, were extradited, and tried for war crimes in Europe.   Bernie is picked up on a boat by a US Navy patrol off the coast of Cuba, and is then transported first to a prison in New York and from there to France and Germany, where the story of his time in Paris and Vichy France is gradually revealed.