The Secret History of Las Vegas: A Novel by Chris Abani

The Secret History of Las Vegas: A Novel.  Chris Abani. Viking Penguin Group (USA). January 2014. 336 pp. hbk. ISBN #: 9780143124955.

Fire and Water, two conjoined twins, lose their mother at a very young age.  Having absorbed the radiation from the nuclear experiments conducted in Nevada, she is dying of cancer and chooses her own exit.  One of the twins speaks normally in response to conversation with others but the other refuses to look at others and repeats factual statements about random subjects, sometimes at a normal pace, sometimes rapidly in a way that seems to the reader to be associated with extreme stress being experienced from other person’s questions or comments.  Fire and Water are now being, in a sense, abused by two doctors who think they would make excellent subjects for drug experimentation.  Subtlety and very real, direct statements evoke anger and poignant feelings in the reader as this part of the surrealistic plot unfolds!

Salazar, a detective, and Sunil, a research physician, unite with a common goal.  Someone has been dumping bodies in the outskirts of Las Vegas.  Salazar is determined to prove it is the twins who are guilty of murder, but Sunil gradually comes to some very powerful realizations about everyone involved in this criminal investigation, including Salazar and Sunil’s boss.  What makes this a fascinating journey is that for Sunil, in some unexplainable way, it brings back horrific memories of his family and the hell of apartheid practices in Africa – whether that be in Soweto, Johannesburg, or a little known place notorious for its death camps!

Mixed in between the investigation and memories are exquisite stories, folk tales, scenic descriptions and more delights that turn this into a very literary story about how memories and histories shape us.  Even the ghost towns left behind after the nuclear explosions are explored with grace and grit!

When we refuse to face both the lovely and the horrific, we become like the character Eskia, who is hunting Sunil with a psychopathic purpose. When we face them, as we see in this novel, there is truly a chance for forgiveness and change, redemption, salvation, call it what you will!

Years ago, this reviewer remembers Bishop Desmond Tutu beginning a campaign to get the perpetrators of severe violence meet with their victims and what a healing process that turned out for the majority of those who responded or at least tried to respond.  This novel by Chris Abani reminded me of that period of African history but unlike that process, the reader here is invited to join the journey, perhaps vicariously if that is possible, and is left with questions and ponderings that bring some understanding and some soul-searching about the past and present, our history!

Chris Abani is a literate, sensitive author who brooks no fools with platitudes or mundane commentary.  Even tough-minded Salazar in a unique fashion cannot help but be changed because of this exploration of a secret history in Las Vegas and that of Water, Fire, Sunil, Asia (a loving prostitute, and Sheila.  All are richer for their large or small part in the challenges wrought by their interaction.  

Superb historical and contemporary fiction! Highly recommended!

Twisted Sisters: A Novel by Jen Lancaster

Twisted Sisters: A Novel.  Jen Lancaster.  Penguin Group (USA).  February 2014. 320 pp. hbk. ISBN #: 9780451239655.

Dr. Reagan Bishop is one very uptight psychologist, in fact obsessive might be the better word, although she’d be the last to acknowledge that reality.  Claiming to come from a very unmotivated family (although her parent’s political connections certainly belie that perception), Dr. Reagan has scratched and clawed her way through high school, college and then through the Pepperdine program in which she earned her Ph. D. in Psychology.  Although she tends to be very professional with her co-workers and patients, she’s really quite funny in the asides she thinks about the people or situations in which she finds herself.  But now, after several years conducting a private practice, she’s a star on a Cable TV reality show, I Need a Push, about dysfunctional adults who need Dr. Reagan’s help.  Trying to help patients who really need long-term therapy is quite a conundrum on TV – Dr. Phil’s 60 minute cures or near-cures are not very realistic!

Now that’s about to change when her boss, Wendy Winsberg, sells her program to network TV.  The new executive producer however wants cures within minutes and dramatic scenes about the problem and the high point conflicts that arise in therapy within every show they film.  In between that huge problem is Dr. Reagan’s family and her constant carping about how fat, lazy and stupid her sister Geri is.  The reality is her parents seem to have favored Geri all her life and treated Reagan like an afterword.  As a matter of fact, her mother still berates her for her treatment of her siblings as rude and unnecessary.  Dr. Reagan is definitely suffers from a victim complex but doesn’t have a clue – at least not yet!

So who would expect her new friend, Deva, a lover of New Age trends, trinkets and techniques, to become Dr. Reagan’s salvation when put in several tight spots, with the assistance of a few pills, hypnosis, amulets with accompanying appropriate chants, and/or whatever it takes? And who’d expect her executive producer to wind up inviting Reagan’s sister, Geri, to be part of their team?  Would you believe that the sisters get to swap lives for a very brief time?  What they each experience is better than any shrink or psychiatrist could achieve in six million (let alone 60 seconds) hours of therapy!!!

Jen Lancaster is a clever writer who while being a humorous commentator also manages to seduce the reader from admiring Dr. Reagan to realizing how in need of help she really is, gradually, after one’s attention is drawn away from the off-beat, looney people she works with.  At times it’s not too hard to figure this book is full of “psycho’s” in the many different ways one may define that word.  But psycho, at least the way the author depicts it herein, is actually just a need to realign one’s understanding and expectations about other people.

Twisted Sisters: A Novel is a comedic, satiric, and clever novel that’s a fun read, with some delicate enlightening moments here and there and everywhere within!  Some light reading that’s fun and very apropos for today’s generation!

I Always Loved You: A Novel by Robin Oliveira

I Always Loved You: A Novel.  Robin Oliveira.  Viking Adult. February 2014. 352 pp. hbk. ISBN #: 9780670785797.

Mary Cassat has been in Paris studying art but now has to decide whether to stay or return to Philadelphia in America to assume a more staid life, waiting to be married and perhaps painting a canvas now and then.  The latter is not appealing and yet is because of her disappointment with her own artistic style.  This feeling of malaise has two sources, her father Robert’s incessant criticism and negativity and the rejection of one of her paintings by the Paris Salon where exhibits of famous artists are accepted and displayed yearly.  However, Mary’s perspective is about to dramatically change when she is introduced to the Impressionist painter, Edgar Degas.

The essence of the relationship between the two artists can best be described as mercurial with passions flaring between deep respect and love and scornful arguments laced with sarcastic innuendos.  Beyond this mental and emotional essence, however, was the passion that drove both of them to learn to “see” in a realistic way and to convey that onto the canvas.  Mary was then invited to join the new group of artists who were painting in the new style called “Impressionism,” a name Degas despised as he wanted to be known as a realist, not an Impressionist.  They then began to exhibit their newly stylized paintings in their own yearly showing.  The reactions from the critics was absolutely scathing and Degas tried to warn Mary about the public reception her art works would receive, a fact later to be woefully true and overwhelming to Mary’s artistic and emotional sensibilities.  This, it most powerfully says, is what forces an artist to decide whether he or she cares more for one’s art or public accreditation via great reviews.  Mary learns, like Degas had, that one must first develop a hard skin to endure the public evisceration of Impressionists. Not very nice at all but which builds artistic characteristics that certainly do deserve public acclaim.

The novel also covers the triangular love of the Manet brothers with Bertholde Morisot, a consuming fire that always eluded satisfaction and which consumed the wife of Edward Manet who never stopped dreaming he would return to her forever.  Interspersed into this story is a conversation in which Mary finally asks Degas if he loved her and he refuses to answer.  For art, in the form of painting and sculpture, is his great and singular love; yet the result of this cold response is devastating to Mary.  As much as the two try to separate, one is always drawn back by the other, influencing each other’s art and ways of seeing reality.

I Always Loved You: A Novel: is an intriguing look at a very famous artistic period that changed the face of culture forever.  Because of the effect of this art on history and viewers, many accepted and forgave these temperamental artists of many overt and covert slights to famous and not so famous individuals.  Mary’s sister, Lydia, is perhaps the most honest person in the lot, her vision and perspective of the group being the most realistic and serving as a Greek chorus, when shared, warning all to abandon their immense egos and see things “as they are.”  That remains the focus of artistic perspective for Degas and Cassat well into and well after their many reunions and separations.  While specific paintings are not entitled, the reader may recognize several well-known works of both artists as well as those of their artist friends!

I Always Loved You is a noteworthy and recommended fictional portrait of artists struggling to create something new in a pivotal historical and artistic period!

The Professor: A Legal Thriller by Robert Bailey

The Professor: A Legal Thriller.  Robert Bailey. Osprey Publishing Limited. January 2014. 416 pp. pbk. ISBN #: 9781909223585.

Thomas McMurtrie’s been a Law Professor for many, many years.  He was first attracted by a power politician and gradually built a reputation as a superb scholar, teacher, and writer.  Now right when he’s having a tough time revising his latest edition on the classic legal text of legal evidence and having a tough time with a major physical problem, his world starts spinning totally out of control.  The case is that against himself as a new, younger Dean of Students is trying to force Tom out of his teaching job at the University of Alabama.  The Dean wants fresh young blood, not realizing that competence and legal brilliance don’t necessarily follow younger lawyers.  It’s skill, experience and learning the ropes that makes the legal pro!  Tom McMurtrie has all of those qualities – and more!

Tom is about to refer a very important lawsuit case to his former friend and then opponent, Rick Drake.  It involves a fatal crash between a gasoline container truck and a small private automobile.  The result is devastating – families are bereft of their loved ones and all are afraid to pursue answers to their persistent questions.  Was speeding involved?  Has this been a pattern and who knew about it and is now covering it all up?  Rick Drake is in way over his head and eventually may be forced to consult with someone with more experience!

The story is simple in this phenomenally well-written first legal thriller, but the steps by which the topics of legal defense and legal community problems are handled is exemplary and bodes well for more exciting fiction from this new writer!  Plot is everything in these pages – with enough insults, adventurous scenes, fights, misunderstandings, threats and more to sink a ship.  But Tom McMurtrie is one hell of an investigator and lawyer, and that makes all the difference in the unexpected outcome of this mystery/crime thriller novel.

Finely crafted, Robert Bailey – keep writing!  This reviewer wants to read more of your style!

North of Boston: A Novel by Elisabeth Elo

North of Boston: A Novel.  Elisabeth Elo. Pamela Dormer Books. January 2014. 400 pp. pbk and e-book. ISBN #: 9780670015658.

A terrible boating accident leaves one dead man and one woman who barely survived beyond human comprehension!  Working in a lobster boat with a friend, Ned Rizzo, Pirio Kasparov spends four hours in frigid waters, a feat that not even the renowned Navy Seals can accomplish without special equipment.  At first Pirio and Ned’s friends show the expected comfort; but when Pirio realizes she’s not getting any answers about how a very, large ship came careening out of the dark and fog to totally wipe out Ned’s lobster boat.  So she decides she will investigate what is clearly emerging as more of a possibility toward murder rather than just an unfortunate accident!

At first she is distrustful of everyone until she realizes that journalist Russell Parnell is onto something important and they begin to work together to solve this complex mystery!  Plenty of risk, violence and literal death threats fill these pages and keep the reader riveted to the story.

There’s another story within the story that’s just as fascinating, a mysterious world where Pirio’s mother once lived in the Canadian village of Baffin Bay.  Pirio’s parents are not your usual Mom and Dad.  Intensely interested in the perfume business, she wasn’t always there for Pirio and her father treated her more like a troubled child than a loved one!

Several topics are also discussed within this novel that involve environmentalism, the perfume business, the business and legal aspects of fishing, conservation of whales and more.  Elisabeth Elo has penned a fine novel that is both quaint and vividly adventurous.  The plot is past-faced and characters rather unique – it’s definitely a new generation looking to save almost extinct levels of certain marine animals and fish – and they are just as passionate to make justice happen for both man and beast!  Very nicely done, Ms. Elo!

The Lion and The Rose: A Novel of the Borgias by Kate Quinn

The Lion and the Rose: A Novel of the Borgias.  Kate Quinn.  Penguin Group (USA). January 2014. 464 pp. pbk. ISBN #: 9780425268766.

The second novel of the Borgia series crafted by Kate Quinn opens in 1494 in Rome, Italy with Giulia Farnese’s dwarf guard, Leonello, being bandaged after defending his lady from French, un-gallant officers and soldiers.  Giulia promises she will stop thanking Leonello but will never forget.  Giulia is the courtesan of Pope Alexander VI, Roderigo Borgia, and she is only person in the whole Borgia family who still has compassion, who still can acknowledge wrong where it is committed, who has the humility to care for and treat the servants around her with a fierce protective stance, and who has the temerity to challenge the most powerful man in the world when she deems it necessary. A formidable, sexy and wise Lady, indeed!

This is the story of Juan, the Pope’s favorite brat son; Cesare, the Pope’s other son who counts power to be the ultimate satisfaction: Lucrezia, the Pope’s (could be questionable) daughter who used to be a lovely, entertaining little girl but who has developed into a vain, selfish tool of the Pope for his political wheeling and dealing in Europe; Joffre and his seductress wife Sancha; and some servants.  But it is really the tale of Giuliana, Leonello, the cook Carmelina, the cook’s apprentice Bartolomeo, and the children of the Pope.  It all begins with the presence of the Pope’s children who create nothing but turmoil and spilled blood when they are together; “la familia” is a disaster waiting to happen to all characters and readers, to all except the Pope.  He sees no wrong in them even when they commit the most horrendous of crimes as evidenced when he issues a command at a party with horrific immediate results as a result of someone insulting his favorite son.

Carmelina and Bartolomeo are two wonderful, talented cooks.  Carmelina was a former nun who escaped from the convent with an important relic and so is guilty of major crimes.  The fact she has found successful work is a miracle indeed.  At work Bartolomeo is so very talented a cook as well that as an apprentice he is hers to boss around but also her fierce competition.  Their evolution in this action-packed drama is a lusty, amorous delight for the reader to experience!

Justice will be served, it is said and there is a murderer who has killed at least five young women in Rome and more elsewhere perhaps.  The murderer leaves the victim in a most unholy presentation and the first woman to die in this horrific fashion was someone dear to Leonello, who is determined to find the killer. He does and oh what revenge follows!

Marriages are made and undone at the whim of the Holy Father and oh what scandals and surprises come out of these manipulations.  Whatever happens, one should never cross a Borgia, for reasons of one’s own life and death!

The Lion and The Rose… is a terrific historical novel – far, far better plotted and crafted than the first in this Borgia novel series.  Unlike other novels where the plot from the first novel would be repeated, this one takes the past action much farther to make each one seem like it is totally new and riveting as well.  This reader highly recommends this novel as a stand-alone, walloping success! A MUST read!!!

Curse the Moon: Atcho Rises by Lee Jackson

Curse the Moon: Atcho Rises.  Lee Jackson. Stonewall Publishers, LLC. December 2013. 328 pp. ISBN#: 9780989802574.

Atcho, a former West Point graduate, appears in a gruesome opening scene where a Russian captain is holding a gun to Atcho’s daughter’s head, while his soldier goons are kicking and beating the daylights out of Atcho.  The brutal KGB agent informs Atcho that he owns him and so it will appear until the very end of this international spy thriller that moves between Cuba, Russia and the United States. 

Atcho’s fury, plus his obvious well-trained background, compels the reader to follow him during the famous (or infamous depending on one’s point of view) Bay of Pigs disaster.  For Cuban dissidents have much gusto to stage a resistance fight with the aid of American military assistance; but it will as we already know go up in smoke due to poor training of Cubans and lackluster, discombobulated American assistance. However, Atcho forms special relationships with some very brave and ardent rebels and he is known for his over-the-top bravery in that devastating skirmish. The result is thousands of Cubans will die as a lesson to the world staged by Castro and thousands more will be imprisoned in Cuban prisons with the most brutally horrific conditions.

Eventually Atcho learns his daughter is in America and plans to escape the prison.  He is caught and will serve the next nineteen years of his life in three different prisons.  All of a sudden, however, the Russian officer is manipulating Atcho’s life again.  The rest of the novel is so surprising at every turn that this reviewer couldn’t stop reading – no spoiler here.  Fear over losing his daughter is the key to controlling Atcho as he is ordered to prepare for a very special mission.  It is only when he realizes that he’s still a virtual prisoner that he decides to take his own, and his daughter’s, destiny into his own hands.  Every page is well worth the read!

Lee Jackson has obviously researched his subject well as he places the battles in Cuba at all the correct places and also depicts the divided nature of Cuban people who for the most part let Castro rule tyrannically without much resistance at all.  It’s also obvious that this was more a competition between Russia and the USA.  Indeed the mole in this story is a willing tool for both sides.  The depiction of West Point is spot on, especially with all of its changes in the 1970s.  So much of Atcho’s behavior is not only protective for his daughter but also a result of being a prisoner for so many years, often spending as much as eight months in solitary confinement in a space where one could neither sit, stand nor lie with any comfort at tall. 

Lee Jackson writes in the style of the early and notable Robert Ludlum or Ken Follett.  The story is action-packed, riveting, adrenaline-pumping reading that is sure to make this a best-seller.  The moon can be friend or enemy and Atcho clearly knows the difference! Superb historical thriller!