The Last Trials of Clarence Darrow by Donald McRae

I knew more about Clarence Darrow's famous cases––defending Leopold and Loeb, The Scopes Trial, and the Sweets––than I did about the man. Though growing up in a family that was pro-union with an immigrant grandfather who supported the Communist party, was an atheist, and nearly arrested during the Palmer Raids , I had a vague sense of who Darrow was and what he stood for. Still, I probably wouldn't have considered this book had it not been available to me through the Amazon Vine program.

Overall I'm glad I did decide to try it. While I generally prefer my biographies (though this is really only a partial biography dealing with the end of Darrow's life) a little more straight forward and less inclined toward the dramatic, when dealing with an individual I might not normally read about, a slightly lighter treatment makes for an easier read. Former South African Donald McRae did an excellent job of researching, and his dramatic touch perhaps was necessary when dealing with a figure who depended so much on drama to win his cases.

At first I wasn't too keen on references to Darrow's love life with Mary Field Parton, his almost life-long mistress, mostly through her diary entries, especially as she wasn't present for any of the main events. Yet they did serve to provide insights into Darrow's character. On the other hand, telling so much from her point of view left me wondering whether she was his "one and only" or as Darrow's wife Ruby obviously thought, one of many or someone who insinuated herself into his life for personal gain. A little more about Ruby Darrow––who, after all, was there for most of the trials––other than how she appeared through his mistress's eyes, might have provided more balance.

What enthralled me the most about this book, though, was the history.  Amazing that back in the 1920s this avowed atheist, Clarence Darrow, could have so much support in the press defending two obvious sociopaths and the teaching of evolutionary theory in schools. In our more "modern" times hiring an atheist as your defense lawyer would be tantamount to flipping your own switch on the electric chair. I also remember learning about the Scopes trial in high school and thinking how lucky I was to be living in a time when Evolution could be taught freely. That was 1969.  We could definitely use more Clarence Darrows today––men and women not afraid to claim the freedoms guaranteed in our Constitution.

All in all, a book worth reading.

Shades of Luz by John Gorman

John Gorman's first novel Shades of Luz is a fun read, though I must admit I'm a little surprised it found a publisher. That's not criticism. It's just that the book is hard to classify, and classification––or genre––seems to carry far too much weight with agents and publishers these day. Happily All Things That Matter Press must be somewhat more flexible.

Shades of Luz is part coming-of-age novel and part love story and even a bit surreal at times. Benny Fluke is a 29-year-old still living at home and working on his Master's thesis, the subject of which he keeps changing. He meets the elusive Luz while selling stuffed animals for a fake charity, and from then on she threads through the story, popping in and out of his life, encouraging him to move out of his parents' house, eventually sharing his apartment, but always hovering between friend and lover. The story is enlivened still more by some oddball and humorous minor characters and Benny's unusual workplace where he goes from overseeing the monkeys who pick stocks on a dartboard to championship thumb wrestling within the same company. And then there's that strange secret about Benny's Mom.

As a Baby Boomer I'm used to thinking of coming-of-age novels dealing with teens, but 29 is probably on target for the current coming-of-age generation. One thing that did confuse me a bit about the novel was the time period in which it was set. While much of it seemed current, Benny's workplace seemed a little futuristic, though maybe it was just meant to be fantastic. Whatever, it added interest and humor.

I "met" John Gorman when I accepted and edited Boba Fett Blues, my last official job with The Rose & Thorn. So I wasn't surprised that Gorman is at his best in those scenes that reminisce on childhood and adolescence.

Here's wishing John Gorman success with Luz and all future endeavors.

A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore

This is the first novel I've read by Lorrie Moore, though I'm a big fan of her short fiction, particularly "People Like That..." the story that deservedly seems to get mentioned in every workshop I attend. So I was looking forward to this, but I ended up very disappointed.

The novel is loosely about a young woman, Tassie, in her sophomore year at a college in a small Wisconsin town. The time is 2001, beginning just after September 11, which I imagine was supposed to have some significance, but I don't know what, as the story could have taken place any time in the last eight years. Tassie goes to classes––though seemingly not very often for someone who is a good student––works as caregiver to an adopted biracial child, visits her boyfriend––sometimes alone, sometimes with said child––and spends a lot of time alone in her apartment playing her base guitar. If that doesn't sound very interesting, well, it really isn't.

Moore's snarky observations and internal dialogue work great in small doses, but when they take up the majority of 321 pages, the style becomes very waring. The characters she interacts with––though interact is not really the right word, because most of the dialogue is inside Tassie's head––are far from cliche. So far, in fact, that they are all enigmas, including Tassie herself, and not one is developed fully enough. The few events are only tenuously connected, if at all (see my zine writer post on soap opera writing), and, frankly, unbelievable. Since they all clump at the end of the book, I'll give only one away. That's when Tassie works with her farmer dad over the summer, dressing in a bird costume and running ahead of his combine to scare the mice out of the fields. She does this willingly and even drives into town on her motor scooter one day, still wearing the costume. And what happened when she arrived? We don't know. It isn't part of the story. From this you might get the idea there is something surreal or symbolic about this work, but the style just doesn't fit with that.

I read a recent interview where Moore said she enjoys studying the way people talk. That's obvious here when she writes about the support group her employer, Sarah Brink, holds every Wednesday for adoptive parents of black and biracial children. Bits of their conversation are overheard by Tassie as she babysits the kids on the third floor. Yes, they are self-congratulatory, self-absorbed, and totally clueless. Those points come across in the first few lines, but not only does it continue for pages––including those typical inside jokes that realistically get repeated ad infinitum––but Moore covers several of these gatherings.

I'd like to end on a positive note, but I honestly didn't find one good thing about this book . At the same time, during the entire reading I was very sympathetic toward Moore as an author. The lay reader who doesn't follow the publishing business often thinks known writers "get away" with bad books because of their name recognition. But writers who excel at the short story are often pressured into producing novels for both financial and career reasons. Short stories sold separately don't pay very well, and big publishers won't accept collections without the promise of a novel. I always keep that in mind when one of my favorite short story writers produces another novel. In this case, I'm guessing Moore's heart wasn't in it. So she did the best she could.

Howard Dean's Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform

Written with Igor Volsky and Faiz Shakir

I thought I was a little smarter than the average bear when it came to understanding healthcare reform, since I worked in employee benefits for more than 10 years in the 70s and 80s when cost-containment (but not yet issues of denied coverage) had just become a major issue. However, I still learned quite a bit from Dr. Dean's book about the past history of healthcare reform, what is included in Obama's plan, and what other countries do. I highlighted huge portions to quote for healthcare reform blog.

Though obviously put together quickly, including a few typos and awkward sentences, it is still quite interesting and easy to read. At the same time, I'd say it is as objective as it needs to be in this fight that has turned into a shouting match. When opponents of reform are spouting outright lies--which they are--there isn't room for much deference. On the other hand, what some are touting as a plan from the far left, actually pays great homage to our free enterprise system. Dean repeats over and over that Americans wouldn't accept a plan without choice, though I'm not so sure that is true.

However, as originally a strong advocate of single payer, I was amazed to learn that most of the countries providing universal healthcare are not single payer but a system of competing private plans with guaranteed coverage and community rating with most either providing some form of public option for those who can't afford private coverage or a mandate on what private insurers can charge. As I can't see anyone in this country accepting regulation of what a private insurer can charge as premiums, the public option now appears to me as the most reasonable way to go.

I was a little vague on how much of what Dean outlines is actually part of the Obama reform plan and how much is what he, Dr. Dean, would like to see. But there's no doubt that, as a physician and former governor who successfully reformed Vermont's healthcare system, he is knowledgeable on the subject and his ideas should be considered seriously.

Even if you think you already know where you stand on this subject, I suggest you read this book. It could change your mind.

The Power of the Dog by Thomas Savage

I looked up Thomas Savage's books on Amazon after reading about him in the Winter 2008 issue of Montana, the Magazine of Western History. Born in Dillon, Montana and publishing 13 novels between 1944 and 1988, Savage is rarely listed among contemporary western writers like Wallace Stegner, Ivan Doig, or Larry McMurtry, possibly because only a few of his books take place in the west, and he didn't begin writing until he'd settled in New England. He also had a certain cosmopolitan flamboyance at odds with the stereotypical western personality. Consequently, thinking I'd discovered a "forgotten" writer––or one Montana had rediscovered for me––I was surprised when the edition I ordered turned out to have been reissued in 2001 and had an afterward by Annie Proulx. Though it's not a surprise that Proulx would have been drawn to the subject matter of repressed homosexuality in the cowboy west. This time the novel was written in the 60s and takes place in the 20s.

The Power of the Dog is a most unusual novel. One thing I enjoy about most Western writers, both contemporary and those from the past like Willa Cather, is the way the western landscape becomes a character in itself. This is not so much the case with this novel. Nor would I say the writing is particularly stand out. What does stand out, though, in this novel where a grown man and a young boy eventually turn into two opposing forces battling for supremacy, is the psychological depth of the characters, their contrasting personalities, and the scheming and plotting, handled so deftly that it did not seem at all over-the-top. And while, on my zine writer blog, I often warn new writers to avoid a "twist" at the end, this one worked well.

Reading the article in Montana, which should eventually become available online, one wonders if Savage didn't hide his own homosexuality behind a wife and children as so many did in those times and if this didn't provide the depth of insight into his characters. But while Phil and his step-nephew Peter dominate the story, all the characters are well developed down to the parents who really play only a minor roll.

This is the kind of book you are drawn to read in one sitting. It really pulls you in, and, when it becomes available, I highly recommend the Montana article Thomas Savage for greater insight into the author and his times.

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

Scribner May, 2009

I have not read Colm Toibin's other books––Blackwater Lightship or The Master––both of which were apparently shortlisted for the Booker Prize, but going by the reviews on Amazon, those who did read his other books, and enjoyed them, found Brooklyn to be a disappointment. I thought it a pleasant enough story, more akin to something your immigrant mother or grandmother might tell you, with the caveat that it all turned out for the best. Only, like a story Grandma might tell, the story of Eilis Lacey, who leaves her small town in post-WWII Ireland to find work in Brooklyn, lacked the depth and tension to hold my attention through 262 pages.

Having not read his other books, I can only speculate that part of Toibin's problem might have been taking on a female POV, though other male writers have done this quite well. Here Toibin seems to only skim the surface. He tells us what happened, but brings to it no depth of emotion. We meet a wide range of characters, especially in the bording house where Eilis lives, but we don't get to know any of them well, including Eilis herself. Threads are begun, then dropped, as when Eilis screws up the courage to approach her Jewish law professor, who turns out to be a Holocaust survivor. From the conversation I thought he might become a rival of Eilis's Italian boyfriend, but the man and the thread simply disappear. Same with when Eilis's boyfriend Tony reacts sadly to the story. I expected there would be something about Tony's war experiences, but, for all we know, neither Tony nor his older brother were in the war.

Which brings me to my second major criticism––much of this simply did not ring true. It is unlikely that Tony's Italian family, particularly his mother, would be so welcoming to his Irish girlfriend even if she did take the time to learn to twirl her spaghetti (I'm Italian, born in 1953, I know these things). It is even more unlikely that, in the 50s, a young Irish Catholic woman who gave into a night of passion with her boyfriend, would so easily have her guilt assuaged by one confession with an unusually open-minded priest and the fact that she wasn't pregnant.

All the tension comes in the last 30 pages or so, and I will say, at that point I kept reading to find out what Eilis would do. It made an interesting choice.

I certainly wouldn't say I disliked this book, but I can't say I liked it either––at least not enough to highly recommend it. However, if you like a simple, fairly happy tale––beach season is on it's way––this could definitely be read in one sitting.

Tender Graces by Kathryn Magendie

In the tradition of To Kill a Mockingbird, Tender Graces is a moving tale told through the unfiltered thoughts of a young girl. Unfortunately, Virginia Kate Carey and her siblings have no Atticus Finch to usher them through the ups and downs of childhood. As the adult Virginia Kate struggles to reconcile painfully conflicted feelings about her dead "Momma," the young Virginia Kate, "Seestor" as her brothers call her, tells the story of the confused, at times tormented, adults in her life, who often reverse rolls with their children. The only fairly steady figure is stepmother Rebekha, and even she is riddled with self-doubt and requires bolstering from VK at times.

Telling a story mostly from a child's point of view can be a challenge, but Magendie, deftly, never steps out of voice to engage in "author speak." From the cool mountains of her "holler" in West Virginia to hot, steamy Louisiana, she takes us with her wherever she goes, with sensory details that bring the story to life without weighing it down, and the ending, while I won't give it way, is just what the story calls for.

I don't know about blood, but I certainly know the sweat and tears that Kathryn Magendie put into her first novel and efforts to bring it to life for others to read. From this point on, I hope others will follow in short order.