Pen Projects

My Review

Several years ago, I found a hard-bound copy of The Goldfinch (published in 2013) on an airplane where I was working.  It won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for fiction but, after reading a chapter or so, I found its 700+ pages too much bulk for me to drag around in airports and hotels.  I passed it on to another Flight Attendant.  Then, recently, the audio version became available at my local library; 32+ hours of listening. 

The story centers around a 13-year-old boy, Theo Decker, who lives in New York City with his divorced mother; his father having deserted them a few years earlier.  Theo narrates the story that begins with the day his mother died. 

Mother and son were on their way to a meeting with Theo’s principal and found they were early.  Theo’s mother wanted to see an exhibit in the Metropolitan Museum.  He’d rather have something to eat than go to the museum but doesn’t mention it because he feels nervous and guilty about the meeting with the principal.  In the museum, he is distracted by a red-headed girl, about his age, who is looking at the Goldfinch painting.  An elderly man, who is with the girl, is explaining the story behind the painting.  Theo’s mother leaves him there so she can look at an exhibit in another salon. The two teens make eye contact.  Then a bomb explodes.

Finding himself covered in rubble, Theo stumbles around in search of his mother.  He finds the elderly man who had been with the girl.  The man is bad shape but he points to the Goldfinch painting in the rubble.  He insists Theo collect it and wrap it up, which Theo does as well as putting it in a shopping bag.  The man insists that Theo take a ring from his finger and tells Theo where to deliver it.  Theo stays with the man until he appears to fall asleep.  He then takes the painting and goes in search of help and to find his mother.  He finds neither and is, instead, pushed around and ignored in the chaos of the explosion.    

That was the beginning of Theo’s path to self-loathing, guilt and self-destruction.  He cannot get over the guilt of getting in trouble at school (the reason for the meeting with the principal).  He can only think of all the “what if’s” associated with that day.  All his conclusions point to him being the cause.  He cannot get over the guilt of keeping the painting, wrapped and hidden away, a thing that has somehow replaced his mother. 

Theo delivers the ring, as instructed, to an antique shop.  He is greeted by another elderly man, Hobie, who was the business partner of the man from the museum.  They bond and Theo discovers that the red-headed girl, Pippa, is alive and infirmed there.  Pippa and Hobie become sources of hope for Theo.  But his life is ever changing.  He goes from living with the wealthy family of a school friend in Manhattan to his estranged father in Las Vegas.  There he meets a Ukranian boy, Boris, from school who introduces Theo to shop lifting, drugs and alcohol.  Two years later Theo’s father dies in a car crash.  He leaves Las Vegas and heads back to New York City where Hobie takes him in and teaches him about the antique business. 

This should have been a happy time for Theo but the self-loathing won out.

As you might imagine, the story is sad.  There is a fascinating story behind the Goldfinch painting, which is real.  There are a lot of insights into the antique business.  The self-talk of Theo from his teen years to young adult are true to the times.  I thoroughly enjoyed the dialogue between Theo and Boris.  I believe the 700+ pages are well worth anyone’s time.

The HBO miniseries, however, would be difficult to follow if you have not read the book. 

My Review

Kevin Moore was once a highly regarded Virginia attorney.  He was happily married to his best friend.  He had everything he dreamed of.  Then he got stupid.   He allowed Cocaine into his life.  Now, paroled, disbarred and separated from his wife, he manages a Subway knockoff sandwich shop called Substitution.  The shop is in a small Virginia town where most folks don’t know him or his history.  The owner of the shop, a previous client, has the staff turn the ovens on twice daily (with cooked rolls inside) to emit the smell of freshly baked bread.  From respectable attorney to a paroled sandwich artist, Kevin believes he has hit rock bottom.    

That is until an odd looking stranger walks into the sandwich shop with a proposal for Kevin.  His name is Caleb Opportunity (right) and he is there to offer Kevin a percentage of an insurance scam.  Mr. Opportunity claims that it’s an easy $5 million as long as Kevin doesn’t mind a malpractice suit regarding a former client.  Insurance will pay off the lawsuit and everyone is a winner.  But Kevin wants his career back and is willing to work hard and stay clean.  He refuses the deal. 

From that point on Kevin’s world goes into a tailspin.  He’s forced to go into the city to a different Parole Officer for a drug test. No one seems to know why.  This PO finds Crack and a gun in Kevin’s car and drugs in his urine.  Kevin is charged with violating parole, among other things.  The charges are bogus so Kevin reaches out for help but none of his old friends believe his story.  He knows that Caleb Opportunity is at the root of this but he can’t prove it.  Caleb, turns out, was wearing a disguise.  The video recording system at the sandwich shop mysteriously went down during Caleb’s visit so there is no evidence that the conversation ever happened.  His coworker, a technological genius, saw the man but didn’t hear the conversation.  When Kevin thinks it can’t get any worse, he has a stroke. 

During his recovery, Kevin does the only thing he can.  He plots and plans a way out of this mess that will also stick it to Mr. Opportunity and his shifty backers.  The plan is brilliant and even though the reader knows there will be revenge; it’s doesn’t come together until the end. 

The story is fast paced, humorous and perfectly believable.  The prose is a narrative from the main character and well written. 

Martin Clark is a retired Virginia Circuit court judge and knows how to weave a great legal thriller.   I look forward to reading his next novel.

My Review

Billy is an 11-year-old whiz kid, who doesn’t have much time for other people.  He lives alone with his Dad who is an avid surfer and also the caretaker of vacation cottages on Lornea.  Lornea is an island off the coast of Massachusetts.  Billy plans to become an oceanographer and is already working on a project regarding the fiddler crabs in the rockpools near his home.  The island is all abuzz regarding the 16-year-old daughter of a vacationing family who disappeared during the summer.  Winter is approaching and there have been no clues or leads.

Emily, the local café waitress suggests that Billy could do a better job of finding out what happened to the girl than the local police.  That was all Billy needed to inspire him and to turn his and his Dad’s life upside down.

This novel was offered as an Amazon Kindle deal and the synopsis interested me so I took a chance.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The story starts out with a good grab for the reader then it calms a little for a short time.  Gradually the suspense grows until it is difficult to put down. 

Kudos to Gregg Dunnett, an independent author. 

My Review

Hig is a pilot who lives in a small Colorado airport hanger.  He has a dog, Jasper, and a neighbor, Bangley.  Jasper is old and Bangley is a heavily armed cynic.  The three are the only living beings in a radius of about 10 miles.  This is due to a flu epidemic followed by a blood disease.  The few people that do approach the well-guarded hanger are shot to be safe because most of the humans that Hig and Bangley have encountered were not very nice.  The two men depend on each other for survival even though they have very different world views.  The world is changed, though, now that most people are dead. 

Hig is the narrator of the story and he spends much of his time talking about the past.  He is lonely and doesn’t really know how to feel about Bangley, who has saved his life many times.  There is a compound of Mennonites who suffer from the blood disease about 10 miles from the hanger.  Hig flies patrols to watch for any trouble over a 30 mile radius.  It is on these runs that he occasionally visits the compound to bring supplies.  Bangley doesn’t trust the Mennonites. 

On one of Higs’ runs he received a radio transmission that inspired hope.  Three years later he is motivated to investigate even if it means he won’t make it back to the hanger.

One of the things that I like about this book is that the writing is concise; there are no wasted words.  That makes it move quickly.  I also enjoy the viewpoint of Hig; he is more of a soft touch than Bangley. 

An excerpt:

“Bangley a long time ago gave me a bulletproof, one of the vests in his arsenal.  He has all kinds of shit.  He said it’ll stop any handgun, an arrow, but with a rifle it depends, I better be lucky.  I thought about that .  We’re supposed to be the only two living souls but the families in at least hundreds of square miles, the only survivors, I better be lucky.”

But the pair are good for each other’s survival.  And Hig, later, learns the value of their friendship. 

The author, Peter Heller, has a long resume of adventure travel stories and contributions to Outdoor Magazine.  He has written a handful of books.  Constantin Films (of Resident Evil fame) has acquired the film rights.  You can find a YouTube trailer here. Don’t get too excited about the all-star cast; it was using film clips from several other movies. So far, there is no info yet regarding the movie.