it's the little victories
"I read two books this week!" -- me
"You are supermom." -- Darin
Two years ago: I get my car back after its accident.
Three years ago: I get a little -- very little -- into gardening.
Today Fernando, Darin, Pookie, and I went to have breakfast at John O'Groats.
And that's your Pookie moment of Zen.
So, I actually managed to read three books this week. Three hardback books. This is quite a feat, because usually I am holding Sophia with one hand, which means hardbacks are Right Out. I read small amounts of hardback books after she is asleep at night, before I pass out myself.
Note to future parents: your reading time gets severely curtailed. Stock up now.
The first book I read was Archangel, by Robert Harris. Robert Harris has three interesting novels -- Archangel, Fatherland (an alternate-history mystery novel in which Germany won World War II), and Enigma (a novel set among the British codebreakers of World War II).
Archangel begins in the midst of a conference on the opening of some of the Soviet archives. Kelso, an English expert on Soviet Communism with an emphasis on Stalin, meets a former bodyguard for Beria, the Communist official who took over Stalin, and hears a story about what happened the night Stalin died: Beria took a key from Stalin, went to Stalin's office, and got...something. What was it? And why is something from 50 years ago so important now that men are dying over it?
Harris's answer to that question would be pretty lame if he didn't do a good job of portraying what a nightmare the current Russia is and how it got that way.
But the thing I really liked about this novel is a twist revealed toward the very end, one I hadn't been expecting at all. (Maybe I'm just stupid and it was obvious to everyone else, I don't know.) I was so tickled by this development I thought over everything that had happened until that point and went, "Of course!"
The characters are nothing special -- as one of the Amazon reviews states, Harris does rely somewhat on stereotypes, particularly of the Russian men. And the ultimate ending had me a teeny bit upset, but once a certain point had been reached, even though there were plot strands left open there was no real point to going on with the story.
The second book I read was SPQR, by John Maddox Roberts, a police procedural mystery novel set in Ancient Rome. Decius Metellus the Younger discovers a murder occurred the same night as a warehouse was burned. Are the two events related? He manages to uncover a giant conspiracy (and meet the most famous men in Rome while he's at it, of course).
I really enjoyed it. Roberts does a good job of explaining how Rome works, who everyone is, and who's doing what to whom.
This book is clearly popular; so popular, the library has made a hardback book out of a paperback one. But I guess it wasn't popular enough to keep in print.
Then, to complete the hat trick, I read Stalking the Angel, by Robert Crais.
Robert Crais is a very popular mystery author, but I had only read one of his books, The Monkey's Raincoat, which was nominated for every award in the universe and won nearly all of them but I hated anyhow. According to Jerrilyn, lots of people disliked The Monkey's Raincoat for the same reason I did: the main character sleeps with a couple of women during the course of the story for no other reason than he's just irresistable, I guess. Jerrilyn told me his excuse is that he didn't know what he was doing. Well, okay then.
I decided to try another Crais, and I did like this one a lot better than the first. Crais's private investigator is Elvis Cole, is a wisecracking gumshoe in modern-day Los Angeles. Wisecracking is the key word here -- Cole is relentless with the quips. A couple of times I wanted to say, Stop it already! It is, of course, Cole's way of keeping himself from getting too involved with what's going on.
Cole gets hired to find an ancient Japanese manuscript and encounters rich white Angelenos and the Yakuza, major cultural clashes as well as a severely dysfunctional family. Along the way he discovers a number of dead bodies, rather gruesomely dispatched, and enough disinterest from main characters that Cole has to step up (of course) in terms of caring...though he's got a quip for every occasion.
I have a better idea now of why Cole is such a popular character. And although I wanted to backhand Crais a number of times -- enough with the jokes! -- there is some pretty funny stuff in there, and Crais's writing is extremely breezy.
Since it's the weekend, Darin's had Sophia most of the day, with me taking her when she gets hungry.
I'm discovering I keep wanting to rush downstairs to check on her. That if I'm not with her for an hour or so, I start to get antsy. "Something's missing! Something's really, really wrong!"
I remember when I could spend hours by myself and not be aware of anyone else. Boy, have things changed.
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Copyright 2000 Diane Patterson
Send comments and questions to diane@nobody-knows-anything.com