"Killshot" by Elmore Leonard

I became interested in reading something by Elmore Leonard after watching his TV series "Justified" and learning that he was the author behind several movies that I had seen including "Valdez Is Coming" and "Get Shorty." I also had heard some good things about his writing style. So I quick check at the local library turned up "Killshot" [1989].

The novel is about a half-bred Indian hit man and a white punk recently released from prison-who decide to murder a real estate agent and her husband who foiled an extortion attempt by the dastardly duo. In many ways this novel is a black comedy about the ineptitude of law enforcement on the local, state and federal levels, and both the villains and their victims in the story seem to be luckless in their pursuits.

The book turned out to be a pretty good read. For someone who enjoys the crime novels, I’d recommend the book. Leonard has a good lean writing style, and I look forward to reading else something by him in the future.

"Revenge: Eleven Dark Tales" by Yoko Ogawa

Revenge: Eleven Dark Tales [1998] by Yoko Ogawa and translated [2013] by Steven Snyder reminds me of the publications under the title Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Each pub would have a series of strange short stories that at the end of each tale-depending on the quality of the writing-I'd say to myself something like "that's strange," or "that's wierd," or after awhile "saw that coming." However, Ogawa's Revenge leave its readers with more. The stories taken together show the mysterious, macabre and sometimes murderous links that hold a society together and could be considered part of the definition of community itself. Although The Washington Post Book World's review compares Ogawa's book to Haruki Murakami's writing, the tales in this book seem to have more in common with Ryu Murakami's work and the whole violent genre of Japanese noir fiction. In its own way, Revenge creates a dark reality that shows why Japanese noir fiction makes sense. I encourage you to read it.
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"Driving Mr. Albert" by Michael Paterniti

 

 

When I was growing up in the 1950s and 60s, Albert Einstein was one of the two dead celebrities/ heroes that we all knew. He was the guy who looks like an eccentric but lovable great uncle who was super-intelligent because he used a greater percentage of his brain than the rest of us mortals. Everyone admired Albert Einstein.

Michael Paterniti's "Driving Mr. Albert" [2000] is an examination of the cost and curse of celebrity. The book focuses around Professor Albert Einstein and Doctor Thomas Harvey-the Princeton pathologist who performed the autopsy on Einstein in 1955. As a part of the procedure, he removed Einstein's brain from the skull to weigh and measure it. Afterwards, he took Einstein's brain home with him for further research. Decades later, he still had it. For Paterniti, the pathologist is an “uberpilgrim” who is nearing the end of his peregrination.

Basically this is an account of the strange road trip that the author and Harvey made in a Buick Skylark from Princeton, New Jersey, to the Bay Area in California with Einstein's brain stashed in truck sloshing around in a Tupperware container. It is also a meditation on the lives of Einstein, Harvey and the author. Paternity also makes some interesting observations on the nature of celebrity and the 21st Century world which Einstein helped shape. This was a fun book to read, and I recommend this slightly macabre but humorous tale.

"Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth" by Reza Aslan

 

 

No doubt like many other people, I first heard about Reza Aslan and his book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth (2013) on NPR in reference to an interview he had had on Fox News. For a week or so, a ridiculous controversy arose about if a Moslem could write about what Christians call the Old and New Testaments. My feeling is that anyone who can find a publisher can write and publish a book about whatever he wants. The question should be is it a book worth reading.

In Zealot, Aslan sets out to separate the historical Jesus of Nazareth from Jesus Christ the Son of God around whom modern Christianity is formed. It’s a reasonable inquiry. After I returned from a pilgrimage in Spain in 2000, I started rereading the Christian Bible and became interested in the historical Jesus, too. And like Aslan, I read John Dominic Crossan’s works The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant and Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography as well as other books and articles by Crossan and other writers. To me, it has been and still is a rewarding exercise that has helped my meditations each time I read the New Testament.

The search for the historical Jesus of Nazareth is an incredible challenge. After all, the books the New Testament itself were written after the crucifixion. Nevertheless, Aslan has done an excellent job of extracting the Galilean from what was written about him after his death and placing him within his own social, economic, political and religious times. Aslan then makes some interesting conclusions about the rise of Jesus Christ the Son of God after the death of Jesus of Nazareth also by looking at the historical times when the letters of Paul, the four gospels and the rest of the New Testament were written (with the exception of Revelations).

Besides the narrative itself, Aslan includes a meaty “Author’s Notes” section where he discusses his sources and some of his reasoning and conclusions. He also has a lengthy bibliography of the books and articles that he has read for those readers who are also interested in taking up the modern quest for the historical Jesus of Nazareth.

Since coming back from Spain in 2000, I have tried to read the Christian Bible every year and I try to read the New Testament an additional time during the Lenten season. Before starting that exercise (but sometimes during or after), I enjoy reading some other book which will stimulate my own meditations about what I’m reading. Aslan’s Zealot would be a worthwhile read before reading the New Testament, and I heartily recommend it.

When I finish reading any book, there are three questions that I ask myself: Is this book worth buying? Is this book worth rereading? Would it be worthwhile to read something else by the same writer? My answers for Zealot: The Life and Times Jesus of Nazareth are yes, yes and yes.

20 September 2013

Harvest moon rising
along a lunar-lit path__
strolling moon shadows

summer morning rain

summer morning rain
drops wash away desert dust
overcast skies gray
soothing restorative balm
soothing
restorative
calm

"A Moveable Feast" by Ernest Hemingway

I decided to read A Moveable Feast after reading and enjoying Enrique Vila-Matas’ novel Never Any End to Paris which was inspired in part by this Hemingway favorite . In some ways, it was about time. I had known about the attraction of this book and the idea of a young artist run off to the Left Bank to find his self. Julio Cortazar had done just that in the 1950s; his reminiscents are recorded in Hopscotch. Roberto Bolaño leaves his impression of being in Paris in The Savage Detectives. A descendent of Hemingway used the title in a similarly-titled cookbook filled with recipes for picnic foods. When you consider how poor and hungry Hemmingway was during his time in Paris, the appropriation of the memoir’s title might be considered facetious.
The book was written at the end of the author’s life and published after his death. It’s about the beginnings of his literary career when he was working on his first great novel The Sun Also Rises. With him in Paris were other members of the Lost Generation (so named by his mentor Gertrude Stein) including James Joyce, Ford Maddox Ford, Ezra Pound and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Besides recounting his adventures and impressions with them and others, the memoir is a testimony to his love for his first wife Hadley and the time they spent together in the City of Light.
This was a good book; I recommend it to all Hemingway fans.