Strange Piece of Paradise

Book Review Submission
Author: Jentz
Title: Strange Piece of Paradise

Review:The book starts off in a wandering, misleading fashion, and then bites down onto the bone of the story. The climax, however, comes early - she is attacked. It is followed by denoument which oscillates in intensity but generally heads in decline. The decline of the remainder might be inevitable, due to the nature of the remaining content: what in most tales would be spent on a climax (the attack) is presented early. The ensuing hundreds of pages focus on painstaking and editable interviews. To her credit, many of these interviews are eye opening and well presented. The remaining action, the trial, is well placed at the end - but due to the nature of the event this is only partially satisfying - if read from a tale telling point of view. As history however it must simply be accepted. I'm not certain I - or anyone - could have offered a better organization. However having covered the weakest parts of the book, some of it's strengths were unforgiving details, and for the most part excellent use of language. As for difficult words, I have always been in the "look it up" camp, and tend to overlook misused grammar as the fault of the editor. (To which any self respecting editor would agree.) I have yet to meet a perfect grammarian. Overall, an excellent read with logistical flaws that would challenge any writer.
Name:Michael

Strange Piece of Paradise

From Joanna of New Haven:

Author: Terri Jentz
Title: strange piece of paradise
2006
Review:Let me agree with the author of the original review. I think this review was not only accurate, but generous. This is the only book I was frustrated enough with to give up on in ten years (excepting college coursebooks, of course). The story was so compelling for about one hundred pages. If this had been a 300 page book instead of 700 pages, it may have become an important memoir. Instead, it seems to be an exercise in self-help disguised as literature. Some of the ways she described the people of central Oregon (ie, non-Yale-educated people) was offensive to me. And she must have used the word "meticulous" upwards of fifty times.

Inconvenient Truth by Glenn Beck

from guest reviewer Sheryl from Florida:

BECK’S BOOK INCONVENIENTLY TOPS BESTSELLER LISTS A nuisance to some and a godsend to others, radio host Glenn Beck is sitting comfortably near the top of the bookcharts with his book on backorder at multiple outlets. Although snubbed by reviewers except for a conservative website or two, “An Inconvenient Book” can grab readers with its “you must be kidding - could this possibly be true?” factor in some sections, and the frenetic yet entertaining graphics. It’s alternately funny, sarcastic, dead-serious and cynical and purposefully mirrors Beck’s radio voice. He’s more congenial than Ann Coulter but still certain to grate on the sensibilities of political correctness enthusiasts who prefer Stephen Colbert’s similarly strident but more popular rants in “I Am America (And So Can You!)”. However, this pundit of the airwaves raises very intoxicating points and makes the reader want to research certain facts, since there are no supporting endnotes. For example, Beck talks about the existence of a North American Competitiveness Council made up of “eminent persons from outside governments to provide a public voice for North America”. Beck sees this organization as a direct threat to U.S. national security, as it calls for a “freer flow of people” between Mexico, the USA and Canada – i.e., we’ll never know who’s illegal, who’s a legal immigrant or who’s a citizen. Other scary examples of secret socialist-leaning U.S. agencies participating in covert world organizations make it questionable whether we want our country to be that tolerant. At times, Beck targets both sides, conservative and liberal, like stating that polls from either pulpit can be unreliable but are still used to move public opinion. He hits up on “big oil”, American narcissism, parenting, sex, and of course the current wartime problems. Beck illustrates that political correctness has been taken to outrageous extremes to make allowances for terrorists who threaten to take over governments. He verifies his position by revealing remarks like Anjen Choudary’s in London, “Whoever insults the message of Mohammed is going to be subject to capital punishment”, being shrugged off by the media for the sake of tolerance; and this followed by the BBC merely labeling suicide bombers as poor “misguided criminals”. He hilariously “exposes” the new politically correct term for the people starving in Zimbabwe – they’re “food-insecure”. And then earnestly states things go too far when kids aren’t being taught about the Holocaust for fear of offending all Muslims. Addressing the “staying positive” philosophy of bringing up children without any negative feedback, Beck charges PC-talk with being instrumental in helping us raise “generations of sissies”. He cites trustworthy articles about bosses being instructed to speak only affirmatively to their youngest employees and this, combined with kids never being told they’re wrong, has created addicts of praise8 who can go postal at the first sign of criticism. Social class divisions in America aren’t left untouched, with Beck intimating that the Democrats in Congress, always claiming to make life better for the little guy, know full well most company CEO’s make in two hours what the average worker makes in a year, and they’ve never worked at changing that. Beck turns to his favorite topic - free speech - claiming Americans need to have more of a passion for taking the First Amendment back; that freedom of religious speech should be guaranteed, but the more we call for diversity it is ironically being excluded. An Al Franken quote on the back of the book says, “Glenn Beck shouldn’t be allowed on the air”. This statement lends credence to Beck’s seeming paranoia that free speech in America as seen by today’s liberal thinkers isn’t open to anyone with viewpoints opposing their own. For both those who share Beck’s viewpoint and those who enjoy trying to prove him wrong on claims that sound eerily true, this is an indulgent read.

The Da Vinci Code

from guest blogger Tanya:

The Da Vinci Code: A Masterful Novel Dan Brown’s novel, The Da Vinci Code, exhibits a setting intertwined with theological viewpoints and controversial lies. The plot forms about the premise that Christ held a royal bloodline. According to the novel, the ancestry of Jesus Christ survives through the Holy Grail. The truth of this holy existence, however, was shrouded by lies put forth by the Vatican. In an attempt to protect its sovereignty, the Catholic Church used bribery and torture to silence those who held the potent truth. The storyline is impelled by a newly sparked interest in the grail that initially consumes the ambition of its primary characters. The narrative is partially told through the viewpoint of Robert Langdon, a symbology professor at Harvard University. Langdon is unwittingly accused of murdering Jacques Saunière, a curator at the Louvre museum in Paris. While a suspect at the Louvre, Langdon meets Sophie Neveu, a cryptologist and granddaughter to Jacques Saunière. As Saunière’s connection with the grail becomes clear, a pace is set that continues throughout the rest of the novel. Although the plot is a net of careful fabrication and constructive rhythm, it is lacking is minor areas. The protagonist of the plot, Robert Langdon, is depicted in a manner more obscure than complex. Brown exhibits his character with qualities cliché of fictitious literature. For example, Langdon is portrayed with idealistic traits from both an intellectual and behavioral standpoint, yet is characterized with a single weakness- claustrophobia. This portion of the novel is bound to leave readers baffled. Not only is Landon’s weakness reminiscent of Achilles and his heel, but it is almost unnecessary and does not form any contribution to the plot. Brown amends the flaws in characterization, however, through the construction of an immaculate plot. The narrative often alternates between primary and secondary characters, a refreshing change to the customary novel. Although most of the novel outlines the journey of Robert Langdon, the reader is also introduced to the perspective of antagonists. The most prominent of these is “The Teacher”, an unidentified character whose pursuit of the grail remains unrelenting. Under his influence are Bishop Aringarosa and Silas, both members of the church Opus Dei. The transitions in the plot provided by the distinctive characters builds the supsense projected by the novel. The concept of the plot itself is effectually flawless. Each chapter adds to the readers understanding of the novel, while still maintaining a sense of anticipation. The #1 New York Times Besteller certainly holds manifest to its title. This novel is bound to entertain and impress the most vigilant reader.

Mister Pip

The short list for the Booker Prize has been announced. I've read just one of the nominated books, Mister Pip. I found it disappointing. It is set on an island near Australia that has had some contact with European culture, but a civil war has disrupted contacts and supplies. One white man remains on the island. One day the children are told school is resuming, and he begins to read to them from Great Expectations. As life becomes increasingly precarious, the children are drawn to Pip and his adventures. After parental criticism, he asks the children's parents to come and share their knowledge, which yields a mixture of the intensely practical, mythological, and Christian. The violence is not sugar coated, and the author never suggests that Dickens is a cure for civil war. However, I never felt the island was a real place, or that the characters mattered. Somewhat ironic in a homage to Dickens! The narrator of the book is a young island girl, who sounds like an English professor. Finding out at the end of the book that she has in fact become an English professor does not make up for the tone of this book. It is well-meaning but bland.

The Bloodstone Papers by Glen Duncan

Owen's life is a mess. He's still obsessed with a woman who left him years ago and he finds himself unable to continue writing erotic romances under his pen name. Most discouraging, he has not been able to pull together his Work, a novel based on his parent's life as Anglo Indians at the time of independence. There are two stories, Owen's misadventures, and his parent's experiences in India. Duncan's attempts to put his life back together are amusing. The description of his parents life, neither Indian nor English, Muslim or Hindu, was moving. A description of a massacre on a train and the sense of innocent bystanders caught up in the violence was harrowing and all too believable. Somewhat similar to Everything is Illuminated, this a quieter and memorable book.

Spook Country

William Gibson coined the term "cyberspace" in his novel Neuromancer. In "Spook Country" he suggests that cyberspace has turned inside out. Instead of projecting a consciousness into cyberspace, artists create locative art, using 3D helmets and GPS units to bring cyberspace to the physical world. Once at a predetermined site, the virtual reality headgear is put on and picks up nearby wifi to present art based on the location. It may be a room full of flowers or a recreation of River Phoenix's last minutes. It's fascinating and after a quick consult of wikipedia, does not appear to yet exist on anything like the scale that appears in this book.

So what does all this have to do with Spooks? That gets complicated. This book is full of characters with ambiguous goals. A shadowy billionaire, who hires a former rock star for a special project with no goals. A man who has kidnapped a drug addict and keeps him close at hand by doling out pills one at a time. The drug addict himself, obsessed with a book on medieval cults. Tito, young and talented, who has been given a strange mission by someone to whom he cannot say no. And then there's the secretive genius behind the locative art, Bobby. As all converge on a shipping container that may or may not be traveling the globe, motives and identities become clear. The result is a book that is more spy novel than science fiction, but full of fascinating ideas and characters on every page, and well worth a read by fans of either genre.