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Suspense & sunsets
Clancy comes back in full force; Steel draws love triangles
in French Riviera; slave's story is published years later
By Fernando Ortiz Jr. and David D. Robbins
Caller-Times
A great novel, a writer once suggested, should be a journey that begins on the
page and ends in ourselves. It should touch us in such an intimate way that it
becomes a part of who we are and changes how we look at the turbulent world around
us. It should connect with the best part of our hearts and minds and perhaps even
help heal something broken long ago.
That's a pretty high standard, and certainly no one would suggest that the following
novels meet or even exceed it. But they are great works nonetheless - some adventures,
some romances, some mysteries - and each one easily meets the standard of an exceptional
summer book: Once begun, they cannot be put down.
‘Sunset at St. Tropez'
Danielle Steel's latest, "Sunset at St. Tropez" (June 25, Delacorte, $19.95),
is just such a book. It's a dazzling romp across the world, from the streets of
Manhattan to the sands of the French Riviera, bristling with characters as barely
believable yet just as enjoyable as any soap opera.
Six middle-aged couples, best friends for years, prepare to celebrate New Year's
Eve together. However, underneath the smooth seas of decades-long, well-oiled
marriages, serious personal torments are swirling. The couples all agree on the
need for a great vacation, and they settle on the French Riviera, where they can
rent a house in St. Tropez.
Suddenly, one of them dies, and the entire friendship dynamic shifts. But the
plans for St. Tropez continue, and the friends meet at the house they've rented.
It's a wreck, as much of a wreck as their lives are, yet they set out to repair
and improve it.
Steel wastes little time in expounding on the simplistic symbolism. She's got
love triangles to set up and melodramatic moments of spousal truth to stage, the
centerpiece elements of a story as sweet and substantive as a bowl of Gummy Bears.
But it works well.
As with all of Steel's works, this is a story about how relationships are transformed
by sweeping change and intimate details, how lives are more fluid and intertwined
than most are willing to admit, and how personal choices, though often clearly
painful, are made more often with the heart than with the head.
‘Red Rabbit'
Where Danielle Steel is a master in the realm of romance, Tom Clancy is the master
of the technothrilling suspense story. Steel paints a world of love, betrayal,
hope and home. Clancy's world makes you wonder how his hero is going to save it
from being blown to pieces.
Clancy's principal protagonist is Jack Ryan, a long-time CIA analyst/official,
and now a reluctant president of the United States. He's the ordinary man caught
in extraordinary circumstances, Clancy's voice of morality and practicality, mired
in the muck of political shenanigans, incompetent superiors and the slithering
evil of the world.
"Red Rabbit" (August 5, Putnam, $28.95) promises to be the most interesting Clancy
novel in almost a decade. Jack Ryan returns not as president or as a burned-out
workaholic, but as a young, brilliant analyst, recently recruited into a CIA fighting
the Cold War.
Filling in the history between Ryan's fight with IRA terrorists ("Patriot Games")
and the long winter he spends helping the Soviet sub Red October defect to the
U.S. ("The Hunt for Red October"), Clancy moves Ryan into averting a possible
Russian plot to kill the Pope. Yet, as with all Clancy thrillers, the real threat
in "Red Rabbit" will come from the least expected dangers, from enemies who are
closer than allies, and during the worst possible moments.
‘The Bondwoman's Narrative'
Where Clancy's best work has sent waves through the circles of fiction, the astounding
discovery of what may have been the first novel written by an African-American
woman has sent tsunamis throughout countless disciplines.
Henry Louis Gates Jr., a Harvard professor, recently put down almost $10,000 of
his own money at a rare-book auction to buy "The Bondwoman's Narrative" by Hannah
Crafts (Time Warner, $24.95), a dusty 300-page manuscript dating back to the late
1850s.
After tracing the author's history throughout the Library of Congress, the Mormon
Family Library and the National Archives, Gates soon discovered what kind of treasure
he had in his hands. As Gates explains in his introduction, hundred of books written
by fugitive slaves and even enslaved women were published before the Civil War
and are read today, but in this case, he says, this was an unedited manuscript.
It was therefore untouched by abolitionists who may have cleaned up poor sentence
structure or misspellings in other works. If nothing else, it is a glimpse into
"the degree of literacy that at least one slave possessed before the sophisticated
editorial hand … performed the midwifery of copyediting."
Despite the lack of solid evidence about the author's real name or the degree
of similarity between her life and her work of fiction, Gates recently published
his discovery and has crisscrossed the U.S., holding high what is a genuinely
good book about slave life, the flight to freedom and the minutiae of the nation
not yet ravaged by civil war. It's not just a great historical find with a great
detective story behind its publication - it's a great read, too.
‘Rise to Rebellion'
Another great historical novel that deserves mention is Jeff Shaara's "Rise to
Rebellion" (Mass Market, $7.99), recently released in paperback.
Shaara first exploded into the selective ranks of historical fiction with a prequel
and a sequel to his father's Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel "The Killer Angels,"
which focused on the principal characters directing the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg.
His works were well-received, and they now form the basis of two forthcoming feature
films. Shaara later wrote "Gone for Soldiers," a novel mostly about the same men
- Robert E. Lee, Ulysses Grant and James Longstreet - as they fought the Mexican-American
War. And now Shaara has moved further into the American past. In "Rise to Rebellion,"
he's brought to vibrant life the fiery John Adams, the serene George Washington,
and Robert E. Lee's father, the eccentric "Light Horse Harry" Lee, as they fight
to forge a nation under the unrelenting threat of British annihilation.
Shaara has worked for years to find a voice distinct from that of his father,
Michael, and "Rise to Rebellion" is wholly his own brilliant achievement.
‘The Glass Palace'
As postmodern writers place a premium on style over substance, it's a comfort
to know there are still authors who turn to Charles Dickens for inspiration. One
of this summer's best examples of this is yet another historical novel, Amitav
Ghosh's "The Glass Palace" (Random House, $13.95).
Rajkumar is an orphan wandering the streets of a Burmese city in 1885, slowly
growing aware of the seismic power shifts taking place around him. A British invasion
deposes the royalty, and as they flee, Rajkumar spots a beautiful young royal
servant.
It is at this point that the adventure begins. And Rajkumar searches out love
amidst a fragile world that seems destined to exploit and destroy nations. "The
Glass Palace" is a novel of epic proportions, worthy of comparison to E.M. Forster's
and Michael Odaantje's best works. Dickens would be proud.
‘Rapture'
The darkest shadows of even the strongest love is explored in Susan Minot's "Rapture"
(Knopf, $18).
A couple is in bed together in the middle of the afternoon. Minot follows them
throughout this single moment, eavesdropping on their inner monologues, as the
man and woman debate the pros and cons of ending a relationship they both know
should have never begun. She stretches the moment into an exploration of why women
and men persuade themselves to enter a relationship and betray themselves to its
pain over and over again.
Minot's magic is in illustrating innuendoes of their love - the petty hurts, the
silences, the ecstasy. It's about the timidity in being truthful and the ‘meta-messages'
lovers only allude to in conversation.
It is more psychological than any other work reviewed in this series. It is a
book that shows a relationship in its less tangible forms - where longing is less
likely shown in a kiss or hug - but drifts about the room like an uneasy draft.
At its best, "Rapture" is about giving into the only certainty offered in an emotion
as uncertain as love - pleasure.
‘Unless'
Shifting from empty love to an empty life, Carol Shields gives us "Unless" (Fourth
Estate, $24.95). Reta Winter, a writer living in Ontario, Canada, has the perfect
family - or so it seems. But Reta's first words reveal that feelings of "great
loss and unhappiness" dominate her life of serene domesticity.
Shields explores the slow torture of loneliness, how ordinary people endure it
and how Reta's mind, the marvel of the novel, floats throughout this suburban
world of dreariness and hopeless expectation.
Shields' most dedicated readers know that the writer is suffering from an advanced
form of cancer. The book is aptly titled "Unless" - a word suggesting change and
possibility. It is this one word, this glowing embrace of possibility, upon which
Shields hinges a true masterpiece.
‘Her, Dog Handling'
Two silly romances deserve some positive mention. Laura Zigman's "Her" (Knopf,
$22) and Clare Naylor's "Dog Handling" (Ballantine, $12.95) both focus on young
career women and problems with their fiancées.
Naylor and Zigman stand out because they've written works that smack of bubble-gum
love but carry the real punch of every woman's worst betrayal that she never saw
coming.
A rare feat indeed.
‘Daddy's Little Girl'
Mystery will also be well-represented this summer.
One promising work is "Daddy's Little Girl" (Simon & Schuster, $26), Mary Higgins
Clark's story of Ellie Cavanaugh, an Atlanta journalist who pursues the man who
murdered her sister. He's recently been released from prison.
Ellie hopes her book condemning the man will help her recover from the loss. But
as she digs deeper, Ellie discovers that this man may have committed an earlier
murder, leading her to an even bigger crime encompassing her entire hometown.
‘Free Bird'
And finally, introspection and a long road trip are two avenues to recovery for
Greg Garrett's broken hero.
His first novel, "Free Bird" (Kensington, $23), is an enormous canvas upon which
he illustrates the mere carcass of widower Clay Forester, once successful and
loved, now destitute and crippled with guilt.
The news of the death of Clay's father, whom he thought dead since he was a child,
sends him to New Mexico to attend the funeral. On the way, Clay comes across a
variety of odd characters: a hitchhiker, a single-mom stripper, and even an old
friend who's become a priest - each with a story of their own, each leaving with
Clay one more bit of wisdom he'll absorb into a slowly healing heart.
Garrett turns what could have been a hokey road trip into a comical odyssey that
cuts across a bitter America and into Clay's own recovering psyche.
Contact Fernando Ortiz Jr. at 886-3600 or ortizf@caller.com. Contact
David D. Robbins at 886-3600 or robbinsd@caller.com.
‘Three Fates' by Nora Roberts
A great chase across the world to recover and possess one of the Three Fates,
silver statues meant to bring anyone great power.
‘Consent' by Ben Schrank
A doctoral student's professional and private lives are falling apart. He tries
to hold it all together but instead falls in lust with a sexy lawyer. A hot-and-cold
affair ensues. In the meantime, he's trying to write his dissertation on a monster
from Jewish mysticism, but he has to contend with an annoying and often sadistic
adviser.
‘Vertical Burn' by Earl Emerson
A veteran Seattle firefighter begins to suspect his men are being deliberately
diverted to other small fires in order to fail to properly respond to a terrorist
conspiracy to set a huge skyscraper aflame.
‘Man Walks Into a Room' by Nicole Krauss
Odd but moving story about a man who's lost his memory. Surgery to restore it
fails, and his marriage falls apart. But he's determined to get his life back,
and he undertakes a strange journey into a past he must rebuild in the present,
jumping from one madcap scientist to another.
‘And Then You Die' by Michael Dibdin
Investigator Aurelio Zen recovers from a Mafia car bomb blast in a beach safehouse
and prepares to testify in a crucial criminal trial. But the Mafia never give
up, and Zen soon realizes someone is following, ready to finish the job.
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