Book Review: Katja from the Punk Band

Katja from the Punk Band by Simon Logan is the introductory book in the Katja series. Simon is the author of the industrial fiction novel Little Things To Fill Up The Void and three collections of short stories. He is also the author of Get Katja.

A few months ago I read Get Katja, the second book in the series, and loved it. This week I was happy to find Katja from the Punk Band was available to me. I dropped everything else and jumped on this book. I was not disappointed. Katja, along with most people, want off the island and on to the mainland. The island is dreary, dark, and depressing. There are chemical drug gangs and drug lords and life resembles life on the worst side of town. The mainland is may not be perfect, but it is a step up. 

Here, as in Get Katja, the story is told from the point at all main characters and the reader will be jumping back and forth in time. When characters encounter each other it leads up to a climax, and then the story back tracks and is told from the other characters view point. It might sound a bit dizzy, going back and forth, but here it is done in such a way that is completely logical and fits well together. Everything revolves around Katja, and she is the nucleus of the book. The other characters move in and out like electrons around the nucleus of an atom sometimes moving closer and other times moving away. 

The book’s description calls Katja Jackie Brown meets the Sex Pistols, and I am at a loss to come up with a better description. Several plots, several main characters all working together in a punk rock environment makes this book hard to put down. This is not my usual reading material, but as a diversion I find it highly enjoyable. I am a Katja fan.

Book Review: Savage Death: Not Forgiven

Savage Death: Not Forgiven by Erich Penoff is the second book in The Savage Series. Penoff is a world traveler and has been to the mostly “untouristy” places such as Afghanistan, the Congo, India, and Pakistan. He speaks as someone who has been to and experienced wars and troubles firsthand. His biography does not explain what he did in the years preceding his retirement, but he does write with familiarity of the French Foreign Legion and mercenaries. What impressed me the most was he is one of the few non-Marines who capitalized the “M” in Marine. Thank you.

I really enjoyed the first book in the series, and was pleasantly surprised to see the request to review the next book. Like the first book, this is a thinking man’s thriller. It is much more nuts and bolts of the mission and character development than the “super spy” type books of the cold war. Much more Smiley than Bond. I was going to say it’s not about fast cars and beautiful women, but then there is a Jaguar XKE with curves like French intelligence agent Nixe. Even so they remain subdued in the story. The Jaguar is a retirement project. The main characters are aging and looking into the retirement they deserve; they have the scars to prove it.

Marco is happily retired in Canada when he is tracked down by a mountie with a short telegram: Michael Simon is dead. Michael was Marco’s long time friend along with investment banker Karl Wittgen. Marco and Michael recently finished a job for Karl in the Congo reclaiming investor’s gold. That was their retirement job. Michael, was brutally murdered with by people with connections to the Congo and the gold. He reported a counterfeit cognac smuggling operation that got him the attention of organized crime. Marco is set on revenge and calls in his old friends for help.

Many of the characters from the first novel play major parts in this book also. There is enough of an introduction to the main players that reading the first book is not necessary to understand the players or plot. Pennoff writes a very straightforward story and uses the substance of the story to sell his book. Reading there was not a single time where I said to myself “That could never happen.” Revenge, realism, and the power of the Euro are major themes in the story.
The story itself takes a few turns and things do not always go as planned. Marco has to adjust his plans to the realities of the situation. The story crosses three counties and reflects the culture and history of those countries. Marco will also teach you a thing or two about Austrian cuisine. The characters in the story are real people and have a strong sense of loyalty.

Savage Death (Not Forgiven) (The Savage Series) is extremely well written and flows well. The pace is fast enough to keep the reader’s interest and complex enough to keep you thinking. It is a thinking man’s adventure story. Like the cognac Marco used to drink, nothing is rushed in the story. A main character in his sixties knows not to rush into trouble but is still hell bent on revenge. An excellent continuation of the series.

Book Review: India Was One

 

India Was One by An Indian is a novel that is a bit hard to describe. The author who goes by An Indian was born in Mumbai, India and came to America in 1989. He has lived in New York and Los Angeles. I met the author on Goodreads and was offered a copy of the book in return for review.

The book is divided into roughly two sections. The first three quarters of the book is is the story of Jai and Kaahi, a young couple who met in college and marry. Jai comes from a well to do family in northern India. Kaahi from southern India. Jai will work at his family’s business interest in Los Angeles. This part of the book is a wonderful story and shares so much information about India, its regions, food, and experiences. It also shares the couples experiences on their initial trip to Los Angeles. The cultural information is great as well as how others see America. 

There is a particularly long topic of cricket and baseball through out the book. This provides another excellent cross culture examination. There is a melding of Indian traditions in Indian communities in America and the couple experiences in the Indian immigrant/resident alien community. The cultural lessons alone make this book worth reading.

The last quarter of the book let me down. My willing suspension of disbelief could not keep up with the events at hand. The author has a great idea, but it could not be believably done in the sixty or so pages of the book. I will leave that as it is and not give away the plot or climax.

If you would like to know more about India and its culture, this novel does an excellent job of explaining it as well as giving an immigrant’s view of America. The splitting of India could have been a novel in itself. It needed much more room to develop into a plausible story.

Book Review: Castle Lake

Castle Lake by Thomas Ryerson is a story that covers 70 years of Murdock family and their property around Castle Lake. I jumped right into the book with out reading other reviews or a synopsis of the story. Having read a few of his other books, I came in expecting to find something with a science fiction twist or a futuristic society. However, I found myself somewhere on the east coast of North America in 1821. The story develops at a good pace and nothing seems out of place for the time. The story centers around two families. The Murdocks and Ficks who own the property surrounding the lake Things begin well enough for the new neighbors, but quickly things erode into tragedy and well, black magic – I didn’t see that coming.

The characters in the story are all very real and well developed. The likeable characters are easily likeable and their actions are very human. The story moves at a good pace and the book can be completed in a sitting or two. I have read a few of Ryerson’s books and they all are worth the read. Castle Lake, like his other books, provides a nice bit of escapism. His books are the perfect break in the piles of non-fiction I usually read; he has become my go to guy for fiction. If you are looking for something to read this weekend or for a day at the beach, I recommend Castle Lake or another of Ryerson’s books. I haven’t been disappointed in any of his books.

Book Review: Shadow of the Corps: A Novel

Shadow of the Corps: A Novel by James Dupont falls in the category of a thriller. It combines a background of a Marine Corps trial in the past and a serial killer in the present. DuPont is a Marine with twelve years of active duty as a pilot and legal adviser. He is currently a commercial pilot and holds the rank of major in the Marine Corps Reserve. This is his first novel.

Dale Riley fresh out of law school joined the Marines to be a hero. One case will change his life and his career. A Marine is accused of bombing an Afghan village with out authorization, killing seventy eight civilians and five Marines, and Dale, against better advice, chooses to defend the pilot. The main story opens with Dale, his wife, and their son living with Dale’s parents. Dale is unemployed, out of shape, and down on life. Almost by accident he sees an obituary for Marine lawyer, the name is familiar: the prosecuting attorney in the pilot bombing case. Here is where the story takes off. There are plenty of twists and surprises in the book and the pace is constant. As the novel develops, more of the trial and the past are brought to the present.

Contemporary novels are not my usual reading, but occasionally I do take a break from non-fiction or the classics and read a modern novel. The Marine Corps imagery on the cover drew me in as well as the short description of the book.Shadow of the Corps supplies everything I needed. As a former Maine, I appreciated the back-story. The story telling is more than adequate and easily holds the readers interest. It is a good escapist novel, although nothing in it is far fetched even with the twists and turns. It is a good summer read or great read for those who enjoy crime thrillers. It was an enjoyable read.

Book Review: TransAtlantic

First, I will openly admit I am a sucker for anything WWI or bi-plane era. When the description of the book started with a 1919 Atlantic non-stop flight I was hooked. Transatlantic is a forth coming book from writer Colum McCann and is centered around both Ireland and America.

The book is divided into two sections. The first section contains three seemingly unrelated stories. The first of a transatlantic flight of two World War I veterans. The second of Fredrich Douglass’ trip to Ireland and the third about American Senator George Mitchell’s brokering of peace between the IRA and England. All three stories are historical fiction with the major events all being factual.

The second part of the book ties all the events of the first part together through the lives of four generations of women. Events covering the US Civil War, the tenth anniversary of the first transatlantic flight, death, and a letter bring all parts of the book together in a remarkable way.

McCann does a remarkable job of both story telling and tying stories together. The first part of the book reads more like history than a novel and in particular is quite educating seeing Ireland through the eyes of Douglass and the realization that slavery is not always just about color. One hundred and fifty years of history molded perfectly into two hundred and sixty pages covering events and more importantly human lives and feelings.

This book is well worth the read. I expected to enjoy the transatlantic flight story and was unsure if that would be enough to draw me into the complete book, but as it turned out the rest of the book exceeded my expectations for the flight story.

Book Review: Vampires in the Lemon Grove

A good selection of short stories. Some stories are bizarre like “The Barn at the End of Our Term” where former presidents are reincarnated as horses in a stable; to the very good “The New Veterans. This book may make me a fan of short stories.

Book Review: Swamplandia

I can’t remember the last time I read a 300 page novel on one sitting

Book Review: Office Girl

Bicycles and Hipsters and a bit of absurdism rolled into a book. I really wasn’t expecting to like this book as much as I did… my guess is it’s because of all the hipsters I deal with on a daily basis.

A very likeable book

Book Review: The Rent Collector

The Rent Collector is a novel inspired on a documentary The River of Victory, the largest dump in Cambodia called Strung Meanchey. The story follows the lives of Sang Ly; wife and mother, Ki Lim; husband and father, Nisay;the sickly child, and Sopeap Sin, the Rent Collector. Sang and Ki struggle to make a life as “pickers” in the dump community. Sopeap is the mean, drunk, rent collector with more than one secret. The story really begins when Sopeap sees a book Ki found and brought home for Li to show to their child. Show, not read, because they are illiterate.

I was expecting a dark, dreary novel about the sufferings of the poor in a war ravaged country. Despite the setting in a dump, an entire community of people living in a dump the book seems to look beyond the sheer misery of the situation. Life seems normal for the people in the book. Yes there are money problems and environmental problems but they seem to be taken in stride. Overall, there is a very positive light shining on the dump.

The book makes references to several cultural aspects of life in Cambodia, from local remedies to the Buddha. The Cambodian Buddha is skinny compared to the fat Buddha of China, perhaps a truer picture of the Buddha who fasted and begged for food or maybe a reflection of the realities of poverty being reflected in the culture (Other religions do the same,much like a blonde haired, blue-eye Jesus of Scandinavian culture). The overall poverty of the country is also brought up in several different areas from NGOs, foreign medical clinics, and a bus retired from duties in Thailand.

In The Rent Collector there are a few insertions of traditional Cambodian stories into the story. One such story is Sarann, the Cambodian version of Cinderella and the inclusion that there are many versions of the same story. This rings true with The Rent Collector also. When I first started reading the book the language seemed a bit simple. I looked over the book thinking it may be a Young Adult book. After further reading, it dawned on me that it is written more as a fable like Coelho’s The Alchemist or a more subdued Illusions by Bach. The story is there as a wrapper to cover the lessons being taught, which ties back into the story, cleverly.

The Rent Collector is a very worthwhile read. It was much more enjoyable than I thought it would be. Poverty is a backdrop in the story and not the story itself. I read it through the course of a Sunday without rushing and without wanting to put the book down. A very solid “four star” rating.

Disclosure: I received The Rent Collector free from Goodreads book giveaways. It was a book I chose based on the Publishers description and my interest in Asia.