Archive for November, 2010

RESCUE by Anita Shreve

RESCUE, by Anita Shreve, focuses on the ways in which parents and children deal with physical and emotional trauma. It is a poignant story about a good man who makes a mistake, but takes full responsibility for his actions.

November 30, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , , , ,  Â· Posted in: Contemporary, Family Matters, NE & New York

EDEN by Yael Hedaya

Yael Hedaya was a screenwriter for the acclaimed Israeli TV drama series Betipul (In Treatment), which was adapted for the United States and currently airs on HBO. This background shows in her novel, EDEN, with her attention to the emotions, human interactions and the inner workings of the characters’ minds. Eden’s translator, Jessica Cohen, does a stunning job. The book flows without awkwardness or hesitation.

This is a book about the intertwined lives of the people of Eden – the good, the bad, the indifferent and the morally ambiguous. Until tragedies hit, they go about their lives in a very insular way. Even with tragedy, they are more apt to talk about it than to take action.

November 29, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , ,  Â· Posted in: Contemporary, Israel, World Lit

NOIR by Robert Coover

I live, eat and breath noir seven days a week, and so when I saw NOIR by Robert Coover, it was one of those books I had to read, and now at the end of that experience, I admit to having mixed feelings.

November 28, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Posted in: Mystery/Suspense, Noir, Unique Narrative, y Award Winning Author

THE SHADOW WOMAN by Ake Edwardson

Sweden’s youngest ever chief inspector, at thirty-seven years old, cuts his vacation short when one of his team – a black, Swedish-born woman – has her jaw broken at the annual Gothenburg party, an outdoor late-summer festival at which nativist thugs get drunk and run amok, often in motorcycle gangs.

November 27, 2010 · Judi Clark · One Comment
Tags: , ,  Â· Posted in: Sleuths Series, Sweden, Swedish Crime Writer, Translated, World Lit, y Award Winning Author

EDGE by Jeffrey Deaver

Action-suspense master Deaver’s latest nail-biter pits the narrator, Corte, a government protection expert, known as a “shepherd,” against a ruthless “lifter,” Henry Loving, whose job is to grab the target – a DC cop – and extract information from him by any means possible, meaning torture, as we’ve already seen in a grisly prologue.

November 27, 2010 · Judi Clark · Comments Closed
Tags: , ,  Â· Posted in: Thriller/Spy/Caper

DEVIL’S DREAM by Madison Smartt Bell

This is a slave talking about his master, Nathan Bedford Forrest, a real character who became one of the most respected Confederate generals in the Civil War. At one point, Bedford breaks a pot over Ben’s head in rage at his insubordination, only to realize that there is a better way to gain his cooperation. So at considerable expense of time and treasure, he seeks out Ben’s wife, who had been sold away from him, and buys her back to be his companion. A former slave-trader who nonetheless treats his people with respect, this is only one of the contradictions that make Forrest so fascinating.

November 26, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , , , , ,  Â· Posted in: Facing History, US South, y Award Winning Author