MESOPOTAMIA by Arthur Nersesian

 Like those of another of my favorite authors (Jonathan Lethem), Arthus Nersesian's most memorable books (e.g., Unlubricated, Chinese Takeout) are often set in NYC, exploring the unique mind set and often bizarre behavior of ordinary people squeezed into that small space. Mesopotamia is a departure - the setting is the Tennessee town of Mesopotamia, half way between Nashville and Memphis. The story is a satirical murder mystery set in the sub-culture of Elvis impersonators and down-and-out rural folks, some living in trailer parks. As stereotyped as this might sound, it's all rather tongue-in-cheek. The protagonist, playing the role of private investigator, is the very un-stereotyped tabloid journalist Cassandra Bloomgarten - a Korean adoptee by a middle-class Jewish family living in Mesopotamia, Tennessee, who is on a downward spiral due to a failing marriage, inability to conceive a child, and has a severe drinking problem. Cassandra comes down from NYC (where her dumpster-fire life is being played out) to pursue a story for her tabloid employer in a nearby town, but quickly becomes emmeshed in a complicated story involving the murder of two Elvis impersonators, an extortion scheme and a possible answer to the age-old tabloid-fueled question..."Is Elvis really dead?".  It's a fun and rather unpredictable read.

For a review of the book by Publishers Weekly, click here:

https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781936070084

The Arrest, by Jonathan Lethem

 What can be better than a new book by Jonathan Lethem, combined with the time to enjoy and reflect upon it. Lethem's latest offering is The Arrest, a particularly timely piece of speculative fiction that, according to him, is neither dystopian or utopian, but simply a novel set in an indeterminate "not to distant future" in which a severe break from "current reality" has occurred. Given the current break from normalcy being experienced in the world due to the COVID emergency, it's not that difficult to imagine such a different near future. The particular break that has occurred (we are not sure how long ago and why it happened) is the total non-functioning of all technology (transportation, internet, communication, even guns) which throws everyone into a lifestyle that is both disturbing and somewhat appealing (forced "back to nature"). The novel's protagonist, Journeyman (nicknamed Sandy) was, in his past existence, a screenwriter (more like an editor of screenplays) in LA. He ends up in a coastal community in rural Maine, where his sister, Maddy, settled pre-Arrest into her back-to-nature life. Journeyman's colleague in L.A. was a stereotypically brash "genius" in that environment, Peter Todbaum, A morally corrupt, behavourably inappropriate force in his environment, Todbaum suddenly turns up in Sandy's backyard, presumably drawn there by Maddy's presence (some sort of unclear but seemingly negative "relationship" briefly played out when Maddy had visited her brother in L.A.). Todbaum turns up driving a sort of vehicle with hyper-technical abilities (how can it defy the technology-killing Arrest?) and sets himself up as a sort of guru telling tales about the "outside world" (everything is totally localized and cut-off now). The plot plays out, but in unexpected ways. Lethem avoids taking his futuristic story too seriously and riffs on the usual dystopian themes. Is the post-Arrest world a new paradise or a hell? Is the "new society" utopian or dystopian? What's Todbaum's role in the whole story?  It's an entertaining and fun as well as thought-provoking novel.

For a review of the book from NY Times, click here: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/09/books/review/jonathan-lethem-arrest.html

TREE OF SMOKE, by Denis Johnson

 It may be unexpected that a new novel about the Vietnam war was published as late as 2007, but in that year, Tree of Smoke came out. Written by Denis Johnson, a writer who has a significant following, the novel elicited a range of critical reviews (see two examples in the review links below). The novel traces about five main characters over an extended period of 1965-1983 as they move in and out of the war, what preceded and what followed it. The main protagonist is Skippy, a rather passive and no-clue CIA operative who spends most of the book sitting around out of action. He happens to be the nephew of "the colonel", a quasi-mythic figure of the Kurtz type who is usually just on the periphery of the action but seems to fuel most of it. Structurally, the novel moves back and forth among narratives of the five main characters and chronologically over time. There are some striking moments, some rather gruesome as one would expect in a war novel, but some of the material is just boring and even ridiculous. Two minor examples of the latter are Johnson's depiction of mid-1960s Honolulu as a kind of Manila stereotype with melting humid heat, with drunk soldiers chasing whores in sleezy bars, and naming the Malaysian entomologist at the end of the story "Dr. Mahathir" (same name as the ex-prime minster of that country). The book is long, and does have its good moments, and it does evoke the exhaustion, guilt and pain that the war engendered. 

For two quite different reviews of the book, see: from NY Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/02/books/review/Lewis3-t.html

 from Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/12/a-bright-shining-lie/306434/

REREADS OF INTEREST: THE MASTER AND MARGARITA, by Mikhail Bulgakov

 Rereading a beloved book is sometimes fraught with "danger." -- Will it pass the test of time and remain great or have the changes wrought by time on the reader have created such a different person that he or she can no longer relate to the book? I recently reread a book that was a favorite of mine and of my college buddies way back when...50 years ago to be precise. The book is The Master and Margarita, written in the 1930s in Stalinist USSR by Mikhail Bulgakov.  Although written in the '30s, the book was banned by Soviet authorities for some 30 years, as Bulgakov suffered the same fate as umpteen Russian artists, musicians and authors such as Nabokov, Shostakovich, etc. Bulgakov was rehabilitated in the '60s and an English translation of the novel came out in 1968, when it became wildly popular and ultimately a cult classic. Supposedly, the book was the inspiration for the Rolling Stone's song "Sympathy for the Devil" after Mick Jagger read the book (maybe an urban myth??). A precursor of the Latin American genre of "magical realism", Master and Margarita is a wild, crazy and extremely funny mix of fantasy, social satire and philosophy. It tells the story of a visit by the Devil (called "Woland") and his entourage to 1930s Moscow and all sorts of wild effects. Two people caught up in the event are "the Master", a novelist, and his lover, Margarita. Segments of the Master's novel, an unorthodox take on the condemning to death of Jesus by Pontius Pilate, are interposed into the main narrative. The novel is unique in its theme, style and the sheer joy it produces. This reread was very successful!

For a review of the book from the NY Times, click here:  https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/29/books/review/moscows-magic-realism.html

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEVEN KILLINGS, by Marlon James

I tend to like books with multiple narration and "loose plot lines" and that being the case, A Brief History of Seven Killings works for me. The book won the Booker Prize in 2015, deservedly, I think. Not only is the book long (not "brief" at all at 700+ pages), it is narrated by about 30 narrators, some of whom are major characters in the plot, some of whom are there, seemingly, for "local color" and some are even dead! The book deals with the (real life) attempted assassination of Reggae icon Bob Marley in 1976, and continues into the early 1990s drug gang-invested New York. The challenging aspect of the book, for me, was the extremely graphic violence. It called to mind Roberto Bolano's novels. It's not a book for the feint of heart or for those who demand tight plot structure and clear narration, but it is a book to experience and respect.

For a review of the book from  NT Times, click here: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/26/books/review/a-

PRIESTDADDY, by Patricia Lockwood

Priestdaddy is a mix of memoir and "expose" (more like reflection) about an unusual family. The protagonist's father is a married Catholic priest (yes, that is possible in certain circumstances--he converted and got ordained after having established his family). The story is told from the point-of-view of the adult  daughter, a young poet, who relays the circumstances of her meeting online and marriage to her partner Jason and escaping her confining and odd life with her parents' uber-Catholic yet unorthodox household.  She finds she must return to live at home again, broke and in need of support, this time with her new husband in tow. The book illustrates vignettes of that odd life, particularly focusing on the character of her priest-daddy, an eccentric and opinionated, even carnal man with a "colorful" personality, and her mother who is obedient but not without character. Intertwined in the depiction of this odd household is the narrative of the girl's childhood and "spiritual journey" to becoming a poet and to some extent "unbeliever". She's very reflective and has a poet's gift for phrasing which is also replete with humor, much of it sarcastic and sometimes hard-edged. I found out after reading the book that the author, Patricia Lockwood, is considered "indie-poetry royalty" and is known for her love of shock appeal and unusual treatment of sexual themes, (e.g., her poem "Rape Joke", etc.) The book holds together and she avoids bitterness while at the same time mixing humor with reflection on issues of faith and the Church, family, and the love/hate dynamic at the center of her relationship with her "priestdaddy".


For a review of the novel from The Guardian, click here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/apr/27/priestdaddy-by-patricia-lockwood-review

MILLENNIUM PEOPLE by J.G. Ballard

Millennium People is an entertaining book with a split personality. The first half of the book is a broadly satirical poke at middle class Londoners who stage an unlikely "revolution" demanding social justice over such weighty issues as street parking and availability of vegan options in their upscale neighborhood. Overlaying the fun, however, is a murder mystery of sorts as a link develops between this rather absurd social protest and a set of terrorists/anarchists who cause real damage,  including the death of the protagonist's ex-wife. So the second half of the book focuses more closely and more seriously on the detective-story plot of finding the killers and dealing with them, and with the loss they have caused. This split does give the book a lack of coherence both in plot and style. Overall, though, it's worth a read.

For a review of the novel from L.A. Times , click here: https://www.latimes.com/books/la-xpm-2011-jul-24-la-ca-jg-ballard-20110724-story.html