A Revolution in Color: The World of John Singleton Copley
Biography
Jane Kamensky
Maybe it's the title. I wanted A Revolution in Color to do something, well, revolutionary--or, at least, revelatory. Something about Copley's painting, perhaps, comparable to the outstanding Eye of the Beholder. Or something about his life, or his times, or politics, or art, or . . . something about something, anyway.
Instead, A Revolution in Color is a basic standard biography. If Copley had kept a diary, and Kamensky had written a book based on it, this is more or less what you'd get. Date, event, painting, reaction, marriage, interaction, repeat. It's mildly interesting to read about Revolutionary-era Boston through a comparatively conservative lens--although I think Kamensky overstates the latter--but that doesn't particularly require, or shed light on, Copley's art.
Every so often it looks like Kamensky is trying to establish a theme around African-Americans (and African-Britons). She makes repeated references to black people's experiences, their presence in Copley's life, their presentation in art, and so forth. To the extent that this rescues the black experience from enforced anonymity, that's great. But in the context of A Revolution in Color, none of it adds up to anything. Kamensky never sustains the subject, nor does she bring to it a coherent story of what it meant to Copley. Yes, he would have known black people. Yes, he sometimes depicted them. Yes, they were unjustly enslaved and erased from history. And . . . ?
Also, Kamensky's writing is not flawless. Late in the book she shifts repeatedly between the past tense and the presence, to no very good effect. She also needs to learn the use of "would" rather than "will" to indicate that an event is in the reader's past but in the future of the moment she's describing. (Example: "In 1905 Einstein published a paper on the photoelectric effect; he would win the Nobel Prize for it in 1922.")
This isn't to say A Revolution in Color is valueless. It's an OK resource for learning about Copley and about his artistic milieu. As anything more than that, it doesn't live up to the title.
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Monday, March 25, 2019
Book Review: Death in Captivity
Death in Captivity
Michael Gilbert
Mystery, adventure
This is something of a minor gem. It's both a murder mystery and a prison-camp escape adventure, and both sides are treated quite well. The setting is reminiscent of the classics The Great Escape and Von Ryan's Express. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone seeking a dose of literary greatness, but any aficionado of classic mystery should give it a whirl.
This is another entry in the British Library Crime Classics series, by the way, which--although not all of the books have aged well--is an invaluable and highly laudable endeavor.
If you haven't read Von Ryan's Express, go do it now. (There's also a movie version, which is somewhat better-known but not nearly as good.)
Michael Gilbert
Mystery, adventure
This is something of a minor gem. It's both a murder mystery and a prison-camp escape adventure, and both sides are treated quite well. The setting is reminiscent of the classics The Great Escape and Von Ryan's Express. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone seeking a dose of literary greatness, but any aficionado of classic mystery should give it a whirl.
This is another entry in the British Library Crime Classics series, by the way, which--although not all of the books have aged well--is an invaluable and highly laudable endeavor.
If you haven't read Von Ryan's Express, go do it now. (There's also a movie version, which is somewhat better-known but not nearly as good.)
Tuesday, March 19, 2019
Book Review: Bibliomysteries, Volume 2
Bibliomysteries, Volume Two: Stories of Crime in the World of Books and Bookstores
Otto Penzler (editor)
Mystery
It'd take a concerted effort to get me to actively dislike a collection such as this one. Thankfully, Bibliomysteries is pretty good--much better than the usual mixed bag of minor stories by major writers, unsold shorts by minor writers, and whatnot. There's only one real stinker (by a writer whom I once advised on Amazon to switch to writing romances; nothing has changed since then). Of the rest:
Otto Penzler (editor)
Mystery
It'd take a concerted effort to get me to actively dislike a collection such as this one. Thankfully, Bibliomysteries is pretty good--much better than the usual mixed bag of minor stories by major writers, unsold shorts by minor writers, and whatnot. There's only one real stinker (by a writer whom I once advised on Amazon to switch to writing romances; nothing has changed since then). Of the rest:
- "Mystery, Inc.", a slightly predictable but very effective Poe-esque offering from Joyce Carol Oates, is probably the best.
- Thomas Perry’s "The Book of the Lion" is an enjoyable take on a familiar setup.
- Stephen Hunter's "Citadel" is not very believable, but the pacing is excellent and the characters nicely cinematic.
Sunday, February 24, 2019
Book Review: The Sentence is Death
The Sentence is Death
Anthony Horowitz
Mystery
[Note: At the time of posting, the U.S. edition of this book hasn't yet been published.]
Sequel to The Word Is Murder. All of my comments on the latter are applicable. As between the two books, this one has less character development--perhaps inevitably, since it's not introducing a new main character--but an even better puzzle. I did spot a crucial clue early on, and I did figure out what Horowitz was up to (using meta-book thinking) a couple of chapters ahead of time, but I nonetheless liked The Sentence is Death a great deal.
Anthony Horowitz
Mystery
[Note: At the time of posting, the U.S. edition of this book hasn't yet been published.]
Sequel to The Word Is Murder. All of my comments on the latter are applicable. As between the two books, this one has less character development--perhaps inevitably, since it's not introducing a new main character--but an even better puzzle. I did spot a crucial clue early on, and I did figure out what Horowitz was up to (using meta-book thinking) a couple of chapters ahead of time, but I nonetheless liked The Sentence is Death a great deal.
Friday, February 22, 2019
Book Review: Heart
Heart: A History
Sandeep Jauhar
Medicine, biography
Yes, it's the fourth book in my heart-books trilogy. Heart is one of those works where the author intersperses his personal biography with medical and/or historical facts. It works pretty well here, although the integration between the two faces of the text is sometimes a bit slipshod. The personal stories are interesting, though, and the history of heart medicine and surgery--organized, interestingly, by theme; each chapter deals with one aspect of the heart's functioning--is clear and concise. Not an all-time classic, but worth a read if you're interested.
I see that it's been a while since I've recommended Siddhartha Mukherjee's The Emperor of All Maladies as an inspired book of medical history. Consider it re-recommended.
Sandeep Jauhar
Medicine, biography
Yes, it's the fourth book in my heart-books trilogy. Heart is one of those works where the author intersperses his personal biography with medical and/or historical facts. It works pretty well here, although the integration between the two faces of the text is sometimes a bit slipshod. The personal stories are interesting, though, and the history of heart medicine and surgery--organized, interestingly, by theme; each chapter deals with one aspect of the heart's functioning--is clear and concise. Not an all-time classic, but worth a read if you're interested.
I see that it's been a while since I've recommended Siddhartha Mukherjee's The Emperor of All Maladies as an inspired book of medical history. Consider it re-recommended.
Thursday, February 21, 2019
Book Review: Terra Incognita
Terra Incognita: Three Novellas
Connie Willis
Science fiction
The thing is, Connie Willis is a really good writer. It's just that she has certain extremely predictable elements. Characters talking past each other. Muddle. A protagonist (often female) who can't get anyone to listen to her. An annoying authority figure (often male). Muddle. A resolution that occurs in spite of, rather than because of, anything the characters do. More muddle.
Two of the three stories in Terra Incognita--"Uncharted Territory" and "D.A."--partake of this pattern. That said, it's much more tolerable at shorter length, and when it's played for laughs. Willis's Passage, for example, is an interminable slog which only becomes readable when the main character finally dies; but To Say Nothing of the Dog is a tour-de-force that I'd recommend to just about anyone. "Uncharted Territory" applies the formula to the classic exploring-strange-new-worlds plot, and it works quite well if you accept the premise that such an endeavor would be run like a Monty Python skit. It's funny--exceedingly so, in spots--and it has a nice ending. "D.A." (which is really a short story, and the only recent piece) reads pretty well, but the outcome is awfully predictable.
The exception is the middle story, "Remake". This one is more of a classic what-if scenario than the others, and it's one that could actually be coming to pass. The tone is downbeat, almost noir. The characterization is very strong, too. You'd need to be more of a film buff than I am to fully appreciate it, but it's an effective piece of work.
Terra Incognita isn't a book for readers who like exploding spaceships, nor is it really suitable for SF non-aficionados. (Willis's Domesday Book is known to have filled the latter role, although in my opinion it's overrated.) It's worth reading if you're a fan of literate science fiction. If you've only ever tried Willis's novels, definitely give this one a shot.
The collection doesn't include what I think is Willis's best shorter work, Bellwether. Her two-parter Blackout and All Clear is a good short novel wrapped around a massive doorstop consisting of people muddling around ineffectually and, ultimately, pointlessly. Lincoln's Dreams is well-written but falls flat at the ending.
Connie Willis
Science fiction
The thing is, Connie Willis is a really good writer. It's just that she has certain extremely predictable elements. Characters talking past each other. Muddle. A protagonist (often female) who can't get anyone to listen to her. An annoying authority figure (often male). Muddle. A resolution that occurs in spite of, rather than because of, anything the characters do. More muddle.
Two of the three stories in Terra Incognita--"Uncharted Territory" and "D.A."--partake of this pattern. That said, it's much more tolerable at shorter length, and when it's played for laughs. Willis's Passage, for example, is an interminable slog which only becomes readable when the main character finally dies; but To Say Nothing of the Dog is a tour-de-force that I'd recommend to just about anyone. "Uncharted Territory" applies the formula to the classic exploring-strange-new-worlds plot, and it works quite well if you accept the premise that such an endeavor would be run like a Monty Python skit. It's funny--exceedingly so, in spots--and it has a nice ending. "D.A." (which is really a short story, and the only recent piece) reads pretty well, but the outcome is awfully predictable.
The exception is the middle story, "Remake". This one is more of a classic what-if scenario than the others, and it's one that could actually be coming to pass. The tone is downbeat, almost noir. The characterization is very strong, too. You'd need to be more of a film buff than I am to fully appreciate it, but it's an effective piece of work.
Terra Incognita isn't a book for readers who like exploding spaceships, nor is it really suitable for SF non-aficionados. (Willis's Domesday Book is known to have filled the latter role, although in my opinion it's overrated.) It's worth reading if you're a fan of literate science fiction. If you've only ever tried Willis's novels, definitely give this one a shot.
The collection doesn't include what I think is Willis's best shorter work, Bellwether. Her two-parter Blackout and All Clear is a good short novel wrapped around a massive doorstop consisting of people muddling around ineffectually and, ultimately, pointlessly. Lincoln's Dreams is well-written but falls flat at the ending.
Thursday, February 7, 2019
Book Review: Through Darkest Europe
Through Darkest Europe
Harry Turtledove
Science fiction
I was pretty sure when I picked up Through Darkest Europe in the library that it would be a lazy alternative history. By "lazy" I mean an alt-hist that doesn't make any real effort to ask "How would the world be different if . . .", but instead just does a one-for-one swap of terms. In this case, it reads as if Harry Turtledove took a contemporary setting and ran it through his word processor, doing two-way search-and-replace for certain key terms:
Some of Turtledove's other work, including but not limited to alternative history, is much better than this. Look for his short-story collections; "Counting Potsherds," in Departures, is a fine example of what this genre should do.
Harry Turtledove
Science fiction
I was pretty sure when I picked up Through Darkest Europe in the library that it would be a lazy alternative history. By "lazy" I mean an alt-hist that doesn't make any real effort to ask "How would the world be different if . . .", but instead just does a one-for-one swap of terms. In this case, it reads as if Harry Turtledove took a contemporary setting and ran it through his word processor, doing two-way search-and-replace for certain key terms:
- Christianity ↔ Islam
- ISIS ↔ Aquinist
- Syria ↔ Italy
- The West ↔ The Muslim world
- Europe ↔ The Middle East
- English ↔ Classical Arabic
- Allahu akbar! ↔ Deus vult!
- Jihadists ↔ Crusaders
And so on.
This makes it basically impossible to say anything interesting about the setting. I already know that free speech and equality are good, and religious fanaticism is bad. Uttering these sentiments in a setting where it's Europe that's the poor and backward region doesn't tell me anything I don't know.
This makes it basically impossible to say anything interesting about the setting. I already know that free speech and equality are good, and religious fanaticism is bad. Uttering these sentiments in a setting where it's Europe that's the poor and backward region doesn't tell me anything I don't know.
So, yeah, it's lazy writing. That's not necessarily a deal-breaker; sometimes I'm a lazy reader as well. The deeper problem with Through Darkest Europe is that Turtledove didn't find it necessary to include a story. His protagonists wander around his parallel-world Italy exclaiming at the parallels ("Look, Dawud! These Europeans force their women to dress conservatively! Gosh, isn't that awful?"), having meetings, and reacting to violence that happens around them. Instead of giving them a specific problem to solve or goal to achieve in chapter 1, they're on a vaguely-defined security-assistance mission, which they eventually pursue to the extent of making a couple of phone calls. There's also a superfluity of interior monologue, to much the same lack-of-effect as the dialogue.
Writers gotta eat. I guess the good news from Harry Turtledove's perspective is that he couldn't have taken long to crank this one out.
Some of Turtledove's other work, including but not limited to alternative history, is much better than this. Look for his short-story collections; "Counting Potsherds," in Departures, is a fine example of what this genre should do.
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