11/22/63 – Stephen King

Summary: Jake Epping has an opportunity to undo one of the defining moments of a generation. Don’t forget about The Butterfly Effect, though.

Setting: Late 1950’s / early 1960’s & present day

Plot: Jake is a high school teacher in (where else?) Maine. In addition to his normal classes, he teaches GED night school to adults as well. The high school janitor is in his adult class, and when the janitor relates (in a writing assignment) the story of how his abusive (and estranged) father killed all the other members of the family, Jake is moved almost to tears.

 

The dying owner of a diner (an acquaintance named Al) calls Jake, and over a late meeting at the diner, shows Jake a specific spot in the back pantry of the diner, and tells Jake that this particular spot is inexplicably linked with a different time, telling him that if he walks into this specific spot, he will be transported back to the late 1950’s. Jake is understandably skeptical until Al talks him into taking a journey back in time, as a test.

 

Jake makes the test journey (and returns unharmed), and is convinced. He makes another journey to the 1950’s to save the other members of the janitor’s family, so he can see for himself what consequences changes in the past can have on the present, and learns that due to The Butterfly Effect, small changes can have wide-reaching effects.

 

Al gives him a mission: Travel back to the late 50’s, and make his way to Dallas in time to stop Oswald from shooting Kennedy in 1963. Al sets him up with some money, and some research that he’s done to make the job a bit easier (sports results, research into Oswald’s life and movements leading up to the shooting).

 

Jake decides to stop Oswald, but first he has to live through 5+ years in the 1950’s and 60’s, waiting for the right time to act. He fits an entire lifetime into that 5 years.

Criticisms:  No technical criticisms. A little jumpy at the end, but it’s by design. A lot of King’s books do that, and while this book’s got a few of those trademark “end a paragraph in the middle of a sentence, then continue the sentence in the next paragraph but change the topic of the sentence in the middle” changes, there are remarkably few of them. It’s King’s style, and you’ll see hundreds of those “transitions” in a book like “The Stand”. This book has only 3 or 4 of them.

Wrap-up: King is unfairly classified as a horror writer, and there are two kinds of readers:

1. Those who have read a lot of Stephen King and know that the characterization of him as strictly “Horror” is not accurate;

2. Those who have read a couple of King’s horror novels and have decided that they don’t like him because his books are too scary, or won’t read his books in the first place because they don’t like horror.

This novel has no horror in it. None.

 

There are parts that can be a little bit gory, but there’s absolutely no horror.

 

While this book is ostensibly about going back in time and preventing the assassination of JFK, I’m not certain that that’s a fair characterization of it; I think the book is more about the journey that Jake takes (both in terms of distance, and over 5 years) while waiting for his chance to act. He has time during his journey to get in trouble with the mob (in two different locations), make a difference to an entire class of high schoolers (in one case, one of the stars of a high school football team decides to focus on drama and acting instead), and to fall in love; all while trying to reconcile the false identity (from the 1950’s and 1960’s) that he’s had to create with his true identity from the 2000’s.

 

Regardless of genre, King is a master of his craft, and if you haven’t read any of his “non-horror” work because you don’t like scary stuff, you’re missing out on some wonderful writing and doing yourself quite a disservice. All of his books (with the exception of a couple of NF’s and some of his earliest work) are quite solid, and I can’t think of many writers who are even in the same class as King in regards to verisimilitude.

 

If you want some suggestions of other Stephen King books to take a look at (that aren’t horror), let me know. I can suggest a few for you.

 

As far as this book - there is no “pat” ending to it; it’s not all wrapped up with a pretty bow on top of it. This book doesn’t end with “happily ever after”. Stories in real life rarely end like that either. If that’s what you’re looking for, this may not be the book for you. If you want a realistic book where the hero has to make some tough choices and live with the consequences of his decisions, give it a try. 

Grade: By my arbitrary scale, I give this book an A-.

Stone Barrington Series – Stuart Woods

Note: I’m going to change it up a bit and review an entire series. I haven’t completed the whole series yet (there are 20 books thus far, and counting), but I think I can give a pretty solid review at this point.

Summary: Stone Barrington starts out as a beat cop, and this series follows the end of his police career and his retirement due to disability, followed by his next career as a lawyer and private investigator.

Setting: Late 1990’s through present day

Plot: Stone and his partner Dino are beat cops and Stone is shot in the knee, ending his career with the NYPD. Dino continues progressing in the NYPD, and makes his way up to Detective and beyond, while Stone passes the bar, having graduated from law school prior to becoming a cop. Stone is recruited to work with (but not at) a prestigious local firm, taking cases that their firm can’t be associated with for whatever reason. His practice ends up being quite successful, from 3 (thus far in the series) major sources:

1. One of his ex-girlfriends ends up marrying a famous actor, and Stone is asked to help when things go wrong for them or their friends.
2. The law firm that he’s associated with drops cases from extremely high profile clients into his lap, but these are the kinds of cases that the firm can’t be connected to – a CEO’s son is accused of date rape, etc.
3. Stone’s ex-partner (and current best friend) Dino is married to the daughter of a very successful Italian businessman, and Eduardo (Dino’s father-in-law) asks Stone for assistance with legal and investigative matters.

All of Stone’s clients are very well off and as a result, Stone makes quite a bit of money, and has gotten quite affluent over the course of the series, flying on private jets, staying in villas and the best hotels, and  driving dream cars.

Criticisms: Some of the language is quite profane, and some of the situations that Stone finds himself thrown into can seem a bit contrived, but as a whole, the books are fairly solid and tie the series together quite competently.

Wrap-up: It’s a pleasure to be able to follow a character’s career from the very beginning. There’s enough meat to the stories that none of the books seem to be “disposable”, but I can tell you from experience that if you read one of the stories from anywhere in the series, it’s quite capable of standing alone. As a result, you can take small bites from this story without having to read the entire series start to finish, or you can take a deep breath and dive right in at the beginning.

Woods has a couple of other series that he writes as well, and to be honest, I’m not certain if this series is his main series or not, but he’s quite prolific. The series seems to be quite consistent in writing style from the start to where I’m at in the series (in book 7), so I get the feeling that he’s been doing this for a while; this probably ain’t his first rodeo. Pretty solid series.

Grade: By my arbitrary scale, I give this series (and all the books I’ve read in it thus far) a solid B+.

Master of the Game – Sidney Sheldon

Summary: The story of Kate Blackwell, the head of an international conglomerate. This book traces her fortune from the very beginning until her 90th birthday party. The story of her fortune begins with her father’s journey from Scotland to the rugged deserts of South Africa in the 1880’s, and follows her life (and the lives of her family) through both World Wars and beyond - to current day.

 

Setting: Late 1800’s through 1983, international

 

Plot: Our story starts with Jamie McGregor, a Scottish teenager who follows the diamond rush to South Africa. He’s deceived, beaten, and left for dead in the desert by a business partner, and he reinvents himself with one goal in mind: revenge.

 

Jamie recovers and eventually builds up a thriving enterprise, tearing apart the life of his former partner and eventually driving the man to suicide. In the process though, he passes along his overdeveloped sense of vengeance to his own daughter. The rest of the book follows her life as she manipulates everyone around her for her own purposes.

 

Kate Blackwell is enormously successful by every conventional definition of the word, but as she looks back upon her life, one question remains: was it all worth it?

 

Her manipulation effects her entire family; I can’t give a lot of details without giving up parts of the plot, but her manipulation effects every single member of her family. Deception, insanity, murder – it’s all in here.

 

The story begins at Kate’s 90th birthday party as she’s reflecting back on her life, and follows the entire story of the family over the last hundred plus years.

 

Criticisms: Absolutely none.

 

Wrap-up: My meager summary and plot sections can’t even come close to doing this book justice. This is one of my favorite books, and I re-read it every couple of years just to remind myself what the ultimate pinnacle of writing should look like.

 

It’s a bit weighty at 500 pages but while you’re reading it, you’ll have a hard time sleeping wondering what’s going to happen next. An impulsive page-turner, and I can’t think (off the top of my head) of a book that I would recommend higher than this. It’s got universal appeal, and is perfectly written – an absolute must read.

 

Grade: By my arbitrary scale, an A+ isn’t a high enough grade for this book – so I’m going to (metaphorically) circle the A+ in red and put two bold lines under it. READ THIS BOOK!

Phoenix Rising – John J. Nance

Summary: A newly revived Pan Am is in trouble. Accidents are plaguing their planes, they’re being turned in to the FAA for bogus violations, and their financial security is anything but stable. From all indications, someone is manipulating their stock valuation, and the lenders are calling in all the chips. Will the new CFO be able to save this fledgling airline?
 
Setting: US and Great Britain, late 1980’s

Plot: It’s not very often (in the books that I read, anyway) that the plot revolves around financing a company.

According to the narrative, Pan Am went out of business and the company has recently been brought back to life, due to the efforts of Elizabeth Sterling, a rising star on Wall Street. When the CFO of the fledgling airline makes some bad decisions (undoing some of the deals Elizabeth put together), management in the company smells trouble coming and entices Elizabeth to sign on as their new CFO.

Now Elizabeth has to restructure all of the deals all over again, but now someone’s been talking to all the lenders and convincing them not to loan to Pan Am. Other things start going wrong as well; maintenance problems with the planes, missing pilot certification records, intruders discovered in their maintenance facilities. It looks like someone is trying to put Pan Am back out of business.

Can Elizabeth find someone who’s willing to lend the necessary money to the new company?
 
Criticisms: Some of the financial material was over my head, but there’s enough action to pull you through the rest of the book.
 
Wrap-up: It might sound pretty boring, but it’s actually a pretty good book. Nance is very knowledgeable about the airline business, and he’s not too bad at the action sequences either. Worth a look.
 
Grade: By my arbitrary scale, I give this book a solid B.

The Gold Coast – Nelson Demille

Summary: A WASP lawyer lives with his wife on the Gold Coast of Long Island, and his life has gotten to the point where it obviously needs some excitement. I don’t think a mafia boss moving in next door is just what the doctor ordered though. This may sound vaguely like a sitcom plot from the ‘80’s, but it’s really not.

 

Setting: Long Island, 1980’s

 

Plot: John Sutter lives an existence that’s a bit more complicated than you’d expect from the outside. From the outside, he’s a successful tax lawyer with a beautiful wife who lives in a mansion. Inside though, it’s a bit more complicated. He’s getting a bit bored with his life. His marriage blends two of the oldest (and therefore, most prestigious) families on the Gold Coast. The money (and the roof over his head) belong to his wife, because of the draconian pre-nuptial he signed. His salary, while comfortable, places him among the lowest earners in their circle of friends and acquaintances, while his last name and family history place him among the highest, in terms of status. His wife (based on the same family factors) is quite a bit lower on the social register, while she’s much wealthier. All of this is explained quite well, within the terms of the story.

 

Enter the antagonist. Frank Bellarosa  is the largest remaining head of the different organizations in the mafia, and he’s bought the estate next door to the Sutters.

 

In the beginning, John fights off Bellarosa’s efforts to reach out and start a friendship. In time (over the course of the book) John needs to call on Bellarosa for a favor. Italians love their favors, don’t they? Now, John owes Frank. Turns out, Frank may have purposefully caused the situation that forced John into needing a favor from Frank to start out with.

 

Just that last sentence might have given you an idea of how twisted this book can get, but wait, there’s more! Now, let’s add Susan Stanhope Sutter (John’s wife) into the mix, and she gets some sort of relationship going with Frank (we’re never point blank told whether it was a sexual relationship or not), and that complicates John’s life even more, making him reevaluate his marriage in addition to his career and the direction his life has taken up to this point.

 

Now, Frank is indicted for a murder that he (allegedly) did not commit, and he calls a favor in from John to defend him in the eventual court case. John’s a tax lawyer, but he would bring “blue blood” to the proceedings, along with being a member of one of the oldest families in America.

 

Criticisms: Parts can get a bit gruesome. There’s quite a few ethnic slurs thrown around. Stereotypes abound.

 

Wrap-up: I don’t know how Demille does it, but all his books are impeccably researched, and he knows what he’s talking about. He gives good information about the first families to crawl off the Mayflower, the social structure and geography of one of the most exclusive neighborhoods in the United States, the mafia, law (including tax law), Italian culture – and that’s just this one book!

 

This book boils down, though, to one man’s journey from a happy normal life, to a state of mind where he sinks his own $300,000 boat to keep it out of the hands of the IRS (a felony, by the way), takes tours of mob areas of New York City with the head of a mafia family, and takes on the U.S. Attorney at a very personal level. It comes across as a decent into madness kind of journey, but presented in context, his actions (no matter how outrageous they are) are mostly within the boundaries of what we would consider “normal behavior”.

 

That’s one of the things that make this book such a joy to read, John comes across as a normal guy, and when he encounters situations which don’t meet his definition of “normal”, his behavior (while at times a bit aberrant) is the exact thing we would all like to do in his situation.

 

Overall, it makes you think, and makes you feel for John (and for Frank as well), as they’re pushed outside their comfort zones and the rains of reality wash off the patina to show their true colors.

 

Grade: By my arbitrary scale, I give this book a solid A.

Up Country – Nelson Demille

Summary: Evidence of a 30 year old murder has recently come to light. There are a few catches, though: There was only one witness to that crime, and that witness may have died in the intervening years. The murder happened in the aftermath of a significant battle in Vietnam. The witness was a combatant for North Vietnam. How do you find the witness, if he lived through the rest of the war? How do you pick the investigator to assign? 

Paul Brenner, recovering from the aftermath of “The General’s Daughter” ; in truth he retired after that debacle. He’s called back to active duty and coerced to go back to Vietnam (for a third time), only this time during peacetime. Why can’t diplomatic requests be put through to talk with the witness? Is his government lying to him? What’s so important about the dead man, or the murderer?

Is there any way that Paul can make it back from Vietnam a third time, especially with the information he discovers while investigating this murder?

Setting: Vietnam, 1990’s – flashbacks to 1968 and 1972

Plot: Paul Brenner (last seen in “The General’s Daughter”) is contacted by his old boss and asked to take one last assignment. Next thing he knows, he’s on a plane to Nam, for the third time in his career. He’s got contacts he’s supposed to meet up with, who will give him information and assistance, as required. Before he even leaves the airport though, he catches the eye of Colonel Mang, a fairly powerful member of the Vietnam National Police Force, and in the course of the story, brazenly pisses Mang off and starts getting in trouble before his assignment even truly begins.

Once free, he has to find his way from the very bottom of the country to the very top, avoiding detection and questioning (by Mang’s men) the whole way. He’s “aided” in his journey by his first contact, an ex-pat who speaks Vietnamese, and a few additional people he meets along the way. What happens when he finds the witness? Will the witness even be alive? Based on the information the witness has, will Paul be able to tell what’s really going on?

Criticisms: This was a hard book for me to read, as I have a great deal of empathy for Vietnam vets. This book gives a glimpse into some of the experiences of a Army infantryman, surviving jungle warfare any way he can. The book can feel a bit ragged, but Demille was an established writer when this book came out, and I believe that the narrative style used in this book was chosen on purpose. Some readers might find the emotions that this book dredges up to be a bit strong. My next read will be much lighter, possibly a comic book, with pretty pitchures.

Wrap-up: Nelson Demille is one of my favorite writers. He’s a Vietnam Veteran, and this is one of only a couple of his books that touches on his experiences in the war. I would give this book an A++++++++, if such a grade existed in my arbitrary scale. I did, however, mark the final grade down a bit for subject matter. His work in technically perfect, no runs, no hits, no errors. I have read this book at least 10 times, and this last time through, I caught one single outright mistake. One. In this entire book. He should have caught it, his editors should have caught it, his proofers should have caught it, I’ve never caught a single bald-faced, point-blank mistake by Demille before, in any book, in any form or any fashion. That’s how good he is. As far as the attributes of the book itself? This is a book about a tortured soul, and his journey to peace and redemption. It’s set in a war zone; if you’re staunchly anti-war, this book will reinforce your beliefs, based on the accounts of some of the atrocities committed by both sides. If you support the troops no matter what, this book will make you weep for the pain that the characters go through almost reliving these times with them. I cannot recommend a book any higher than this one, if you can stomach a true fiction war novel.

Grade: By my arbitrary scale, I give this book a solid A.  I’ll save the elusive A+ for a book with more universal appeal.

The Wheel of Darkness - Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Summary: Aloysius Pendergast is back. If you haven’t read any of the Pendergast novels, you’re missing out. Stop reading this review, and  go pick up one of the earlier novels, I would suggest Cabinet of Curiosities. Anyway, Pendergast is a special agent with the FBI, who investigates strange crimes. I’m not certain that he really takes any direction from the FBI at this point, he just uses his badge to open doors that would be closed to the general public. He’s chasing down an ancient Tibetan artifact which has been stolen from a monastery deep in the mountains on the border of China and Tibet. This monks are convinced that the artifact is linked with the end of the world, and it must be brought back to its home.

Setting: Current day Tibet, China, London, and an intercontinental ocean liner.

Plot: Pendergast is studying Tibetan meditation at a monastery in Tibet when he’s asked by the monks to chase down a box that’s been stolen. They have the identity of the thief, just need Pendergast to chase him down. Pendergast chases the thief and the box across Asia and Europe, finally catching up with the box on an intercontinental ocean liner where the artifact starts driving anyone who gazes upon it insane.

Pendergast’s superior intellect is his only usable weapon against the artifact, but will it be enough? 

Criticisms: None whatsoever. If you haven’t read any other books in this series, you may want to read the earlier ones first, as the series reads in order, and there are some significant spoilers in this book regarding the earlier books.

Wrap-up: Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child hit the ball out of the park on this one. They’d been writing this series for long enough (at the time of this book) that the characters are still fresh, and this is one of the best in the series. If you like mysteries, and don’t mind a bit of supernatural content thrown in, there’s not a series that I’d recommend more than this one.

Pendergast is superbly written, and has a lot of idiosyncratic traits that endear his character to the reader. His roots are in New Orleans, and he’s portrayed as a syrup voiced Southern gentleman, almost a renaissance man; he’s a master of a wide assortment of disciplines, from art and music to unarmed (or armed) combat. One of the best written characters I’ve ever had the pleasure to read. There are 11 books in the series (thus far), so once you get to know Pendergast, you can have a nice long trip with him, if you wish.

Grade: By my arbitrary scale, I would give this book an A.

High Crimes – Joseph Finder

Summary: Claire’s a law professor at Harvard, and everything’s going right for her. She’s got a beautiful daughter from a previous marriage, tenure, and she’s married to the man of her dreams. Or is she? Following a break-in at their house, her husband is chased down by the government and the military for a horrendous war crime he’s accused of committing 13 years earlier. Claire takes the reins and leads her husband’s defense team, trying to keep him alive and out of military prison.

Setting: United States, 1993 and flashbacks to Central America, 1985

Plot: Claire is a tenured professor at Harvard, a rising celebrity due to her involvement with a highly publicized case, and is happily married to a wonderful man. Her life starts falling apart around her when her husband is accused of war crimes in an undeclared war in Central America, and chased down by the FBI. She pursues a vigorous legal defense for him, taking on the military justice system in a bid to get down to the truth, or at least to keep her husband out of prison. Are those goals mutually exclusive?

Criticisms: No significant criticisms. The book is written about a pretty graphic series of events during an undeclared war. Most of the graphic events covered are described from a more narrative style, rather than from a gritty, realistic perspective.

Wrap-up: Finder does a good job of dumbing down some of the more technical concepts (regarding armaments, etc.), and while his courtroom scenes aren’t quite as polished as Grisham, he’s quite effective at capturing the courtroom drama. Most of his books are written more about the corporate world and corporate espionage, so this was a nice change-up, and nicely demonstrates his versatility as a writer.

Grade: By my arbitrary scale, I would give this book a B.

The Other Side of Midnight - Sidney Sheldon

Summary: One word - Vengeance. With a capital V. An "In Your Face", over the top grandiose exposition of Vengeance, with a steaming side order of ruining someone's life over the course of a couple of decades.

Setting: Europe and the United States, between the 1930's and the late 1940's.

Plot: Standard Sidney Sheldon fare; an exceptionally written, internationally set, character based drama. Noelle gets jilted by a US pilot who's on temporary assignment to the RAF. She spends the next few years plotting how to get even with him, then delivers on her promise (with a truly surprising Sheldon twist). It's hard to classify Noelle as the antagonist or protagonist in this story; she's definitely a "bad" character (the story opens with her on trial for murder), but she's been forced into her circumstance by her (sometimes naive) dealings with other characters. I was rooting for her by halfway through the book, and trying to guess how she would deliver her vengeance to the aforementioned pilot. This book begins with the adventures of a handful of main characters through the turbulent time of France, England, the United States and Greece in the years and months leading up to the Second World War, and their story continues through the war, and a few years immediately following.

Criticisms: This book has only a few issues, mostly with what some of the characters are able to accomplish with limited resources. Some of the female characters are able to throw themselves on the mercy of handy benefactors who have obviously been inserted into the plot specifically for those purposes (if that makes any sense). There is some further development of those characters though, so he didn't completely forget about those characters once they'd accomplished what he'd originally needed them for. A few were obviously secondary creations though.

Wrap-up: Sidney Sheldon did a very good job with this book, one of his better ones. It was initially published in 1973, and while some of the terminology is quite dated, as a historical drama it performs within its internal time period fairly smoothly. The international settings are brilliant, and Sheldon demonstrates again how well his descriptions can be used to paint pictures that you can see and feel, almost more vibrantly than if you experienced them yourself. There are a few minor holes in the plot, but the stumbles are artfully concealed with reasonable explanations, given the time periods involved.

Grade: By my arbitrary scale, I would give this book a solid B+.