The Dakota Cipher Ethan Gage is an American adventurer who has previously been featured in two novels by William Dietrich. His third novel, "The Dakota Cipher", sends Gage off as an advance agent for the Lewis and Clark 1804 expedition. After Gage had fought for Napoleon in Egypt, and then had a liaison with Napoleon's sister Pauline, he feels it is time for a graceful exit from Europe. An American diplomat persuades Gage to go to America to confer with Thomas Jefferson, the newly elected president. Their meeting details the naturalistic interests held by Jefferson. The President has mastodon bones in the White House and is convinced that there is a possibility that these animals can be discovered in the west. In France, Gage had met a Norwegian named Magnus Bloodhammer. Bloodhammer is convinced the Norwegians came to America long before Columbus. He has a convincing tale of the way that the Knights Templar were disbanded and needed to go into hiding. His reason for exploring the wilderness is that he hopes to locate Thor's Hammer, which he claims had been in the possession of a secret branch of the Templars, an organization of medieval knights. Whether the artifact is mythical or a real object is the intriguing question. Supposedly whoever has the hammer has the ability to control the weather. Magnus values the reputation Gage has built up for his few experiments with electricity, thinking Gage has the necessary skills to help him find the hammer. Even Ben Franklin's experiments become a part of the story.
Jefferson funds their scouting expedition with two hundred silver dollars and they set off into the wilderness. Detroit is described as a frontier military outpost that has newly become a part of the United States. It is a stop on the commercial route through the northwest as traders travel to buy furs. On their travels, they meet with opposition from hostile Indians and British subjects who are resistant to any American exploration of the northwest. Gage is as adroit as Indiana Jones at preserving him and himself from attacks. When it seems that Gage and Bloodhammer face certain death, one of the French voyageurs and two Indian women help them escape. One of the Indian women is a blue-eyed Mandan believed to be from a tribe that descended from the Norwegians who possibly came to North America long before Columbus. The novel is an exciting mix of mystical suspense and history. [11-1-09]
Bleeding Kansas Parents and teenagers almost always disagree about how responsibilities should be taken on. This argument is at the center of the novel, "Bleeding Kansas" by Sara Paretsky. Paretsky is known for her mystery novels about V. I. Warshawski, a Chicago private eye. This novel is a departure from her well known style and draws on Paretsky's background as a child living on a Kansas farm. Three farm families, the Grelliers, Fremantles and the Schapens have been neighbors in Kansas' Kaw Valley since the 1850's. Their ancestors came to the area about the time that the state became known as Bleeding Kansas due to the violent conflicts over whether Kansas would be admitted to the union as a slave or free state. Each family's past is rooted in the stand that their forbearers took. Eteinne Grellier had left his house to teach freed slaves, so Quantrill's raiders destroyed his family home. Pages from the diary of his wife, who then managed to farm the land after he was killed, begin each chapter.
The Grellier family has the modern day responsibility of caring for and renting out the Fremantle family mansion. The historic home had not been properly maintained by aging family members, so the new tenant is a Fremantle relative from New York whose marriage has ended badly. Gina Haring has no idea how to react to farm families or the rural landscape. She belongs to the Wiccan religion and is exploring her sexual orientation. These traits make the members of the Schapen family very uncomfortable. Their matriarch, Myra Schapen is an argumentative, vindictive member of a fundamentalist religion. She runs a family website that documents anything she thinks that her neighbors are doing wrong.
Susan Grellier attempts to have a neighborly relationship with Gina Haring which leads her to explore the Wiccan celebrations. Susan had tried experimental agriculture by starting a farming co-op and growing organic sunflowers. Her family felt she mainly had enthusiasm for her plans and not the necessary follow through. When Susan's exploration of Wicca leads to ridicule from the Schapen website, her son is expelled from school for fighting in her defense. All these characters in conflict lead to tragedy. The novel even has a Romeo and Juliet type couple. There is not a neatly wrapped up ending. Like family life, the outstanding, the heroic, the sad and weird and violent elements are all there. Life will go on in Bleeding Kansas. [11-8-09]
Ireland The Irish are known as wonderful storytellers, so it seems logical to create a novel about a senachi, or a wandering storyteller who memorized the stories of Ireland's heroes, history, and myths. These storytellers traveled around the country on foot and exchanged an evening's entertainment for bed and board. When they stopped at a village, usually the entire town came for several evenings of oral stories. Frank Delaney created a character represented as the last storyteller who roams Ireland from the 1930s until the late sixties in the novel "Ireland". The book begins with his mysterious appearance at the home of nine year old Ronan O"Mara. The author uses the storyteller as a technique to present short chapters that tell the mythical and the factual tales of Ireland's history. The thread that holds these stories together is the story of the O'Mara family. John O'Mara is a lawyer who handles the problems of people for miles around. Ronan is the only son of John and Alison O'Mara. Alison is a very intolerant and extremely religious woman who coerces her family into a narrow religious observance. In spite of her objections, the O'Mara household is opened up to members of the community who wish to come and listen to the traditional tales of Ireland. One of the stories of the senachi supposedly was offensive to her, so she demands that he leave without finishing the customary week of stories. Ronan has felt that there is a special connection between him and the storyteller, so he has hysterics when he discovers that the man is gone. When Ronan appeals to his father for help in reconnecting with the traveler, they learn that his name is not known. He has no predictable pattern of travel and no fixed address.
As Ronan grows to a young man, these nights of stories have a permanent effect on him. He pursues every lead he can find to try to see and hear the storyteller again. This interest even affects his career choice. When he begins college, his major is history. Even as a student his sensitivity to the reality and long ranging effects of history is strong. All through these years Ronan continues his search for the old man. The storyteller was frail when he first appeared in Ronan's village, so how will his health have endured walking through Ireland in all weathers? The past and present blend when Ronan learns of his family's origins. [11-15-09]
The Little Stranger The very best ghost stories are the ones that could be true. Despair and illness can lead the mind to create a different kind of reality. The characters in Sarah Waters' novel "The Little Stranger" are suffering from multiple problems, any one of which could push a psyche over the edge. Following WWII, the British economy was in ruins. Wealthy landowners had to face the taxes of death duties and many no longer had the staffing or capital to maintain their estates.
Doctor Faraday had first visited Hundreds Hall as a small boy when he attended a local pageant. He was presented with a medal for scholarship by the owner, Mrs. Ayres. Since his mother had been a housemaid at the home, he was given a chance to peek into the kitchen. He crept into the family's part of the house and was so fascinated by the home's grandeur that he gouged out a carved acorn and took it home with him. His parents struggled to send him to medical school and he returned to his local village to set up his practice. Eventually, he was called to the house to care for their maid. When he examined her, he realized that the young girl was faking her illness and she confessed to the doctor that she was frightened by an ill defined "something" in the house. Faraday dismissed her feelings as the homesickness of a young woman at her first job.
Eventually, he began to know the family well and became a part of their limited social life. Roderick, the older brother had a severe leg wound from his WWI service. When the doctor realized that their financial resources were so limited, Faraday persuaded Roderick to let him use an innovative electrical treatment on the wound. The doctor is invited to a party that represents an attempt by the family to re-establish some sort of social life. When the family dog severely injures a visiting child at the party, this is the beginning of the encroaching evil. The suspense builds with a suicide and other disturbing events in the house. The story has the stylishness of Henry James' Turn of the Screw. The house has its own threatening character. The lack of heat and adequate electricity help to generate a threatening environment. The reader can believe that the terror can be rationally explained by overactive imaginations, but terrible things still happen. [11-22-09]
Homer & Langley: A Novel by E. L. Doctorow is a fictionalized study of the life of New York"s infamous Collyer brothers. Doctorow has made a career of fictionalizing important or intriguing portions of American history. One of my favorites of his works is "Wellville" which was the story of the beginnings of the Kellogg company right here in Michigan. This novel explores the secluded life of the Collyer brothers, famous hoarders who lived on New York's Fifth Avenue in deteriorating splendor. They owned a brownstone filled with what can only be described as garbage. Their end came in a way that every mother uses as a threat to a teen-aged child who doesn't clean out their room. One apparently had a heart attack and the other was crushed when piled debris fell on him. The second brother's body was not found for several days because there was so much accumulated junk that needed to be moved. Over one hundred tons of debris was removed from the home.
Doctorow is writing fiction, so he changes the facts and re-interprets the lives of the Collyer brothers. The brothers actually died in 1947, but in the novel they live on into the seventies and become gurus to a group of hippie flower children. At that point in their lives they would not spend money going to a barber and wore Army surplus clothing, so they looked like they were a part of the hippie movement. In similar ways, Doctorow imagines figures representative of eras that associate with the brothers. They even have a wounded gangster hiding out in their mansion. Doctorow gives a unique reason for the newspapers that the brothers save. Langley feels that a universal newspaper can be created. His theory is that every event reoccurs. All he has to do is save enough news and then he can create one newspaper that will cover all the news of all time. All the stories of the junk that the brothers accumulate does have a basis in the reported items that were removed from the home after the brothers' deaths. Supposedly, every time they decide that something is needed, they are never content with only one item. Multiple typewriters, in various states of repair are needed. Something might be useful for parts. Both of the brothers are depressed mirrors to America's cultural changes. Through their eyes, the world is a threatening, dangerous place. [11-29-09]
by Helen Davis