Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Best-Seller Mysteries for Your Summer Reading

It's time to gather up mystery fare for the long, lazy days of summer. If you are a fan of Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl, you'll like two new best sellers. For those attracted to mean-girl protagonists, try Jessica Knoll's The Luckiest Girl Alive. Ani FaNelli has reinvented herself as a New York magazine writer, boasting a wealthy fiancĂ© and a brand-name wardrobe, but the past threatens her perfect life when she agrees to participate in a documentary about a long-ago shooting at her fancy private high school. If twists by an unreliable narrator were your Gone Girl turn-on, then The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins is your English cup of tea. Protagonist Rachel is a boozy, fantasizing mess who has been fired from her job but structures her days by continuing her London train commute, a trip that conveniently allows her to spy on the street where her ex-husband and his new wife live. She fantasizes about the street's other inhabitants, including a young couple, and when the young woman goes missing, Rachel injects herself into the police inquiry and the lives of the missing woman's husband and her own ex-husband. Of course, there are many well-known writers on the best-seller list this summer--James Patterson, David Balducci, John Sanford, etc.--but if you're tired of urban crime detectives, try these alternatives. First, how about a trip to Wyoming's high plains to meet Craig Johnson's Sheriff Walt Longmire? In Cold Bones, Longmire investigates whether a local Cheyenne man's murder is related to valuable dinosaur bones unearthed on his property. Another alternative detective is "enigmatologist" Jeremy Logan in Lincoln Child's The Forgotten Room. Logan is called in by a prestigious think tank to investigate the suicide of a respected doctor following suddenly bizarre behavior and, in the organization's sprawling mansion, discovers a secret room full of old equipment for mysterious experiments. Finally, Stephen King's 2015 Edgar Award-winning Mr. Mercedes plays with the trappings of the hard-boiled detective story but transforms it with unlikely heroes, including a nervous 43-year-old spinster, who take on the unsolved murder of 23 people run down by a stolen car and then race to prevent the crazed killer from more deadly mayhem. For more options: http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Books-Mystery-Thriller-Suspense/zgbs/books/18

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Arab Fiction Reveals a World Behind the News

Negative images from the Arab world fill the news each night, and Western pundits write reams of non-fiction analysis. Where's the insight that comes from Arab voices telling their own stories? I went in search of modern Arab fiction in English--and found frustratingly little available. Matt Rees, a Welsh journalist who covered the Middle East and became an Israel-based author of mysteries, summed up for The Guardian in 2010: "The Arab literary world and Western publishing don't cross over much...That comes at a cost to the West, because literature could be such an important bridge between two cultures so much at odds." Still, some recognized Arab authors have crossed over, and here are a few on my to-read list. I'll begin with Cities of Salt by Abdelrahman Munif. Munif, a Saudi Arabian with a doctorate in oil economics, was stripped of his Saudi citizenship for this tale of how the arrival of oil wealth brought social and psychological ruin to Bedouin villagers. Another social critique comes in The Yacoubian Building by Egyptian Alaa al-Aswany. Set in Cairo, both rich and poor characters face political and business corruption and injustice, including the sexual oppression of women and homosexuals. An especially timely read given ISIS recruiting is Wolf Dreams by Yasmina Khadra, the feminine pseudonym of a former Algerian military officer exiled in France. Khadra, who also writes mysteries by the way, tells the story of a striving young Algerian who is disillusioned by the West and joins a violent Islamist group, only to be repulsed in turn by their bloodthirsty corruption. Meanwhile, Rafik Schami's The Dark Side of Love is both a paean to Damascus and a murder mystery, and has been hailed as Syria's first great novel. If you can find it, read the Arab best-seller Utopia by Ahmed Khaled Towfik,  which reveals telling Arab fears about the direction of events: It's 2030, and in a dystopian future, at least for Arabs, Israel has built its own version of the Suez Canal and Middle Eastern oil is worthless because the U.S. has invented a new super-fuel. In Egypt, the wealthy have retreated to a U.S. Marine-protected colony, while the Others (the oppressed) live in Cairo. For more good books by Middle Eastern authors: http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/syltguides/fullview/R25UKN1F6Y4O7E

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

There are Still Taboos for 'Good' Characters

Many old taboo writing topics--sex, race and religion--have gone mainstream in genre fiction and popular best-sellers. But there are still lines authors of popular novels hesitate to cross, especially for "good" characters. For example, a male character who engages in unmarried sex or homosexual relationships is now more acceptable as a hero, but a rapist or pedophile repulses and must be brought to justice. A female character can reject marriage and support abortion without offending the majority, but if she embraces incest, she loses reader empathy. A protagonist may be opinionated and volatile--as long as outbursts are not racist, sexist, elitist or offensive to some group stereotype. Sexual antics can be described in detail without being called pornographic now, but other bodily functions are still taboo--even when writers try to spare sensibilities by "latinizing," as if characters who defecate, flatulate, regurgitate, and masturbate have less ick factor. Other no-nos are more surprising. Americans have become so sensitive about weight issues (even though we are one of the most obese populaces) that "fat" seems to have joined "retard" and "Negro" as taboo epithets. Many Americans also are such animal lovers that any character who doesn't like animals is unsympathetic, and animal killing is seen as a mark of depravity. Aging is another taboo; if the protagonist has to be over 50, no one wants to know about sags, bags, wattles, flab, flagging sex drive, or any other ills that aging flesh is heir to. Older heroes and heroines must be preternaturally lively and attractive, yet redeemed from shallowness by experience, the only positive of added years in our culture. But probably the biggest taboo of all is normality. Today's protagonists embrace "exceptionalism," as the conservative politicos say of America. Middling looks, middling intellect, and middle-class background, even if thrown into exciting circumstances, aren't going to win fans. Give a main character an exceptional skill, a shocking secret, or a unique personal challenge to engage readers. Have we stopped believing that ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things? For advice on writing about taboo topics, see https://litreactor.com/columns/storyville-writing-about-taboo-subjects

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

'Bad' and 'Good' Mothers on Mother's Day

For Mother's Day, the nation will celebrate motherhood with floral bouquets and restaurants full of dutiful children honoring moms. Of course, in fiction, especially mystery writing, the "bad" mother is usually more significant to plot and character development. Start with Euripides' Medea, who punishes husband Jason's betrayal by murdering their children. Examples of other famous bad moms in literature range from Shakespeare's shallow sensualist Queen Gertrude in Hamlet to Philip Roth's overbearing Sophie Portnoy in Portnoy's Complaint, V.C. Andrews' cruel Corinne Dollanganger in Flowers in the Attic, Stephen King's fanatic Margaret White in Carrie, William Faulkner's rejecting Addie Bundren in As I Lay Dying, and Jane Austen's foolish Mrs. Bennett in Pride and Prejudice. Probably the most heinous crime in our culture is a mother's murder or torture of her own children. But most fictional bad mothers commit emotional crimes rather than physical violence. Their toxic mothering patterns have been helpfully categorized by Peg Streep, author of Mean Mothers: dismissive (ignoring and rejecting), controlling (micromanaging), unavailable (emotional withdrawal or actual abandonment), enmeshed ("stage" moms), combative (hypercritical and competitive), self-involved (superficial narcissists), unreliable (behavioral swings), and role-reversed (dependent moms, such as those with alcoholism or depression). No wonder bad moms are such good fodder for writers! But even if you see a mother's failings reflected in fiction's bad moms, my advice is to cut motherhood some slack this Mother's Day. Definitely don't expect mothers to live up to our culture's myths of the "good" mother, with her instinctive, unconditional and instant mother love! Maternal behavior is not instinctive; human behavior is more complex, individual and cultural than that. Maternal love is not unconditional and without preference; good parenting actually sets boundaries and recognizes differences. And maternal attachment is hardly instant; a mother-child relationship takes time and hard work. Just being a "good enough" mom is an achievement! For a good article about harmful motherhood myths, see https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/tech-support/201502/mothers-love-myths-misconceptions-and-truths