June's Literary Blog
 

A LITERARY BLOG ABOUT BOOKS
How they affect us.
How they shape our lives.

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Friday, September 22, 2017

Moscow Nights

The Cold War was at its peak when the USSR launched Sputnik I into orbit, propelling the USSR into the leading role of technology and further plummeting the USA into the downside of the tenuous, escalating arms race. Six months later, in April of 1958, with both sides still seeking – but failing – to reach a semblance of compromise, a tall, lanky twenty-three-year old heretofore unknown Texan with a shock of reddish-blond curls transformed the impending hostilities by winning the First International Tchaikovsky Competition held in Moscow.

With his vibrantly brilliant, soul-searching piano playing, and love of “all things Russian”, Van Cliburn charmed not only the Soviet citizens, but their bombastic leader, Nikita Khrushchev, as well. The Soviet Premier instantly became one of, if not Cliburn’s biggest fan. Who, because of Cliburn, began to soften his pompous, self-righteous stance. According to Nigel Cliff in Moscow Nights: The Van Cliburn Story--How One Man and His Piano Transformed the Cold War, Cliburn’s triumph, coupled with his warm embrace of Russian music and culture, kindled a spark of hope that, perhaps, the two factious, most powered nations of the world had finally found a pathway to peaceful coexistence.

Moscow Nights unexpectantly arrived on my doorstop three weeks ago with a request from Harper Collins for a review. Thinking it was a novel, I began reading the book that night and was surprised that it, starting with a ticker tape parade followed by two short stories about Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff, was not. It appeared to be a treatise about Van Cliburn’s llife and his rise to prominence and international fame. Yet, as I continued to read Cliff’s fourth work of literary non-fiction, I discovered, however scholarly, that Moscow Nights reads like a well-written novel. Slowing my pace down to “history mode”, I settled in to absorb fascinating aspects and nuances of 1950s/1960s world events.

This author, whose writing style and composition is just as vibrant and as brilliant as Cliburn’s piano playing, covers just about everything; leaving nothing unturned. Music history and theory; Van Cliburn’s life, including training at age four learning to play the piano while sitting on his mother’s lap [a piano teacher classically trained by Russian pianist and composer Arthur Friedheim]; causes and effects of the Cold War; cultural similarities and differences between the USA and the USSR; FBI, CIA, and KGB intrigues [there were several surrounding the competition and Cliburn]; insights into Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy as well as Khrushchev [including his insidiously strategic rise to power via deceit and betrayal]. Not to mention his famous show-pounding appearance in the United Nationals General Assembly. Shall I go on?

Most intriguing is the author’s in-depth look into Van Cliburn’s personal as well as his public lives – how they intertwined, opposed, and yet complemented each other. His inner turmoil and outwardly sunny, optimistic, gregarious disposition. It was almost as if the talented pianist came back to life and was sitting right next to me, unravelling his story. Through Cliff’s eyes and words he, in fact, was… The attention to painstakingly researched detail of all aspects of Cliburn’s life – even down to the flapping loose sole of his left shoe as he came up on stage for one of his myriad concerts – was, for lack of a better word, phenomenal. Rarely featured in works of non-fiction and seldom so artistically interfaced in historical novels, Cliff captures the very heart and essence of both literary worlds.

In this tumultuous, age – the parallels between 1958 and 2017 are astoundingly scary – Moscow Nights is a most timely, maturely sober reminder of how threatening – and frightening – the facetious follies of foolish leaders can be. And how they can – and must – be assuaged and appeased not by the escalation of school-yard taunts backed by nuclear armaments, but by the coming together and sharing of common cultural interests and mutual concern and humane understanding.

Nigel Cliff’s brilliantly written Moscow Nights is definitely the best non-fiction book of this century. And a must for those of us who do not wish to ever again see the darkest side of history repeat itself.

Enjoy the read!

2:33 pm edt          Comments

Monday, September 11, 2017

The Girl with Kaleidoscope Eyes

Stewart “Hoagy” Hoag, the taller dashing half of the protagonist team of Hoagy and Lulu, claims at one point in The Girl with Kaleidoscope Eyes “Never argue with a stubborn basset hound. You will always lose.” Now, being owned by a doggedly determined basset hound myself, I know this statement to be true. I have the bruised left knee and deflated ego to prove it. But that is another story to be told at another time.

What is the story here is David Handler’s exquisitely fluid writing style, the subtle sense of humor he imbues in his two main characters, and the seemingly simplistic plot lines that twist and turn into spirals of complex shockers. Handler, in my humble estimation, is our modern-day Dashiell Hammett and, like Hammett, should not be overlooked as a very talented writer of semi-contemporary mystery. And that should come as no surprise, considering he has written 24 novels prior to tackling The Girl with Kaleidoscope Eyes, the ninth in his Stewart Hoag mystery series.

Handler, as explained in the publicity notes that accompanied the complimentary copy sent by the William Morrow publicist, had taken a hiatus from the series that features a celebrity ghost writer and his somewhat faithful companion, Lulu, a basset who has unusual dietary habits. Begun in 1992, Hoagy and Lulu enjoyed a merry romp through the more literary side of the mystery genre until their suspension in 1997. Fast forward 20 years to Handler’s agent meeting with the publisher who, by chance, mentioned how much he enjoyed reading about the two semi-super sleuths and would the author consider writing another? The result, of course, was The Girl with Kaleidoscope Eyes and, as it turns out, a whole new following, including myself.

Set in 1992, the world of Hoagy and Lulu is on the cusp of the internet age; cell-phones are bigger than bread boxes, and William Clinton has set his sights for the White House. Reluctantly, Steward Stafford Hoag [I love that his initials are “SSH”.] takes on helping an international media mogul write a memoir about her long-lost father, Richard Aintree, a once-famous novelist and former husband of an equally popular poet, now deceased. It should be an open-and-shut arrangement, except that Hoagy was once in love with the younger sister and, after a subsequent failed marriage with a movie star, is loathed, for whatever reasons, to revisit his former life.

It seems that everywhere Hoagy and Luly go – they are never apart – they are beset by shady characters; unethical businessmen; beautiful, but deceiving women; and, of all things, murder. Not one, but two. Possible three. Hence what could have easily been a ho-hum-drim novel about Hollywood literati becomes a more than plausible, fast-paced, crisp dialogue-spitting, pop-pop-popping plot lines, that keep the wide-eyed reader guessing whodunit until the very last page.

Hoagy has been called a “slapstick” sleuth. I am not sure what that means. Hoagy takes no pratfalls nor fake cream pies in the face. Although, at times, he does find himself with the figurative egg all over it. What the ghost writer who just happens to solve crimes is, however, a loveable, true-to-life “regular kind of guy” whose quirky basset is just as loveable and just as charming. Yes, that’s the operative word here.

Simply charming.

Stewart Hoagy and Lulu put on the charm from the very first paragraph. Lulu, even with her bad breath and slobbery drools, is humorously charming as she rides sidecar down the streets of suburban Los Angeles next to her beloved companion. Together, they charm truth out of the most dishonest and, in the end, charmingly and most appealingly reveal a long-kept secret that has mysteriously rocked the literary world for years. What’s here not to like and love? The Girl with Kaleidoscope Eyes is charmed – and charming – writing at its best.

Enjoy the read!

2:24 pm edt          Comments

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Miss Kopp’s Midnight Confessions

In my midnight confessions,
When I tell the world that I love you…

After reading three of her Kopp Sisters series, I am warmly convinced that Amy Stewart has a delightfully playful sense of humor. Even though she approaches her subject-matter with a high degree of gravitas. Whether she intentionally decided to pun on The Grass Roots popular song lyrics for the title of her ninth book and third novel, is irrelevant. It still brought a smile to my face, singing the chorus as I spent the most enjoyable early summer days reading Miss Kopp's Midnight Confessions (A Kopp Sisters Novel).

Fighting crime and corruption was not an easy feat back in 1916, especially with a war going on overseas that would soon affect America. But in the capable hands of the well-seasoned Stewart, it comes relatively easy to Constance A. Kopp, the first lady Deputy Sheriff in New Jersey [Bergen Country, to be exact]. But, then again, she has had two previous adventures – two novels chock full of experience under her belt. Why shouldn’t it be second nature? Why not, indeed…

We first met Constance and her two quirky sisters in Girl Waits with Gun, a dynamic portrayal of a real-life character who stuns the law-enforcement world with her innate skills and forceful determination. In Lady Copy Makes Trouble [publish exactly one year ago to the date. Please see my blog post.], she comes up against hardened female prisoners and learns to care for them. In this third enjoyable, yet elucidating exposé, our intrepid Constance delves into the backstories of women incarcerated in jail – stories often shared in the dead of night. Set against the backdrop of World War I, Deputy Sheriff Kopp fights her own battles against the injustices of the Mann Act which allows young girls to be charged and locked up on alleged “morality charges”. Even if unscrupulous men coerce them.
 
Just released today, Miss Kopp’s Midnight Confessions focuses on two cases. That of a young girl who runs away from home seeking work and is arrested on her mother’s false complaint that she was “wayward”. The second concerns a teenager who runs off with a man she meets on a Hudson River steamboat. Constance Kopp pulls out all stops to prevent both young women from being put behind bars for, perhaps, many years on trumped-up charges.

With her usual flair for justice and her passionate loathing for injustice, our heroine fights a never-ending battle against misogyny, misunderstanding, mistreatment, and the malignancy of malfeasance by a local prosecutor. How she does this by overcoming most odds is the quick-paced, intriguing nuts and bolts of yet again a Stewart tour-de-force literary accomplishment.

For fans of Orange is the New Black, the Maisie Dobbs series of mysteries, as well the Hoagey and Lulu series, this novel is sure to be on the top of their crime/mystery genre list. It is on mine. Will it be on yours?

Enjoy the read!

2:16 pm edt          Comments


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June J. McInerney, the host of this Literary Blog, is an author, poet, and librettist. Her currently published works include a novel, a book of spiritual inspirations, two volumes of poetry, stories for children (of all ages) and a variety of children's musicals. Her titles include:
 
Miss Elmira's Secret Treasure: A Novel of Phoenixville during the Early 1900s
Colonial Theatre: A Novel of Phoenixville during the Roarin' 20s 
Phoenix Hose, Hook & Ladder: A Novel of Phoenixville during World War I
Columbia Hotel: A Novel of Phoenixville during the Early 1900s
the Schuylkill Monster: A Novel of Phoenixville in 1978
The Prisoner's Portrait: A Novel of Phoenxville during World War II
Forty-Thirty 
Rainbow in the Sky
Meditations for New Members

Adventures of Oreigh Ogglefont
The Basset Chronicles.
Cats of Nine Tales
Spinach Water: A Collection of Poems
Exodus Ending: A Collection of More Spiritual Poems

We Three Kings

Beauty and the Beast

Bethlehem

Noah's Rainbow

Peter, Wolf, and Red Riding Hood

 

 

Originally from the New York metropolitan area, June currently lives near Valley Forge Park in Pennsylvania with her constant and loving companions, FrankieBernard and Sebastian Cat. She is currently working on her sixth novel.

June's novels can be purchased at amazon.com, through Barnes and Noble,
at the Historical Society of the Phoenixville Area,
and 
the Gateway Pharmacy in Phoenixvile, PA
.

For more information about her musicals, which are also available on amazon.com,