CAM TORRENS

WRITER • READER • RUNNER • RUMINATOR

Tag: book reviews

Yellowface – Review

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On November 28, 2023

In Blog, Book Reviews, Nonfiction, Reading

 BY R.F. Kuang

I’ve read great satire before. I also read plenty of books on writing and publishing. The blend of this style and these subjects in RF Kuang’s novel Yellowface makes it un-put-downable, especially for writers/authors. Allow me to make some observations: – Satire comes off best when the author appears to poke fun at themselves. Mark Twain’s prose in The Innocents Abroad wouldn’t have had the same bite if written by Oscar Wilde (notwithstanding the fact that Wilde would have been 15 years of age at the time of publication.) Yellowface’s humor bowls the reader over both because of HOW she wrote it and because SHE wrote it. Way more powerful than if written by Emily Henry who I admire as a humorous writer who has written about the publishing industry. – Some readers read satire for satire’s sake, but Kuang goes further. A well-known author once taught in a workshop that a book has to contain absolute truths (facts,) but will be remembered for its profound truth (the reader being able to picture themselves dealing with a similar conflict.) Fact: Diverse voices have been overlooked before in publishing. Fact: The industry is attempting to resolve this. Fact: If you’re not bringing diversity to the table, there are fewer opportunities for publishing work.

But here’s the profound truth that Kuang displays to readers–how would you react to these absolute truths if the changed publishing environment affected you, personally, as a writer? – I scanned a couple of other reviews that complained the translation of social media posts to the print version of Yellowface was awkward. Pro tip: listen to this book on audio! The pacing, tension, and transitions are all seamless. Here’s my take–satire makes the reader laugh but also has the serious purpose of highlighting societal dilemmas. The author isn’t obligated to solve the issue. Instead, their job is to put it into a form we can talk about. Kuang does this brilliantly in a page-flipping, fun, read. Thank you!

A Fever in the Heartland – Review

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On October 23, 2023

In Blog, Book Reviews, Nonfiction, Reading

 BY TIMOTHY EGAN

Timothy Egan, author of “The Worst Hard Time” has put together another deep dive into a dark and turbulent chapter of American history. His latest bestseller, “A Fever in the Heartland,” focuses on the rise of the Ku Klux Klan during the Roaring Twenties. At the epicenter of this disturbing tale looms the enigmatic personality of D.C. Stephenson, a man whose charisma and cunning tactics eventually put him in the position of Grand Dragon of the KKK in Indiana, where he served as the chief architect of the Klan’s explosive expansion across the Midwest.

 

Egan presents Stephenson’s character as a study in paradoxes—the Klansman bore a magnetic presence, and deftly tailored his life story to suit his ambitions. His influence was monumental, and the KKK’s xenophobic, hateful ideology gained traction, mainly through his use of the age-old tools of power–violence, graft, demagoguery, and back-scratching.

 

In the backdrop of the Klan’s ascension, a seemingly powerless figure, Madge Oberholtzer, emerges as an unexpected agent of change. Egan explains how her tragic fate becomes intertwined with Stephenson’s, leading to a dramatic revelation of his true character–that of a sadistic sexual predator. It is her harrowing testimony and the trial that follows that eventually brings the Klan to its knees.

 

Egan’s a brilliant storyteller. He paints a vivid and haunting picture of an era marked by hatred, intolerance, and the dangerous charisma of a man who harnessed these forces to advance his own ambitions. “A Fever in the Heartland” is a must-read for the youth of today.

 

Why? Because although the issues might change, there will always be leaders lacking in character but swollen with ambition who will stoke the fires of intolerance for their own end. Egan calls those people symptoms of the problem, not the problem itself. That might be true, but I argue we can use those symptoms to recognize an impending perilous path for our country.

 

Watch for this: a charismatic personality who tries to use controversial rhetoric to win over the working-class/rural population while simultaneously banning party dissent. Throw in allegations of misconduct ignored by that same personality because they feel they are above the law.

 

These are symptoms of a problem. Character trumps all when it comes to leadership. If you can’t point to a leader and tell your kids “This is who you should aspire to emulate,” then you can’t listen to that same leader, even if they seem to make sense.

The SILENT WIFE

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On April 27, 2021

In Blog, Book Reviews, Reading

Long-time Karin Slaughter fans will gobble up her latest release, The Silent Wife. The thriller continues Slaughter’s melding of two separate series: the Grant County books with medical examiner Sara Linton, and the Will Trent series with—you guessed it—GBI sleuth Will Trent. 

            My first exposure to Slaughter was through an author interview. Her comments about trying to break into the crime thriller genre in the 1990s struck a chord. As progressive as I thought those decades were, evidently publishers still considered a woman author candidly writing about mutilation, rape, and murder “in poor taste,” despite the successes of her best-selling male cohorts.

            Slaughter ignored those stale paradigms with her breakout 2001 novel, Blindsighted. Blown away by both her groundbreaking detail of a heinous murder, and by the quality of her first published novel, I immediately followed the read with her newest effort, The Silent Wife.

            Slaughter did not disappoint. Years after the events in Blindsighted, medical examiner Sara Linton teams with Slaughter’s newest protagonist, Will Trent, to investigate a prison riot and subsequent murder. An inmate who has always claimed innocence offers information on both events if Linton and Trent reopen his own murder case. He claims Sara’s dead ex-husband, police chief Will Tolliver, screwed him over years before, sending him to prison while the actual murderer continued murdering young girls.

            Slaughter pivots the story between the original murder cases and the present-day investigation, the protagonists searching for a pattern that will identify the killer who remains on the loose.

            I’ve only read two Karin Slaughter novels and argue that’s an advantage over long-term Slaughter fans.

            First, this book can stand alone outside of the series. Karin Slaughter has written 20 bestsellers that include one or both of our protagonists. I sped through this book and did not once feel that the story was confusing because I’d never read a Will Trent book before. Don’t feel you need to start from the beginning.

            Second, I suspect avid Slaughter fans take her storytelling skills for granted. I don’t. She’s got a special talent for character, plot, and gore. Her protagonists leap off the page, pursuing justice while struggling through deep flaws in themselves and their relationship with each other.

“With Will, Sara was keenly aware that she was the only woman on earth who could love him the way that he deserved to be loved.”

             The plot is fast-paced, and no suspect gets a pass until the reader rolls into the nail-biting conclusion. The gore is not gratuitous. Slaughter’s depictions of extreme violence show detailed research and she presents the scenes to the reader in a dispassionate, almost medical, manner. I’m not a gore fan, but Slaughter does it right.

            Readers looking for similar authors/titles providing the medical/crime thriller vibe that Slaughter has mastered should check out Tess Gerritsen’s Rizzoli and Isles series. You decide—start with her 2001 bestseller, The Surgeon, or the latest release, 2017’s The Bone Garden.

            I’ll rate The Silent Wife a 4.5 out of 5 stars. The acid test? I generally read two to three books at once, but when I stumble on a page-turner, the other books go to the back burner. I read The Silent Wife straight through.

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