A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny

I spoke about the Chief Inspector Gamache novels at our last book club meeting.  As a preparation to recommending the series of books, I checked the Library catalogue and found them all there, but all on hold, so I put a request in on half a dozen, thinking maybe I’d get one or two over the next month or two.  I was overwhelmed to find four waiting for me the next week.  I wanted to confirm that these books were as good as I initially thought they were.  A Trick of the Light is every bit as good as How the Light Gets In.  I found the deep psychological analysis even better.  These novels are definitely cerebral exercises without the thriller special effects that so many American authors employ.

Of all those I checked out I am returning this week A Trick of the Light and A Rule Against Murder, which is six years old now.  Based on my “Trick Light” experience I will try The Beautiful Mystery for my next serious read.  I haven’t had a serious read for a while now.  Maybe the Investigator Yashim Series by Jason Goodwin was the last, three years ago.  Of course I don’t include continued reading of JCO or Parker (a modern author: prolific in death), Gibson, Allende, Martin Cruz Smith, Anne Rice, or Patchett.  These are all automatics, when they write.

I found it pleasing and refreshing to note that Penny hasn’t fallen into the trap of continually escalating plotline scenarios as she develops characters in a series of books.  Robert Parker fell into that trap with his Spenser series.  In the end he had to start afresh (!?) with Jesse Stone, Sunny Randall, and a Cole&Hitch western sheriff series. 

This book wasn’t one of our monthly reads so I’ll provide a short synopsis.  All the stories revolve around the sleepy little Canadian village of Three Pines just north of the Vermont, USA border; not unlike Lake Woebegone in Minnesota.  This is a well-used, but still great foil for introducing a set of mystery characters like in the game “Clue do”.

This story examines two themes: (1) the Canadian art world: artists, critics, and galleries and (2) the world of addiction and AA are involved, specifically OxyContin, Alcohol, and Percocet.  Several of the Montreal elite of the art world come to visit Three Pines before and after the murder.  Three Pines has its own artists and addicts.  Even the Sûreté and the Justice System have addicts and suspects.  The twelve steps of AA are integral to the solution of the crime. 

What I love so much about this story was that the entire action takes place in Three Pines, surrounded by our familiar cast of regular players.  This book could easily be dramatized in four acts: The Murder; The Suspects; Cases are Made; The Solution.  Within town there is: The B&B; the Bookstore; the Park, and Peter&Clara’s house.  There is nothing much to get in the way of a truly cerebral mystery story.  There are just the interactions between characters (classic drama) to advance the plot: chess games of the mind.  Classic mystery story.

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

What a great story, or series of nested stories, expertly woven together to create a wonderful summer diversion.  Yes, I think this is a book I can recommend to others as an enjoyable read. 

Take your pick of sub-plots, there’s half a dozen offered up, across space and time, in this 333-page-turner.  I found it difficult to put down; wanted to keep pressing on to the next episode.  There’s time-zones of the sixties, the eighties, and now.  There’s Love, Marriage, Hollywood, WW-II, and theater.

A few of the walk-on characters don’t make it across the time-zones, like Alvis Bender and William Eddy, Dick & Liz.  But the top six central characters all persist to the last chapter.  In order of adoration: Michael Deane (total self-love); Pasquale Tursi (Saintliness); Claire Silver (the everyman); Debra Moore (motherly love); Shane Wheeler (all our kids); Pat Bender (everyone else’s kids). 

Plot twists, which are many, don’t surprise you as they do in thrillers; instead they refresh you with new ideas from a different direction.  This is an innovative novel; no formulaic tale here.  And for me, each new directional shift was pleasantly accepted, “Why not?” or better “Why didn’t I think of that?  What a great idea!”.

Did this start as a wannabe memoir from some actor, writer, or director cast aside on their way to fame and fortune.? When is Michael Deane releasing the movie?

 = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Just to join in the half-a-century old, seven degrees of separation fun, I’ve attached here and will pass around for any interested, a 1964 response letter from one of Richard Burton’s staff [RB/jb] to my mother about Burton’s NYC Hamlet that year and a dropped hint about the film yet to come.

From Wikipedia:

“He then put his stage career on hold to concentrate on film, although he received a third Tony Award nomination when he reprised his Hamlet under John Gielgud's direction in 1964 in a production that holds the record for the longest run of the play in Broadway history (136 performances).^[ The performance was immortalized both on record and in a film, which played in US theatres for a week in 1964, as well as being the subject of books written by cast members William Redfield and Richard L. Sterne. Burton took the role on just after his marriage to Taylor. Since Burton disliked wearing period clothing, Gielgud conceived a production in a "rehearsal" setting with a half-finished set and actors wearing their street clothes (carefully selected while the production really was in rehearsal). Burton's basic reading of Hamlet, which displeased some theatre-goers, was of a complex manic-depressive personality, though during the long run he varied his performance considerably, as a self-challenge and to keep his acting fresh. On the whole, Burton had good reviews. Time said that Burton "put his passion into Hamlet's language rather than the character. His acting is a technician's marvel. His voice has gem-cutting precision."  The opening night party was a lavish affair, attended by six hundred celebrities who paid homage to the couple. The most successful aspect of the production was generally considered to be Hume Cronyn's performance as Polonius, winning Cronyn the only Tony Award he would ever receive in a competitive category.”