This is the first book I have read by Martin Cruz Smith. I know he has quite a following and his books are usually, if not always, on the best seller list. If you have read his crime novels before, you will know that his detective hero is Arcady Renko a Senior Investigator in the Moscow prosecutor's office. Mysteries of the thriller genre often feature a hero cop who is damaged in some way or depressed and trying to work out issues in their personal lives. Arcady is also of this mode. He is a chain smoker and like other fiction detectives is obsessive about the cases he works.
The story begins with a cyclist who is a brilliant translator who has invented a code that appears to be a series of doodles; he writes all his notes in this code. The translator was working with a mixed group of politicians, gangsters, and crooked businessmen who were formulating a secret deal taking place in Kaliningrad. The fate of this translator, an avid cyclist, is the catalyst which begins the action. His fate becomes tied to that of a Moscow investigative journalist, Tatiana Petrovna who has ferreted out the deal. Breaking the code in the translator's notebook is important in solving the case for Arcady. His forster son, a chess master, and son's girlfriend lend a clever hand in helping to solve the mystery and find themselves in danger because of it.
I don't want to give away any of the plot,but know that it concerns the Russian mafia, a body missing from the morgue, demonstrations, political corruption and other events tied to the Putin-era. Cruz Smith has used some thinly veiled references in this book to real events in Russia in the recent past.
This type of book is not my favorite read, but it did keep me interested enough to read it quickly. Renko is likable enough, though most of the characters are one-dimentional. I would say if you enjoy crime novels, this is good enough for a Saturday evening at home, but not up to the page-turners written by recent Scandinavian writers of mysteries.
Monday, September 29, 2014
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
EMPIRE OF THE SUN by JG Ballard (fic)
After a discussion with my son about JG Ballard, he kindly sent me this book knowing I would enjoy it more than the bleak dystopian novels Ballard is known for. The novel was written in 1984 and has constantly been in print since then. You may be familiar with the movie which has softened some of the very tough passages in the book.
Ballard was born and brought up in Shanghai (his father was a chemist for a British company) in the very British area known as the Shanghai International Settlement. Even the imposing houses were copied from British country homes. Ballard draws on his own youthful experiences in this semi-autobiographical novel. The international crowd living in the fancy suburb was still carrying on as if they were in Europe even as the Japanese invade Shanghai during World War II. The contrast between the British going to a costume party on the eve of war and their being driven through the streets to interment camps the following day is startling.
The young hero, Jim, was a mixture of precocious and naif. As the book progresses, his character grows in strength and understanding of the true nature of men in war. When Jim is first brought to the camp called Lunghua, he is convinced that things would get back to normal when the war has ended. Toward the end of the novel Jim realizes that the world has changed forever and there is no returning to the sheltered live he had lived. Throughout the book, Ballard uses inversion and contrast to give forceful clarity to the feelings Jim and other characters are having. Jim's character grows in strength and understanding of the nature of men at war as he spends four years in the camp. Another lesson Jim learned was caring for others. At first Jim saw opportunity in running errands and cadging food for others. It was done with a slyness looking for what he could get in return. In contrast,there is a lovely scene toward the end of the novel when Jim is compassionately caring for Mr. Maxted, an old family friend who is dying. The narrator states, he finally realized that caring for others is the same as being cared for yourself.
There are a number of horrific scenes of death and suffering of the western prisoners. Powerful and realistic scenes occur all through the novel. As I read I could clearly picture the bleakness of the land and the destruction of the countryside around Shanghai which became an empty city of ghosts of its past splendor. In contrast to the starkness of Jim's surroundings, Ballard uses bright sunlight which illuminates a number of scenes. One takes place in an unused Olympic Stadium when Jim is tending to Mr. Maxted. The Japanese knowing they would lose the war, have marched the prisoners out of the camp through hideous heat and dust into the stadium. There they are left to die and tend to themselves. Jim sees a fierce brightness in the sky obliterating all color for some moments, and he is later convinced he has seen the atom bomb that leveled Nagasaki when he hears people speaking about it. Jim has other enlightened moments, one important one takes place as the war is ended and he tends to a dying Japanese pilot. Jim looks at his hands in the bright sunlight with the dreary dark camp behind him, and he realizes that human hands can be used to save people or destroy them. He begins to understand the surrealism of war.
Besides Jim there are many memorable characters in the story. Most modeled on real people, some are good like the brave doctor who never flags in his care of the wounded; some selfish like Basie who teaches Jim to grab what he can, which in a strange way, helped keep Jim alive.
As the story nears its end, Jim is disoriented and baffled by its sudden outcome. He wanders back to the camp looking for the security he found there in the midst of its squalor. He had a place there, he knew how he fit in there. Now it seemed no one wanted or cared about him. He soon discovers the secure world he had begun to build for himself had disappeared.
Ballard is an exquisite writer. I was thoroughly engrossed by the novel, more so knowing it was based on the author's experiences as a boy. I thought about it and what it told us about humans for weeks after I read the last page. I highly recommend this book, though it is difficult in its realism.
Ballard was born and brought up in Shanghai (his father was a chemist for a British company) in the very British area known as the Shanghai International Settlement. Even the imposing houses were copied from British country homes. Ballard draws on his own youthful experiences in this semi-autobiographical novel. The international crowd living in the fancy suburb was still carrying on as if they were in Europe even as the Japanese invade Shanghai during World War II. The contrast between the British going to a costume party on the eve of war and their being driven through the streets to interment camps the following day is startling.
The young hero, Jim, was a mixture of precocious and naif. As the book progresses, his character grows in strength and understanding of the true nature of men in war. When Jim is first brought to the camp called Lunghua, he is convinced that things would get back to normal when the war has ended. Toward the end of the novel Jim realizes that the world has changed forever and there is no returning to the sheltered live he had lived. Throughout the book, Ballard uses inversion and contrast to give forceful clarity to the feelings Jim and other characters are having. Jim's character grows in strength and understanding of the nature of men at war as he spends four years in the camp. Another lesson Jim learned was caring for others. At first Jim saw opportunity in running errands and cadging food for others. It was done with a slyness looking for what he could get in return. In contrast,there is a lovely scene toward the end of the novel when Jim is compassionately caring for Mr. Maxted, an old family friend who is dying. The narrator states, he finally realized that caring for others is the same as being cared for yourself.
There are a number of horrific scenes of death and suffering of the western prisoners. Powerful and realistic scenes occur all through the novel. As I read I could clearly picture the bleakness of the land and the destruction of the countryside around Shanghai which became an empty city of ghosts of its past splendor. In contrast to the starkness of Jim's surroundings, Ballard uses bright sunlight which illuminates a number of scenes. One takes place in an unused Olympic Stadium when Jim is tending to Mr. Maxted. The Japanese knowing they would lose the war, have marched the prisoners out of the camp through hideous heat and dust into the stadium. There they are left to die and tend to themselves. Jim sees a fierce brightness in the sky obliterating all color for some moments, and he is later convinced he has seen the atom bomb that leveled Nagasaki when he hears people speaking about it. Jim has other enlightened moments, one important one takes place as the war is ended and he tends to a dying Japanese pilot. Jim looks at his hands in the bright sunlight with the dreary dark camp behind him, and he realizes that human hands can be used to save people or destroy them. He begins to understand the surrealism of war.
Besides Jim there are many memorable characters in the story. Most modeled on real people, some are good like the brave doctor who never flags in his care of the wounded; some selfish like Basie who teaches Jim to grab what he can, which in a strange way, helped keep Jim alive.
As the story nears its end, Jim is disoriented and baffled by its sudden outcome. He wanders back to the camp looking for the security he found there in the midst of its squalor. He had a place there, he knew how he fit in there. Now it seemed no one wanted or cared about him. He soon discovers the secure world he had begun to build for himself had disappeared.
Ballard is an exquisite writer. I was thoroughly engrossed by the novel, more so knowing it was based on the author's experiences as a boy. I thought about it and what it told us about humans for weeks after I read the last page. I highly recommend this book, though it is difficult in its realism.
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
DIRTY LOVE by Andre Dubus III (fic)
It is usually best when an author writes about an area or culture that is familiar, rather than one that exitsts only in the imagination. Andre Debus's collection of four novellas takes place in an area that he is very familiar with, as he lives nearby the Newburyport/Amesbury neighborhoods he writes about. You may remember Dubus as the author of The House of Sand and Fog a well received novel that was made into a movie. He is a gifted writer of love and reality; his characters expose their inner lives in ways that leave the reader acutely feeling their anxiety. Dubus writes honest stories with characters the reader readily relates to. You may think, "yes, I know that person, that's the guy or woman down the street.
The four stories in Dirty Love are lightly connected. You may catch a character or place that has appeared marginally in the previous story. Each main character is at a place in his/her life that could be a turning point, a chance to change or not. One story is about a lonely overweight single woman who longs to be like her married friends talking about their children and marriages. When the opportunity is there for her, does she take the step or not. In another story a man named Mark who is the managewr of a software company discovers his wife of 20 years is cheating on him. He hires a detective to follow her. Mark is frustrated by his desire and inability to regain his former secure life.
A third story concerns a weak bartender named Robert who is living on past laurels of his college years, unable to accept the fact that he is a failed poet. The final tale, bearing the same name as the title of the book is about a teenaged girl who is mired in self-distructive behavior. She is involved in on-line sexting that has gone viral. Her salvation might or might not be through an eighty year old grand-uncle who has lived through a crisis of his own and learned life's answers that the others are still searching for. The mutual affection between the girl, Devon, and her uncle may be the only true love shown in the book.
Each of these stories leaves the reader feeling sympathy and frustration for the characters. Dubus's settings are as real as his characters. You know you have been there on New England's north shore. I recommend this book to all who enjoy excellent writing.
The four stories in Dirty Love are lightly connected. You may catch a character or place that has appeared marginally in the previous story. Each main character is at a place in his/her life that could be a turning point, a chance to change or not. One story is about a lonely overweight single woman who longs to be like her married friends talking about their children and marriages. When the opportunity is there for her, does she take the step or not. In another story a man named Mark who is the managewr of a software company discovers his wife of 20 years is cheating on him. He hires a detective to follow her. Mark is frustrated by his desire and inability to regain his former secure life.
A third story concerns a weak bartender named Robert who is living on past laurels of his college years, unable to accept the fact that he is a failed poet. The final tale, bearing the same name as the title of the book is about a teenaged girl who is mired in self-distructive behavior. She is involved in on-line sexting that has gone viral. Her salvation might or might not be through an eighty year old grand-uncle who has lived through a crisis of his own and learned life's answers that the others are still searching for. The mutual affection between the girl, Devon, and her uncle may be the only true love shown in the book.
Each of these stories leaves the reader feeling sympathy and frustration for the characters. Dubus's settings are as real as his characters. You know you have been there on New England's north shore. I recommend this book to all who enjoy excellent writing.
Thursday, September 4, 2014
THE SLEEPWALKERS by Christopher Clark (non-fic)
How Europe Went to War in 1914 is the subtitle of Christopher Clark's thorough examination of the causes and actions leading up to WWI. The work and scholarship that went into the writing of this weighty tome is more than impressive. It is almost 700 pages of careful research. We all know that WWI was precipitated by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife.in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. He was the heir to the Hapsburg Empire and was thought, by those allied to Russia, to be a puppet of Wilhelm II of Germany. Within 10 days, Russia had taken up arms in support of Serbia against the Austro-Hungarian Empire who were allied with Germany. By the next month, the Central Powers (Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire) were lined up against the Triple Entente (England, France, Russia and later Japan, Italy and Romania).
Clark begins his history much earlier, taking us back to 1903. His story opens with the murder of Alexander I of Serbia by a terrorist group called The Blackhand. Thus begins one of many parallels to our world today. As we see, the Middle East and the whole region of central and Eastern Europe was in turmoil from this period onward. The Slavic countries of Poland, Czechoslovakia, the Serbs, Slovaks and Croats, were all under the hand of the detested Austro-Hungarian Empire. Nationalistic factions dedicated to the overthrow of the Empire were springing up all over this area. The Ottoman Empire which was crumbling was already involved in the Balkan Wars where Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece were taking pieces of their territory, and was also busy on the Eastern front where the Arab nations were doing the same.
As Clark tells us the changes in our own world have altered our way of looking at the events of 1914. He contends it is much more complicated than just blaming Germany for the war. He states: One could even say that July 1914 is less remote from us--less illegible--now than it was in the 1980s. Since the end of the Cold War, a system of global bipolar stability has made way for a more complex and unpredictable array of forces, including declining empires and rising powers--a state of affairs that invites comparison with the Europe of 1914.
This book tells the story of how war came to continental Europe and its central argument is that the events leading to WWI only make sense when we look at the decisions and varied paths taken by the leaders of Europe. As an example, Britain was more frightened of war with Russia than war with Germany. This played out in her alliance with Russia. The complication of family relations through royal marriages also contributed to the confusion.
If you have an interest in this period of history, than Clark's book is a must for your reference bookshelf. It has the added advantage of being a well-written account of a fascinating time with numerous connections to our world today. I now view WWI in a different light.
Clark begins his history much earlier, taking us back to 1903. His story opens with the murder of Alexander I of Serbia by a terrorist group called The Blackhand. Thus begins one of many parallels to our world today. As we see, the Middle East and the whole region of central and Eastern Europe was in turmoil from this period onward. The Slavic countries of Poland, Czechoslovakia, the Serbs, Slovaks and Croats, were all under the hand of the detested Austro-Hungarian Empire. Nationalistic factions dedicated to the overthrow of the Empire were springing up all over this area. The Ottoman Empire which was crumbling was already involved in the Balkan Wars where Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece were taking pieces of their territory, and was also busy on the Eastern front where the Arab nations were doing the same.
As Clark tells us the changes in our own world have altered our way of looking at the events of 1914. He contends it is much more complicated than just blaming Germany for the war. He states: One could even say that July 1914 is less remote from us--less illegible--now than it was in the 1980s. Since the end of the Cold War, a system of global bipolar stability has made way for a more complex and unpredictable array of forces, including declining empires and rising powers--a state of affairs that invites comparison with the Europe of 1914.
This book tells the story of how war came to continental Europe and its central argument is that the events leading to WWI only make sense when we look at the decisions and varied paths taken by the leaders of Europe. As an example, Britain was more frightened of war with Russia than war with Germany. This played out in her alliance with Russia. The complication of family relations through royal marriages also contributed to the confusion.
If you have an interest in this period of history, than Clark's book is a must for your reference bookshelf. It has the added advantage of being a well-written account of a fascinating time with numerous connections to our world today. I now view WWI in a different light.
Thursday, August 28, 2014
DANCER by Colum McCann (fic)
Colum McCann is one of my favorite writers; he always chooses to write about interesting characters and usually inserts real characters into his work along with the fictional ones. Having said that, this is not among my favorite books he has written. Mainly, this is because it is about a fictionalized Rudolf Nureyev who is an elusive and difficult character to portray, because he is so close to our own time.
At the height of his balletic ability, Nureyev was known all over the world and his fame is still legion. I was lucky enough to be living in London when he was partnered with the lovely and incomparable Margot Fonteyn and doubly lucky to have seen them dance throughout Nureyev's tenure with the Royal Ballet. There is nothing that can describe the excitement in the theater when he would burst upon the stage. It was electrifying!
McCann is an exquisite writer, and the book will hold the reader's attention to the end. What McCann does so well is set the scene from the story's beginning in the Tatar towns in Uzbekistan to the beautiful St. Petersburg, home of the Kirov Ballet where Nureyev began his professional career. The descriptions are very real of soldiers returning from WWII when Rudolf was a child, along with the food shortages and the bleak times of Stalin's and then Kruschev's Russia. There is a particularly touching account of a poorly equipped hospital with its dedicated nurses trying to cope with the returning sick from the war front. This was the setting of Rudolf's youth when he was taking secret ballet lessons from an exiled couple who had once been premier dancers in Petersburg. Early on they recognized the talent and drive of the young Nureyev. It was a long time before his father was able to accept that his son would not be destined for a "manly" occupation.
The reader follows Nureyev's growth from an awkward and powerful beginner to his fame by giving voice to several characters that helped form his character. As the chapters begin with different voices, it sometimes takes a paragraph to recognize whose voice we are hearing. I found this interrupted the cadence of my reading. There is a lot about Nureyev's life after he defected in 1961 and the relationships he formed with men and women. If you have read one of the biographies of Nureyev, you know he had a huge ego and often displayed a lack of sensitivity toward others. Others have attempted to analyze his psyche and connect it to his energetic style of dancing.
The book allows us to imagine Nureyev's relationship with his family and his distance from them imposed by the state of Russia where he was a condemned defector. McCann also follows Nureyev's descent as he ages and is dying of AIDS in the early 90s, yet he continues to dance as he cannot stop doing so; it is his life.
There is much to digest in this book. If you have read a biography of Rudolf Nureyev, you may want to read what McCann has made of his fictionalized life. If you love or are interested in the ballet, you will enjoy going back in time to revisit an icon of dance the likes of which one may never see again.
At the height of his balletic ability, Nureyev was known all over the world and his fame is still legion. I was lucky enough to be living in London when he was partnered with the lovely and incomparable Margot Fonteyn and doubly lucky to have seen them dance throughout Nureyev's tenure with the Royal Ballet. There is nothing that can describe the excitement in the theater when he would burst upon the stage. It was electrifying!
McCann is an exquisite writer, and the book will hold the reader's attention to the end. What McCann does so well is set the scene from the story's beginning in the Tatar towns in Uzbekistan to the beautiful St. Petersburg, home of the Kirov Ballet where Nureyev began his professional career. The descriptions are very real of soldiers returning from WWII when Rudolf was a child, along with the food shortages and the bleak times of Stalin's and then Kruschev's Russia. There is a particularly touching account of a poorly equipped hospital with its dedicated nurses trying to cope with the returning sick from the war front. This was the setting of Rudolf's youth when he was taking secret ballet lessons from an exiled couple who had once been premier dancers in Petersburg. Early on they recognized the talent and drive of the young Nureyev. It was a long time before his father was able to accept that his son would not be destined for a "manly" occupation.
The reader follows Nureyev's growth from an awkward and powerful beginner to his fame by giving voice to several characters that helped form his character. As the chapters begin with different voices, it sometimes takes a paragraph to recognize whose voice we are hearing. I found this interrupted the cadence of my reading. There is a lot about Nureyev's life after he defected in 1961 and the relationships he formed with men and women. If you have read one of the biographies of Nureyev, you know he had a huge ego and often displayed a lack of sensitivity toward others. Others have attempted to analyze his psyche and connect it to his energetic style of dancing.
The book allows us to imagine Nureyev's relationship with his family and his distance from them imposed by the state of Russia where he was a condemned defector. McCann also follows Nureyev's descent as he ages and is dying of AIDS in the early 90s, yet he continues to dance as he cannot stop doing so; it is his life.
There is much to digest in this book. If you have read a biography of Rudolf Nureyev, you may want to read what McCann has made of his fictionalized life. If you love or are interested in the ballet, you will enjoy going back in time to revisit an icon of dance the likes of which one may never see again.
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
MISSION TO PARIS by Alan Furst (fic)
I am always happy to pick up a book by Alan Furst who is one of the best espionage and spy writers, right up there with John Le Carré. Mission to Paris, his 12th spy novel, is one of his better reads. Furst almost exclusively writes of the period between 1933 and 1941 in Europe. He writes of the underworld of spies, German, English, French, and Eastern European. His novels range all over the pre-World War II map.
In this book we follow Fredric Stahl, Austrian born American actor, from Hollywood to France where he is making a film. Stahl is in his early 40s and at the height of his career. His is apolitical but wary of the Nazi inroads into France and Paris where he is filming. The German propaganda arm sees an opportunity to use Stahl to impress America which has not yet entered the war. Lured into a party by a leading German hostess, he unknowingly comes into contact with several German agents masquerading under the aegis of the Comité France-Allemagne.
Stahl is savvy and sophisticated enough to soon sniff out the real motives of his Nazi hosts, and it takes some veiled threats to convince him to attend the Berlin film festival. His visit there coincides with Kristallnact. That does it for him, and he feels lucky to arrive back in Paris with his life. The action then shifts to a castle in Hungary where the film company has relocated and there he and others fall into a Nazi trap which turns into an exciting hunt for those on both sides of the battle.
This is a sketchy outline of the plot, but along the way the reader gets Furst's cracker-jack writing. His description of Paris on the brink of the German invasion is beautiful. It is a time when people are still attending parties and smoky nightclubs. His details are accurate and interesting. For example he includes movies that are playing at local cinemas and a ride in a long lost automobile, a 1938 Panhard Dynamic which has a steering wheel in the middle of the dashboard. Passengers can then sit on either side of the driver. Sometimes a character pops up from another book he has written. And, of course, there is romance included. It is all like a wonderful film noir from the 40s.
If you like good writing combined with espionage and intrigue and you haven't read a Furst novel, give it a try, You will be hooked.
In this book we follow Fredric Stahl, Austrian born American actor, from Hollywood to France where he is making a film. Stahl is in his early 40s and at the height of his career. His is apolitical but wary of the Nazi inroads into France and Paris where he is filming. The German propaganda arm sees an opportunity to use Stahl to impress America which has not yet entered the war. Lured into a party by a leading German hostess, he unknowingly comes into contact with several German agents masquerading under the aegis of the Comité France-Allemagne.
Stahl is savvy and sophisticated enough to soon sniff out the real motives of his Nazi hosts, and it takes some veiled threats to convince him to attend the Berlin film festival. His visit there coincides with Kristallnact. That does it for him, and he feels lucky to arrive back in Paris with his life. The action then shifts to a castle in Hungary where the film company has relocated and there he and others fall into a Nazi trap which turns into an exciting hunt for those on both sides of the battle.
This is a sketchy outline of the plot, but along the way the reader gets Furst's cracker-jack writing. His description of Paris on the brink of the German invasion is beautiful. It is a time when people are still attending parties and smoky nightclubs. His details are accurate and interesting. For example he includes movies that are playing at local cinemas and a ride in a long lost automobile, a 1938 Panhard Dynamic which has a steering wheel in the middle of the dashboard. Passengers can then sit on either side of the driver. Sometimes a character pops up from another book he has written. And, of course, there is romance included. It is all like a wonderful film noir from the 40s.
If you like good writing combined with espionage and intrigue and you haven't read a Furst novel, give it a try, You will be hooked.
Saturday, August 16, 2014
MANSON by Jeff Gunn (non-fic)
The subtitle of this biography is the life and times of Charles Manson. Some of us remember the summer of love, the Haight, the concerts, the hippies, the riots and Vietnam. All this was over 4 decades ago. I was living in London at the time, and Helter Skelter was the name of a Beatles song to me, and did not invoke the same fear that gripped Los Angles during the frightening days of the Manson Family's killing spree.
Jeff Gunn has written a very readable book which brings back the upheavals of the late 60s and early 70s. He was able to unearth new material from the few living witnesses including Manson's sister and cousin. Many adjectives can be applied to Charles Manson, beginning with worthless. He is 78 years old now and in some ways still a psychological mystery. What we do know is that he was a social predator and sociopath who took advantage of the needy, the dependent, the naive, and the drug addled. He has been in jail most of his life, beginning when he was a young teen in various reform schools, even doing a stint at Boys' Town where he didn't last long. While imprisoned Manson took an interest in the writings and courses of Dale Carnegie and turned what he learned into a criminal career.
Manson arrived in Haight-Ashbury soon after he was released from one prison stint in 1967. He looked around, saw and understood the appeal of the street preachers that damaged teens with issues (especially girls) flocked to, and decided he could do it better. After some initial success and with a small cadre of followers, he debunked to Los Angles, hoping to jump start a singing career. It is unclear whether Manson was delusional or just gaming people, but he appeared convinced that he would become as famous as the Beatles or Stones by writing and recording his songs. When that door was finally slammed on him, he found another more dangerous and lethal way to the path of fame. Soon after arriving in Los Angles, Manson met Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys who enabled him to live the high life while gathering more acolytes. Wilson introduced him to Terry Melcher, son of Doris Day, who was a record producer. At that time, Melcher was living with Candice Bergan in the house which later was taken over by Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate.
Much took place between the time Manson and his followers arrived in Los Angeles and the killing spree began. Gunn not only closely follows the movements of the Family, but also includes the unrest that gripped all of America at that time. He shows how the political and social atmosphere lent itself to the stew of unrest that made it possible for Manson to imagine himself the future savior of the white race in a coming apocalyptic race war.
While Manson is so distasteful a subject, more of interest to me is what made his followers so slavishly obedient to him. What made the girls he attracted and gathered, who looked so much like the girl next door or a future teacher of America, murder so viciously? Gunn attempts to give us answers, but the mystery remains. It all seems so long ago.
Jeff Gunn has written a very readable book which brings back the upheavals of the late 60s and early 70s. He was able to unearth new material from the few living witnesses including Manson's sister and cousin. Many adjectives can be applied to Charles Manson, beginning with worthless. He is 78 years old now and in some ways still a psychological mystery. What we do know is that he was a social predator and sociopath who took advantage of the needy, the dependent, the naive, and the drug addled. He has been in jail most of his life, beginning when he was a young teen in various reform schools, even doing a stint at Boys' Town where he didn't last long. While imprisoned Manson took an interest in the writings and courses of Dale Carnegie and turned what he learned into a criminal career.
Manson arrived in Haight-Ashbury soon after he was released from one prison stint in 1967. He looked around, saw and understood the appeal of the street preachers that damaged teens with issues (especially girls) flocked to, and decided he could do it better. After some initial success and with a small cadre of followers, he debunked to Los Angles, hoping to jump start a singing career. It is unclear whether Manson was delusional or just gaming people, but he appeared convinced that he would become as famous as the Beatles or Stones by writing and recording his songs. When that door was finally slammed on him, he found another more dangerous and lethal way to the path of fame. Soon after arriving in Los Angles, Manson met Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys who enabled him to live the high life while gathering more acolytes. Wilson introduced him to Terry Melcher, son of Doris Day, who was a record producer. At that time, Melcher was living with Candice Bergan in the house which later was taken over by Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate.
Much took place between the time Manson and his followers arrived in Los Angeles and the killing spree began. Gunn not only closely follows the movements of the Family, but also includes the unrest that gripped all of America at that time. He shows how the political and social atmosphere lent itself to the stew of unrest that made it possible for Manson to imagine himself the future savior of the white race in a coming apocalyptic race war.
While Manson is so distasteful a subject, more of interest to me is what made his followers so slavishly obedient to him. What made the girls he attracted and gathered, who looked so much like the girl next door or a future teacher of America, murder so viciously? Gunn attempts to give us answers, but the mystery remains. It all seems so long ago.
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