LemuriaBooks

Patrick McGrath is coming tomorrow night to sign and read from his new book, TRAUMA, and I can hardly wait to hear him read and ask him some questions about his work in general--Soon after I started working for Lemuria I picked up his book ASYLUM--It may have been his first book or one of his first--And 10 years later I remember it as one of the creepiest books I ever read--but also one of the most compelling--very dark---but very well written--I'm not a fan of the horror genre but ASYLUM didn't really fit into that category per say---with its psychological underpinings and its literary tone---Come check out his earlier works and hear him read from his new book --You may discover a new author to follow---

REGENERATION, the first book of Pat Barker's trilogy about WWI is the most powerful anti-war book I've ever read, and one of the best pieces of historical fiction I've ever read as well. Her latest book, LIFE CLASS, revisits WWI but not as successfully as the Regeneration Trilogy. The book is divided into two parts. Part One is set on the eve of WWI and follows the lives of three characters---Paul, Neville and Elinor---all art students studying at a famous art school in London called the Slade. Their lives revolve mostly around their studies and their romantic liaisons. Frankly I found this part of the book to be rather slow, and the characters not particularly engaging or appealing. But in Part Two of the novel, the narrative comes alive. Ms. Barker herself seems much more engaged. Her writing becomes more vivid and certainly more compelling , as the reader is thrown into the midst of WWI when the two male characters volunteer for the medical corps. Ms. Barker seems to have a unique grasp of the horror and tragedy of war and she manages to convey it best through the lens of WWI. This aspect alone makes the novel worth reading. I'm sure the main reason I found the book somewhat disappointing was that I couldn't help but compare it to REGENERATION. Anyone who has not read the earlier trilogy would undoubtedly find LIFE CLASS a compelling and powerful piece of historical fiction in its own right.

While I'm not a particular fan of mysteries I found GENTLEMEN AND PLAYERS by Joanne Harris, the author of CHOCOLAT, to be great escapist fare. In this highly entertaining work, Ms. Harris manages to switch genres with great ease and even greater success.
Set in an old line English prep school called St. Oswald's Grammar School, the entire story is told through the voices of two characters. The first, an anonymous narrator, who is obviously a sociopath, has returned to St. Oswald's as a teacher determined to wreak havoc on the institution for what he perceives as past betrayals. His identity is revealed only at the end of the book. The other protangonist is a classics professor named Professor Straitley, a delightful curmudgeon with a wry sense of humor and a grudge against modernity in general and computers, e-mails and the like in particular. Professor Straitley is an unlikely hero, but as an intensely loyal and dedicated teacher who loves the school he presents the major obstacle to the villain's ultimate goal--the destruction of St. Oswald's.
Their contest of wits is played out using the framework of a chess game as its motif with each chapter alternating between the viewpoint of the villain, signified by the imprint of a black pawn at the beginning of his chapter and that of the professor, designated by the imprint of the white knight at the beginning of his.
In the early chapters, the professor is an unwitting player, only aware that there are nefarious events taking place at his beloved St. Oswald's. But as the game progresses he is the only one who recognizes the danger and is able to maneuver to stop the mayhem. (Someone pointed out after I had read the book that only the knight can move both ways on a chess board)
Although I don't know much about chess, one doesn't need to in order to thoroughly enjoy the book. Despite the implausibilites in the story---and there are a number--the intricate plotting, smart pacing and the many twists and turns keep the reader turning the pages until the last deliciously clever twist--a twist I realized had been hinted at from the beginning---hidden in plain sight as it were.