No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Cormac McCarthy completed the novel “No Country for Old Men” in 2005. The author returns to the border country between Texas and Mexico, locales he had previously explored in The Border Trilogy (1992-98). This stark and powerful novel, written by one of the American masters, was published in 2006 by Vintage. The novel is an intense 310 page read, a rough ride in an old pickup truck while a huge flatland storm is building on the horizon. This book is dark, chilling, and desperately beautiful.

The Coen Brothers thought so much of this novel that they adapted it into a screenplay. The film went on to win four Oscars, and to make me an even bigger fan of Javier Bardem. But we aren’t here to talk about the movie, as much as I loved it. We are here to talk about the novel, which is even darker, more intense, and more beautiful.

Cormac McCarthy uses the fewest and most well-chosen words to say a very great deal. The author’s prose is relentless, never allowing the looming threat to dissipate. From the first pages, there is a massive storm brewing just out of sight. The reader knows it its there. When it strikes, it is swift and without warning. This is McCarthy’s approach to a classic American crime novel: Use the fewest words to convey the greatest possible danger. The lightning is ever there, crackling at the edge of the page.

The jacket notes for the novel will give a reader the basic plot. A hard but basically decent man stumbles across a massacre in the desert; a drug deal gone horribly wrong. By the time he leaves the place, he has found a bag filled with a great deal of money. The money is not his, and taking it sets of a chain of events that are both dark and violent. In this the novel follows a traditional plot line: Outsider gets money; Bad Guys come looking for it. But there is much more to this tale.

Some folks will tell you that you should never ask a question in a book review, but we are going to break that little rule. What if you make a choice that awakens the Devil to your presence? What do you do if you are suddenly the sole focus of the Devil? Not an angry, raging devil, and certainly not a demon with red skin and a pitchfork. This Devil walks amongst us, calmly leaving a trail of dead men. He tests others as as he tests himself; with an intense curiosity and callousness that treats life and death as the same. He takes great pleasure in the last moments of a dying man, holding life and death to the banality of a coin-toss. McCarthy has created a nemesis that, simply by his presence, undermines the community and the country he passes through.

When our protagonist, Llewellyn Moss, takes that bag of money, forces are set in motion. Killers are unleashed. The devil takes notice. An aging Texas County Sheriff, who is also our narrator, tries make sense of what is happening and fails. The yardstick he uses to measure good and evil is not suitable for this new menace. The moral values of the old country are not up to the task of measuring this wave of violence; values that seem to the Sheriff to have evaporated, outdated and without roots.

I can tell you, without risk of spoiler and by means of warning, that there is not a happy ending coming for most of the characters in this novel. Perhaps for the Devil, but nobody else. I would wonder why, if a reader is looking for a happy ending, they would pick up a Cormac McCarthy novel. Many years before Oprah decided she liked “The Road,” McCarthy was writing dark sagas of the American West, both past and present. His language is stark, stripped, and cuts like a well-honed knife. In “No Country for Old Men,” the author has taken his art to a higher level. Striped to their essentials, his minimalist descriptions carry powerful images. They stand out as if etched in a desert sunset. Likewise is the dialogue striped to the bone. The characters do not waste many words. The only voice of compassion, the glimmer of hope of human decency, comes from the voice of Sheriff Ed Tom when he serves as the narrator. These small passages of narration give the reader a brief pause before the next burst of thunder, the next bolt of lightning.

I highly recommend this novel, both for the quality of the story as well as the art of the writing itself. Readers who need a happy ending, or who are adverse to a dark tale: run far away. This is not your book. If you wish to explore a masterwork written in the language of loss, this novel will suit you well.

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The Princess Bride by William Goldman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“The Princess Bride,” by William Goldman, was first published in 1973. It has since become a beloved story, better known as the movie by the same name that is now a Cult Classic. Before I go further, it is only fair to state that I love the movie. What’s not to love? A handsome young man, a beautiful maiden; a story of true love. Add to that the masterful writing, wonderful throw-away lines — “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” — Wallace Shawn, André the Giant, Billy Crystal; you simply cannot go wrong.

If one only knows the movie, however, I believe that one is missing out on the second story: Goldman’s incredibly clever backstory. The novel contains all of the elements seen in the movie. There is a somewhat jaded young boy, a father trying to engage the boy to read an old book, and the ensuing tale of adventure. This story was read to the narrator by his father. He is stunned, however, when his own son puts the book down after only one chapter. Why?

The reason the boy puts down the book is simple: it is boring. This brings us to the first facet of a literary put-one. The fictitious narrator, the ‘Author’ created by the author, discovers that the original text (a doubly fictitious text if you will) contains long and very boring passages which his own father skipped over whilst reading it aloud. The narrator discovers these very long, very boring passages relate to the politics of Florin and Guilder. Did I mention that these passages are long? Yes, very much so, and boring. So our narrator, the fictitious author, sets out to write an abridged version of the story, a version that has only the ‘Good Parts,’ a version that his won son will read and enjoy.

But behind that presenting tale, there is yet another elaborately fabricated yarn about the origins of the book itself. Fictitious countries are created, then made to seem real. The headaches of legal battles with an imagined estate of an imagined author punctuate the swashbuckling story that we are familiar with from the movie. Goldman breaks the fourth wall in such clever ways that the reader is not sure what is true and what is false. I hesitate to go further for fear of spoilers. Suffice it to say that there are entire dimensions in the novel that is missing in the movie.

Goldman’s joke was so effective, so convincing, that readers wrote letters to the publisher. Readers looked at current World maps, searching for the fictitious countries of Florin and Guilder. The author’s use of asides, of invented histories, makes for a romp of literary jest. It is a jest that I appreciated more and more as the book carried me away.

Reading “The Princess Bride” feels very much like reading two, or even three, different books. There is, of course, the original tall of sword fighting and true love, stripped down to only the good parts. There is the tale of the father attempting draw his son into something that the father valued as a young boy. Lastly, there is the funny and convoluted yarn of the Father/Author/Narrator struggling to give life to the original manuscript by S. Morgenstern. Yes, sorry, but there is yet another fictitious author lurking in the past, the originator of it all.

I realize that this may all sound a bit complicated. Guess what? It is, but in a way that is so marvelous and compelling I believe you will forgive William Goldman all of his many inside jokes. I highly recommend this novel, most especially if you love the movie version. The strange and clever backstory that Goldman weaves compliments the movie version, of which he was the screenwriter.






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The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam by Barbara W. Tuchman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Based on the current political climate, this book has been in my thoughts. I feel compelled to update my original short review. My first review read: ” More pertinent now than ever. Have you ever wondered how powerful governments can make such bad decision? Then this book is for you.”

Perhaps an inquiring reader will ask why? Allow me, in my small way, to answer that question.

“The March of Folly” was published in 1984 by Knopf. Barbara Tuchman, the renowned historian and writer, explores a basic failing of governments. She gives this failing a name: Wooden-Headedness. She defines that trait as “the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests.”

Before I go further, I must admit that I am a fan of Barbara Tuchman. That is not the case with some of her contemporaries. The author was often criticized, and this book was no exception. She was a historian and writer, but she was also a woman in an academic world very much dominated by male writers, thinkers, and reviewers. Tuchman was born in 1912, and was active as a writer from 1938-1988. This was an era that did not look all that kindly on female academics. Regardless of these criticisms, she is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author.

“The March of Folly” uses four examples to illuminate the principle of Wooden-headedness. Why did the men of Troy bring the Greek horse into the walls of the city? Why did the Renaissance popes ignore the failings of the Catholic church, failings that would lead to the conflagration of the Reformation? Why did King George III alienate, and finally cause to rebel, the American Colonists, thus killing the cash cow of the colonies? And, finally, why did the government of the United States adopt policies during the Vietnam war that brought about exactly the opposite of their stated aims?

I return to the reader’s question: “Why should I read this book?” Barbara Tuchman was not only a gifted historian, she was also a gifted writer. Tuchman uses clear, concise prose. Her histories are written in a way that is clearly accessible to non-academic readers. I find her work to be engrossing, captivating, and entertaining. Reading “The March of Folly” is not a slog through the dry annuls of history. Rather, it is an illuminating look at how and why seemingly intelligent leaders can do extraordinarily stupid things.

The longest portion of the book deals with the US involvement in the Vietnam War. Given the times and the context, this was also the most controversial portion of the book, and the one most often criticized. I wills set that aside, even though I believe that history has proven the author’s point. When I first read Tuchman’s theory on the American Revolution, I found a new view of history that I had never encountered during all the long classes I had sat through. The English King, George III, and his advisors, simply could not see the forest for the trees.

Prior to the American revolution, the American colonies were a cash cow for England. The colonies shipped much-needed raw materials to the Mother Country. The colonies were also a closed market for England’s manufactured goods, forced to buy finished products from England. Financially, England could not do better. They made money both ways. The colonists were, for the most part, loyal subjects of the Crown. They did not want a revolution. When the colonists requested representation in the English Parliament, they were rebuked by the Crown. George III took the view that the colonists were wayward children that needed to be disciplined.

There were voices of caution along the road, both in England and the colonies, but the Crown chose to ignore them. The disciplinary measures that the George III invoked would ultimately lead a minority of firebrand colonists to incite a revolt, thus killing the cash cow that England treasured. Tuchman’s point is that the road to ruin was not a blind alley without options. There were warning signs, and warning voices, on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Despite all evidence to the contrary, George III and his minions pursued a course of action that achieved exactly the opposite of what they wanted. Why? Therein lies the premise of this book.

I mentioned that this book has recently been in my thoughts. There is good reason for this. I think that if Barbara Tuchman were alive today (Tuchman died 1989) she would be compelled to add new sections to “The March of Folly.” One has only to look at the current Brexit debacle, or the state of politics in the United States, to see that Wooden-headedness is very much alive and well amongst the governments of the world. The point of this review is not to take a position on either of these current example of Wooden-headedness, but simply to point out that the trait is thriving amongst the governing forces of our times.

I highly recommend “The March of Folly,” as I do the rest of Tuchman’s work. She is clear thinker, and a gifted writer. Whether or not one agrees with her premises is a matter of opinion. That a reader of “The march of Folly” will exposed to new and interesting historical perspectives is, I believe, a fact.





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Ali: A Life by Jonathan Eig
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Jonathan Eig’s “Ali: A Life” is a detailed and comprehensive biography. The book charts the life of heavy-weight boxer Muhammad Ali, perhaps the most famous athlete of the Twentieth Century. It is an arguable point, but Ali would have had an answer. He would say that he was the greatest of all time. Except that he would say “of allllll times…..!!” “Ali: A Life” was published in 2017 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and has a length of 640 pages.

There are several distinct narratives living between the covers of this book. There is the story of a heavy-weight boxer, Muhammad Ali. In and of itself, the tale of Ali’s life would carry a normal biography. His larger-than-life personality, both in and out of the ring, made him front-page news. Ali’s fame ran far outside the borders of the United States. Not only was he one of the most famous men in the USA, he was quite likely the most recognizable face in the world. And that face was Black.

Muhammad Ali was a Black Man. He was not a quiet Black Man. He did not fit into the mold of what a Black athlete was supposed to look like in a White society. Muhammad Ali was the man who would break that mold; upset the comfort zone of sportswriters and boxing fans. And this controversy, this collision of worlds, is the stuff of the second narrative. The second narrative is about race in the United States.

As a reader, I found a third narrative woven into the story of Muhammad Ali. That story was an oblique cultural history of the last quarter of the 20th Century. The perspective is as of something viewed in a mirror. In this case, the mirror is the life of Muhammad Ali.

To return to our first narrative: A Life. For readers who love a straight biography, there is a lot of meat here to chew on. Mr. Eig covers Ali’s early life, when his name was Cassius Clay. We see a young boy growing up in segregated Louisville, Kentucky. He is always on the move, always in motion. Soon he is learning to box; the story of Cassius Clay mentored by a White policeman. Clay boxes his way to the US Olympic Team and a Gold Medal. And the story goes on, tracing his path to his first heavy-weight championship. The personal life of Muhammad Ali is documented in great detail, including the flaws and clichés that would become famous. The story continues, of course, through a new name, through other fights, other losses, other wives. As this very personal and complex life plays out, the author brings us to a fourth narrative but I will leave that for the last, as Mr. Eig does.

Woven through the transition from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali is the question of race in modern America. The very idea of race, of what it means to be a Black Man in the United States, is part and parcel to the life story of Muhammad Ali. There is no separating the two. Ali would not be quiet and he would not be humble. Ali would not be contained or defined by any preconceived notion of what a Black athlete should or should not do or say. Then, as if to draw the question of race into sharper focus, Cassius Clay did the unthinkable. He changed his name, he changed his religion, and he thumbed his nose at the US Government. He became more than a loud-mouthed Black boxer. Now he was thorn-in-the-side of those who hold the reins of power. Ali was a threat to the status quo.

Challenging the Powers-That-Be is a dangerous game. Cassius Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali after becoming a member of the Nation of Islam. During these tumultuous times, the life of Ali holds up a mirror for the reader. In this mirror, we see many of the famous Black men of the time. Malcolm X was a friend and mentor to Ali, until the former split with Elijah Muhammad. Ali had to chose between the two men, and the choice would haunt him. Dr. King is seen through the mirror of Ali’s life, as are Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan. There were the Black men Ali would fight: Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, George Foreman, and Larry Holmes. Over the course of his career, we see Ali stripped of his title for refusing the Vietnam draft. We see him regain the heavy-weight title. Things are changing in the world. Black athletes from the US Olympic Team give the Black Power salute from the podium. Ali becomes a star. Some of the sportswriters that formerly reviled him now embrace him in their columns.

There remains a final narrative to the story of Muhammad Ali. Like many champions, he stayed too long. There are other clichés as well, sad and oft heard. There were other famous men, Black men, who would take advantage of the Champ. They sought a way to make a profit from Ali. It is the same sad story that happened to other champions from the past. Then there began to be clear signs that all was not well with the Champ. He was slower in the ring. He was slurring his speech. This was the time, the moment where Ali could have made the choice to retire. The Black men who profited from the Champ, Don King, Herbert Muhammad, they could have stopped Ali. But they did not. There was money to be made. Here we enter the final tragic chapter, the neurological damage that Muhammad Ali suffered. The end of Ali’s life is the story of him dealing with this damage.

“Ali: A Life” is a well-written and well-crafted biography. The author does not pull any punches when it comes to the Champ’s life. We see Ali as he was; complex and brilliant, flawed and naive. We see his generosity and his selfishness. Ali’s life story is a large narrative, but when overlaid with the story of race and culture in the USA, this book reaches very far. I am happy to say that the author’s reach does not exceed his grasp. A wonderfully successful biography, this is highly recommended reading.



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Thanks for reading one of my short pieces of fiction. I hope you enjoyed it. While you are here, how about a FREE eBook? That’s right, my novella CLOUDS BEFORE RAIN, the first volume in THE BEST DARK RAIN SERIES, is available as a free download. Subscribe to my mailing list and the good folks at Book Funnel will take care of the rest. No matter what country you live in, no matter what eReader you use, they should have you covered.
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Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Book Review: “Slaughterhouse Five or The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death” (1969)

(Just for fun, I have decided to write this book review in the form of Questions & Answers. I ask your indulgence, but not too seriously.)

Question:
Why should I read this book? Why should I read any of Kurt Vonnegut’s books?

Answer:
Those are very good questions. They are questions that would probably have caused Kurt Vonnegut to laugh out loud. Then he would have made a great joke. He might say something about how this novel is dangerous. You probably shouldn’t read it. He might mention the circuit court judge who, in 1972, called the book “depraved, immoral, psychotic, vulgar and anti-Christian.” I can hear Kurt Vonnegut laughing, saying something like: “You know, that judge was right on three of five counts. That’s a pretty good batting average.” “Slaughterhouse Five” was a controversial book and a banned book. That, in and of itself, is a good reason to read it.

Kicking Mr. Vonnegut out of the conversation, there are a number of other very good reasons for reading “Slaughterhouse Five.” First, it is a very funny book. It is laugh-out-loud funny, at times, but it is also very funny in ironic and subtle ways. Another reason for reading this book is that it is one of the great American Anti-War books to come out of World War Two. Perhaps the best reason to read this novel is because it is a damn good novel; funny, engaging, irreverent, and sharp-witted. The author’s satirical commentary on society was very valid in 1969, and is perhaps even more so today. “So it goes,” as Vonnegut would famously write.

Question:
Did the author have any real experience with war, or is this just a story he made up in his head?

Answer:
Kurt Vonnegut’s experiences in World War Two were all too real. He was assigned to the 106th Infantry Division, serving in the European Theater. His unit was relatively inexperienced. During the Battle of the Bulge in late 1944, the 106th was overrun by German Panzer units. Vonnegut was captured along with thousands of other Allied soldiers. He was interned at Dresden, Germany, a city with very little military significance. Two months later, in February of 1945, Allied bombers struck the city. The bombing went on for three days; destroying much of the city, and killing tens of thousands of German civilians.

Mr. Vonnegut survived the bombing attack in a below-ground meat locker at the slaughterhouse where the prisoners were housed; hence the title “Slaughterhouse Five.” When the bombing ended, the prisoners of war were put to work excavating the bodies of dead civilians from the piles of rubble. This would become one of the formative experiences in the young author’s life. In later years, he would describe the grisly work as a “terribly elaborate Easter-egg hunt.” After his experiences at Dresden, Mr. Vonnegut was very much an avowed pacifist. Not so surprising when one thinks about it.

Question:
Okay, but what is the story actually about?

Answer:
“Slaughterhouse Five” is the story of Billy Pilgrim becoming “unstuck in time.” Because he has come unstuck, he is able to move forward and backward through his own life. The story unfolds in a series of short vignettes, with the reader seeing little slices of Billy’s life as he experiences and re-experiences them. Vonnegut quipped that each of these vignettes made up one joke. It takes a bit of getting used to, but the reader will be soon be bouncing through time alongside Billy.

The story opens with the Author describing his twenty-plus year struggle to write a story about the Dresden bombings. Once the set-up is in place, we jump into Billy Pilgrim’s life. He is at his daughter’s wedding, then, oops, he goes out for a bit of fresh air and is captured by aliens; the Tralfamadorians. He is unstuck and finds himself back in Dresden, a POW once more. When Billy gets back to earth, he talks about the aliens. Folks on earth quite naturally think that Billy is crazy, so it is off to the Psych Ward for our protagonist.

So it goes; a series of small jig-saw puzzle pieces that all end up fitting together quite nicely: Billy Pilgrim as a successful adult, Billy Pilgrim on an alien planet, Billy Pilgrim back in the horrific ruins of Dresden. The story moves forward in a series of spirals, with each loop progressing a bit further through the tale. Woven through the vignettes is an amazing satirical social commentary. This commentary is, in my opinion, the real joy of this novel. Human beings are strange and funny creatures. Their beliefs and actions, when seen through the lens of Billy’s time-travels, are even stranger and funnier.

Question:
Hmmm… is this one of those ‘Really-Hard-to-Read’ books?

Answer:
No, not at all. Although the description may make it sound a bit difficult, “Slaughterhouse Five” is actually a romp of a book. It is fairly short for one thing; just 275 pages. Vonnegut uses a simple and straight-forward writing style. His ideas and satire are complex and compelling, but his written language is very easy to read.

This is a modern classic, to be sure, but a very accessible modern classic. For me, Kurt Vonnegut has always seemed like a Counter-Culture reincarnation of Mark Twain. Not only did the two men look a bit alike, their views on human nature were not that dissimilar. And, like many social commentators who live to a ripe old age, they both grew more pessimistic as they grew older. As an aside, I find this totally understandable. Despite the best efforts of Satirists, human beings just keep doing the same silly stuff. We humans still bomb cities, knowing it is not the brightest thing to do. So it goes.

I recommend this book very highly. Sure, it is an important novel. Yes, it has been listed as in the Top 100 American novels by everyone and their uncle. While that is all fine and dandy, the real reason to read this book is that it is a funny, insightful, compelling look at why human beings do some of the crazy stuff that we do.



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And, in a quick pause for the cause…

Thanks for reading one of my short pieces of fiction. I hope you enjoyed it. While you are here, how about a FREE eBook? That’s right, my novella CLOUDS BEFORE RAIN, the first volume in THE BEST DARK RAIN SERIES, is available as a free download. Subscribe to my mailing list and the good folks at Book Funnel will take care of the rest. No matter what country you live in, no matter what eReader you use, they should have you covered.
To learn more, please visit my website and look for the big button that says GET A FREE BOOK!! It’s kind of hard to miss. Happy reading!!

Marco Etheridge Fiction