Running the Rift by Naomi Beneron

When you read the word “Rwanda” and the year 1996 in the jacket summary of a book, you just know that the book will be hard going.  The war and genocide in that conflicted country is too brutal and too hopeless a subject to navigate in a novel that you read for fun.  I wasn’t sure what I was getting into and not completely sure if I wanted to tackle this emotional rollercoaster.  I decided to give it 25 pages and see if I was up for it.  Boy was I glad that I did. 

Running the Rift is the story of Jean Patrick Nkuba, a young boy from the country near Lake Kiva whose dream is to compete for Rwanda in the Summer Olympics.   He is a gifted runner and aspires to run the 800 on the world stage.  Unfortunately, he is of Tutsi descent and struggles with discrimination that he and his family endure at the hands of an oppressive Hutu government.  Jean Patrick is extremely gifted academically which gives him the leg up he needs to make it into the schools with the right track coaches.  During the killing, he finds himself running for his life instead of for glory. 

With the impending Summer Olympics, this story resonates.  We Americans can’t understand the barriers that some of the athletes from small African countries have to jump in order to make it to that one day of competition at the Olympics.  Beneron tells a wonderful story of Jean Patrick’s rise in his sport and his politically exploited fame as he is held by the government as the Tutsi hope for Rwanda.  We understand the conflict that Jean Patrick feels as he is given a Hutu ID card that will help him travel about the country and his hopeful naivety that Rwandans could possibly coexist and let him run without issue. 

At the core of this story is a young man who loves his family, his home and his girlfriend and who just wants to move forward in his life.  This is what saves the book from becoming one that is just too hard to read.  We fall in love with Jean Patrick and his beloved family, friends and country.  Beneron writes with the lyrical imagery of Africa and describes it in such a way that we find ourselves loving the landscape and the people as much as Jean Patrick does.  Even through the difficult parts (and there are definitely difficult parts!) we find ourselves rooting for Jean Patrick and trying hard to understand an incomprehensible war. 

This book was nominated won the Bellwether Prize for Fiction, a prize given by Barbara Kingsolver to books that address issues of social justice.  It is a worthy recipient. This summer when we are watching the track and field events in London, I, for one, will have a new-found respect for those young runners from small, and often war torn African countries.  My eyes have been opened.  But isn’t that what books are supposed to do? 

When Fishing Goes Bad

Choosing books to read is sort of like fishing.  Sometimes you go out with the intent to fish.  You have your recommendation lists or your starred reviews to help you decide what to get.  Like having researched fish populations and behaviors then boarding the boat with the best lure for the kind of fish you want to catch.  Other times you stop by the library and scan the shelves with no idea what to look for at all - the fisherman's version of stopping by the side of the road and pulling your rod out of the trunk of your car to throw in a line for half an hour.  Both can yield big keepers. Sometimes the best unknown book is just waiting for you there on the shelf.  Other times you get skunked no matter how much you research. 

Last time I was at the library, I stopped by the "new book" section to see what was there.  I found several books that looked good and showed promise so I picked them up.  In my pile of 4, I've read 2 and so far my picks are in the skunked category.  Here they are.

The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman
In the past, I've loved Alice Hoffman.  Her books have been usually good stories peppered with the magical realism that I am drawn to.  While not dense or deep, Hoffman usually likes strong women and a well plotted narrative.  When I saw her book on the shelf I decided to try her again.  Bad move.  I think she's phoning it in.  The Red Garden is the story of many generations of people living in a small town in Massachusetts from the 1700's to modern day.  One of the matriarchs of the town has a garden that only grows red flowers and food.  I think Hoffman wrote a bunch of short stories on one of her summer vacations while she tried to decide what to write next and when she couldn't decide, she convinced her publisher to combine all of them and sell it as a novel. This book did make it past my 100 page rule but just barely and only because I expected more of Hoffman.  I kept expecting something to happen to bring everything together, but it didn't.  Each story was loosely based on the one before it, but in character name only and the red garden didn't seem to serve any purpose at all except that a bear was buried there and gets exhumed in the end.  I think Hoffman has written some wonderful books, but I think more recently, she might be pressured by her publisher to get words on the page.  See what you think.

The Quest for Anna Klein by Thomas H. Cook
Spies, Nazis, resistance fighters, international art dealers, New York society - sounds good doesn't it?  I thought so.  And actually it did keep my interest until about two thirds the way through, but Thomas Cook's newest novel didn't do it for me in the end.  The story is interesting.  A young socialite son of an international art importer gets recruited to provide his country house as a place for a young Jewish woman to learn the skills needed to infiltrate and spy on the upper level Nazi government. Guy falls in love with Girl and follows her to Germany where her plot becomes foiled at the last minute. Girl disappears and Guy spends years in and out of prisons and camps across Europe trying to find out what happened to her and who the double agent was who blew her cover.  While the story does move along, we spend a lot of time listening to the Guy pine away for the Girl and not really find the answers he's looking for.  There is a nice plot twist in the end but its just not enough to carry the story you've slogged through so far.  Its a good example of an author who either needs a good editor or to go back to school for brush up on plot development.  I should have been alerted when I read that two of Cook's most recent books were called The Last Talk with Lola Faye and The Fate of Katherine Carr.  It appears that Mr. Cook is either working out some issues he has with enigmatic women or he's got a formula that he thinks works for him.  Either way, it doesn't work for me.

The Leopard by Jo Nesbo

I was talking to a friend at a party recently and we were trying to find out why people so enjoyed the Dragon Tattoo series by Stieg Larsson.  Why they made such an impact on the publishing world and why there was so much chatter about them around pools and water coolers when they hit the shelves.  I think we decided that one of the reasons that we all are intrigued by those stories is that they are densely written with complex plotlines and surprise twists.  They don’t follow the mystery formula that so many do.  I also think that we love the grittiness of them.  The murders are twisted and creepy leaving the reader wondering about the mental state of the author but in awe of his sense of plotting as he draws you in and holds you in suspense for pages at a time.   The characters are flawed and sort of on the sidelines of society – both the good guys and the bad – and Larsson never apologizes for them. 

Finally I think we Americans are interested in the landscape and setting of the novels.  Scandinavia is not written about frequently and we’re sort of intrigued by a place where climate is extreme and the culture is strong.  It’s not an area of the world that we hear about on a regular basis.  It is for all these reasons that Jo Nesbo’s work is as appealing as Stieg Larsson’s. 

In my “Book Picks of 2011” post, I listed “The Snowman” as one of my favorite books of last year.  After reading the newest installment of the Harry Hole series, my opinion of Nesbo’s work has not flagged.  The Leopard was just as engaging, creepy and complex as The Snowman. 

In The Leopard, a serial murderer is killing women and men using a torture device known as Leopold’s Apple that’s linked to mining warlords in The Congo.  Harry Hole is brought back from Hong Kong where he’s been exorcising his demons after solving The Snowman case.  He is plunged into a battle between local and federal law enforcement and has to solve the case off the record with the help of his old friends and colleagues.  Hole sets up offices in an unused prison and travels to the volcanoes of war torn Congo and the cabins high in Norway’s mountains to catch the killer. 

Just like last time, I finish Nesbo’s book with a huge respect for his ability to plot and pace his books.  Just when you think the suspense will put you over the edge, he lets off the gas pedal and gives you a minute to recover, all the while stringing you along for the ride.  It’s a talent that not many mystery writers have really perfected.  Nesbo’s characters are interesting and complex and when I look at his photo in the back of the book, I wonder what he’s like in real life.  What makes him tick?  What makes him think up all these weird and freaky plot lines?  You certainly don’t get the feeling he is phoning it in for the paycheck. 

Finally one of the best parts of Nesbo’s books is that Nesbo himself is still alive.  We lost Stieg Larsson to an untimely death and will never know what happened to Lisbeth Salander in the end.  Presumably Nesbo will continue to keep us informed of Harry Hole’s whereabouts and creep us out with scary serial killers for years to come.