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.