Twenty-four Hours in the Life of a Woman by Stefan Zweig

First published in German in 1927; published in translation by Pushkin Press on September 6, 2016

A woman who takes up with an “elegant and handsome” young Frenchman and leaves her “stout, provincial husband” during a family vacation at the beach becomes the focal point of a strident argument among other hotel guests. Most guests at the narrator’s table assume that the woman had been having an affair and had conspired with the Frenchman to meet, as if by chance, for the purpose of running away together. They refuse to believe that a woman would abandon her husband and children on a whim. The narrator suggests that an unhappy woman might do just that in a moment of passion. The outraged discussion that follows is only diffused by the gentling remarks of an elderly, upper-class woman from England.

The conversation sparks the elderly woman to tell the narrator her own story. It is the story of a transformative encounter with a despairing stranger when the woman was in her 40s, years after her husband’s death. The stranger suffers from a compulsion that threatens to be his undoing. As she endeavors to save the man from himself, the woman is overwhelmed by a compulsion of her own.

Stefan Zweig plumbs the depths of the woman’s mind, dissecting it for the reader’s inspection. Her story is a confession, a remembrance of pain, an unburdening of shame, a reminder of how easily uncontrolled passion becomes uncontrollable pain. It is also the story of how the memory of a single day can become so deeply rooted that living with it for decades changes the person who bears it. The story invites the reader to ask about the value of passionate love -- whether it is worth the risk of losing everything we have to embrace something we are missing. The novella covers vast ground in fewer than a hundred pages as it invites the reader to feel and understand all that lies within the woman’s tortured soul.

The translation  from German is by Anthea Bell. I haven’t read this is German so all I can say about the translation is that the prose is both fluid and strong.

RECOMMENDED

Grotto of the Dancing Deer and Other Stories by Clifford D. Simak

Published by Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy on March 1, 2016

Grotto of the Dancing Deer is one of several books in a series that will collect all of Clifford D. Simak’s short stories. The stories in this volume are representative of Simak’s range as a writer. Most of them are quite good.

In “Over the River and Through the Woods,” two children show up to visit their grandparents, but the grandparents have never seen the children before. The boy says his father is a temporal engineer, a phrase the grandmother doesn’t understand. Well, you can see where this is going, although the story takes an interesting turn. The story reflects Simak’s love of simple country lifestyles as well as the moral dilemma inherent in time travel. The story is short but powerful. It shows Simak at his best.

“Grotto of the Dancing Deer” is about a 20,000-year-old man. He’s the original survivalist and he does it without a bug-out bag, because survival is about instinct and judgment, not gear and guns. The story’s well-deserved awards include a Hugo and a Nebula. Its point, I think, is that having a friend who understands you, even if the friendship is fleeting, is the true key to survival.

“The Reformation of Hangman’s Gulch” is one of Simak’s westerns. It has the hallmarks of a classic western, including the theme of good versus evil, but the good guy isn’t all that good, giving the story the kind of subtlety that Simak brought to much of his fiction. The dialog could have been better but the story is entertaining.

In “The Civilization Game,” the human race is striving to preserve its culture (everything from art to politics to war) as humans become a minority in the galactic matrix. Those who try to preserve human achievements discover that many of them (like political assassination) are quite ugly. Simak gives a clever twist to the notion of cultural preservation as the story ends.

“Crying Jag” is about an alien (and his robot) who comes to a small town and listens to the sad stories people love to tell about their lives. They feel better after confessing their sorrows, making the alien seem like a priest or psychiatrist, but the alien listens to the stories because they have the same effect on aliens that alcohol has on humans. The gentle humor and the twisted ending are typical Simak, but the story is also typical of Simak’s ability to make a profound point with a simple story.

“The Hunger Disease” was written when sf authors thought that Venus was just a rainy version of Earth. Colonists on Venus come down with a fatal disease that makes them insatiably hungry. A reporter wonders if there’s a connection between the disease and a visit by a colonist from Mars. Simak’s appreciation of agrarian life and its rigors is evident the story, as is his love of westerns. The story, in fact, gives a science fiction twist to a traditional western theme of a man fighting to save his land from swindlers who file an opposing claim. Add a Martian conspiracy, and you’ve got classic Simak.

“Mutiny on Mercury” is probably the first published story that Simak wrote, although it took him a while to sell it. It’s sort of a John Carter story that is easily skipped.

The spaceship crew in “Jackpot” spend their time plundering planets. They come across a planet with only one structure. It appears to be an immense library. This creates a moral dilemma -- should they rob the library, a prospect that will finally give them the wealth they want, or should they leave it for the rest of the galaxy to enjoy? Should education be freely available to benefit all of humankind or should it be sold at a profit to those who can afford it? Is honesty the most important value, even if it leads to complacency? Simak excelled at stories that ask moral questions. This one stands out.

Some aspects of “Day of Truce” reminded me of the first stories in City: the tension between city dwellers and those who are turning the country into cities with larger yards; the tension between generations; the difficulty of living in peace when people have their minds set on conflict. The story builds on a shrewd version of the angry old man who shakes a fist while yelling “you kids get off my lawn.” The story also asks whether a preemptive strike can ever be justified as self-defense. This isn’t one of Simak’s best, but it’s a good effort.

“Unsilent Spring” returns to one of Simak’s favorite themes -- the merits of simple country lifestyles. A rural doctor is asked to keep an eye out for a strange malady that is becoming epidemic. Symptoms include lethargy, abnormal blood sugar, and an increased appetite. Only townfolk complain of those symptoms; country and hill folk seem to be immune. The hill people, in particular, are healthy and self-sufficient, surviving on the food they grow, the fish and game they catch, the few cows and pigs they own. They are “happy, reliable, proud, and independent people, filled with dignity and inborn curiosity” -- the kind of people Simak extolled in his fiction. The story is sort of an ode to country doctors. The solution to the medical mystery might be a little silly, but it’s consistent with Simak’s lifelong interest in the process of evolution.

RECOMMENDED

Die of Shame by Mark Billingham

Published by Atlantic Monthly Press on June 7, 2016

Nicola Tanner and Dipak Chall investigate a murder. The victim has been dead for more than two weeks before the body is found. The victim’s identity is concealed for a short time so I won’t give it away here, but it is immediately clear that the victim was a member of Tony De Silva’s addiction support group.

When he is not touring with a well-known musician as a “lifestyle coach” (e.g., he keeps the musician sober), Tony works as a therapist. Tony is a former addict whose daughter belittles him for living a boring life, knowing that he misses the good times he once had.

The other key characters are the members of Tony’s weekly group. Robin is a doctor who took too many self-prescriptions. Diana, a recovering alcoholic who is now a compulsive shopper, can’t stop obsessing about her ex-husband’s younger girlfriend. Caroline, the newest addition to the group, is a compulsive eater who is trying to give up pain pills. Heather, a “skinny junkie” with a gambling addiction, feels alone in the world, although she has developed a strong attachment to Tony. Nobody much likes Chris, a drug addict who insults other group members and belittles their woes.

After the meetings, the group members (without Tony) typically gather in a pub where they socialize over soft drinks. Events occur at various points during and after group sessions that create escalating tension among the members. The book’s title comes (in part) from Tony’s prompting each group member to discuss something shameful that they did, in the belief that they might have adopted addictive behaviors to hide from their shame.

Die of Shame is told in a series of flashbacks that alternate with scenes of the murder investigation. The flashbacks reveal the personalities of the group members and their relationships with each other. The current investigation frustrates Tanner and Chall, since the group members are unwilling to discuss anything that happens in group, and for the most part won’t talk about their interactions with each other outside of the group.

Mark Billingham does a good job of creating sympathy for troubled characters. In fact, Die of Shame works better as the story of addicts in therapy than it does as a murder mystery. The killer’s motivation is concealed for most of the novel, making it impossible to deduce the killer’s identity, despite the false clues that Billingham plants. Once that motivation is revealed, it seems contrived. Still, the strong characters and Billingham’s literary prose style kept me interested, if not engrossed, as the story moved toward its climax. A final twist at the end, resolving a minor plot element, is a clever cap to a story of people who will continue to be troubled in surprising ways long after the novel ends.

RECOMMENDED

A Time of Torment by John Connolly

Published by Atria/Emily Bestler Books on August 2, 2016

Jerome Burnell’s life was destroyed because he stopped for gas at the wrong place and time. Years later, after being released from prison, Burnell’s first phone call is to Charlie Parker. Burnell is on parole as a registered sex offender who possessed child porn, an offense he has always denied.

Burnell had once been a hero, having saved lives by killing two thugs. He thinks he was set up for the child porn charges for reasons that are related to his killings. Two women whose lives he saved have disappeared and he fears that their fates were also dictated by his act of heroism. Burnell, who never considered himself a hero, hopes that Parker can find the truth. He’s also concerned that a thug who tortured him in prison while speaking of the “Dead King” is also a free man, free to resume the torture.

A related plot thread involves a cultish group of people who live in a part of the Appalachians known as the Cut. The group has a long history of terror. Most county residents outside the Cut find that ignoring that history is the safest way to live.

Can Parker assure Burnell’s safety? Who or what is the Dead King? (Hint: we’re not talking Elvis.) What’s up with the evil residents of the Cut? John Connolly answers some of these questions quickly, but only by giving birth to new questions. Others take longer to resolve. You’ll need to read the book to get the answers.

And I do recommend that you read it, at least if you don’t mind the addition of a supernatural flavor to your thriller stew. The story becomes creepier as it moves along and a few of the scenes are graphically gruesome, so if you are easily disturbed, you will probably want to avoid the book (and most others in the series). On the other hand, if you like thrillers mixed with horror stories that benefit from literary prose style and strong character development, Connolly is the author for you. His prose is so fluid, and his story-telling skills so strong, that it’s difficult to stop reading his books.

Having said that, I will also say that A Time of Torment is less original than some other novels in the series. The plot moves in predictable directions, although Connolly adds rich detail and interpersonal conflicts that add to the story’s interest. Basing the story on an evil cult with a vague connection to the supernatural just seems too easy, given the creative complexity that Connolly brought to earlier Charlie Parker novels. The Dead King is a pedestrian device forced into the plot for the sake of harnessing evil actions to an incarnate evil force. That’s one of Connolly’s recurring themes, but it didn’t work for me here, although I liked the twisted explanation of the Dead King that Connolly saves for the final pages.

What did work are secondary characters, like a local sheriff with a heart condition and two female victims who refuse to behave like victims. And despite the book’s darkness, unexpected one-liners by Louis and Angel (Charlie’s instruments of death) made me laugh. There are always plenty of reasons to recommend a Charlie Parker book, even if the book, like A Time of Torment, is one of the lesser entries in the series.

One final note: The story sets in play what will likely be an ongoing storyline involving Parker’s living daughter. I think there are already enough ongoing storylines in this series (The Collector and the Gray Man and the ghosts of Parker’s wife and daughter all pop up in this novel); I think it might be overkill to add another.

RECOMMENDED

The Travelers by Chris Pavone

Published by Crown on March 8, 2016

Will Rhodes writes for a travel magazine called Travelers, having been hired by a newly promoted editor after the former editor mysteriously disappeared. Will’s job is to travel to interesting places, eat good food, and stay up late drinking with strangers. Nice work if you can get it, but he’s burdened with debt, his wife is cranky about his unavailability, and his fidelity is tested by a gorgeous Australian he meets on a trip to France.

While in France, Will stumbles across someone who doesn’t want to be found, setting the plot in motion. We also see glimpses of a nondescript office full of nondescript employees who monitor the movements of designated individuals, Will among them. And we see Will’s boss disappearing into a secret room, so we know he’s something more than a travel editor.

In fact, every key character is living with secrets. Even Will, eventually. The fact that so many interrelated characters are not who they appear to be is improbable, but I was willing to suspend my disbelief because the improbable lives all contribute to the story’s entertainment value. Guessing the exact nature of those secrets, and whether various characters are working at cross-purposes, is part of the fun. Distinguishing good guys from bad guys is no easy task, thanks to a well-designed plot that manages to be intricate without becoming convoluted.

Originality is the story’s strongest asset. I can’t recall reading another spy novel that has a plot quite like this one. Will’s personality is developed with reasonable care, and while there is less fullness to the other characters, they at least come across as real people. Chris Pavone’s prose is better-than-average, the story moves with a good pace, and the atmosphere in the story’s various settings is convincing.

RECOMMENDED