Desperation Road by Michael Farris Smith

Published by Little, Brown & Co. on Feb. 7, 2017

Newly released from a Mississippi prison, Russell returns to the town where his father is waiting for him. Russell’s mother died while he was in prison and his father filled the unbearable silence by bringing a woman, an undocumented immigrant, into his home. In addition to his father, trouble is waiting for Russell, old scores that people feel a need to settle. Russell did something stupid but not malicious. He can’t put the crime behind him and neither can the malicious people who think he was not sufficiently punished for it. His former fiancé called off his marriage after he went to prison and now has three kids and a life she regrets. Russell isn’t searching for forgiveness or redemption, nor does he believe he deserves any.

Larry and his brother Walt are the key antagonists who trouble Russell during the novel. Larry isn’t allowed to see the son from his first marriage and his second wife is publicly and repeatedly unfaithful to him. Seeking revenge against Russell may be a way or restoring his sense of manhood.

The other desperate character in Desperation Road is Maben. Broke and homeless, she’s taking her daughter Annalee back to Mississippi because she has nowhere else to go. Desperate circumstances motivate her to take a desperate action. Soon enough, she needs to leave, but again has nowhere to go, no plan, no help, and no hope. Her road intersects with Russell’s a bit beyond the novel’s midway point. That part of the novel hinges on a large coincidence but coincidences happen. This one isn’t so outrageous as to damage the story’s credibility.

Some of the supporting characters are drunks and scoundrels, or just drunks, but other characters are living a responsible life, doing their best with what they have, which isn’t much. Michael Farris Smith’s muscular prose captures the rural southern characters who inhabit his novel (“Russell came across the pond bank and said how you doing old man and the old man grinned with his lips held tight to keep it from getting away from him and he gave Russell a solid handshake as if he’d just sold him a calf”).

I’m impressed with the humanity and understanding that shines through in this novel, the recognition that people are defined by more than their mistakes. Russell believes that rough lives get rougher and he doesn’t believe in fairy tale endings, but the reader hopes that he will manage to find a way out of his various predicaments.

In that regard, I’m also impressed with the suspense that Smith builds. Whether things will end well for Russell and Mabel is the question that hovers over the story. These are people for whom nothing ever seems to end well, so the sense of foreboding is palpable even as the reader roots for their survival. If they stay alive and stay out of prison, that’s the best they can expect. They are, in the novel’s words, “holding on,” and whether they can hold on a while longer is the question that keeps the reader involved with this quietly intense story.

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Sandstorm by Laurence Gough

First published in Canada in 1990; published digitally by Endeavour Press on November 28, 2016

Sandstorm takes place well before Arab Spring and the death of Mu’ammar al-Gadaffi, but it does not feel dated. The story is true to the time and place in which it is set and the atmosphere is convincing.

Charlie McPhee lives in a sketchy part of Cairo where the police rarely venture. His passport is expired. Two years earlier, the woman Charlie was planning to take to Cairo left him. Charlie decided to go on their planned vacation anyway, and couldn’t think of a reason to return.

Charlie has some skills, one of which is the ability to defeat security systems and break into safes. When a safecracker dies and needs to be replaced, Charlie is a convenient, albeit unwilling, replacement.

Charlie’s storyline soon intersects with that Jack Downey, who works for Richard Foster, the CIA’s chief of station in Cairo. Downey’s current assignment involves Gadaffi. To pursue his ends, Downey brings Hubie Sweets and Mungo Martin to Cairo from Columbia, where they were busy fulfilling a CIA contract by killing coca harvesters. Downey also has need of a security system specialist and Charlie fits the bill.

Downey is ruthless and manipulative, as he demonstrates when he recruits a young woman in London whose father was killed in Libya. Downey needs Jennifer Forsyth to get Gadaffi’s attention. I won’t reveal anything else about the plot, because its impact comes from various surprises that are revealed as it unfolds.

The story moves quickly, enlivened by occasional shootouts and fights and chases as Downey’s gang of rogues get into a number of scrapes. The action scenes are more-or-less credible, or at least no more improbable than those in most modern thrillers.

As B-list spy novels go, Sandstorm is a decent read. Readers who want their heroes to be heroic and for the good guys to prevail against all odds should look for other escapist avenues. Sandstorm serves up some of that, but none of the characters are icons of virtue. I appreciated that. The characters tend to be stereotypes but they are interesting stereotypes, unlike the stale Special Forces action-figure superheroes who dominate more recent thrillers. Sandstorm isn’t a first tier spy novel, but I would place it high on my list of second tier action-oriented novels with an espionage theme.

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Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood

Published by Hogarth on October 11, 2016

Hag-Seed is a book for fans of The Tempest. I’m sure it can be enjoyed by readers who are unfamiliar with the play, but its great value lies in its exploration of the play’s themes and characters. That exploration will likely resonate more deeply with readers who appreciate the play.

Felix starts Hag-Seed as the artistic director of a summer theater company in Makeshiwig. Felix’s life has been falling apart since his wife left him, leaving him to parent their daughter Miranda, who died from meningitis at age 3. But Felix refuses to believe that Miranda has vanished from the universe. Felix decides to perform a sort of reincarnation by staging The Tempest and making Miranda “the daughter who had not been lost.” This evasion of death will give Felix a chance to glimpse, through his art, the adult daughter he will never know.

Unfortunately for Felix, his artistic concepts (Caliban as a paraplegic) don’t go over well with the Board, although he fears he has been undermined by Tony, to whom he always delegated interaction with the theater’s patrons. Tony, of course, has been maneuvering behind the scenes to replace Felix. After that happens, Felix finds himself teaching Shakespeare in prison, and producing plays with a cast of prisoners.

I like the idea of teaching Shakespeare as part of a prison literacy program. Of course, objections are raised that prisoners are too stupid to learn Shakespeare, but Margaret Atwood provides a blueprint for how it might be done. She also anticipates and addresses short-sighted objections by "law and order" types who think prison should punish (and punish and punish some more) rather than rehabilitate. That's an issue that probably resonates even more strongly in the United States than in England, where the novel is set. The American public loves punishment, the harsher, the better.

Eventually, circumstances (and the plot) dictate that Felix will produce The Tempest in prison. The prisoners like Macbeth because of its sword fights. They like Julius Caesar because they understand betrayal. They like Richard III because they can relate to power struggles. But the prisoners (and government officials) have some qualms about The Tempest, which seems a little gay to them. Felix nevertheless convinces them to see Ariel as a space alien, not a fairy (or air-spirit), and the show goes on.

The play is modernized a bit with the addition of rap and some contemporary language so that the prison audience can follow it, but fans of The Tempest should love this book for the insightful analysis of key scenes and characters offered by Felix and the inmates. There’s always a schemer in a Shakespeare play, and so it is in this book about the production of a Shakespeare play. Felix hatches a scheme that might be worthy of the Bard. It might not be credible, but the credibility of a plot never bothered Shakespeare, so why should it concern Margaret Atwood?

The situation in Hag-Seed sets up as a comedy and much of the story is amusing, but it’s impossible to read Shakespeare without learning something, and Felix learns something about himself as the story unfolds. Felix is haunted (or comforted) by the ghost (or memory, or fantasy) of his dead daughter, and the play teaches something about the power of illusion ... and about the need to set illusions free. And of course, the prisoners learn something, because The Tempest is (as the novel reveals) a play about prisons and the different ways of living within them. And, as the last line of The Tempest reveals, the play is about pardons, which must be earned. The modern illustrations of the lessons taught by one of Shakespeare’s best plays make Hag-Seed a fun and informative read.

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Gunmetal Gray by Mark Greaney

Published by Berkley on February 14, 2017

I typically roll my eyes at thrillers that require the hero to defeat dozens of highly trained fighters, as if he were a superhero. I make an exception with Gray Man novels because rolling my eyes would divert my attention from the fun, fast-moving story. Besides, Gunmetal Gray strikes me as being more credible than most action thrillers, simply because it illustrates how badly intelligence agencies foul things up when they try to meddle with the rest of the world.

Having resolved his little misunderstanding with the CIA, Courtland Gentry accepts a contract to carry out its latest scheme. Fan Jiang, the best hacker working for the Chinese government, has bolted, making his way to Hong Kong with a head full of secrets. When Gentry arrives in Hong Kong to look for him, a Chinese colonel offer him a contract to kill Jiang. The person offering the contract is someone who doesn’t mess around, but neither does the Gray Man.

An elderly British assassin, a female Russian spy, and Triad gangsters all enter the plot before a hundred pages have passed. And that’s only the beginning of the criminal and intelligence organizations that step on each other’s toes as they try to use or kill Fan. The difference between the spies and the gangsters is often negligible, but Gentry tries to rise above it all to carry out a mission of his own — one that departs from the expectations of both the CIA and the Chinese colonel.

To recover Fan, Gentry frequently finds himself caught between paramilitary operations run by the Chinese and Russians, not to mention the Triad, the Vietnamese army, heavily armed Cambodian and Thai thugs, and the Mafia. All in a day’s work for the Gray Man.

Of course, there are things Gentry doesn’t know about the full scope of the CIA’s plan, because the CIA worries that he’ll go off reservation — again — if he learns the truth. And, of course, the CIA is right about that. The truth matters to Gentry, and being told to be a good little patriot and do what he's told doesn't sit well with him. There’s plenty of action in Gunmetal Gray, but also a fair amount of intrigue.

Readers who are familiar with the series know what to expect from Gentry, but Gunmetal Gray introduces a female SVR agent who is a worthy adversary, or ally, depending on her mood. Gentry and the Russian don’t know what to make of each other for much of the novel. And while Gentry works alone by preference, he finds himself admiring the Russian’s skills (and curves). That adds a bit of spice to the story.

The plot takes the usual twists and turns that a reader expects from Mark Greaney. He’s a clever writer who doesn’t view the world through the narrow lens that impairs most action/thriller writers who focus on international intrigue. The plot is reasonably complex and, as I noted, it is driven by the unerring ability of intelligence agencies to make a mess of things. But political intrigue aside, most of the novel is about the Gray Man doing his thing, and it delivers action in large helpings.

Notwithstanding that this is an action novel, the ending reveals truths about powerful governments that, regardless of ideology, place a higher value on winning their games than they place on moral behavior. The Gray Man is driven by a moral code and is inevitably disappointed that the CIA is not. A nation’s values mean nothing when they are sacrificed for the illusion of security. I loved the way that lesson is revealed in the novel’s ending.

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NK3 by Michael Tolkin

Published by Grove Atlantic on February 7, 2017

NK3 is a post-apocalyptic story, albeit one that emphasizes the lighter size of catastrophe. North Korea releases nanobacteria into the air. They are targeting South Korea, but things get out of hand. Eventually the United States is affected by NK3, which induces a sense of elation before wiping out memory. The usual apocalyptic events occur: electricity is lost, planes crash, fires rage. But government officials had a chance to counteract the effects of NK3 in a limited portion of the population. They saved people with technical skills who were able to generate electricity and do other useful things, and of course they saved their buddies.

Center Camp, stretching out from Beverly Hills, is surrounded by a fence and controlled by a small number of people who are striving to keep civilization alive while drinking expensive wine and living in really nice houses. They are among the early First Wavers who were able to obtain rehabilitative treatment before the system was overwhelmed. Most people (especially people like writers and millionaires who had no practical skills) died or became Drifters and Driftettes. They aren’t zombies, but they shamble and don’t have much to say. Driftettes like to sweep and dance around naked. Second Wavers received belated treatment and are somewhere between the First Wavers and Drifters.

Some late First Wavers have a Silent Voice that guides them. Usually the Silent Voice — “the alienated echo of who you were” — tells them to lie about everything.

Erin is among the early First Wavers at Center Camp who use the DMV database to help match Drifters with their identities. When they verify that people once had skills that the community needs, the Drifters can join the community inside the fence and stop living like scavengers. The community then brands them and endeavors to restore their skills.

Seth Kaplan is a late First Waver who joins Center Camp after Erin verifies that he was once a doctor. And then there’s a young woman who was once a famous pop singer. She gets to join because, well, she’s a celebrity even if nobody remembers her.

Another faction controls the airport and hopes to find a pilot so they can go to a better place, if one exists. Outside of both areas is Hopper, who has been sent on a mysterious mission by someone he calls the Teacher.

Several other characters have taken new names (having forgotten their old ones), including AutoZone, Frank Sinatra, Go Bruins, and Pippi Longstocking. Some people are still around who weren’t affected by NK3, but they really aren’t welcome in the new world order. After all, they’re the ones who caused the problem. Killing them for being normal is the default option.

NK3’s carefully constructed future is full of interesting details, from the clothes that people wear to the mythology that explains an unremembered past. The plot … well, the story is so meandering that discovering a plot is a challenge. The novel is more a collection of amusing subplots that sort of come together, in the way that golden retriever puppies crash into each other randomly when they’re not running off in their own directions.

NK3 makes fun of committee meetings, the snobbery of privilege, the ephemeral nature of popular culture, religions and their various gods, the arrogance and shallowness of power, and people who believe a society should be organized by class membership. Oh, and fences. NK3 definitely mocks people who think building a fence to keep outsiders out is a smart idea.

The story of the pop singer gets a little strange as it nears the end (not that the story isn’t strange before that), as does Hopper’s story. The novel seems to be racing toward a profound resolution that it doesn’t quite achieve. While some of the plot threads disappear in a way that leaves the story feeling incomplete, others manage to come together by the end. A mystery is solved and the story never loses coherence. NK3 isn’t laugh-out-loud funny, but it is consistently amusing and worth reading for that reason, and the notion that we are living our own mythologies (which is my takeaway from the novel) gives the book some modest literary heft.

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