Sleep in Peace Tonight by James MacManus

Published by Thomas Dunne Books on October 7, 2014

Most of Sleep in Peace Tonight takes place in the months leading up to Pearl Harbor. All but one of the significant characters are real people. I can't say whether the novel is historically accurate but in a work of fiction that really doesn't matter, as long as the broad strokes are rendered faithfully. I suspect, however, that the novel hews closely to history -- perhaps too closely, as it sometimes reads like an academic text. At other times it reads like a biography. Although the novel is written with admirable elegance, it only partially succeeds at breathing life into history.

Harry Hopkins, a special envoy from FDR, travels to England in 1941 to act as "a back door to war diplomacy." As Hopkins tells Ed Murrow in a hotel bar on his night of arrival, FDR opposes America's entry into the war. Churchill wants to change Roosevelt's view. He labors to enlist Hopkins in that cause.

Most scenes in Sleep in Peace Tonight focus on Hopkins as he interacts with Murrow, Churchill, or FDR. A few focus on FDR as he interacts with his advisors (who tend to resent Hopkins' influence) or on Leonora Finch, who has been assigned to Hopkins as a liaison officer and protector. Finch, who normally works as an assistant to British spies, has been charged with learning what she can about Hopkins' view of the war and reporting his feelings to the British government. Murrow's affair with Churchill's daughter-in-law and an affair between Hopkins and Finch seem like an attempt to add spice to a story that is surprisingly lacking in drama. A late section of the novel gives closer attention to Finch as her desire to join the front lines is fulfilled.

James MacManus' descriptions of London during the war -- the desperate attempts to overcome fear, to ignore the bombs and hardships -- are vivid. In addition to those scenes, the novel's greatest interest lies in Churchill's efforts to manipulate Hopkins, and thus Roosevelt, to support Britain's cause. Roosevelt, who feels pressure from voters and influential isolationists who see no reason for Americans to intervene in a European conflict, is no fan of Churchill's desire to maintain the British Empire. Even the controversial Lend-Lease legislation is unappealing to voters who see it as a giveaway of tax dollars to British imperialists. Roosevelt feels similar pressure from his wife Eleanor, who does not want to sacrifice domestic reforms for another foreign war.

I admire the elegant style in which Sleep in Peace Tonight is written, although occasional biographical passages about key characters are too expository. Every American dispatched to London seems to have an affair but that information is presented so clinically that it adds little to the story. The ending is probably intended to have a strong emotional impact but I felt too detached from the characters to be moved by the story's resolution. A key passage at the end is nevertheless inspirational in its summation of greatness and personal sacrifice. To a large extent, the novel's strengths outweigh its weaknesses, but its failure to involve me in the lives of its characters prevents me from giving it an unqualified endorsement.

RECOMMENDED

On the Edge by Edward St. Aubyn

Published in Great Britain in 1998; published by Picador on October 14, 2014

On the Edge satirizes self-absorbed gurus who try to save the world by attending conferences where they can praise each other, people who mistake shallow thought for mindfulness, vision quests, Wicca, crystals, tantric sex, and pretty much all things associated with the marketing of New Age lifestyles. Edward St. Aubyn develops an appealing ensemble cast but doesn't do as much with the characters as I had expected.

Wealthy Brooke pays for New Age teacher Adam's San Francisco apartment and helps finance the book Kenneth is writing on a philosophy of his own invention called Streamism. Jason is a Brit also wants to start a world religion but not before he starts a successful rock band ... a project that, at age 33, seems unlikely. Angela has no boyfriend and thinks a tantric workshop would be a logical place to find one. Stan and (particularly) Karen Klotwitz are old-aged New Agers who, having retired to Santa Fe, are in California for the trantric workshop. Crystal and Jean-Paul do psychedelics in a canyon, ponder madness and mantras, and babble about language and culture. Peter has traveled from England to American to participate in the New Age scene because he wants a German woman named Sabine to believe the universe has brought them together again ... if only the universe will allow him to find her.

The plot, to the extent that one exists, brings the characters together as they explore their inner and outer selves. The meandering story has no discernable purpose beyond poking fun. Humor is an end in itself but it is difficult to sustain a one-note tune. While Edward St. Aubyn almost pulls it off, some lulls in the story felt like padding rather than character or plot development. My attention wandered during some of the lectures given by workshop teachers. The ending is also a bit abrupt.

Still, many books make me smile or chuckle but not many make me laugh. On the Edge provoked frequent laughter. Yes, some of its satirical targets are easy bull's-eyes, like the superficial pap that New Age workshop providers package and sell as profound thought. Yet even obvious humor can be funny if the humor is sufficiently witty. On the Edge is steeped in wit.

St. Aubyn's book is also filled with striking sentences. An example (the reference is to a woman's history with New Age workshops and gurus): "Again and again Crystal saw her [mother] set out with fawn-like credulity, only to end up stalking disappointment like a tigress, bringing it down expertly and living off it for days; ferocious, possessive, alone, while it putrefied beside her." The substance of On the Edge does not match the quality of the prose, but the prose -- and the laughs -- make the novel worthwhile.

RECOMMENDED

The Whispers by Lisa Unger

Published digitally by Pocket Star on October 27, 2014

"The Whispers" is a short story (not nearly long enough to be called a novella), the first of a trio that are intended to promote Lisa Unger's new novel. An excerpt from that novel comes with the story. This review is of the story, not the excerpt.

Eloise is a stay-at-home mom; her husband teaches algebra at Hollows High; one of her daughters is in a goth phase. Eloise survives a family tragedy and is still in a grieving period when a girl, or an apparition, appears in her living room and asks for help. When Eloise sees a picture of the missing child on television, she knows she must help her ... but how? The rest of the story follows Eloise as she exercises what appears to be a newfound psychic talent for "seeing" missing or endangered children and for hearing the whispers from beyond that guide her.

In a novel, Lisa Unger has room to overcome her excesses. She does not do that here. Unger crowds the story with trite observations ("The river of life kept flowing; and one must swim or drown" and "Life is not fair. We just do our best. We have each other"). Clichéd expressions can be buried in a novel but they stand out in a short story, particularly when they come three-in-a-row.

Too much of Unger's prose in "The Whispers" is overwrought ("She would never be whole again"), including a hallucinated/dreamed/imagined "saying goodbye" scene that is meant to be gut-wrenching but, like a couple of other scenes, comes across as sappy. This kind of writing plays well with many readers and if you are one of those, you'll be happy to have your heart strings tugged. But Unger doesn't just tug; she yanks. I prefer a style of writing that is more subtle and original than Unger displays in this story.

The story makes good points about the need to release anger, to forgive others their faults even when those faults cause harm, to avoid sitting in judgment of people whose lives we have not lived. Unfortunately, the plot is insubstantial and covers ground that has been well plowed by bad television shows. I wouldn't necessarily call this a bad story but I would call it forgettable.

NOT RECOMMENDED

Beautiful You by Chuck Palahniuk

Published by Doubleday on October 21, 2014

"I love you because you're so average" is not the nicest compliment Penny Harrigan has ever heard, but since Linus Maxwell, the world's richest man, is only describing her "textbook" genitalia, she can live with it. Having satisfied supermodels and the first female American president, Maxwell knows something about female parts. He is developing a new product line called Beautiful You that might render men obsolete. The products are designed to enhance female erotic pleasure and Penny is the latest in a long line of test subjects, each of whom has been dismissed from the project after 136 blissful days.

Penny rejects both the "women must go to law school" and the "women must stay at home and raise the kids" model but is struggling to find a third way. She would also like to be less lonely. The pleasure provided by the Beautiful You gadgetry is welcome but it is not a substitute for love ... or is it?

Whether Penny will ever get love from Maxwell is a mystery to which Palahniuk provides conflicting clues through much of the novel. Maxwell wears a lab coat during his sexual encounters. When he participates more actively, he scribbles in his notebook (without breaking stride) and studies readouts of pulse rate and blood pressure. Still, he seems to have genuine feelings for Penny. All of this is funny but it also makes a telling point about the clinical and emotional elements of sex. Either element alone (thrilling sex without love or loving sex without thrills) can be rewarding but the combination is a powerful form of witchcraft.

Beautiful You suggests that women pay the price for male inventiveness. The desire of men to control women and the empowerment of women to resist that control is a related theme, one that is advanced here with a conspiracy to enslave women for an insidious (albeit nonsexual) purpose. Beautiful You also explores the changing role of women in society and advances near-future technology as the latest weapon in the battle of the sexes, all from the satirical perspective that Chuck Palahniuk often adopts.

There is not a surfeit of substance in Beautiful You -- most of the satirical points it makes are obvious ("personal fulfillment" can be a selfish desire) and its targets (consumerism, Promise Keepers, corrupt politicians, greedy lawyers, controlling men, trendy women) are easy and familiar -- but the argument it makes in favor of a balance between deep love and astonishing sex is sound. The graphic nature of some scenes and the opening rape might offend sensitive readers but none of the descriptive text is crude or (from my perspective, at least) offensive. Its bawdy nature may be too much for some readers, its silliness too silly for others, but for me, both of those factors added to the humor, some of which is deceptively clever. I particularly enjoyed the way all the plot elements tie together at the end.

On the downside, Palahniuk's prose occasionally has a rushed, unedited feel and I found the over-the-top storyline, while amusing, to be too over-the-top to provoke many belly laughs. Beautiful You is not one of Palahniuk's best literary efforts, but it is sufficiently entertaining to earn my recommendation.

RECOMMENDED

Last Winter, We Parted by Fuminori Nakamura

Published in Japan in 2013; published in translation by Soho Press on October 21, 2014

The crime novels of Fuminori Nakamura explore the psychology of the criminal mind while making the point that the criminal mind is difficult to distinguish from the noncriminal mind. Guilt is often a fluid and ambiguous concept, easily shared and spread, not always understood by those who refuse to look beyond the superficial.

Yudai Kiharazaka, a photographer, has been sentenced to death for the murders of two women who were incinerated in separate fires. The narrator of Last Winter, We Parted has been commissioned to write a book about the murderer. Some people the narrator interviews speculate that Kiharazaka burned the women so that he could photograph them in flames, thus replaying a version of the climactic scene in a classic Japanese short story called "Hell Screen."

The narrator begins his project after becoming fixated on a photograph Kiharazaka took of black butterflies obscuring a figure that might be a woman. He is also drawn to Kiharazaka's obsession with lifelike silicon dolls that are patterned on real women, an obsession shared by a group known as K2.

Some chapters of Last Winter, We Parted consist of Kiharazaka's letters to the narrator and to his sister. Some chapters relate the narrator's interviews with people who knew Kihirazaka, each adding insight to his life while prompting the reader to question what really happened. Some chapters follow the narrator's introspective life as he decides what to do about Yukie, his girlfriend. The narrator becomes uncomfortably involved with both Kiharazaka and his sister while coming to understand their true nature ... and his own.

Last Winter, We Parted is a short but complex novel. The truth about the two deaths is surprising and complicity is found in unexpected places. This is the kind of novel that needs to be read in its entirety before all of the parts can be understood and integrated. Some chapters require reinterpretation by the story's end, while the ending gives the reader a new understanding of the entire book, including the dedication. The novel's brevity and tight construction make all of that possible without placing an undue burden on the reader.

Last Winter, We Parted also considers the relationship of art to the living and the dead, as well as the reality that the art of fiction can inspire. This is a work of philosophy and psychology as much as it is a crime novel, yet the mystery that unfolds is riveting. Near the end, a character asks "Just what does it all mean? This world we live in." Nukamura provides no answer, but he offers the reader fruitful opportunities to think about the question.

RECOMMENDED