White Dog Fell from the Sky by Eleanor Morse

Published by Viking on January 3, 2013 

White Dog Fell from the Sky begins with a startling scene.  A hearse stops on a dusty road.  Isaac Muthethe’s body is removed from a coffin and laid on the ground.  When Isaac revives, a white dog is sitting next to him.  He is relieved to discover that he is in Botswana.  Formerly a medical student in South Africa, Isaac became a follower of Stephen Biko’s movement to end apartheid.  Isaac fled after officers of the South African Defense Force murdered his friend.

In Botswana, Isaac searches for work in an affluent neighborhood where foreigners hire servants and gardeners. The white dog follows faithfully as he goes from door to door. He eventually finds employment as a gardener for an American woman named Alice, whose marital woes seem inconsequential compared to Isaac's problems. Isaac understands that "the bitter heart eats its owner," but he cannot forget the hardships endured by his family. Early in the novel the reader wonders whether Isaac will join the armed resistance against the South African Defense Force, particularly after its members enter Botswana and kill people who are close to him. Unfortunately, some choices are out of Isaac's hands.

The novel shines when it focuses on Isaac. He is a remarkable young man, caring and selfless, forced into a life of hardship and confusion. The novel's shine is tarnished when Alice's mundane problems come to the forefront. Alice is something of a twit. She feels no desire for her husband ("her body felt nothing for his") and tells him so, but seems surprised when he has an affair. She spends a good deal of the novel fretting about her life while showing little inclination to improve it.

Unfortunately, Isaac all but disappears for a large part of the novel and Alice's story becomes the dominant one. Alice meets a fellow named Ian who wants to cut the fences that are harming the nation's wildlife   Despite her generally low opinion of men, she immediately falls for Ian, then falls away in an overly sensitive reaction to something she overhears, then is madly in love with him, all within the space of 24 hours. Why Ian thinks she's worth pursuing in unclear, but after being with her for a day he can't live without her. Their love story is predictably chaotic. Ian is no prize, as he quickly proves, but by working to document the vanishing culture of the San, he is at least trying to accomplish something meaningful while he's in Africa. Had the entire Alice and Ian section been excised from the novel, nothing of value would have been lost. When Alice (minus Ian) resumes center stage, there is very little left worth reading about. After Isaac finally resurfaces, he reignites the story's spark, but it comes too late to redeem the novel.

Although it is obvious that Eleanor Morse once lived in Botswana, descriptions of the country read as if they were cribbed from a Rough Guide. Despite Morse's fluid writing style, the country doesn't come alive; the atmosphere isn't vivid. The historical information about the San is interesting but it reads like an article in National Geographic. The discussion of the San comes across as academic, rather than the passionate, first-person account we would expect to hear from Ian if he were a real person.

The image of the white dog is interesting ("White Dog knew things from the other world, things that most dogs don't know") but the symbolism of White Dog's steadfast devotion and patience is a bit forced. I think the novel is trying to deliver a message but I'm not sure what it is. Good things come to dogs who wait? Life is tragic for everyone? Love is complicated? It's better to be in love than to try to save the world? Ian's revelation in a moment of danger -- "without love, there's nothing" -- is awfully trite. The attempt to equate Alice's life with Isaac's, because they both "lost something" and feel empty, is ludicrous.

Ultimately, White Dog Fell from the Sky strikes me as a marvelous novel married to a mediocre novel.  Since the mediocre novel dominates, I cannot recommend the work as a whole with any enthusiasm.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Happy New Year!

Ratlines by Stuart Neville

Published by Soho Crime on January 2, 2013 

Three men have been assassinated: a Belgian and a Norwegian who, having allied themselves with the Reich, came to Ireland as refugees, and a German who worked for the SS. A note left in a victim's pocket suggests that the killer will soon be coming for Otto Skorzeny, formerly of the SS (a character who is borrowed from the real world). With President Kennedy about to visit Ireland, the Irish government can afford no political unpleasantness. The Directorate of Intelligence assigns Albert Ryan to investigate the killings. As Ryan pursues that task, the killings continue; a Breton who fought for Germany becomes the next person selected to deliver a message to Skorzeny. When it becomes clear that someone close to Skorzeny has betrayed him by acting as an informant, Ryan and Skorzeny are in a race to find the rat. Also putting pressure on Ryan to deliver information is a Mossad agent named Weiss who eventually becomes one of the novel's central characters.

The question of Irish neutrality during the war is directly addressed in a discussion between Ryan and a rabbi, but it provides a fascinating subtext that pervades the novel. Ryan is not a popular guy in his home town, in part because his family is Protestant, in part because he fought for the British during World War II -- the surest route he could find to leave home. In the eyes of many, he allied himself with his nation's enemy. Now he is being asked to ally himself with a former Nazi. Ryan's divided loyalties make him a more interesting character than is common in thrillers.

Weiss adds another layer of intrigue when he tries to exploit Ryan's sense of conflict for his own ends. Amidst the many competing agendas, the truth is obscured, at least for awhile, leaving Ryan even more unclear as to where his duty of loyalty may lie.

The plot is mildly complex but easy to follow. I wouldn't call it convoluted. It turns on a surprising twist that comes about two-thirds of the way into the story -- surprising but, I thought, credible. Stuart Neville creates a dark and gritty atmosphere while populating the novel with the kind of grim, morally questionable characters who serve as a perfect foil for Ryan. Action scenes are nicely interspersed with scenes of political intrigue.

Occasional moments of melodrama mar the story, and the characterization of Skorzeny is a bit over-the-top, but both of those are common flaws in modern thrillers, and neither is so pronounced as to trouble me. The ending, while satisfying, is a little too neat. On the whole, though, Ratlines is enjoyable and, at least on occasion, thought-provoking. That's more than I can say about most thrillers.

RECOMMENDED

Trouble Is My Name by Stephen Marlowe

First published in 1956; published digitally by MysteriousPress.com/Open Road Media on December 18, 2012 

Stephen Marlowe was a prolific author who wrote under a variety of pen names. He attached his real name (Milton Lesser) to a few science fiction novels that are all but forgotten. His detective fiction is largely remembered for his creation of Chester Drum, a private investigator based in Washington, D.C. Trouble is My Name, a Drum novel, was first published in 1956. The story takes place in that time frame.

During the war, the O.S.S. supplied gold bars to fund a partisan resistance group in Germany. The responsible O.S.S. officers, Fred Severing and Kevin Keogh, disagreed about whether the gold should go to a group of Bavarians or a group affiliated with the Russians. Then Keogh died and the gold disappeared. Years later, for reasons that remain murky until the novel's end, Severing, now a congressman and a probable vice presidential candidate, is back in Germany.

Chester Drum travels to Germany in search of Severing, who has displeased his party by disappearing without explanation. To find Severing, Drum needs to speak to Wilhelm Rust, a war criminal who has served his sentence, but the interview is interrupted by gunfire. The Streicher twins, entertainers who double as killers, are after Rust, as are the West German security police, Rust's son, and Keogh's daughter Patty, who wants Rust to explain how her father died. Drum, naturally, is caught in the middle.

Drum is the kind of private detective who dominated noir fiction in the 1940s and 1950s. He's bright, tough, and cranky. He oozes integrity. You have to wonder how any of these guys made a living. They were always working for free, doing what needed to be done because it was the right thing to do, disdainfully ripping up checks from clients who tried to fire them.

Drum's biggest problem is that "the right thing to do" isn't always clear. He wants to be on the side of the angels, but someone stole the gold and someone is willing to murder to recover it. Is Severing an angel, a devil, or a pawn?

The set-up is interesting and credible. Marlowe's capable prose moves the story forward at a steady pace, leading to an extended action scene that (unlike many modern thrillers) is also credible. The conclusion is pure noir and quite satisfying.

RECOMMENDED

Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See by Juliann Garey

Published by Soho Press on December 26, 2012 

Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See is an honest, searing examination of a man in pain, a man suffering from a mental illness that is beyond his understanding or control. The illness turns him into a raging a-hole, and because it is not a physical illness with easily identifiable symptoms, because he suffers from bipolar disorder rather than cancer, he is shunned, treated with derision rather than sympathy.

As the novel begins, Greyson Todd, a studio executive, is becoming increasingly reclusive. He can't handle the noise of life. His memory, once his strongest asset, is failing. He can no longer cope with responsibility. One day, after a bit of planning, he leaves his life and eight-year-old daughter behind. The story then begins to tumble in time until the reader realizes that in the present, Greyson is hospitalized, undergoing treatment for his condition.

Some of the novel is quite compelling, particularly the sections that directly address Greyson's mental illness. Juliann Garey describes Greyson's decaying mind in powerful, convincing prose. "Slowly, over time, like wallpaper, the face I have shown the world has peeled away. I am a building on the brink of being condemned." His description of depressive thinking and suicidal ideation is vivid. Greyson's attempts to anesthetize and to distract himself are frighteningly real. The descriptions of Greyson's treatment -- the ECT (a nice name for electroshock), the memory loss, the lethargy and other side effects of lithium -- are harrowing. They leave the reader wondering whether the cure is worse than the disease. There are also some touching moments as Greyson's mind begins to clear and he tries to reestablish relationships that may or may not be permanently damaged.

Other parts of the novel seem fragmented. I'm sure that's deliberate, a representation of a fragmented mind, and after an understanding of the novel's structure takes hold, the random jumps in time become easier to digest. The fragments, pieced together, tell the story of Greyson's life. Some work better than others. The early years (1957-60), showcasing Greyson's relationship with a father who had his own mental health problems, are insubstantial. The 1970s and early 1980s, when Greyson is advancing from agent to superstar agent to studio executive, tell a too familiar story of Hollywood excess. More interesting are the years after Greyson leaves his family: an erotic encounter with a Bedouin in the Negev; touring the sex menu in Bangkok; in apparent pursuit of a death wish, taking a dubious tour of the "real" Africa. Greyson's attempt to live independently in New York, characterized by isolation and paranoia and meltdowns, reflect some of the novel's strongest writing.

This is not a good choice for readers who want to bond with likable characters. It is easy to sympathize with Greyson, but an honest portrayal of a manic-depressive assures that the character will often be unlikable. Greyson's daughter is quite likable, as is an old man who befriends Greyson when he's living in New York, but they both play limited roles in the overall narrative. Readers looking for happy endings and closure might also be disappointed with the novel. Still, there is a sense of guarded hopefulness at the novel's end; the story isn't entirely bleak. The ending is realistic and, as Garey makes a point of saying, it isn't Hollywood cheesy.

The novel's message -- other than the need to understand rather than condemn the mentally ill -- is that bipolar disorder is an extreme manifestation of what most of us experience in our daily lives: highs and lows, mood swings, moments of irrational anger or unexplained exuberance. We manage to stay in control, "the ups and downs stay within a manageable range," but that reflects our good fortune, our good brain chemistry, not our good character. We can't take credit for it, any more than Greyson is to blame for the faulty wiring of his brain. I give Garey credit for conveying that message so effectively.

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