The Art of War by Sun Tzu

Published by St. Martin's Press on March 29, 2022

Sun Tzu is so well known that he can quoted by people who have never read him. Lord knows I’ve done it. And Lord knows an endless number of authors have based their self-help books on Sun Tzu’s. Some of those might have even read The Art of War, although I doubt it.

St. Martin’s Press is publishing an “Essential Pocket Classic” edition of The Art of War. It’s in English, so I thought, why not read it? Leaders in business, football, and other occupations who liken themselves to generals fighting wars all swear to have followed Sun Tzu’s fifth century guidance. For those who have been faking it, this is their chance to actually read the book. Lionel Giles’ 1910 translation is clear and elegant, although Sun Tzu might account for some of the elegance.

Not all of Sun Tzu’s advice about war provides a useful analogy to fighting other battles. Using fire as a weapon is probably not a sound strategy in the business world. Even as applied to warfare, Sun Tzu’s advice about defending high ground versus low ground versus intersections and the six other “varieties of ground” are probably better suited to generals whose armies consist of chariots and swordsmen. Still, Putin’s generals might have wanted to read Sun Tzu’s advice about protecting supply lines and not getting bogged down. Maybe there isn’t a Russian translation.

For those who don’t want to spend an hour or two with the book, here is my Shorter Sun Tzu:

Know your enemy and know yourself. Pick your fights. Never fight without a purpose. Plan ahead but seize unexpected opportunities. Strike where the enemy is weak. Fight from a position of strength. Be sneaky. Don’t be fooled by a sneaky enemy. Use spies to gather information. Watch out for enemy spies. Keep your head. Don’t be predictable. Recognize and adapt to changed circumstances. Don’t fear retreat. Don’t go out of your way to piss off the enemy. Leaders should be firm but fair. Leaders should share goals but not strategies with the troops. Get out of bed before your enemy. Don’t fight uphill. Armies are expensive. Be generous with the spoils of your plunder. Such is the art of warfare.

Of course, Sun Tzu says all of this with more eloquence, hence: “At first, then, exhibit the coyness of a maiden, until the enemy gives you an opening; afterwards, emulate the rapidity of a running hare, and it will be too late for the enemy to oppose you.”

I’m not sure that war analogies are all that useful outside of football. Healthy competition doesn’t need to be a war. Cooperation can be more productive than conquest. Sun Tzu also notes that, in the military context, there are good reasons not to fight wars when they can be avoided. I regard that as his best advice.

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Redemption by Mike Lawson

Published by Atlantic Monthly Press on April 5, 2022

Jamison Maddox’s mother and uncle are wealthy, but he is proud of his independence. He makes a healthy salary on Wall Street until he goes to prison for insider trading. When he gets out, his mother won’t support him and he’s too proud to ask his uncle. Felons can’t easily get jobs in finance — not unless they’re connected, anyway — so Jamison grudgingly accepts an unsolicited offer to work in Redemption, Illinois for a low six-figure salary. Jamison’s job is to do financial research and to keep the results confidential. Very confidential.

Jamison is never told a client’s identity or why he’s conducting the research. He’s on the second floor and has no access to the third floor, where employees presumably have those answers. The first floor is devoted to security, which is tight: regular polygraph tests, periodic searches of cellphones and home computers. The first rule of working at Drexler Limited is don’t talk about Drexler Limited. Not even to other employees of Drexler.

Having little else to do in a small town, Jamison begins an affair with his boss’ beautiful wife, who also works at Drexler. About the time that Jamison learns some dark secrets about Drexler, Gillian Lang convinces him to run away with her. They need to abandon their lives and find new identities because, if Drexler catches them, they’re dead. Why they face that threat is not immediately clear, although it is obvious from the start that Drexler is a shady operation.

Some readers might have sympathy for Gillian. She was raised in (and feels stifled by) a life of crime. She is, however, rather manipulative and has internalized the belief that crime is an appropriate means of achieving personal comfort. If Drexler would let her out more, she’d probably be fine with her life.

Some readers might have sympathy for Jamison. He’s a bit spoiled and entitled but he’s minor league as financial criminals go. He’s also dealt with his circumstances — both his privileged life and his downfall — in ways that suggest he is governed by a loose code of decency. I was indifferent to both characters apart from admiring their remarkable luck as they endeavor to stay alive.

A few other characters are differentiated by their personalities. The ruthless head of Drexler feels no remorse but is grateful for the good life that Drexler has given him. Jamison’s rich mother is self-centered and loathsome; his rich uncle is friendly and helpful; his uncle’s daughter is autistic and resourceful. Jamison’s uncle is probably the only character in the novel a reader might want to know.

The story suffers from a weak ending and an improbable premise. The novel’s resolution seems too easy given the turmoil that precedes it. A character’s ability to negotiate immunity with no evidence that he has anything of value to offer suggests a failure to understand how federal prosecutors work. The full truth about Drexler, revealed in the novel’s last pages, is difficult to swallow. Those weaknesses aside, Mike Lawson sustained my interest by never making the novel’s direction or outcome obvious. I would give the novel a wavering thumbs up, but Redemption is not in the same league as Lawson’s recent Joe DeMarco novels.

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Ocean State by Stewart O'Nan

Published by Grove Press on March 15, 2022

Marie Oliviera narrates pieces of Ocean State from an adult perspective as she recounts formative events of her childhood. Her family lived and had generational roots in Rhode Island. When she tells the story, Marie is the only family member who has not fled from the small town where she grew up.

At 13, Marie had a child’s “overdeveloped sense of justice.” She wanted everyone to be happy, “despite our actual lives.”  Marie had a reasonably close relationship with her mother Carol (despite Carol’s unsuccessful efforts to curb Marie’s overeating) but Marie wasn’t thrilled about Carol’s drinking or the men she dated. Marie had a slightly better opinion of Russ, who at least spent money on Carol, than she had of Wes, who owned guns and throwing stars and did cocaine. Marie’s father was mostly absent, but that didn’t stop him from getting into a dust-up with one of Carol’s boyfriends. It's that kind of family, which might explain why events unfold as they do.

Marie's narrative revolves around her older sister Angel. From almost the first page, the reader is aware that Angel killed a girl named Birdy Alves. Much of Birdy’s story is told from the perspective of a third person narrator. The first- and third-person narration combines to explain the escalating tension between Birdy and Angel. After about two-thirds of the story has has been told, Birdy disappears. The rest of the story addresses the aftermath of Birdy’s death.

Stewart O’Nan is an adult male, but he crafts a convincing portrayal of the drama that is so often central to teen female lives. Birdy is insecure, demanding, and driven by uncontrollable desires. After dating Hector for some time, she begins fooling around with Angel’s boyfriend, Myles Parrish. Birdy is willing to risk her relationship with Hector, in whom her interest has waned, to satisfy her craving for Myles’ attention. When an incriminating photo of Birdy and Myles appears on social media, Angel realizes that (1) she needs to keep Myles on a much shorter leash and (2) Birdy needs to be punished.

Myles is from a more affluent family and is probably out of Birdy’s league, but the same could be said of his relationship with Angel. He’s cheated on Angel before and apparently finds satisfaction in shagging Birdy. At least, he doesn’t seem capable of choosing between them until Birdy and Angel force the issue. Myles is a typical teenage male who goes along to get along, mindlessly following the directions of whichever girl he happens to be with when she gives him an ultimatum.  

Birdy spends much of the novel feeling humiliated as a consequence of her own choices (and of the tendency of teenage girls to shame each other). She gets emotional support from her married sister Josefina and from a clueless mother who means well. As a tale of two similar small town families, Ocean State makes the point that parents have little influence when they take on the impossible challenge of raising a teenage girl.

Ocean State also explores the theme of family secrets. Marie doesn’t want her mother to know about her secret snacking. Marie’s mother doesn’t want Birdy or Angel to know about her overlapping relationships with Russ and Wes. Understandably, Angel doesn’t want Marie or her mother to know about the conflict with Birdy that preceded Birdy’s disappearance. Yet secrets are impossible to keep from teens who relentlessly search bedrooms and eavesdrop on conversations to uncover hidden truths.

O’Nan creates palpable tension at the end of the novel as Angel’s lawyer negotiates her fate. As a teen, Angel is incapable of imagining the future. Any amount of time away from Myles is unthinkable. The idea that Myles might serve more time because he’s a male strikes her as monstrously unfair (which, in fact, it is). Angel’s internal struggle is fascinating because, from a standpoint of morality or practicality, she’s always focused on the wrong thing — a transitory love that adult readers understand is both meaningless and the root cause of her problem.

O’Nan managed the difficult trick of turning a teenage tragedy into a real tragedy — one that an adult can appreciate from an adult perspective while recognizing that the teenage perception of facts is vastly different. He makes the wise choice of all but ignoring the murder. A less mature writer might have sensationalized the story with tabloid details. O’Nan keeps the focus on the characters and how they respond to the drama of their own making. That choice brings literary merit to trashy content.

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The Missing Piece by John Lescroart

Published by ‎ Atria Books on March 29, 2022

The Missing Piece is unlike most Dismas Hardy novels in that Hardy makes only an occasional cameo appearance. The plot is initially carried by his law partner, Wes Farrell, before their investigator, Abe Glitsky, begins to carry the load.

Farrell was a prosecutor for most of his career and prosecution is still in his heart. He assumes defendants are guilty. He assumes cops are telling the truth. He really has no business being a criminal defense lawyer and he’s starting to realize that. Hardy invited Farrell into the firm in a past novel and is willing to let him leave if that’s best for Farrell.

As he ponders that decision, Farrell agrees to handle a murder case. Paul Riley answered his door and was shot in the face. Riley’s father saw a man leaving the scene. He identifies the killer as Doug Rush. Riley went to prison for murdering Rush’s daughter but was recently released due to the efforts of a fictional version of the Innocence Project. Farrell got to know Rush when he was prosecuting Riley for the murder of Rush’s daughter.

The police quickly decide that Rush killed Riley to exact vengeance against his daughter’s killer. Although Riley’s father gives a shaky identification of Rush, the police do what they can to bolster the weak identification because it’s easier than identifying and ruling out alternative suspects.

Farrell thinks the case against Rush is weak but he also thinks his client is guilty. He gets Rush out on bond. That turns out to be a bad strategy when Rush is murdered.

The plot combines a whodunit with a police procedural. Glitsky is ex-police, although he works with the cops when they occasionally show interest in capturing the killer of Farrell’s dead client. Glitsky’s investigation take him to Rush’s motorcycle gang, to a couple of women who were sleeping with Rush (perhaps raising the ire of other lovers), and to a long list of prisoners who, like Rush, were exonerated while serving their sentences.

The plot holds together and is reasonably credible. The novel is noteworthy for its examination of the biases held by cops, prosecutors, and criminal defense lawyers. Cops think that everyone they arrest is guilty. Prosecutors think that everyone they prosecute is guilty. Criminal defense lawyers know that most of their clients are guilty, but they also believe that cops and prosecutors are willing to cheat to get convictions, a practice that sometimes causes the innocent to be convicted. Events in the story force characters on both sides to confront their biases.

The primary characters will be familiar to fans of the series. John Lescroart keeps the series fresh in The Missing Piece by moving Hardy to the background and placing two supporting cast members on center stage. As Glitsky and Farrell recognize that their assumptions stand in the way of serving their clients and finding the truth, they gain an illuminating perspective on the work they are doing.

I give Lescroart credit for writing another fair and balanced novel that emphasizes the importance of following evidence to wherever it leads, rather than basing decisions on pro- or anti-police prejudices. He even presents a balanced view of cops who overreact to suspects who resist their authority, while making it clear that (at least in San Francisco) needlessly violent behavior by police officers is intolerable.

As always, the story moves at a good pace, strengthened but not bogged down by characterization and relationships. Glitsky is the victim of violence a couple of times, adding some action that enlivens the story. False leads create multiple potential solutions to the whodunit. The correct solution does not strain credibility to an unacceptable degree. In short, this is another enjoyable Dismas Hardy novel, one that should not disappoint series fans.

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Hammer by Joe Mungo Reed

Published by ‎ Simon & Schuster on March 22, 2022

Russian oligarchs are in the news, making this novel timely, at least in the limited sense that the most significant character is a Russian oligarch. Oleg Gorelov took advantage of the chaos caused by the breakup of the Soviet Union and Russia’s transition to capitalism by starting and growing a business, then by purchasing and closing factories after selling their manufacturing machinery to China, then by buying a mine and making an investment deal with the KGB. Now he conducts his businesses from London, where he devotes a tenth of his income to acquiring art. Some suspect that he has engaged in ruthless acts to obtain some of the works. His apparent lack of concern when he learns that another Russian expat died might suggest a naïveté about the deal he believes he struck with Putin’s people about his ability to transact business in London.

Martin works in an auction house. Martin’s roommate James is a piano player. When Martin and James were in college, James was dating a woman named Marina. Marina’s parents were party members in the USSR before they moved to England. In London, they tried to raise her to be “a completely different person from themselves.” Her father disappeared when she was 21. He might have drowned or been murdered. He might have abandoned his family. The uncertain fate of Russians who take their wealth out of Russia is one of the novel’s themes.

Marina now works in financial services. She is married to Oleg. Martin becomes reacquainted with Marina in 2013 when Oleg brings her to an art auction. As Martin begins to spend time with Marina, he becomes acutely aware that Oleg is a dangerous man. Just how dangerous he might be weighs on Martin's mind.

Initially, Hammer’s focus is on Martin. The focus shifts to Oleg when Oleg travels to Moscow to witness his mother’s lingering death. Oleg responds to a cousin’s letter by visiting her in an eastern region of Russia. The visit is a revelation that opens his eyes to the way ordinary Russians live, as if he has never seen them before. He is also disturbed that Putin has started a war to annex a portion of Ukraine (as I said, the story is timely, although the 2014 war was fought for control of the Crimean Peninsula). Oleg feels compelled to run for office against Putin. This is before it became clear that Putin would be president for life, but it is still a remarkably dangerous thing to do. Oleg is told of the risk that Navalny was taking to oppose Putin, and that was before Putin threw Navalny in prison after trying to have him killed.

Relationships change rapidly during the two years in which the story unfolds. None change is for the better. Marina has come to believe that Oleg doesn’t see her. “The first she knew him, she felt so closely seen, yet he was attending only to his own reflection in her eyes.” Martin’ friendships with James and Marina and his relationship with Oleg are all affected by decisions that impair trust.

Hammer doesn’t have the same impact or emotional complexity as We Begin Our Ascent, Joe Mungo Reed’s brilliant first novel, but the characters have a convincing degree of depth and the twin storylines are interesting. The story involving Martin’s role in the art industry (and the characters’ art commentary) will appeal to fans of the kind of art that shows up in galleries, but that story peters out when the focus shifts to Oleg.

Oleg's story has a feeling of inevitability that might deprive it of suspense, but the novel isn’t intended as a thriller. Reed certainly put me into the head of an oligarch in way that thriller writers and spy novelists haven’t managed.

Hammer has something to say about how money changes people and how people can change despite their money. Martin’s boss, for example, understands that acquiring wealth is only “the first part of being rich.” The art gallery helps the rich confirm “the actual materiality of being rich” by selling rich people things they do not need or necessarily appreciate but purchase because others cannot afford them. Martin has rejected his parents' hippy attitude toward money, an attitude they seem to abandon themselves when they have the opportunity to acquire modest wealth. Marina understands that wealthy people expect their children to "earn for themselves" because "further acquisition signals seriousness." Money changes people, Reed seems to say, even when its recipients deny that they have been altered.

More importantly, I think, the novel has something to say about how ordinary people with ordinary money relate to people who are swimming in wealth, and about the outsized importance that wealth has on the way people of ordinary means think and behave. If the novel is a bit uneven in its juxtaposition of Martin’s story with Oleg’s and with its attempt to bridge the two worlds with Marina, its strengths easily repay a reader’s investment of time.

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