Hammer, by Joe Mungo Reed

 Hammer, by Joe Mungo Reed, is a nicely written novel that is billed as a thriller, but reads more like a drama. It takes place mostly in London in the years 2013-14. 

The first character we meet is Martin, an ambitious youngish man working at a London auction house. His backstory is meticulously drawn, including his eccentric parents and best friend James. Later, during an important auction, Martin reconnects with Marina, an old friend, who is now married to Oleg, a Russian oligarch.  This connection with a rich oligarch is an exciting development in Martin's career, but while he is dazzled with dealing with Oleg, he is also drawn into an affair with Marina.  

 Oleg's story is partially shrouded in mystery--we know that many people in his native country consider him to be a crook, that he obviously took advantage of difficult, chaotic times in Russia to make his fortune. After Oleg's mother dies and he goes to visit a cousin still living in his hometown, he becomes remorseful, and sets out on a bizarre and  ill-advised plan to enter politics, to become the next Russian president and save his country.

It is more than halfway through this novel that Oleg decides to sell his entire art collection to fund his campaign. This is when Oleg's hubris really gets the better of him. He believes, deep down, that he is always correct and can do anything he wants, so there is no stopping him. Unfortunately and inexplicably, he does not seem to understand that he is putting himself and those around him in danger. 

While reading this, I learned about Malevich, an important Russian avant-garde painter, and enjoyed some of the symbolism used in this story, particularly the description of a certain painting that is sent to Martin.  Overall, though, I felt that these intriguing details did little to help me understand or like the main characters, or make the plot more compelling.

 Hammer was an enlightening cultural experience for me, and I am grateful for it.  Thank you to Simon Schuster and Netgalley!

Mecca, by Susan Straight

 

Mecca is a novel that will stay with me for quite some time. Not only is the writing beautiful, but I got attached to the characters. Several stories come together to create this wonderful work by Susan Straight, and they show a diversity that is hidden from the eye and describe some of the presumptions and bigotry present in our society.

The title of this book is apt, since Mecca is both an actual place in California, and a mecca for some, for different reasons. Each character has an intricate, well-told story, some of them connected to each other in ways the characters themselves are often not aware. This makes these life stories, the types so seldom examined, all the more intriguing. 

Straight is able to recreate the landscape for us, the beauty of the mountains and canyons, along with the wind, the dryness, and the heat. We are there to witness the struggles of people living in another California (without beaches and mansions), who are often caught between two worlds– their family obligations and traditions, and the outside world’s laws and conventions. 

Mecca is wisdom, emotion, and history woven together in a precious, heartbreaking tale that I strongly recommend. 

Thank you to Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, and Netgalley, for the opportunity to read and review this book, my first experience with this author. 

A Calling for Charles Barnes, by Joshua Ferris

 

This clever novel starts out masquerading as pure comedy, before morphing into a more serious drama about an unusually fractured family.  The narrator is Jake Barnes, who has his own particular origin story that the reader learns about in careful installments. Then, towards the end, Jake the writer looks upon what he has written, and the story becomes the story of the story of Charles Barnes, a metastory. 

Let me back up, though. Charles Barnes has been married multiple times, tried on many lives, involving some hilarious get-rich-quick schemes. However, poor Chuck’s general direction, financially, is downward, owing to the funny, delusional choices he makes. At the age of sixty-eight, he has four children, with whom he has complicated relationships, owing to divorcing their mothers and finally settling down with a woman none of them like. Oh, I should mention that these wives have Dickensian last names. That’s a nice touch.

The important, poignant thing about this story is the love and gratitude Jake has for Charles Barnes, a man who feels like a failure.  Charles has just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer before finding his calling, without doing what he set out to do. So, Jake attempts to breathe new life into his story, and gives him a better ending. However, this does not go as well as Jake would’ve liked, and that’s when he enlightens us about how he has controlled the narrative. The reader gets to peek behind the scenes, and it’s an unusual experience. 

Joshua Ferris’s writing is smart and engaging. This is the first of his novels I’ve read, and I was impressed. I would definitely recommend this, and will happily read his work again.

Thank you to Netgalley and Little, Brown and Company for this opportunity.

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It's been awhile since I posted a review here. I paused my requests on Netgalley to read the first two Dune books, and also read the charming and engaging Museum of Extraordinary Things, by Alice Hoffman. I'm back, now.