Review: Amongst My Enemies by William F. Brown

At the end of World War II a German submarine U-582 slipped into the Baltic Sea on a top-secret mission for the second most powerful man in Nazi Germany, never to be heard from again. Only Michael Randall, a battle-scarred American who survived four months in the frozen Hell of northern Germany, knows where it is. When the U-boat's captain turned up a few years later as an up-and-coming NATO official, Randall decided it was time for him to go back to the Baltic to find proof about a high-ranking spy inside NATO itself and take revenge for the atrocities that cost his best friend his life. He and his team are not alone in the Swedish waters though: the U-boat's former owners want their gold and the Russians want the identity of their spy to stay a secret, so Michael Randall better watch his back.

I've never read any spy novels before now so when Mr. Brown contacted me asking to review Amongst My Enemies I was happy to explore this new-to-me genre, especially since his writing credits were encouraging. I'm glad to say the book did not disappoint.
Amongst My Enemies is a tightly-woven thriller with practically non-stop action and characters who are easy to care about or dislike. As I read and saw how different threads of the story were coming together I began to enjoy the book even more and soon I didn't want to put it down - I wanted to see if the bad guys were going to get what they deserved and of course if Randall would have the guts to get the girl. There was a point when I though I knew what was going to happen (the short paragraph before chapter 1 spoiled that secret) and although I was right about the outcome the "how" took me by surprise. I did not expect the story to take the turn it did and that is always a good sign. That was just one of the many twists and turns and although I grew to anticipate them they did not become less satisfying.
There was a lot of action in this book and I'm pleased to say that those scenes were done well and were balanced with more low-key scenes that allowed for character development. It was fun to watch the spunky Leslie boss Michael around, or try to anyway, and seeing the antagonists during relative down time made them more human, if not less evil.
As engaging as the book is the copy I received is in dire need of a thorough proof-reading - the awkward punctuation, missing spaces between words and descriptions that repeated word for word time after time didn't do the novel any favors. Had a careful copy-editor gone through the manuscript and eliminated all the distractions I would have given the book a higher rating. And one more thing that has nothing to do with proof-reading but it ruffles my feathers because everyone, including NPR, does it: why is it always "the Ukraine"? It's one country, not a collection of states or territories, so just like Uganda, Uruguay and Uzbekistan it doesn't get a "the". It's just "Ukraine"! I'm from there, I know.
If you enjoy spy novels with compelling characters and a fast-moving plot I'm sure you'll like this book, especially if it gets a little TLC in the copy-editing department.

Giveway: While I'm Still Myself by Jeremy Mark Lane

This straight from the author himself:

I will give away a free eBook of While I'm Still Myself to everyone who wants one for a full 24 hours after you announce it.

It is a good book, I still remember most of the stories vividly. You can read my review here and if you'd like a copy please e-mail me at bibliocorner [at] yahoo.com between now and 1:00 PM EST on 4/26/12. I will forward all the requests to Mr. Lane shortly after the deadline. Happy reading!

Review: We Bury The Landscape - Kristine Ong Muslim

We Bury the Landscape is an exhibition of literary art. One hundred flash fictions and prose poems presented to view. From the visual to the textual, transmuting before the gallery-goer’s gaze, the shifting contours of curator Kristine Ong Muslim’s surreal panorama delineate the unconventional, the unexpected, and the unnatural.

This collection of flash fiction was inspired by paintings and photographs and each story is an extension, an interpretation or a look inside the separate works of art. Ms. Muslim's writing is very visual, so much so that reading her stories is like looking at images on canvas, all you need is a tiny bit of imagination to see it in color.
The stories may not describe the art that inspired them but they are tied to it, especially in execution - abstract works yield equally abstract fiction, and more traditional subjects result in stories that are more easily processed by those with limited appreciation for modern art. Being one of the latter while I can see the merits of this collection the pieces aren't something I particularly enjoyed reading - in literature, as in visual art, I prefer fiction that reads more like Vermeer's paintings look, as opposed to Bosch's. If your artistic preferences tend in the opposite direction and you enjoy flash fiction I would venture to guess that you will very much like this collection.

Review: Almost French by Sarah Turnbull

A delightful, fresh twist on the travel memoir, Almost French takes us on a tour that is fraught with culture clashes but rife with deadpan humor. Sarah Turnbull's stint in Paris was only supposed to last a week. Chance had brought Sarah and Frédéric together in Bucharest, and on impulse she decided to take him up on his offer to visit him in the world's most romantic city. Sacrificing Vegemite for vichyssoise, the feisty Sydney journalist does her best to fit in, although her conversation, her laugh, and even her wardrobe advertise her foreigner status.

My project of experiencing France vicariously through others continues with Ms. Turnbull's adventures as an Australian living in Paris, and I have to say, this account surprised me more than once. My previous experiences were through the frivolous and gossipy All You Need To Be Impossibly French by Helena Frith-Powell and the reserved but admiring Entre Nous by Debra Ollivier. These two ladies presented the French, Parisian women in particular, as confident, chic intellectuals who prefer to spend the afternoon reading a good book in solitude. Ms. Turnbull showed us a different picture. Her Parisians are lonely people riddled with insecurities, fatigued by the structure and rules of the city. Her Paris is a city of contrasts, with perfectly manicured gardens and parks, charming quartiers, beautiful architecture, and streets smelling like urine because while asking to use the bathroom of the people you're visiting may be considered a faux pas apparently urinating outside their building is perfectly acceptable.
Fortunately this is only one side of the story and Ms. Turnbull does a good job of finding and maintaining balance in her narrative. Perhaps it's a journalistic trait, to examine the subject from all sides and report on both the positive and the negative. Or may be it's that life's full of both. In a way Almost French is like a Cinderella story: an Australian girl risks it all by moving to France, has a terrible time of it at first, then finds her stride, learns the language and how to navigate the society, and settles in to a happy life in a city she loves with a man she adores.
The book is full of stories of how all that happened, from the desparation of not being able to find work and eating all the chocolate in the apartment, to the exhilaration of telling off a rude stranger without missing a beat, to the surprise of being overshadowed by her own dog, and they're all written in a fun, engaging way that's personal without becoming too sentimental or giving too much information. There are times when the author sounds a bit whiny, or somewhat pushy, but fortunately those times are fleeting.
One of my favorite things about this book is that it doesn't focus only on the usual subjects of fashion, food and seduction but ventures beyond to the issues of actually living in the city, meeting new people, growing to love the villages and towns beyond Paris, learning to appreciate all the different layers of society in one's quartier and getting things done despite the many rules and regulations that come with living in a coveted zip code. When I finished it I felt like I've actually seen some of the reality beyond what tourists usually see, or what the other two authors either didn't experience or didn't choose to share with their readers. It's a nice to have a differet view even though Ms. Turnbull writes about Paris and France in the 1990s and things may have changed, although I am confident that whatever changes took place they didn't radically alter Paris, France or the French.

Reading, In Black & White