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What I've been reading: Books No. 27-28
May. 22nd, 2020 02:24 pmBook No. 27 was "The Blessing Way" by Tony Hillerman. This is the first in Hillerman's long-running mystery series set in the American southwest, among the Navajo people. The story tells the inter-locking tales of academic Bergen McKee, who is looking for stories of Native American witches, a young woman named Miss Leon who is looking for her boyfriend out in the desert, and McKee's friend, detective Joe Leaphorn, who is looking for the person who killed a young Navajo man. The threads all come together as McKee and Miss Leon try to flee from a killer.
I enjoyed Hillerman's descriptions of the countryside and the details about traditional Navajo life and religion. In some ways, this did feel like a first book, and that Hillerman was still "finding his feet" in writing fiction, but it also feels kind of fresh for the same reason. My one big criticism is that the novel focuses so heavily on Bergen McKee, the academic, and Leaphorn's role in solving the mystery is almost secondary, which is an unusual choice for a murder mystery novel. Overall, though, I liked this and see why Hillerman's Leaphorn & Chee novels became so popular. I'll likely read more by this author.
Book No. 28 was "Sin" by Josephine Hart. I became interested in Josephine Hart's books in the mid-1990s after her first novel "Damage" was adapted to film. I read several of her books in a row from my public library. They are not great literature. Hart always seems to write about people who ruin their own lives and the lives of others because of their obsessions and relentless pursuit of dark desires. They're melodramatic brain candy, but I enjoy them. This one tells the story of Ruth, who is relentlessly jealous of her foster sister, Elizabeth. Ruth's obsession is trying to understand Elizabeth and also simultaneously trying to secretly ruin her. But Ruth's obsession, of course, also hurts her eventually.
I couldn't remember if this is one of the Hart novels I read in the 1990s, but I got to a pivotal scene about two-thirds of the way through and did remember that scene very clearly, so I must have first read this back sometime between 1993 and 1995. I enjoyed this a little less the second time around, mostly because my taste in literature has evolved since my late teens/early 20s, but it still fit the bill for a short, easy read, a little bit of decadent pleasure.
( The other books I've read so far this year: )
I enjoyed Hillerman's descriptions of the countryside and the details about traditional Navajo life and religion. In some ways, this did feel like a first book, and that Hillerman was still "finding his feet" in writing fiction, but it also feels kind of fresh for the same reason. My one big criticism is that the novel focuses so heavily on Bergen McKee, the academic, and Leaphorn's role in solving the mystery is almost secondary, which is an unusual choice for a murder mystery novel. Overall, though, I liked this and see why Hillerman's Leaphorn & Chee novels became so popular. I'll likely read more by this author.
Book No. 28 was "Sin" by Josephine Hart. I became interested in Josephine Hart's books in the mid-1990s after her first novel "Damage" was adapted to film. I read several of her books in a row from my public library. They are not great literature. Hart always seems to write about people who ruin their own lives and the lives of others because of their obsessions and relentless pursuit of dark desires. They're melodramatic brain candy, but I enjoy them. This one tells the story of Ruth, who is relentlessly jealous of her foster sister, Elizabeth. Ruth's obsession is trying to understand Elizabeth and also simultaneously trying to secretly ruin her. But Ruth's obsession, of course, also hurts her eventually.
I couldn't remember if this is one of the Hart novels I read in the 1990s, but I got to a pivotal scene about two-thirds of the way through and did remember that scene very clearly, so I must have first read this back sometime between 1993 and 1995. I enjoyed this a little less the second time around, mostly because my taste in literature has evolved since my late teens/early 20s, but it still fit the bill for a short, easy read, a little bit of decadent pleasure.
( The other books I've read so far this year: )
