The title of this post refers to "The Drifters" by James Michener, "Thief of Souls" by Ann Benson, and "The Glass of Time" by Michael Cox.
"The Drifters" was a novel a co-worker loaned to me. Not one I would have picked up on my own. Plus, it deals with the hippie flower children of the 60s. Not my favorite time period. For some reason unknown to me, I don't like movies or books set in the 60s or 70s. Especially movies set in the 70s. Go figure. I think it's the outfits. Anyway, the books was pretty interesting. It was looooooong. Almost 700 pages long. But it introduced you to a band of young people who were hanging out in Europe. The narrator is an older man who works for an insurance company who befriends them and keeps running into them.
The thing that captivated me was that Michener, writing about the late 60s in 1972 totally understood what the young people were trying to do and what they were struggling against. He also correctly hypothesized about the consequences of the actions/inactions of that generation. Very insightful of him. A lot of times you can't encapsulate a period of history until long after it's passed. That way you can look through the prism of time to help you sort things out. But Michener really got it. I told my co-worker when I handed the book back to him that I felt like I had wasted my youth. No trips to Europe in a VW camper for me. No ragtag group of friends. No radical anti-establishment ideas. It was an interesting book. I can't say that I liked it, but I'm not sorry I read it.
As for the pedophiles part -- Ann Benson's "Thief of Souls" is my kind of book. Or it should have been. Set in the Middle Ages. That's my favorite time period. If I could do over my college years, I would become a specialist in medieval studies. How fun would that be? I guess it's for the best that I can just read about that time for fun, rather than be forced to study it for my livelihood. Anyway, it's a good book. Benson's little literary trick is she sets her novels both in the present and in the middle ages. There are always two mysteries going. The mysteries run along parallel lines. So this one deals with a pedophile/serial killer in the middle ages and another one in the present day. The book states that the medieval character is based on Bluebeard. Huh. I always thought he was a pirate. But he was actually a nobleman who kidnapped, raped, and murdered hundreds of little children. Nice, eh? I won't spoil the modern day mystery part of the book.
But the thing about the book was that you knew who was killing the kids in the medieval part. A nun was trying to piece things together. But you as the reader knew whodunnit. I guess you were supposed to know and the suspense was supposed to be about whether they could actually get enough on the nobleman to convict him. Me, I prefer to not know whodunnit until the very end. I like a little more mystery in my mystery books. Plus, the end of the book went on for far too long after the conclusion of the main events. Got a little bored, but overall it was a decent book.
Now, "The Glass of Time" was a book I just bought on a whim this past weekend. Something about mysteries set in Victorian times are like catnip to me. Plus, it had a really great cover. I'm a sucker for a good cover on a book. Crappy book covers can mean death for an author. Too bad they have absolutely no control over the covers. If they get saddled with a crappy concept, they're screwed.
But, I digress. The book was pretty good. I thought it would have worked better as a young adult novel. The cover blurb talked about "stunning plot twists" but I saw them coming from a mile away. And I don't try to figure things out. I like to be surprised. But this held no surprises for me. But, the book really captured the feel of the Victorian era. And plus, it deals with an estate and inheritance and identities. Wonder why that's such a big motif of books set in and written in the Victorian era? Hm. Something else to ponder.
Anyway, I was kinda "eh" about the book when I finished it last night, but then I read the author's acknowledgments at the end and he started off by saying it had been a terrible two years for him while he was writing the novel. Evidently. He thanked 10 doctors. 10! That's a lot of doctors. Somehow, knowing that he had written this novel during a terribly trying time in his life made me like the book a little bit better. This was his second novel. Evidently his first novel, "The Meaning of Night" got rave reviews. I'll have to pick that up next.
It's fall again. My favorite season of the entire year. And something about this season makes me want to dig in to classics and mysteries and fantasies. The summer is for adventure stories. But fall is when I dive into gigantic books and get away from reality. Plus, the books set in the middle ages and in Victorian times are much more enjoyable when you're reading them cuddled up on the couch with a hot cup of tea. Yay! Let the reading begin!
As for MINI news, my little Simon went to the fix-it shop yesterday morning to get a new dome light. Evidently it's quite common for the buttons on the light to just fall off. Mine fell off approximately two weeks after I bought my car. I just haven't made the appointment to get that fixed until now. So they fixed Simon all up. They also washed my car for me. I got what I paid for. Meaning it was free. There were water spots all over my baby boy! And the windows were all smeared. How distressing! Fortunately, it's been raining all day today, so that erased the problems. Who knew I could be excited about rain on my little Simon? My MINI dealership is going to have a "Homecoming" party next weekend. I'm so there. I already RSVP'd. It's all about the free t-shirt. Yeah, baby!
