Black History Month Author #1

Frank Garvin Yerby
(1916-1991), was born in Augusta, GA. He wrote popular historical fiction, and his books are often categorized as Romance and Gothic. In 1944 Yerby won the O.Henry Award for "Health Card" -- a best first-published short story. In 1946 The Foxes of Harrow was published, and later picked up as a popular Hollywood movie.
The Black literary community criticized Yerby for not giving more attention to racial problems. He moved to Europe in the early 1950's and lived the rest of his life outside the U.S.
Yerby's career boasts thirty-one published titles, many of which have been reprinted in England and U.S, in large print and paperback; three titles were adapted for movies. He died in Madrid, Spain in 1991.

Deadline in Athens - Review

I enjoy books that give a different persective and let me "travel" to new locations. Deadline in Athens did just that.

I had to rethink the way I went into this book; U.S. standards didn't apply. Told in first person, Haritos reflects on page 4: "...who has time to worry about Albanians? If they'd killed a Greek, one of ours...that would be different. But they could do what they liked to each other. It was enough that we provided ambulances to take them away." Actually, the prejudices and reactions presented aren't a lot different from what can be found in police departments in this country. Here, however, in books it's usually a secondary character that is blatant with hostility while the protagonist tsk tsks and attempts to make up for the other's lack of PC.

Not so with Deadline in Athens. In this book, all the characters are very up front with their prejudices; there are also instances of what could be called police brutality but is taken for granted in this Athens atmosphere. This police behavior is also explained a bit, as Haritos thinks back to his days with the military police--to the revolutions just two decades removed within the country--to the different political structure of Greece compared to the States.

But about Inspector Haritos. Putting aside the honest representation of his prejudices, why did he have to emotionally and verbally abuse his wife? By the end of the book, it seems it was part of the roles they played in their marriage, but it nagged at me.

Will this domestic glitch be enough to keep me from reading another Inspector Haritos mystery? Definitely not. Too well written, too unique a story line for me to pass up a title because of My prejudices.

Poorly Wrought Books What Not To Do

A friend's recent post over at Facebook listed a link to a NYT article about memoirs. In it, the author gives his list of things NOT to do if you're bound and determine to write your memoir. It's unfortunate that the article was a few years too late for author Meloy's The Anthropology of Turquoise. The language was well crafted, but the entirety didn't capture me as a volume of import. I'm sure someone else has/will read it and be smitten.

The Prison Ship also had a few things authors should not do.

Do not think your prose is so witty that it can't be streamlined; do not use adjectives (often multiple adjectives) in eight out of ten sentences; do not sacrifice story line for verbose descriptions (even elegant descriptions) of rooms and restaurants and food.

I admit I'm picky, but phrases such as "wander apparently aimlessly" and "his hands lying apparently idle" and "he moved apparently quite casually" are awkward. As is, "[His thought] of her body beneath the clothes revealed in his memories as effectively as the bodies of travelers passing through the new airport X-ray security machines."

One character spoke "trenchantly" two times in three consecutive paragraphs; or how about "[they effused] angry negativity and almost childishly sulky resentment." I don't think I've read a book with more adjectives and modifiers.

Wedged within this was a mystery that seemed like an afterthought; it was convoluted and overrun by the heavy prose; I found no charm in it.