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Book Review: The Tears of Dark Water by Corban Addison

Thomas Nelson 2015

This novel reads as if it were written specifically to go straight to a movie screen. And I mean that in the least flattering way.

A father and son set out for an 18-month cruise on their sailboat. The mother stays behind; the marriage is faltering and she isn’t sure whether she will join the two later at a midpoint docking. The sailboat is boarded by Somali pirates led by a man whose sister is held hostage by the men who operate the piracy ring. Tension is supposed to ensue.

Herein lies the problem. Novels depend on characterization and description to lead readers into the interior lives of others…to get them to care. Movies rely on visual and auditory elements, and must strip away the interior elements to present the different sensory input. Two very different formats, two very different types of requirements.

Addison gives us very little interior story. Instead, the 439 pages are pretty much choked with technical details. We discover the types of guns the pirates use and hear about the ships and helicopters that come to the rescue. We learn about the emergency signal that alerted everyone the sailboat had been taken. If only we had been given the same perspective on the characters who handled those weapons and ran those machines.

Oh, and the dialog. This is about the most boring dialog ever. It’s terrible because it reads like a movie script. It’s filled with things the characters do not need to say to each other (or shouldn’t if the narrative had revealed their personalities). It’s lacking the meaningful moments that really provide emotional resonance for a book.

Overall, this novel relies on the plotline to shove it through all 439 pages. There is an effort in the latter half to reveal the motivation of the lead pirate and generate compassion. And in fact the court case reflects this “triumph” of humanity. But it’s far too little, and the machinations the characters go through to unveil this final moment don’t do anything justice in terms of the novel.

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher. I really wanted to enjoy the story on at least some level but did not.

1 star.

October 2015 Hogarth Shakespeare

This was a terrific read, one that I recommend. It’s a retelling (or, as the author calls it, a “cover”) of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale. It’s part of a series of retelling of his plays by different well-known authors like Margaret Atwood and Gillian Flynn.

Now, normally this kind of idea sounds too commercial to me. It raises a lot of skepticism on my part. Just because an author works with their own ideas well doesn’t mean they’re automatically going to be able to make something out of Shakespeare’s works. But, Shakespeare was himself commercial. His plays were presented alongside bear-baiting, a horrible blood sport that centered on the torment of a bound animal. So no matter what we think of Shakespeare today, in his time he was the definition of commercial.

So, anyway, about The Gap of Time. The author sets up different sections here to help guide readers through the time jumps and jumps in point of view. I appreciated that very much. I don’t mind at all, and tend to like, when a work makes me think a little; at the time I was reading this, though, I was sick and couldn’t manage as much mental effort as usual. So the divisions really helped keep me settled in the world.

It’s a contemporary world in which a lost orphan–a foundling, really, lost and found through very nicely proposed means–grows up and reconnects with her biological family. The connections don’t come through any efforts of her own; as in Shakespeare’s chaotic worlds, nearly everything is out of the players’ hands and they are swept along on currents that threaten to drown them as easily as deliver them to new lands.

That’s all I’m going to say about this work. Anything else would be a spoiler. I will tell you that it won’t end the way you expect, that you’ll very much enjoy the ride, and that the protagonist will capture you. You will want her to triumph. Whether she will…you’ll have to find out for yourself.

4 stars

Source: The Inaugural “Write This Speculative Fiction Novel” Contest!

Book Review: The Courtesan by Alexandra Curry

Released Sep 8 2015 by Dutton

In 1881, seven-year-old Jinhua has enjoyed a fairly good life. Her father has refused to have her feet bound and has shown her nothing but love. Then he displeases the emperor and is beheaded.

Jinhua’s wife is not interested in caring for the daughter of her husband’s mistress and sells the girl for a handful of silver coins. Jinhua ends up in a brothel where she is taught the “bed business” with poses like Fishes Eye to Eye, White Tiger Pouncing, and Silkworms Tenderly Entwined. But there is little tender about bed business, as she discovers when she is given to her first client at the age of twelve.

She is told repeatedly that her life is not her own. When she is bought again by a man who thinks she is the reincarnation of his former mistress, she accompanies him on his ambassadorial trips to the West.

I had such hopes for this novel. I requested an ARC from the publisher because the synopsis described a woman’s journey from culture to culture and eventually to herself. Although she does eventually lead her own life, she does so by returning to the brothel after the owner dies and the business passes on to her best friend. There she is raped during the Boxer revolution, her friend is also violated, and her friend gives up her life to save Jinhua’s. So she doesn’t really ever own her own life.

This I could have lived with if the writing had been stronger. The publisher described a fairytale like prose that promised a depth that rewarded a careful reader…exactly the kind of thing I enjoy, and exactly the kind of prose that can fit exceptionally well with historical fiction.

But here the execution is weak. The prose is too spare, and the details tend to be repeated. The repetition does not highlight symbolic or important elements, so it comes off as a weakness in the author’s research.

I’m begrudgingly rating this at 3 stars because, although I would normally rank this as a 2 or 2.5, I recognize that a number of readers will enjoy this a great deal. Just be aware of the flaws before you spend time with this work.

3 begrudging stars

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