Prudence, by David Treuer

This novel is set from about 1942 - 1952, mostly in northern Minnesota. The Washburns, Emma and Jonathan, own a summer house--"The Pines"--on a lake. Jonathan, a physician, spends only a little time there, but Emma goes for the whole summer. They employ a caretaker named Felix, who is a Native American. Several other Native Americans are among the characters, including Prudence, of the title.  (Mr. Treuer is a member of the Ojibwe tribe.)

The Washburn's only son, Frankie, comes to visit just before he is about to ship out with the Army Air Force as a bombardier. Just before his arrival, a prisoner escapes from the newly-constructed prison camp not far from The Pines. Local people have formed search parties, and Frankie is eager to search for "The German." 

The tragic accident that occurs at this point is the focus of the novel, which gives a good picture of what life might have been like in this area during World War II and the years right afterward. There is also an unavoidable comparison between the Holocaust and the genocide perpetrated against Native Americans by the European invaders of America.

Review and audio from NPR's Fresh Air

Washington Post Review

More than once it has occurred to me just how often the firing of a gun determines the course, outcome, or resolution of a piece of fiction. This novel is no exception.

December 6, by Martin Cruz Smith

Harry Niles is an American by birth, brought to Japan by his missionary parents somewhere around 1920, perhaps a little before. His father's zeal left him largely unsupervised, living with his alcoholic Uncle Orin in Tokyo, and Harry, running in the streets with Japanese boys,  became more Japanese than gaijin.

In this book, we read of Harry's adventures on the title date. Niles, a self-professed con man, owner of a night club, successful gambler, has come into possession of information about the Japanese military's plans, and a peculiar point of view as regards them.

Harry's luck is legendary, and propels him through the amazing plot in the day and hours leading up to the invasion of Pearl Harbor. I'm sure that historians could argue over the accuracy of the time and place, but however fantastic the story might be, I read this from cover to cover in a short time. It is suspenseful and fascinating.

LA Times book review

The Heart of the Matter, by Graham Greene

An audio book.

Ah, Graham Greene again. What a pool of calm and good sense one enters into when reading one of his books.

This is the story of Major Scoby, a policeman in West Africa during World War II. The vicissitudes of war, the clash of cultures, the threats of disease and violence, are ever present, yet Scoby presents himself as a model of reason and rectitude.

Scoby is a Catholic, which is of course the heart of many of Greene's matters, but in the course of this novel he finds himself grimly at odds with his religion, and in danger of losing his soul. In the end, we are presented with an intensely sad and difficult paradox, which left me wondering how, exactly, Greene felt about his religion.

This is such a beautifully written piece of work that I hope to acquire it on paper and read it again.

Travels With My Aunt, by Graham Greene

I don't know why I didn't read this book many years ago. Greene never fails to satisfy. This is the story of Mr. Pulling, a retired banker, bachelor whose mother has recently died. His aunt comes into his life at his mother's funeral, reveals an alarming secret, and changes Pulling's life completely.

Some choice bits:

p. 79

[Pulling moves his lips when thinking. Once, in the bank...] "The habit betrayed me very badly with a woman who was stone deaf and a lip-reader. She was...very beautiful...couldn't help dwelling a little wistfully on her loveliness...One is more free in thought than in speech and when I looked up I saw that she was blushing..."

p. 146

"...as I lay in the...nursery with a night-light beside the bed to drive away the fears...I was afraid of burglars and Indian thugs and snakes and [illegible] and Jack the Ripper, when I should have been afraid of thirty years in a bank and a take-over bid and a premature retirement and the Deuil du Roy Albert."

This last item is the name of a dahlia. I should have mentioned that Pulling raises dahlias.

p. 179

[O'Toole to Pulling]

"...Have you any children, Henry?"

"No."

"You are a lucky man. People talk about the age of reason. There's no such thing. When you have a child you are condemned to be a father for life. They go away from you. You can't go away from them."

p. 218

[Visconti to O'Toole]

"...Champagne, if you are seeking the truth, is better than a lie detector. It encourages a man to be expansive, even reckless, while lie detectors are only a challenge to tell lies successfully."

The Blind Assassin, by Margaret Atwood

So wonderful. Maggie can't miss, it seems.

This is a complex, multi-layered novel, but not a bit confusing. Atwood tells several stories here, not the least of which is the history of the decade before the outbreak of World War II, and the repression of unions and progressives.

The central characters are sisters, Laura and Iris. Their father is a minor industrialist with a factory near Toronto. Laura, we learn early on, does not live long, but becomes famous posthumously for writing a novel, the title of which is the title of this book. We get segments of the novel-within-a-novel throughout the work. Atwood also uses news clippings (fictional) among the chapters, which switch back and forth in time. All this is done with great skill; one has the impression that this is the way to tell these stories, that no other method would be as satisfying.

Among other lessons, The Blind Assassin teaches us that greed, a lust for power, and the forces of unbridled capitalism have human and individual consequences, some of which are quite specifically illustrated, others hinted at or implied.

Iris and Laura are women, though born into a wealthy family, they are still without power. We see them treated as children at best, and slaves at worst. Since they are both very intelligent and resourceful, they manage to wrest some freedom and self-determination from the world, but not without great cost, especially in Laura's case.