Author: Andrea di Robilant

Release date: June 5, 2018

Publisher: AA Knopf

Pages: 352

Buy from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Autumn-Venice-Ernest-Hemingway-Last/dp/1101946652/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1528837601&sr=8-1&keywords=autumn+in+venice

In the fall of 1948 Ernest Hemingway and his fourth wife Mary traveled to Europe, staying in Venice for a few months. He was a year shy of his 50th birthday and hadn’t published a novel in nearly a decade. During a hunting expedition he met and fell in love with 18-year-old, Adriana Ivancich, a strikingly beautiful Venetian girl just out of finishing school.

“Lovely, seductive, mischievous Adriana became Hemingway’s muse in the most classical sense. She brought joy to his life, inspired him, made him feel young again . . . her presence helped to fill the dried-up well of his creative juices, leading to a remarkable literary flowering in the late season of his life.”

It has been alleged that he used her as the model for Renata in Across the River and Into the Trees and that she traveled to Cuba to see him as he wrote, The Old Man and the Sea. Nearly six decades after Hemingway’s suicide, Andrea di Robilant attempts to reconstruct this rarely written about and mysterious relationship in his new book, Autumn in Venice: Ernest Hemingway and his Last Muse. Robilant is the author of several books that include A Venetian Affair (2005), Lucia: A Venetian Life in the Age of Napoleon (2008), and Chasing the Rose: An Adventure in the Venetian Countryside (2014). The author claims that his great uncle was part of Hemingway’s social circle in Venice.

Generally regarded as past his prime, Hemingway at the time had been suffering from writer’s block and hadn’t published a book in nearly a decade. One day, he is introduced to Adriana Ivancich and is immediately smitten with the naïvely attractive young woman. According to the author, this relationship “took over his life” and she became his muse. They spent countless hours together in Venice and Cuba, all under the watchful eye of Hemingway’s wife. Meeting his muse around town, Hemingway seemed unaware of the nasty chatter he was generating for Adriana. While his wife, Mary was tolerant of his crush as long as it remained nonsexual and it made him happy.

In this methodically researched account of Ernest Hemingway’s obsession with a much younger woman, Robilant draws heavily on previously unpublished letters and journals. He alleges that this relationship helped to produce some of Hemingway’s best works including The Old Man and The Sea, stating “Adriana made all this possible . . . No question in my mind, she revived Hemingway’s writing.”

Autumn in Venice effortlessly and expertly explores the secret desires, successes, and depressive obstacles that shrouded Ernest Hemingway’s final productive years. It ultimately falls short of fully answering the basic premise of whether or not Hemingway and Ivancich’s relationship remained purely platonic. In the end, Robilant does succeed in acknowledging that the malicious rumors of the affair did severely impact Adriana and because of such treatment (fairly or unfairly), she suffered years of depression that ultimately led to her own suicide.

Review first appeared at the New York Journal of Books on June 11, 2018 – https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/autumn-venice

Author: Stephanie Rosenbloom

Release date: June 5, 2018

Publisher: Viking Books

Pages: 288

Buy from Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/Alone-Time-Seasons-Pleasures-Solitude/dp/0399562303/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1528496205&sr=8-2&keywords=alone+time

“Alone time gives us permission to pause, to relish the sensual details of the world rather than hurtling through museums and uploading photos to Instagram.”

In a society that is becoming more and more distracted, many people are genuinely fearful of the prospect of solitude but being alone can have its benefits, especially when traveling. Solo travel is becoming increasingly popular. Intrepid Travel, one of the largest adventure travel companies in the world, reports that half of its guests—some 75,000 people a year—are now traveling by themselves. Airbnb is seeing more solo travelers than ever. The number of searches on Google shows that solo travel is twice as popular as it was three years ago. But for many people, solitude is something to be avoided at all costs and associated with problems such as loneliness and depression.

“Solitude and its perils is an ancient and instructive story. But it’s not the whole story. The company of others, while fundamental, is not the only way of finding fulfillment in our lives.”

In Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude, New York Times travel staff columnist Stephanie Rosenbloom delves into the health benefits of traveling alone. The book spans one year and is divided into four parts with each section set in a new city during a different season. Sections include Paris, Istanbul, Florence, and New York. All are walking cities and people friendly and the text includes topics such as dining alone, learning to savor, discovering interests and passions, and finding or creating silent spaces.

Through on the ground reporting, insights from mental health and social science professionals and recounting the experiences of artists, writers, and innovators, Rosenbloom considers how traveling alone helps deepen the appreciation for everyday beauty, bringing into sharp relief the sights, sounds, and smells that one isn’t necessarily attuned to in the presence of company.

“Alone time is an invitation. A chance to do things you’ve been wanting to do. . . . You need not carry on polite conversation. You can go to a park. You can go to Paris. You’d hardly be alone.”

As someone who’s a string believer in the healing power of alone time, this book is personal and thought-provoking. As Rosenbloom writes, “Time spent away from the influence of others allows us to explore and define who we are.”

Overall, Alone Time is an excellent blend of intimate, in depth recollections of traveling alone as well as a self-help guide to mindfulness. It is a fascinating, light read and highly recommended for anyone planning on visiting the cities discussed. But be warned there is some repetitiveness in phrasing that is somewhat distracting, but with that aside, the pure joy of reading about these delightful cities negates any pitfalls. Overall, Rosenbloom’s writing style is warm and engaging and will most definitely have readers eager to set off on their own solo travels.

Review first appeared at The New York Journal of Books on June 7, 2018 – https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/alone-time

Author: Barbara Cleverly

Release date: May 15, 2018

Publisher: Soho Press

Pages: 368

Buy from Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/Fall-Angels-Inspector-Redfyre-Mystery/dp/1616958766/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1526574328&sr=8-1&keywords=fall+of+angels

Great Britain, 1923: Detective Inspector John Redfrye is a blessing to the Cambridge CID. A handsome young veteran bred among the city’s educated elite, he is no stranger to the set running its esteemed colleges and universities—a society that previously seemed impenetrable to even those at the top of local law enforcement, especially with the force plagued by its own history of corruption.

When Redfrye in invited to attend the annual St. Barnabas College Christmas concert in his Aunt Henrietta’s stead, he is expecting a quiet evening, though a minor scandal: Juno Proudfoot, the trumpeter of the headlining musical duo, is a woman, and a young one at that—practically unheard of in conservative academic circles. When she suffers a near-fatal fall after the close of the show, Redfrye must consider whether someone was trying to kill her. Has her musical talent, her beauty, or perhaps most importantly, her gender, provoked a dangerous criminal to act? Redfrye must seek advice from and keep an eye on an old friend to catch his man before more innocents fall victim.

Fall of Angels is the series debut from bestselling author Barbara Cleverly, who is a graduate of Durham University and a former teacher who has spent her working life in Cambridgeshire, England. She is the author of 13 books in the successful Joe Sandilands and Laetitia Talbot mystery series.

In this inaugural installment, Cleverly introduces an interesting new investigator to the mystery-thriller genre. A classic detective novel set in 1920s England, the story centers on the fight for women’s rights—a battle that proves to be deadly for some of those involved. Fall of Angels has all the customary elements that devotees of Barbara Cleverly’s other writings have come to expect: excellent historical detail, humorous dialogue, intriguing characters, and a whodunit that will keep readers on the end of their seat until the very end. Her writing style is reminiscent of a bygone era that pays homage to the Golden Age of mystery writing.

“Redfrye would never rightly know what instinct, what subliminal sound had triggered his reaction . . . The two players would at any moment now be attempting to come down those high, narrow stairs in pitch blackness . . . The thud and the screams from the stairs rang out as he threw the door open and stood in alarm, trying to penetrate the darkness and make sense of the series of bumps and jagged cries cascading towards him. He rushed at the staircase, blindly reaching out his hands to break the momentum of whatever alarming avalanche was about to engulf him.”

In Fall of Angels, Cleverly capably provides the essential historical background and prerequisite elements necessary for any successful mystery story. She always excels at weaving these fundamentals into her narratives, and this new novel is no exception to the established pattern. Although the mystery itself is sensibly conceived its plotline is not particularly unique, although this doesn’t take anything away from its general readability. Overall, it is a fine series debut that is well worth checking out.

Michael Thomas Barry is a staff reviewer for the New York Journal of Books and is the author of eight nonfiction works.

This review first appeared at the New York Journal of Books (May 16, 2018) https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/fall-angels-inspector-redfyre-mystery and at the Orangecountybookreview.blogspot.com (May 17, 2018)  http://orangecountybookreview.blogspot.com/2018/05/review-of-fall-of-angels-by-barbara.html and Mikeb63.blogspot.com (May 17, 2018) http://mikeb63.blogspot.com/2018/05/review-of-fall-of-angels-by-barbara.html

Author: Melissa Broder

Release date: May 1, 2018

Publisher: Hogarth

Pages: 224

Buy from Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/Pisces-Novel-Melissa-Broder/dp/1524761559/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1525196466&sr=8-1&keywords=the+pisces

For nine years Lucy has been working as a part-time librarian at a small Arizona university and struggling to complete a Ph.D. program in classic literature. She’s fraught with complexities and doubts and persistently contemplates the meaning of life, which she calls “the greater nothingness—the void.”

After a dramatic break-up with her handsome geologist boyfriend, Lucy is depressed and facing a mini-existential crisis. Her sister, Annika, invites her spend the summer in Los Angeles, dog watching and house sitting at their posh Venice beach house. But Lucy finds little relief from her depression and anxiety—not in the love addiction therapy group, not in her frequent Tinder excursions, not even in the unconditional love of her sister’s dog.

“Gods, please help me to be happy. Let me do the will of the universe and be willing to do the will of the universe, whatever that even is . . . I never asked to exist. But I am here now so could you maybe at least try and help me enjoy my life?”

Everything changes one evening, while strolling alone along the beach she encounters a mysterious swimmer. Lucy is immediately infatuated and mesmerized by Theo’s charming demeanor and rugged good looks. But when she learns the truth about the stranger’s identity, their relationship—and Lucy’s distorted understanding of what sex and love should look like—takes an unexpected turn.

The Pisces is the debut novel by award winning poet, essayist, and columnist Melissa Broder. In this bizarre novel, Broder fuses existential malaise and destructive love with a heavy dose of sexual fantasy. The characters are remarkably complex, but be warned the storyline is extremely graphic in its sexual portrayals and accounts. The explicit descriptions of these carnal encounters are somewhat disturbing and gratuitous in their titillation.

The fact that one of the characters is a merman comes across as less pointless than first imagined, and more like an acknowledgment of the absurdity of his existence. Broder’s mixture of straightforward bluntness is unsettling at times but curiously compelling. Her use of darkly humorous realism gives true voice to the depiction of those who are battling depression and suicide.
Putting the silliness of the merman storyline aside, Broder’s writing style cleverly explores the realities of both disappointing casual trysts and meaningful sexual encounters. Comically explicit, contemplative, and sometimes depressingly blunt, the author does an excellent job of exploring everyday human experience. This novel is filled with sincere reflections that ponder the existential question of whether we are destined to always desire what we can’t have?

Often unsettling, peculiar, sexually graphic, unapologetically explicit, but fascinatingly gripping, The Pisces does an adequate job of exploring the fundamental human need for both physical satisfaction and emotional desire, while connecting the frustrating ways that they are almost always mutually exclusive.

Michael Thomas is a staff reviewer for the New York Journal of Book since 2016. This review first appeared at the New York Journal of Books on April 30, 2018 – https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/pisces

Author: Derek B. Miller

Release date: April 3, 2018

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Pages: 352

Buy from Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/American-Day-Derek-B-Miller/dp/1328876659/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1522776333&sr=8-1&keywords=American+by+day

Sigrid is in a tough place. A star investigator in Oslo, she’s been cleared of any wrongdoing after a confrontation with Kosovan immigrant turned deadly—but reading the neat report that plainly states she took the appropriate course of action only disturbs Sigrid more. She’s ready for some quiet introspection on her family farm, but upon arrival it’s clear her father has other plans for her.
In fact, he’s purchased her a ticket to America: her elder brother Marcus has dropped off the map in upstate New York, and she’s been dispatched, somewhat reluctantly, to find him. It doesn’t take her much time upon arrival to reach her first conclusion: America is weird.

But soon she discovers more to dig into: that Marcus’s disappearance seems inextricably linked to the death of the woman he loved, an African American professor named Lydia Jones. Moreover, this conclusion—and Marcus—are now the focus of an investigation led by irreverent, cowboy-boot-wearing, utterly American local sheriff Irving Wylie.

While initially their divergent investigation methods seem bound to clash, it becomes clear that they must work together: that each sees parts of the case through a glass darkly, as Wylie puts it—but by looking together, they just might be able to find answers.

Derek B. Miller’s American by Day takes a suspenseful and engaging look at police brutality and race relations within the American justice system. Miller tackles this explosive topic in a refreshingly thought provoking manner. Miller is the award-winning author of several novels that include Norwegian by Night (2013) and The Girl in Green (2017). He lives in Norway with his family and has worked on international peace and security for think tanks, diplomatic missions, and the United Nations.

In his novels, Miller’s characters are appealing and far from stereotypical. They suffer through all sorts of issues and definitely have passionate opinions on a wide variety of incendiary topics. Protagonist, Chief Inspector Sigrid Ødegård was first introduced to readers in Miller’s debut novel, Norwegian by Night. She and Irving Wiley provide plenty of entertaining and clever dialogue that represents opinions on individualism versus collaboration. Sigrid’s observations about America, men, and life in general are intuitive and humorous.

“She is angry at men. All men. For their stupidity, their lies, their egotism, their irrelevant words, their aggressive personalities and hairy backs. She is angry at them for what they did and didn’t do. For what they say and leave unsaid. For the timber of their voices and the length of their strides, the ease by which they open jars and their inexplicable incapacity to return even the smallest objects to their rightful locations. She is tired of investing in them without dividend . . . to solve everything herself.”

Overall, American by Day is a fascinating crime novel and the use of unorthodox characters, stinging observations, and lack of stereotypes is refreshing. A quick read and highly recommended, the plot develops into a thoughtful but grim exposé on societal challenges of inequality and the brutality of racism that are running rampant in modern America.

Review first appeared at the New York Journal of Books on April 3, 2018 – https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/american-day

Authors: Jessie Kanelos Weiner and Sarah Moroz

Release date: March 27, 2018

Publisher: Rizzoli Books

Pages: 176

Buy from Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/Paris-Stride-Insiders-Walking-Guide/dp/0847861252/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1522427790&sr=8-1&keywords=Paris+in+stride&dpID=61lMhZPIkSL&preST=_SY344_BO1,204,203,200_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

It is hard to go wrong in Paris, one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Paris in Stride: An Insiders Walking Guide is an attractively illustrated and easy to follow guided stroll to all of the important locations within the City of Light.

Jessie Kanelos Weiner is an American illustrator, author, and food stylist based in Paris. She creates watercolor imagery for many international companies and her illustrations have appeared in numerous publications. She is the author of several books that include Edible Paradise: A Coloring Book of Seasonal Fruits and Vegetables (2016) and pens a popular blog about her life called thefranofly.com. Sarah Moroz is a Paris-based journalist, writer, and translator. This is her first foray into published travel writing.

“Paris is a ceaselessly mythologized city. Many wistfully extoll the beauty, the history, the architecture, and the gastronomy of the French capital; it is only natural that visitors come with the ambitious aim of extracting the very best of its sights and tastes.”

Divided into ten compact and comprehensive walking tours, the authors have woven the “must see” locations with a plethora of quirky and lessor known destinations. Each section has a map and key with carefully selected locations with tiny descriptions. The authors encourage “an adventurous approach” to seeing the city. The reader can follow their preplanned walks or explore the city indiscriminately.

“Paris in Stride is intended to be helpful both in terms of cultural decoding and in terms of ease in circulation.”

This useful and handy guide transports the reader to the Paris that only locals know. With unique and compelling narratives on culture and history, the authors have created an authentic glimpse into Parisian life. The attention to detail, originality, conciseness, and readability will most certainly delight the casual and veteran traveler.

Review first appeared at the New York Journal of Books on March 30, 2018 – https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/paris-stride

Author: Philip Donlay

Release date: March 6, 2018

Publisher: Oceanview Publishing

Pages: 366

Buy from Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/Speed-Dawn-Donovan-Nash-Thriller/dp/1608092305/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520442974&sr=8-1&keywords=speed+the+dawn

Hundreds of white-hot meteor fragments plunge toward earth near Monterey Bay, California. Huge fires ignite—dry landscape and, the sun sets, the power grid collapses and the fires grow, illuminating a nightmare created in hell itself. Donovan Nash realizes he is trapped. Injured and growing desperate, his options dwindling, Donovan fights to keep himself and a small band of survivors alive until dawn, when they can make one last attempt to escape the inferno. Meanwhile, Donovan’s wife, Dr. Lauren McKenna, working with the Pentagon as well as the Forest Service, envisions a bold approach to stop the fire from spreading all the way to the Bay Area and the seven million residents living there. She’s terrified that, if not executed perfectly, her plan could cause the death of thousands of people—including Donovan.

With Speed the Dawn: A Donovan Nash Novel, Philip Donlay has delivered another superb suspense thriller. The eighth installment in the extremely popular Donovan Nash series, the author has created a new adventure that’s bursting with peril and mayhem. Writing from the basis of his own experience as a professional pilot, Donlay doesn’t hold back as the white-knuckle edge of your seat action starts on the first page as this novel.

“Lauren squinted as another burning object fragmented under the tremendous forces of high speed and friction, creating hundreds, if not thousands of small separate hazards racing downwards. The noise came all at once, like a sudden hailstorm. Instantly, hundreds of small pinholes opened in the ceiling. Lauren gripped the seat as the Gulfstream shuddered.”

Speed the Dawn continues in the same pattern of Donlay’s other novels with the tense, exciting, and action-packed thrills that puts wealthy environmentalist Donovan Nash right in the middle of a natural disaster. Fraught with danger and terrifying realities, Donlay effortlessly manages to bring new layers and situations to his multidimensional characters with each new installment.
Whether it’s by air, sea, or land, his writing style keeps the reader captivated. The plot is a twist on an old and effective theme, but Donlay succeeds in making it seem fresh and his own.
In an effort to retain tension, he adds chaos and a touch of hopelessness to the wild-ride narrative. The fear of being trapped and trying to find our loved ones during a disaster is palpable and heartfelt. Fast paced, spellbinding, and packed with exhilarating thrills and chills, Speed the Dawn is a well-written and electrifying novel. An outstanding addition to the Donovan Nash collection and quite possibly the best yet, the suspense will keep the reader glued to the edge of their seat until the very end.

Michael Thomas Barry’s most recent book is In the Company of Evil: Thirty Years of California Crime, 1950–1980. He is the author of six other nonfiction books and is a columnist for CrimeMagazine.com.

Review first appeared at the New York Journal of Books on March 6, 2018 – https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/speed-dawn

Author: Christopher Rice

Release date: March 1, 2018

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

Pages: 450

Buy from Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/Bone-Music-Burning-Girl-Christopher/dp/1542048303/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1519925763&sr=8-1&keywords=bone+music

Charlotte Rowe spent the first seven years of her life in the hands of the only parents she knew – a pair of serial killers who murdered her mother and tried to shape Charlotte in their own twisted image. If only the nightmare had ended when she was rescued. Instead, her real father exploited her tabloid-ready story for fame and profit – until Charlotte finally broke free from her ghoulish past and fled. Just when she thinks she has buried her personal hell forever. Charlotte is swept into a frightening new ordeal. Secretly dosed with an experimental drug – but pursued by a treacherous corporation desperate to control her. Except from now on, if anybody is going to control Charlotte, it’s going to be Charlotte herself. She’s determined to use the extraordinary ability she now possesses to fight the kind of evil that shattered her life – by drawing a serial killer out from the shadows to face the righteous fury of a victim turned avenger.

Bone Music by Christopher Rice is a fabulously entertaining genre bending new thriller. Rice is the critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of four novels and is an executive producer for The Vampire Lestat, a TV show based on the novels penned by his mother, Anne Rice. In this new page-turner, Rice attempts to reinvent the superhero origin story with a tale of female empowerment while opening a thought provoking dialogue into what survivors of evil have to endure.

This novel is an excellent start to the new “A Burning Girl Thriller” series. The plot is fast-paced and engaging with firm character development. At its core, Bone Music is about the human need for socialization and our ability to face the fears that often hold us back from our potential. Rice has masterfully woven elements of a coming of age love story with tons of mystery, suspense, and thrills. A roller-coaster ride of adventures that’s filled with kick-butt superhero excitement that doesn’t let up from page one.

Michael Thomas Barry’s most recent book is In the Company of Evil: Thirty Years of California Crime, 1950–1980. He is the author of six other nonfiction books and is a columnist for CrimeMagazine.com.

Authors: Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington

Release date: February 27, 2018

Publisher: Public Affairs

Pages: 416

Buy from Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/Cadaver-King-Country-Dentist-Injustice/dp/161039691X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1519837858&sr=8-1&keywords=Radley+Balko

After two three-year old girls were raped and murdered in rural Mississippi, law enforcement pursued and convicted two innocent men, Kennedy Brewer and Levon Brooks. Together they spent a combined 30 years in prison before being exonerated in 2008. Meanwhile, the real killer remained free.

The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist: A True Story of Injustice in the American South, co-authored by Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington, recounts the story of how the criminal justice system allowed this to happen, and how two men, Dr. Steven Hayne and Dr. Michael West, built successful careers on the back of that structure.

For nearly two decades, Hayne, a medical examiner, performed the vast majority of Mississippi’s autopsies, while his friend Dr. West, a local dentist, pitched himself as a forensic jack-of-all-trades. Together they became the go-to experts for prosecutors and helped put countless Mississippians in prison. But then some of those convictions began to fall apart.

Radley Balko is an opinion writer and investigative reporter for the Washington Post and authored two books that includes Rise of the Warrior Cop (2013) and The Militarization of America’s Police Force (2013). Tucker Carrington is criminal defense lawyer and director of the George C. Cochran Innocence Project at the University of Mississippi.

“In America, actual wrongful convictions estimates range from 2 to 10 percent, but getting an exact number is difficult. These numbers may seem low, but when applied to a prison population of 2.3 million, they become staggering: Anywhere from 46,000 to 230,000 innocent people could be locked away right now.”

This books main focus is on Steven Hayne’s and Michael West’s roles in the trials of Kennedy Brewer and Levon Brooks, both men were wrongly convicted and eventually exonerated in the sexual assault and murder of two children in the 1990s. With keen insight the authors methodically dissect Hayne’s and West’s false and misleading testimony and pin point major flaws in the prosecution’s case.

Of course, it is not just these two men at fault here. They argue that bad forensics, blatant racism, greed, and systematic institutional failures are fundamentally at fault in this case and many others, and these failings have raised thought provoking questions about Mississippi’s ability and willingness to address these central problems.

In this riveting new exposé Balko and Carrington have detailed the fundamental flaws of the broken Mississippi criminal justice system, which is a relic of the Jim Crow era. They reveal that the root of police misconduct lay in corrupt political maneuvering and the justice system’s reliance on shaky expert testimony. Because prosecutors were primarily interested in pushing cases off their dockets. They relied on flimsy and dishonest testimony to guarantee quick convictions for black defendants rather than identifying the actual perpetrators. How this occurred for so long, unrestrained and unapologetic, is perplexing.

“Those in innocence work have made some strides. Over the last 25 years, more than 2,000 exonerations have occurred in the United States, but workers know that they have only truly begun to scratch the surface.”

The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist is a wide-ranging and explosive investigation of a racist criminal justice system that allows for the tragic exploitation and incarceration of black people in Mississippi. With detailed and wide-ranging storytelling techniques, Balko and Carrington build a hard-to-ignore case for comprehensive criminal justice reform. This book is certain to give pause to even the most ardent supporters of law enforcement and is a wake-up call to anyone who thinks police militarization and brutality isn’t a political issue.

Michael Thomas Barry’s most recent book is In the Company of Evil: Thirty Years of California Crime, 1950–1980. He is the author of six other nonfiction books and is a columnist for CrimeMagazine.com.

Review first appeared at the New York Journal of Books on February 27, 2018 – https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/cadaver-king

Author: Kevin Toolis

Release date: February 27, 2018

Publisher: Da Capo Press

Buy from Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/My-Fathers-Wake-Irish-Teach/dp/0306921464

“The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?” Edgar Allan Poe

In American culture, death and mortality are often seen as taboo subjects because no one really likes to think about them. However, death comes in many pretexts. Whether we rage against the dying of the light or eagerly embrace the darkness, we must all find our own way.

“Death is a universal occurrence with two options; you can do death well or you can do death badly. You can encounter your own death and the death of those you love in terror, in denial, in confusion, in blind panic, in shocked surprise and in despair . . . Or you could try the other option and learn how to die.”

Talking about death in our society makes most people incredibly uncomfortable. They do not speak very openly or in much detail about it. Rather they allude to it, avoiding tackling the subject directly. Americans do not die. They “pass away, “expire,” “kick the bucket,” “go to their reward,” “breathe their last,” “cash in their chips,” “meet their maker,” “depart this life,” “give up the ghost,” or other avoidances. Insurance companies advertise plans designed to meet “your final expenses.”

Once death arrives, its victims are not “dead.” Instead, they are “loved ones,” “the departed,” “the deceased,” the “late so and so.” Rather than being buried, the dead are “laid to rest” or “sent to their reward.” Those about to die are “terminally ill.”

Throughout most of American history, death, sometimes by violence and often by sudden disease, was an everyday experience. Today it is remote. People no longer die at home, but in nursing homes, hospitals, or hospices. When they die, they do so within a cultural structure that may not include close, supportive families or ingrained cultural rituals for acceptance of death and grieving.
At the same time, a deep sensibility of optimism and hope has always been a part of the American psyche. Death in the American mind is something for the distant future, and we hope they invent a cure before we get to that place.

The Irish, however, have a very different relationship to death. Generally speaking, the Irish people are known for being gregarious and polite, with a belief in good luck, and uplifting spirits, especially when it comes to enjoying good partying. The most well known is the Irish Wake.

During a person’s final moments, families gather at the foot of the bed to sing the Five Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary, a lullaby to cradle their loved ones into death. Surrounded by those who know them best and care about them most, the dying come rest.

And then the living’s responsibilities begin in earnest. Upon death, men dig the deceased person’s grave by hand, a sign of dedication and a labor of love. Every male family member then gathers together to carry their loved one’s coffin on their shoulders to the grave, while others stand outside the deceased person’s home as the coffin is carried out the front door and placed onto two household chairs on the lawn.

The walls of the house are splashed with Holy Water. Then the coffin is lifted into the hearse and the chairs are kicked over to mark an irreversible rupture between the living and the dead. Such is the Irish way of death. If you’ve only seen the movie version, you might think it’s just another occasion for social drinking. You’d be wrong.

In My Father’s Wake: How the Irish Teach Us to Live, Love, and Die, Kevin Toolis examines death from an Irish perspective. Toolis simply clarifies that death and funerals in Ireland are seen as a social responsibility and communal act of kinship. An Irish born writer and BAFTA- winning film maker, Toolis is the critically acclaimed author of Rebel Hearts: Journeys within the IRA’s Soul (1996, St. Martin Press) which has been featured in the New York Times Magazine and the Guardian.

“Death is a whisper in the Anglo-Saxon world . . . We have pulled the curtains across, privatized our mortality . . . Officially the deceased have become obscene.” But on a remote island off the coast of Ireland’s County Mayo, death has a louder voice. Along with reports of incoming Atlantic storms, the local radio runs a daily roll of ordinary deaths. And the islanders go in great numbers, often with young children, to be with their dead. They keep the corpse and the bereaved company through the long hours of the night. They dig the grave with their own hands. It is a communal triumph in overcoming the death of the individual.

In this stimulating and poignant narrative, Kevin Toolis armed with his Irish heritage gives a heart wrenching description of the death and wake of his father as he delves into the broader history, rituals, and meaning of the Irish wake.

“Sonny was a very ordinary man and his life passed unnoticed by a wider world. But Sonny did have one advantage over most of us: he knew how to die. And he knew how to do that because his fathers and mothers on the island, wake after wake, had shown him how. They had trained Sonny all his life to die by giving a voice, a place, in their daily lives for the dying and the dead. And in showing Sonny how to die, those Irish fathers and mothers taught him other more important lessons. How to live. And how to love.”

With an inspiring and refreshing message at its core, My Father’s Wake rejoices in the spiritual depth of the Irish views on mortality. But do not be mistaken, this book’s purpose is not to solve the meaning of life, but it does ask some very challenging questions. Thinking about our own death does inescapably return to the existential questions: Is this the life I wanted? Or still want? Can we learn to deal with mortality and death in a better way—by living and loving as the Irish do.

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of seven nonfiction books that includes Literary Legends of the British Isles and America’s Literary Legends.

Review first appeared at the New York Journal of Books on February 27, 2018 – https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/my-fathers