Anne Perry

"Dark Assassin" By Anne Perry Ballantine: 2006

I have noticed that I have been writing less and less about the author's background and more and more about the work itself on this blog. In this case, however, the author's background is fascinating and may be already known to many readers and that is Perry was convicted of murder as a teenager. She and a friend murdered the mother of her friend because she wanted to separate them. Perry's parents were separating and both girls wanted to live with Perry's father. They were tried and convicted and served five years in prison and neither saw each other again. For more detail, the reader can look up the case on the Internet. A movie was made regarding the case and a documentary is being prepared on it as well. Perry and her friend had a rich fantasy life and created many stories. With that background and the background of being tried for murder and convicted, Perry has turned out to be a very good writer of mystery novels.

This is not the first novel I have read of this author, but I tend to read widely in this area and lean away from period murder mysteries with the possible exception of Sherlock Holmes. In this case although I did not have much choice in the book since I am still in Korea and can only read what is available, I am very glad I purchased this book for it is an excellent book about a period of time in London when the London Sewerage System was created.

The London Sewerage System is part of the water infrastructure system serving the city of London and was developed during the late 19 century at the time of this novel was set. It was made clear that the River Thames was an open sewer with terrible health problems such as cholera epidemics. There was what was called "The Great Stink" of 1858 that was so bad that Parliament finally agreed to fund the creation of a modern sewerage system. It is the construction of this sewer system that is central to the plot of this novel.

Many cities have interesting underground cities such as Edinburgh,Scotland and Portland, Oregon but I had no idea that there was such an underground of rivers and streams and of people who lived underground and many who lived their whole lives under London. I also had no idea that this sewer system was part of other novels and books such as Neil Gaiman's "Neverwhere" in 1996. The BBC also featured it as one of the "Seven Wonders of the Industrial World".

The book starts with William Monk who has recently been appointed superintendent in the River Police in a boat patrolling the Thames. They look up and see a couple on the Waterloo Bridge in a deep discussion and suddenly both fall into the river, the woman falling backwards. They rush to where they are but the river is so dank and filthy that they are dead before they can fish them out. Is it an accident or suicide and the man simply an accident? Monk starts to investigate and finds more questions than answers.

The investigation and relationships of the people involved is almost second to the building of the sewer and what makes this novel so remarkable is the way Perry handles the descriptions of the underground, the people building the tunnels and the police trying to make sense of what is happening both underground and on top. The reader can feel the muck under the shoes and boots of the people walking the tunnels and can hear the machinery as they dig the deep tunnels where the sewer pipes will go and where the bricks will be laid.

I went to London in 2002 and used the tube or underground subway often to get around London. It was deep and I would take several escalators and stairways to get to the train platforms. It may not have been the sewer, but I could see how London had such a underground. One time before going to my rooms, I ate a small dinner at a restaurant and the place started to shake really hard. I was concerned as I did not think England had earthquakes. I looked around and no one seemed to notice. Everyone was eating. Then I realized that the tube was right beneath me. This sort of shaking was happening when the building of the sewer was occuring and when there was cave-ins.

What happens to people who are injured in the building of the sewer? What was happening to people who lived near the river? How did people ignore the plight of those who got sick on the filth of what was floating in the river? Perry did her homework. She even had a court scene that was well done or seemed plausible.

At the end, things are tied in a believable ending although it seemed a bit drawn out. Still, it was done well. I learned a lot from that period and about London during that time. I also appreciated the richness of the relationships of the characters. It is an evolving book and one that I want to pick up again with another adventure and title.

W. Somerset Maugham

"Rain and Other Stories" by W. Somerset Maugham YBM SI-sa: no publishing date listed

This is one of those books that I bought from Home Plus here in Korea that is half English and half Korean. The stories that is included are the full version of the original stories. I have mentioned before in other posts that I first read short stories by Maugham as a young teenager because I had nothing else to read in the house and it was a book my mother had. Normally, I did not care for short stories until I read this author's stories set in the South Pacific. There are only three short stories in the collection and I remember reading all of them in that particular volume.

The first one is "Rain" and I remember how shocked I was reading that story. Three films were made from this story. One was a silent film in 1928 starring Gloria Swanson called "Sadie Thompson " which was based on a play that was taken from the short story. Another was "Rain" filmed in 1932 starring Joan Crawford and the third was "Miss Sadie Thompson" filmed in 1953 starring Rita Hayworth.

Reading it again this time I had the advantage of my age and the fact that I read "The Summing Up" a book about the author's philosophy about writing. I knew he liked to include himself in the plot of much of his fiction as an interested observer. He got this idea from reading Henry James. In this case, the author appeared as Dr. Macphall. Maugham was a trained physician although he did not work very long in the field. The setting was in Pago Pago in the South Seas.

The main characters was Miss Sadie Thompson who was a prostitute. She was thrown out of one red light district and on her way to another. All of them including a missionary husband and wife and the doctor and his wife were forced to stay at Pago Pago until they were cleared to continue on their journey elsewhere because of a measles outbreak elsewhere. It was when the missionary, Davidson, discovered Thompson's true profession that the real action of the story begins. He is incensed that she is allowed to stay in the same house as they are and entertain men in her room.

In a slow dance, he starts to tighten the rope around her neck until she is without anything to do and then he goes to the governor and convinces him to throw her off the island on the very next ship which would take her to San Francisco. Thompson begs Davidson to let her go on another ship because prison awaits her if she goes back to San Fransisco. Even the doctor cannot convince the missionary to let her go on a later ship that would take her to Australia. Davidson wants her to pay for her sins. Then Davidson tries to convince her to give up her way of life and become a Christian. She begins to do that. Slowly, the noose tightens around Thompson's neck but it begins to tighten around the missionary's neck as well. She walks onto the ship that will take her to San Francisco and prison but with her old ways back saying that all men are pigs and the missionary ends up slitting his own throat.

There is a reason this story has stood up. It is written and paced extremely well. Maugham was a successful playwright but this group of stories showed the public that he could write short fiction. The book was very successful. He never looked back and saw himself as a professional writer.

The story was written in prose that was easy to read and yet showed the place where the travelers were at. Maugham had been there. He had written that he could not use complex prose that was popular at the time. It is no longer in vogue although the way he writes then is now very much still in style. He could control the language and make it say what he wanted it to say and give the mood and image of what was necessary to the story.

The next story is "Red". It starts out as a captain of a small vessel carrying cargo makes its way to an island. Everyone is described and there is a good reason for it. The captain is portly, not particularly good looking, sloppy and drinks a bit too much. He knows where there is an opening in the reef for the ship to slip in and goes ashore to a small house where a man lives. The man tells him a story about the big tragedy of his life of how he came upon this beautiful spot and fell in love with his beautiful woman who was in love with a young man named Red who was kidnapped by a ship long ago. The young man was as beautiful as the young girl was and they were lovers and lived an ideal life until he was kidnapped. Shortly after he left the girl had a stillborn child. She waited and waited for his return. The man who was sick fell in love with her and wanted to marry her and she refused because she was waiting for Red. He married her anyhow and she burned down the house and he rebuilt it anyhow. Many years have passed and she never loved the sick man who recovered and she just served him. He ended up hating her. Then the woman came in and asked him something. She had gotten old and gray and then left. The captain finally admitted that he was Red. He went back to his ship. The man saw how much he cheated himself and told the woman after she asked who the captain was that he had just told him that his brother was sick at home and he needed to go home. She did not recognize the man sitting there as her lover, Red and the man decided not to tell her.

The last story was "Honolulu" and it started off as if it was a travel essay. The story is in the 1st person by a traveler who listens to a story told by a captain who invited them on his ship. The traveler had been told that the captain although he was a captain of an inferior ship because of a loss of command that resulted in loss of life was a very pleasant man. He had a beautiful woman who was his partner. He told the story that happened a few years before just after he bought a girl from her father that the first mate wanted and started to make him ill by praying him to death. His girlfriend found out what to do and tricked him into gazing into his image and then throwing the image into the sea. His first mate then died and the captain recovered. The traveler was amazed that this beautiful woman would do so much for the captain but he was told she was another girl since the other girlfriend ran off with the cook the year before. He has a new one.

As I said, when I read these stories I stayed with them the first time and being surprised at the ending. Now, I can see how Maugham used women characters to move the plot especially the last two stories. Still, these are good stories and well done. I have read other stories by this author and found them compelling as much as I found his novels fascinating reads. I have read everything by Maugham. Here in Korea, I am limited on what I can get my hands on.

Sometimes in fiction, the plot is more important than the characters. Maugham said that he thought Anton Chekhov did not put enough warmth in his characters and I would have to agree. There is no doubt that Maugham put a great deal of thought in his characters. He said he always started with someone real that he knew in creating his characters and then changed and modified them to fit the story he was working on. I think you have to care about someone in a story for it to work with the reader or with it is with me. If I don't care one way or the other about anyone in a book or short story I usually put the thing down and don't pick it up again.

I am leaving Korea in a month and an half and one of the things I am going to do is hit a book store. I have been dreaming about going to a Barnes and Noble and getting more short stories by Maugham or maybe ordering them if they don't have them. Oh....I can't wait. I really like this author as he writes uncommonly well.

Roald Dahl

"Matilda"by Roald Dahl Puffin Books: 1988 illustrated by Quentin Blake

I love books by Roald Dahl but not all of them equally. This one is my favorite. I read this one in the United States and I saw the movie based on this book in the States too. Then while I was in Home Plus, I saw this book sitting on a shelf and I grabbed it. Ah, I will read it again. Then after I read it, I looked on the Internet for the movie and I found it to my surprise and watched it again. Well, I am ready to put in on my book journal. I opened the cover to put down the details and then I started to read it again. Finally, after finishing it, I found the movie on You Tube and watched it again. Please forgive me reader, I really love this book. The movie is great too, but the book is better but both are wonderful.

I think many girls reading this book identify with Matilda. I grew up in a family that did not really know I was around. When I was missing, no one noticed. When I asked for a book, my mother thought I was a bit odd although we did not have the same television viewing habits as Matilda's parents had. Her parents watched it all of the time. We did not. It was an aunt who taught me to use the public library and I walked several miles to the library alone just to use the library and carried the books home to read them in trees. Note to the reader, no one ever looks up into trees so no one ever saw me. I was not allowed to stay in my room during the day and beside I shared one with my sister.

I wish I could say I was as smart as Matilda is and that I taught myself to read. No, I learned to read in school but once I started there was no stopping me. I just loved looking at Matilda going through all of the books in the public library and the librarian who helped her. I had a librarian who helped me. The illustrations really caught the niceness of Matilda and the way she was so hungry for knowledge.

Finally, she started school and she meets a wonderful teacher, Miss Honey. As smart as Matilda was, she was well liked by her fellow students but not by Miss Trunchbull, the kid-hating headmistress. Dahl makes it all sound so believable. There is magic in the world and the author is the one to record it.

Matilda does get a family that deserves her although I did not. Still, there is enough wonderful magic in the story that it gives the reader the hope that all will turn out well for everyone in the end.

It's hard to believe that Dahl used to be a fighter pilot during World War II and a spy for the British but he led a very exciting life. He must have led an exciting inner life too. I will be reviewing more Dahl books as time goes by.

I had "Jamie and the Magic Peach" but I lost it. Here in Korea, children come up to me and stare and sometimes say hello. We, Americans, are almost always teachers. One very special little boy came up and he was so delightful that I gave him the book. I hope he is able to read it someday.