The Final Frontiersman by James Campbell

I don't know where I first came across this title, but I do have a bit of a history of reading about people living in the elements with the barest of essentials. Hey, my favorite 'western' movie is Jeremiah Johnson.

The book's subtitle is "Heimo Korth and his family, alone in Alaska's Wilderness." Our man Heimo, his Inuit-descendent wife Edna, and their 2 children, Rachel and Krin live way the hell up north in Alaska in a cabin maybe 15 x 15ft in temps that rarely get above zero except during the Alaskan summer. Their life is semi-nomadic to keep up with food and shelter. Heimo is from northern Wisconsin and grew up the eldest son of a distant and abusive father. Shortly after high school, he makes his first attempt to live in the wilderness, fails, and returns home. Soon he makes another more successful attempt and has been there since, now approaching 30 years.

The book describes the life and trials of living alone in the wilderness. The struggles of living without the barest of essentials may seem unforgiving, but for Heimo and his family, it all makes perfect sense. There are plenty of inconsistencies with their lifestyle, like his daughters out there in the middle of nothing with posters of Brittney Spears or listening to audio books and music while sawing caribou steaks off an animal's frozen limb. They are teenagers after all. Heimo doesn't totally reject modern tools to support his life in the wild as he has quite an array of weaponry, snowmobiles, and a satellite phone.

I find reading about modern day survivalists rather fascinating and liked reading about people who are able to do what people like me would never attempt, no matter how attractive living off the land sounds. What I found missing was the 'why' behind Heimo's decision to leave society and head for the far reaches of northern Alaska. The book is filled with plenty of vignettes about the daily challenges, but less about his individual character and motivations. I've read many of the books by and about Tom Brown, Jr., another naturalist who makes his home in New Jersey. Most of his books are almost entirely about personal history and motivation for his beliefs without neglecting specific events and experiences. I will admit that some of Brown's books are a little heavy on Apache mysticism, but I digress.

I think I was drawn to the book after having read The Last Season by Eric Blehm that was suggested by WC Don. But in comparing the two, I think the reader learns far more about who Randy Morgenson was than just who Heimo Korth is. Still, The Final Frontiersman is a fascinating tale of a man beating the odds carving out a meaningful life in the wilderness.

East Coast Don

p.s. Recently, I suggested the Charlie Stella check out Robert McCammon's Boy's Life, the 1991 best seller. He has posted comments on his blog, the Temporary Knucksline dated November 1, 2009.

Hothouse Orchid by Stuart Woods

This is Stuart Woods' annual contribution to the mass market pile of current fiction. He has 4 continuing characters, Stone Barrington (ex-NYPD/lawyer), Holly Barker (ex MP, ex Orchid Beach police chief, now CIA), President Will Lee, and Teddy Fey (retired CIA now making trouble eliminating politicians who don't conform to his vision of America).

Holly Barker is on a forced vacation from the CIA. She returns home to Orchid Beach for some R&R only to stumble onto a serial rapist case. She suspects the new chief, her MP nemesis from her army days and sets out to help trap him. Lauren, another local cop was also raped by this army cad. In between clues, both Holly and Lauren meet new guys (an ER doc and a retired inventor, respectively) and hop in the sack repeatedly, eat glorious meals at sunset on the beach and drink copious amounts of wine. To make a predictable story shorter, the inventor turns out to be Teddy Fey. Teddy executes the army slug, the chief of detectives (the real rapist) finds the body and plants a suicide note to hide his crimes. Holly and Lauren set a trap for the detective and spring it successfully. Lauren and Teddy run off to who knows where and Holly and the doc move back to the CIA. Yawn.

The books by Woods are always best sellers, easy travel reading, linear plots, few twists, and a reasonable waste of time while traveling or during sleepless nights with jet lag. You can't go wrong with Woods, but they are tres lightweight and won't stay with you long. Of the main characters, Teddy Fey is probably the most interesting. The rest are just too smooth to be real.

East Coast Don

Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell

This is the second book recommended by our friend Charlie Stella. While Eddie Coyle was another tale of New York crime, this is far removed to the backwoods of the Ozark Mountains.

Winter is creeping up on the Ozarks. Ree Dolly is a 16yo girl thrust too early in to the role of provider and caretaker of her family. Her father, Jessup, is a backwoodsman known for his ability to cook up crystal meth. Problem is he put up his house as collateral that he would show for his next court date and things are not looking good that he will show. The local law tells Ree if her father doesn’t show that she, her two younger brothers, and her mom (who has mentally retreated inside herself and is incapable of caring for anyone) will be tossed out.

What transpires is Ree’s attempt to find her father. This far back in the hills has its own culture, laws, and morality where family matters above all and each family have its own clan based on what side of which creek between what hills someone lives. Ree endures countless rebuffs, insults, and assaults as she tries to find her father culminating in a viscous beating at the hands and feet of 3 women of a rival clan. The question is not just where is Jessup, but is he even alive and if he isn’t alive, what was behind his death and where are his remains. What begins as a tale of struggle of various clans buried far beneath the world we live morphs into a morality tale about sacrifice in the face on unyielding odds.

Mr. Stella’s books and recommendations are based on dialogue and characters. This one is a drastic change from the city dialogue drawn out by Stella, Higgins, Price, Pelecanos, et al. The mountain language is a barely distinguishable dialect and takes some time to get used to the flow that eventually becomes a character almost unto itself. Ree is one tough young woman who has grown up too early, and not by her own choosing. This is quite different from what we usually post here, but Woodrell’s depiction of a foreign life even on our own shores is a venture worth taking.

East Coast Don

Eddie's World by Charlie Stella

My next foray into the mind of Charlie Stella is Eddie’s World, his first novel dedicated to the college prof who introduced him George Higgins and Eddie Coyle.

Eddie Senta is a 40 something word processor who lives sort of on the edge of the mob underworld. His 2^nd wife, Diane, is in market research with a ticking biological clock, but Eddie doesn’t want to father another child as he isn’t all that proud of how he handled the one he has. Diane takes matters into her own hands and tries to get pregnant by her boss who has a PhD and runs marathons.

Eddie is a good guy. He has a lifelong friend, Tommy, who is in a bind and needs help. Eddie also helped a woman, Sarah, who was being attacked by a boss. He also was in the right (or wrong) place when he stops a mob hit. People owe Eddie favors.

Tommy needs money. Sarah knows her boss had money hidden away and tells Eddie to take it, as an act of revenge. So Eddie and Tommy plan to steal it and get Tommy out of hock. But Sarah has told a recent ex-con, James, about some gold also held by said boss and James then contacts some Russians about fencing the gold. The whole thing goes south when James decides he wants the money and the gold, kills Sarah, the boss, and a third guy. Eddie and Tommy try to steal the money but it’s gone, so they take what they can, a bunch of computers.

The word of the triple murder comes out and Tommy is sure the police will manage to tie he and Eddie to the murders. Poor Tommy tells the wrong wise guy that he thinks he and Eddie should turn themselves in before the police get too close.

The 2 detectives are playing dozens of scenarios in their heads, but getting closer each day. And James the ex-con is also closing in on Eddie. Everybody collides at Eddie’s home – Diane, his son, James, the Russian, NYPD, and the FBI (turns out James is in their back pocket).

The way I figure it, Eddie’s biggest problem is an serious case of the "loyalties". To Tommy, whom he has watched over since the two were young and Eddie was there when Tommy was told his dad had just died. To Sarah, whom he saved from a brutal sexual assault and has watched over her since. To Diane, despite her wishes to find someone to father a child. This is an interesting character study of a man on the fringes of the mob who clings to a code of morality, even if he is a bit of a gangster. For those of us who like crime stories, this is another winner from Mr. Stella. Out library doesn’t have any more titles by Stella and B/N has none on their shelves, so I guess I need to prowl the used book stores to find more.

East Coast Don

The President's Assasssin by Brian Haig

I thought EC Don had already written about this one, but I don't find it when I do a blog search. I'm not going into detail here, but it was a fast paced book that one could read on a flight from NYC to Chicago. Sean Drummond is the protagonist, and he has the usual CIA, FBI, NSA, etc people around him. Given the title, you can guess the plot, but it is a good one to get to the threat to the President. Of course, he has a stunning women as his partner to work out the details of the plot, and there is a great twist at the end that I did not see coming until I was far into the book. Even if it is not great literature, it is a fun read.

WC Don

The Angel’s Game: Carlos Ruiz Zafon

I know that EC Don and I both read and reviewed Zafon’s earlier book, his first, “Spirit of the Wind.” If you liked Zafon’s prior work, you’ll like this. It is not the typical man-book we read, but it is an excellent murder mystery. Like his other book, this book takes place in Spain, this one being in Barcelona in the early 20^th century, ending in 1930 with an epilogue in 1945. This book is written in the first person, as if the author is writing an autobiography, and he pulls that off with style. A lot of the story is about the agony and ecstasy of being a writer which is his occupation in the book. He re-visits the Cemetery of Forgotten Books (a subtheme in “Spirit of the Wind”), but that is really a minor theme in this story. Before telling you about the story, let me quote the first paragraph that should capture any bibliophile who has also earned a money and/or honor from the effort to write, as the coastal Dons have done in their respective genres:

“A writer never forgets the first time he accepted a few coins or a word of praise in exchange for a story. He will never forget the sweet poison of vanity in his blood and the belief that, if he succeeds in not letting anyone discover his lack of talent, the dream of literature will provide him with a roof over his head, a hot meal at the end of the day, and what he covets the most: his name printed on a miserable piece of paper that surely will outlive him. A writer is condemned to remember that moment, because from then on, he is doomed and his soul has a price.”

Or here’s another quote as the main character, David Martin, tells his apprentice, the 17-year-old Isabella about the task of being a writer:

“Natural talent is like an athlete’s strength. You can be born with more or less ability, but nobody can become an athlete just because he or she was born tall, or strong, or fast. What makes the athlete, or the artist, is the work, the vocation, and the technique. The intelligence you are born with is just ammunition. To achieve something with it you need to transform your mind into a high-precision weapon.”

Martin gets a bit metaphysical when he tells Isabella, “All interpretation or observation of reality is necessarily fiction. In this case, the problem is that man is a moral animal abandoned in an amoral universe and condemned to a finite existence with no other purpose than to perpetuate the natural cycle of the species. It is impossible to survive in a prolonged state of reality, at least for a human being.”

A final passage I won’t quote, because it is too long, but it is a eulogy written for an old book seller, Senor Sempere, an important figure to Martin throughout his life. Like the rest of the book, the eulogy is written with unmistakable love, and it is no accident that Zafon chose a bookseller for this important role. There will be a time when I’m asked to give a eulogy, and I hope it will be possible to quote or paraphrase some of Zafon’s beautiful words.

The story has to do with the coming of age of a young writer, and eventually, once his skills mature, his attempts to write a book for which he has been commissioned by an elusive and mysterious man, Senor Carelli. Martin finds it a difficult chore to write a mystical work that did not spring from his own mind. Some moral and most amoral characters are woven in and out of the story as Martin goes about his effort. The language used is more flowery than most of the novels we read and write about. I thought there were times when the dialogue got a bit boggy, but not too much. I enjoyed this one – a good change of pace and it is worth your time to read this one.

WC Don

Diamondhead by Patrick Robinson

Navy SEALS are on duty in Iraq. A squad from SEAL Team 10 gets the call that a fellow squad has been attacked with a new killer missile that can penetrate tank armor and then ignites into flame, burning everyone inside alive. Upon arrival to the site, Lt Cmdr MacKenzie “Mack” Bedford eyes a group of towelheads across the river appearing ready to load up another. With the bad guys is one person who looks out of place, in a suit with a distinctive red handkerchief in his breast pocket. He is using a scope on a tripod, then 2 more missiles streak across the river detonating 2 more tanks, killing members of Mack’s squad. The bad guys now hold up their hands and walk across the bridge because surrender means staying alive, but Mack knows these guys just incinerated his friends, runs up and mows them all down. The resulting court martial exonerates Mack of murder, but he is discharged and summarily sent home to the coast of Maine.

The missile, known as the Diamondhead, is manufactured secretly in France and sold to Iran. The industrialist in charge, Henri Foche, is also the leading candidate for President from the ultra right wing Gaullist party. Back home in Maine, Mack’s young son is fighting a deadly disease that only a hugely expensive operation done in Switzerland might help. Add to that, a family-run shipyard in his hometown has for decades had a standing contract with France to build frigates, but Foche has pledged that all weapons for France will be made in France and will cut off all foreign contracts. That would shut down the local shipyard. The patriarch asks Mack if he knows anyone who might accept a contract to assassinate Foche. He gets some leads, but they don’t pan out. By chance, he reads a story on Foche in a magazine and recognizes him as that guy with the red handkerchief. Mack then accepts the contract himself and arranges for his son to get the needed surgery with the $2 million he will make for the job.

Now, the story shifts into serious overdrive as Mack plans out how he will get to Europe, all his disguises, obtain a sniper’s rifle, get to France, find Forche, set up for the kill, take the shot, then escape and work his way back to Maine. Absolutely riveting stuff, if you ask me. Once he gets to France, don’t be planning to do anything that can’t wait.

I stumbled across Robinson while wandering the shelves at B/N a number of years ago. While he has a number of fiction and non-fiction books out, his action thrillers are what hooked me. His stories are usually the U.S. vs. some Islamist nuts with the heavy lifting done by the Navy, especially the submarine fleet and the SEALS: Nimitz Class (bad guys manage to sink a US nuclear aircraft carrier), Kilo Class (China has ordered 9 Kilo class subs from the Russians and the US is going to make damn sure none get delivered), HMS Unseen (bad guys manage to steal a British sub and take down civilian aircraft flying over the Atlantic), and on and on. His last book, Ghost Force, was something about SEALS and a new Faulkland’s war that I was less than impressed with, so when I saw this title on the new release table at B/N, I was hesitant, but the library had it (no wait!) and I plunged in.

This really is all about Mack Bedford hunting the animal whose weapons, uniformly declared a crime against humanity by the U.N., have been killing American Special Forces right and left. Any other characters are minor players. While many of the mysteries posted here are about crackling dialogue, this one is about planning, execution and the chase. Over half the book is involved in carrying out the execution…er…assassination, of Henri Foche by Mack . . . the dialogue of the French police hunting him (and his various alter ego disguises) is almost a afterthought. Read this for the action. Here’s hoping Robinson finds a way to get Mack Bedford back with the SEALS or involved with other stealthy stories.