THE DARK VALLEY by VALERIO VARESI SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS

THE DARK VALLEY by VALERIO VARESI

SUMMARY
A police officer named Saneri is married to a woman named Angela who complains that he is too stressed and tells Saneri to go on vacation.  Saneri travels to his hometown of Montelupo to forage mushrooms.  Once Saneri arrives in his hometown, he hears that Palmiro Ridolfi, a wealthy factory owner in the area, has gone missing.  Ridolfi was friends with a man called 'the woodsman' and another man who committed suicide a few years earlier.  While Saneri is in the misted woods foraging mushrooms, Saneri hears gunshots.  When Saneri is back in town, Saneri speaks to the town's mayor and other locals who inform Saneri that Ridolfi was the shooter and the target was Ridolfi's dog.  The people of the town have a celebration during which townspeople steal items from citizens' homes and leave the stolen items in easily accessible places such as the town square.  All of the townspeople, and Saneri, hear gunshots during the celebration.  During another trip into the woods, Saneri finds Ridolfi's festering body hanging from a rope with Saneri's dog.  Paride, Ridolfi's son whom Ridolfi was disappointed by, is found dead.  Saneri goes into the neighboring town where Ridolfi's wife lives and delivers the dog to Ridolfi's wife, but Ridolfi's wife does not want the dog.  While at the home of Ridolfi's wife, Saneri meets Ridolfi's housekeeper.  Ridolfi's wife expresses rejoice at liberation from Ridolfi's wife's confinement with Ridolfi and Paride in the rural town.
The local police of Montelupo quickly assess 'the woodsman' whose real name is Gualerzi, as the lead suspect in the murder of Paride.  Gualerzi exchanges shots with the police, and Gualerzi hides himself in the mist and the thick forest.  Saneri's wife, Angela, comes to join Saneri.  Angela is exasperated at Saneri's obsession with police work when Angela discovers that Saneri has been working on the Ridolfi case during Saneri's vacation.  Saneri is out for a walk when Saneri sees Ridolfi's housekeeper and concludes that Ridolfi's housekeeper has been sent by Ridolfi's wife to spook Saneri off the case.  The next day, Saneri is informed that Gualerzi is dying of cancer, and Saneri meets Gualerzi's daughter, who begs Saneri to talk to Gualerzi and get Gualerzi to return to Montelupo before the police kill Gualerzi.  Saneri talks to the police and is given a short period of time to bargain for Gualerzi's surrender.  That night, an elderly man approaches Saneri and tells Saneri where to meet Gualerzi, in a bar at nine o'clock the next morning.
Saneri meets Gualerzi at the bar.  Gualerzi tells Saneri that Gualerzi did not kill Paride.  Paride was shot by people in a heavy fog so that Gualerzi could not see the killers.  Immediately after Paride was shot, Gualerzi heard police.  Gualerzi tells Saneri that Gualerzi is content to die in the mountains and does not want to return to the village.  Saneri goes back to the village alone.

ANALYSIS
This was an odd murder mystery, as I was still not sure who the killer was by the end of the novel.  The Ridolfi housekeeper is suggested as a suspect as he was probably sent to scare Saneri by Ridolfi's wife.  Ridolfi is established as a suspect because of Ridolfi's disappointment in Paride.  Ridolfi was a wealthy businessman and Paride was a drug addict who had no prospects.  Given that killing one's son is considered by most ethical people to be a shameful act, it is possible that Ridolfi ordered Paride's death, and then decided to hang himself in shame.
Another scenario is that the townspeople organized a collective killing of Paride.  Ridolfi, as the local factory owner, controlled the economy of Montelupo.  If the factory were left to Paride, the drug addict, the town's economy could be negatively affected.  Thus, Paride may have been killed by some conscientious objectors of the town.
Varesi's manipulation of the standard crime novel format produces the interesting effect of refocusing the novel on small town sovereignty.  The woodsman's plight is explored, as he is a respected hunter, and the police are hated by some of the townspeople for interfering.  If the townspeople did murder Paride to save themselves, was the murder justified?  Varesi raises some interesting questions.

• wealthy factory owner of rural Italy goes missing, and is found hanged
• the factory owner's son is murdered
• the lead suspect, a childhood friend of the factory owner, is hunted into the woods by the local police
• the lead suspect is found to have cancer and refuses to surrender to police

SOURCE

Varesi, Valerio. The Dark Valley. London: MacLehose, 2011. Print. Book about a suicide and a murder in a rural area.

SIN, or, ГPEX, by ZAKHAR PRILEPIN SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS

SIN, or, ГPEX, by ZAKHAR PRILEPIN

SUMMARY

As a young child, Zakhar is splitting wood with a hatchet, and accidentally splits his fingernail with the hatchet.  He feels tears coming to his eyes, but Zakhar hides his crying from his grandmother, and Zakhar bandages himself in secret.
While Zakhar is in his late childhood, he plays tag with other children from his neighborhood in an abandoned lot.  One of the children Zakhar plays tag with is named Sasha.  Sasha has run away from home.  Someone finds Sasha's dead body in a freezer where Sasha was attempting to take shelter from the cold.
In the summer, Zakhar goes to visit his grandparents in a small village, where Zakhar's grandfather is proud to own one of the village's largest huts.  Zakhar's cousins, Rodik, Sasha, and Syuska, live nearby.  Zakhar is sexually attracted to his cousins Sasha and Syuska, and Rodik is a younger child who does not speak much.  After Zakhar awakes one morning at his grandparents' house, he goes to his cousins' house to spend time with his cousins.  Zakhar's cousins and Zakhar walk to Zakhar's grandparents' home.  Sasha and Zakhar get into a tickling match, which Sasha enjoys, but Zakhar insists that Sasha stop tickling because Zakhar is afraid that he will become aroused.  Night falls, and Zakhar's grandfather invites Sasha, Rodik, and Syuska to spend the night at Zakhar's grandparents' home.  The invitation is accepted, and everyone lays down to sleep, with Zakhar lying close to his cousin Syuska, and again, Zakhar struggles with the attraction he feels for her.  Rodik begins calling for his mother, and Zakhar eagerly places Rodik between Zakhar and Syuska.  Zakhar decides that sleeping with the goat will be more comfortable, so Zakhar goes to the barn to sleep with the goat, and feels that he has overcome attraction for his cousin.
After Zakhar finished school, he stayed at home with his brothers to work in the family gravedigging business.  Zakhar and his brothers steal vodka from the funeral receptions of their clients and drink the vodka outside in the cold.  One day, Zakhar decides that drinking in the cold is too unpleasant, and Vova, Zakhar's friend and fellow mortician, suggests that Zakhar drink in one of Vova's classmate's apartment building.  Zakhar drinks in the apartment building of Vova's female classmate, and one of the building's residents unleashes a vicious dog on Zakhar, driving Zakhar out of the building.  As Zakhar is leaving the building, he tears the railing off of the wall, and worries that he has offended Vova's female classmate.  Zakhar returns to Vova's house and gives Zakhar's telephone number to Vova's female classmate so that the two can arrange a date, but Vova's classmate is repulsed by the fact that Zakhar wrote his telephone number on the back of a picture of a dead woman which Zakhar collected at the funeral reception.  All of the morticians go home and the next night, after drinking with the other morticians, Zakhar stumbles across the railroad tracks.
Years later, Zakhar has a girlfriend who takes him to an art exhibit where Zakhar meets a man named Alexei.  Alexei is fat and Zakhar is muscular and lean.  After Zakhar breaks up with his girlfriend, he also quits his job as a bouncer to join the military.  Zakhar excels in basic training and eagerly awaits deployment, as Zakhar is poor and needs money from military service.  Zakhar meets Alexei by chance and the two men begin drinking together in the park and browsing, but not buying, books in book stores.  Zakhar and Alexei grow fond of one another and Zakhar writes part of a novel starring Alexei, but Zakhar doesn't use Alexei's name in the book.  Alexei reads Zakhar's novel at Zakhar's request.  One night, Alexei and Zakhar have an argument, which ends with Alexei expressing jealousy for Zakhar.

Alexei moves away.  After a few months, Zakhar begins to work at a loading dock.  One night, Zakhar receives a phone call from Alexei, and Alexei is slurring words and expressing a feeling of betrayal in response to Zakhar's neglect to ask about Alexei's welfare.  Zakhar hangs up and, a few days later, Alexei and another man appear at Zakhar's loading dock.  Alexei and Alexei's friend want to take shelter inside of the store to which the loading dock belongs, but Zakhar tells Alexei that nobody can enter the building until Zakhar's boss leaves in an hour.  Zakhar, Alexei, and Alexei's friend begin talking to one another at the loading dock, and Zakhar and Alexei's friend, who are both fit men, decide to box eachother with open hands.  Alexei's friend breaks the agreement and punches Zakhar with a closed fist, sending Zakhar reeling to the ground.  Alexei, standing over Zakhar, says in a flat tone that Zakhar fell down.

Zakhar begins dating a new woman named Marysenka.  Marysenka and Zakhar find a group of 4 stray dogs and shelter the dogs in their home.  Although Zakhar and Marysenka are poor, they are happy, and they have sex frequently.
A local Jewish man named Valies is a respected actor in the local playhouse and, as Valies is growing older, Zakhar wishes to interview him.  Zakhar interviews Valies and is disgusted by the amount of gossip Valies discusses during the interview.  After the interview, Zakhar goes home and types up the story, and drops off a copy of the story at Valies' house.  The next day, Valies calls Zakhar and tells Zakhar that Valies does not approve of the interview and that Zakhar should not print the interview in its current form.  Zakhar adheres to Valies' request, even though Zakhar and Marysenka are starving.  Marysenka is frustrated and offers to interview Valies on Zakhar's behalf.  Zakhar agrees, and Marysenka interviews Valies and Zakhar writes an article based on Marysenka's interview.  Valies approves of the new interview and Zakhar and Marysenka are able to get money to buy food.  Valies begins calling Marysenka every day, and asks Marysenka to marry Valies.
 One day, one of the stray dogs which Zakhar and Marysenka shelter escapes and Zakhar chases after the dog.  Zakhar follows the dog into a poor neighborhood, suspecting that poor people are planning to eat the dog.  Zakhar eventually finds the dog in an apartment which is shared by several poor men.  After threatening the men, Zakhar leaves the apartment with the dog.
Valies dies.  Zakhar and Marysenka give away all of the stray dogs to new owners whom Zakhar and Marysenko trust.  Zakhar and Marysenka attend Valies' funeral.  Eventually Zakhar and Marysenka marry and have children.
Zakhar works as a bouncer again.  A man who Zakhar describes as a poser is sitting at the bar.  A group of tough men who are bodybuilders come to the bar, and Zakhar and the other bouncer, Molotok, don't feel that they can physically overpower the tough men.  Borisych, Zakhar's boss, comes to the club, and informs Zakhar that Borisych will be hiring another bouncer for the bar.  At one A.M., a fight breaks out between a Caucasian and a Russian.  Then, a man takes a woman's purse and Zakhar demands that the man return the purse to the woman, but the man who took the purse refuses, saying that the man who took the purse knows the woman to whom the purse belongs, and that Zakhar does not need to interfere in the two people's relationship.  An expensive car full of Moscow teenagers pulls up in the parking lot, and the group of tough men come out and fight the Moscow teenagers.  During the fight, the man who Zakhar described as a poser emerges from the bar, and using a subtle fighting move, incapacitates all of the tough men and the Moscow teenagers singlehandedly.  Zakhar approaches the poser to talk to the poser, and the tough men and the Muscovites take the opportunity to drive away.  A woman emerges from the club to flirt with Zakhar.  Zakhar rejects the woman.  Molotok and Zakhar go back inside the club where the poser disrespects them and the poser spills wine on Molotok's shirt.  When the poser leaves the club, drunk, the poser hails a taxi, at which point Zakhar recognizes that the poser is drunk and punches the poser in the face, incapacitating the poser.  Zakhar leaves the poser lying in the parking lot and Zakhar goes home to his family.
One night, Zakhar lies awake looking at his children, named Ignat and Gleb, thinking about how much he loves the children.  Zakhar receives word that his grandmother died and Zakhar plans to drive back to the small town in which Zakhar grew up and where Zakhar's grandmother lived.  Although Gleb and Ignat are sad that Zakhar is leaving, Zakhar begins to drive toward the small village where the funeral for Zakhar's grandmother will be held.
Zakhar is called by the military to service again.  Eventually, he becomes a Sergeant.  One day, when Zakhar's unit is covering a shift at an outpost, the next unit does not arrive to relieve Zakhar's unit.  An enemy unit steals Zakhar's jeep and Zakhar's unit hides in the bushes, following the jeep as the enemy unit is driving slowly.  Eventually, the enemy unit pulls up to an abandoned building of a town which the enemy army has pillaged, and the enemy unit go into the abandoned building.  Zakhar's unit recapture the jeep, and hotwire the jeep, and Zakhar runs the jeep into an enemy soldier who emerged from the building to investigate the noise.  Zakhar drives back to the base and Zakhar's unit enters the home base.  There is a loud explosion, and Zakhar looks back and sees a disfigured soldier with mutilated eyes limping toward him.

ANALYSIS
This book is written in nonsequential short stories, allowing the emotional value of each story to be emphasized rather than its chronological placement within a larger plot.  The narrator for all of the short stories excluding the final story is a first person narrator named Zakhar, which is the same name as the pen name of the author of the novel, however, Sin is not an autobiography, but a work of fiction.  Additionally, Zakhar Prilepins birth name is not Zakhar.  The final story is told by a third person narrator and Zakhar is the main character.
Zakhar's inner monologue discusses the feeling of weight and interaction between Zakhar and food frequently during Sin.  During a few intervals of Zakhar's life, Zakhar has been starving, but fitness has been a constant for him.  Zakhar explains that he feels light as a bouncer, watching many heavy people frequent the bar, but also complains that he himself feels heavy as a soldier, comparing the weight he feels on his body to the added grief Zakhar feels in his mind.
The relations between Caucasians, or, people from the Caucasus mountain area, and Russians, is described as being slightly hostile in the book.  Additionally, Zakhar recognizes Valies' facial features as being Jewish and sneaky.
In the bouncer story, Zakhar interestingly misjudges the poser's fighting ability by the poser's slight stature.  There does not appear to be a philosophical message to the bouncer story, but the reader learns several interesting items from Zakhar's experience: men are not proportionately talented fighters to their muscular size; all men are vulnerable when drunk; the smartest fighter wins.  Zakhar and Molotok allow the poser to disrespect them, so that the poser will let his guard down and become drunk so that Zakhar can hit him.
The story with Alexei is similar to the bouncer story in that it contains fighting advice.  Because Alexei is not surprised and not sympathetic that Zakhar was knocked out by Alexei's friend, it is probable that Alexei planned the attack.  If this is true, then Alexei outwitted Zakhar by luring Zakhar into a false sense of trust and, although Alexei is not as strong as Zakhar, Alexei ultimately stood over Zakhar after Zakhar was punched to the ground.
Poverty in Russia is juxtaposed in this novel with national pride.  Zakhar, who was a soldier, expresses hatred for Stalin at leading his beloved homeland astray.  The reader sees gripping poverty in Russia, and sees that the Russian army manages its soldiers poorly in the episode about Zakhar as a sergeant.  Zakhar expresses that he loves Russia but feels betrayed by his government.

• Zakhar is born in a small village in Russia
• Zakhar has a crush on his cousins who live in another village one summer but does not visit again
• One of Zakhar's friends freezes to death in Russia after running away from home
• Zakhar works as a gravedigger and is rejected by a girl who finds his profession disgusting
• Zakhar works as a bouncer
• Zakhar quits his job and makes a friend who is jealous of Zakhar and then moves away
• Zakhar works as a loader and the friend returns with another man who incapacitates Zakhar while Zakhar is unsuspecting
• Zakhar finds a girlfriend
• Zakhar interviews a local actor who becomes obsessed with Zakhar's girlfriend
• The local actor dies and Zakhar and his girlfriend get married and have kids
• Zakhar works as a bouncer again and learns how to win fights by cunning
• Zakhar is forced to leave his happy home to return to his small, depressing village of origin to attend his grandmother's funeral
• Zakhar is forced to return to the army where he becomes a sergeant
• Zakhar's unit jeep is stolen and he and his men return it to the base where Zakhar sees a horribly disfigured soldier limping toward the base with mutilated eyes

SOURCE

Prilepin, Zakhar. Sin. Trans. Simon Patterson and Nina Chordas. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print. Book about a man named Zakhar's journey from childhood to adulthood in Russia.

NIKOLA THE OUTLAW, or, NIKOLA SUHAJ LOUPEZNIK, by IVAN OLLBRACHT SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS

NIKOLA THE OUTLAW, or, NIKOLA SUHAJ LOUPEZNIK by IVAN OLLBRACHT

SUMMARY
Nikola Suhaj is from a town laying in a valley which is  the only place in his world where God still exists.  In this valley, Jews and Christians live harmoniously.  A woman named Erzika and Nikola are engaged to be married.  When the war begins, the town's farmers, including Nikola, are forced to fight, leaving their families without income.
A German soldier and Nikola are in the same unit and skipping duty  under  the pretense of looking for  missing companies when they find  quarter with an old witch.  The witch puts a hex on Nikola and the German to  be enforced if the soldiers do not marry the witch's daughter when the war concludes.  After seeing that the witch has a tail, the soldiers become afraid and shoot her.  While doing target practice in the woods they discover that Nikola has supernatural control over the direction of bullets.
Eventually Nikola completely deserts the army and returns home.  He spies on Erzika before finally approaching her.  An army officer named Bela is hunting Nikola to return Nikola to service.  Guised as a woman lost in the woods, Bela takes Nikola captive.  Once back on the frontlines, Nikola deserts the army  again, and when Bela tracks him down for the 2nd time, Nikola fends them off  in a shootout and returns  home.
When soldiers are denied their rations, they pillage the countryside and Bela uses the unrest to become the new regional captain.  Poor conditions persist for soldiers.  With a larger group, Bela tracks Nikola down and kidnaps his father.  Nikola fends off the group in another shootout and  rescues his father, but is arrested when the soldiers return shortly after.
Nikola is released and resumes his relationship with Erzika against her family's wishes.  A sergeant named Vlasek arrests Nikola and Nikola has Erzika send for  Nikola's family's last money to leave as bail while Nikola escapes as Vlasek sleeps.  At this point, Nikola enlists a group of poor travelers to assist him in robbing rich people along the highway.  Soldiers hear of the robberies but cannot find Nikola so they beat  Nikola's family.   When Nikola returns home, he rescues his uncle in a shootout  with the soldiers.  Nikola shares the money from his robberies with the townspeople and helps revitalize the town's  economy.  Before long, the soldiers return to  arrest Nikola and he disappears into the forest.
While Nikola is in hiding, the soldiers shoot travelers from the town on the highways and frame Nikola.   Nikola becomes ill in the forest and sees a witch and a doctor who help him recover.   Poor marksmanship exposes Nikola's imposter and Nikola's brother Juraj finds Nikola's secret hiding place through intuition.  On their way home, the brothers attempt a robbery in which they are not  able to stop the wagon in time, yet Juraj still shoots the driver, and Juraj laughs at the sight of the horses' frantic galloping while Nikola condemns Juraj's unneccessary violence.
A man named Svozil begins pursuing Erzika, and is  refused.  A man Nikola once trusted accepts and fails a contract to capture Nikola.   Juraj convinces Nikola to burn down the would-be captor's home.  Erzika gives in to Svozil's advances.
Nikola sees Svozil with Erzika and kills Svozil as Erzika faints.  Vlasek beats Erzika as she awakes and Erzika reveals that she gave Vlasek money for Nikola's release.  Bela punishes Vlasek.
Bela puts a bounty on Nikola's head.   The soldiers hold a town meeting where they unsuccessfuly try to convince farmers Nikola has aided financially that Nikola is evil.  The man who once attempted to capture Nikola is found dead and the man's son, Adam, vows to kill Nikola.  Two other men named Danilo and Ihnat also vow to kill  Nikola.  Danilo, Ihnat,  and  Adam go  up to  see Nikola to  give  him  supplies.  Juraj is  suspicious as usually only one man comes to give Nikola supplies, but Nikola  tells  Juraj that  all will  be  well.  Adam,  Danilo, and  Ihnat  kill Nikola  and  Juraj.   The soldiers  steal  the bounty  from  Adam, Ihnat, and Danilo, and dump the bodies of Nikola and Juraj on the lawn of the army station as trophies.
Years later, a biographer comes to the valley to tell Nikola's story.  A herdsman relates Nikola's story to the biographer.  The  biographer believes that Nikola lives on in the mountains as an immortal legend.

ANALYSIS
Like all Robin Hood tales, this story questions authority's supremacy over morality.  Bela, the captain obsessed with hunting Nikola for deserting, states himself that he is only hunting Nikola so that he will not have to fight on the front lines, either.  In this case, Bela has no moral high ground, but is doing the right thing in the eyes of the law.
While it is legal for the government to take farmers away from their work and cause families to starve, the farmers do not believe they are being treated fairly.  When Nikola robs the rich who do not have to fight because they can pay their way out of it to assist those who were forced to fight he is compensating the farmers for their loss.  The farmers and Nikola believe that just as the government stole the farmers' compensation, Nikola stole the rich men's money, and that there is no difference between these two crimes.
The Jewish and Christian townspeople are torn apart by Nikola's presence, despite his financial aid to the farmers.  Vlasek, who is a Christian, blames Jews for Nikola's influence growing, and the Jewish captain blames Christians for lying to him about Nikola's whereabouts.  If Nikola had lived longer, the harmony of the valley would have been jeopardized.  Nikola's legacy for bringing the town to its feet financially would have been tainted if he had also driven apart the residents along religious lines.  It is implied that God took NIkola's life, which Nikola seemed to be willing to sacrifice by not resisting his killers, so that the religious harmony would be preserved.
Nikola is not, however, perfect.  He killed the witch who put a curse on him for falsely promising himself to the witch's daughter.  Later, his wife leaves him for an officer.  Because Nikola has paid for his crimes, his good deeds are morally pure.

• soldier deserts the army
• soldier begins robbing the rich to help returning soldiers
• the army puts a bounty on the soldier
• three men kill the soldier and he becomes a legend

SOURCE
Olbracht, Ivan. Nikola Suhaj, Robber. Trans. Roberta Finlayson-Samsour. Prague: Artia, 1954. Print. Fairy tale about a Robin Hood figure living in the early 20th century.

WANTOK by WPB BOTHA SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS

WANTOK by WPB BOTHA

SUMMARY
A man who is born in England moves to Africa at the age of 21 as a missionary.  He has a daughter in Africa who is named Rachel.  For the girl's birthday, her father buys her a horse named Prince Harry who she renames Ngai.  Soon, Ngai becomes sickly and is old and too expensive for the family to take care of, so the family kills Ngai without Rachel's permission.  Another man from England, also working as a missionary in Africa, has a son named Richard.  Richard and Rachel meet, marry, and travel to Polynesia together to work as English teachers.
Richard teaches a boy named Nixon who is a member of the Bolgi tribe.  Nixon is expelled from school.  After hearing that Richard is angry about the expulsion, Richard travels to meet with Nixon's brother, Nathaniel.  Nathaniel has made peace with the expulsion but the Bolgi tribe is still upset and because the educational board members are worried that the Bolgi tribe may attack the colonial establishments and citizens, Richard is sent to Nixon's home village of Gelmbolg.  The Land Rover Richard is using belongs to the colonial government and the Land Rover breaks down.  Richard is told that he will have to drive the Land Rover to the coast of the island where the island's only mechanic lives and pay for the vehicle repairs himself.  Nathaniel and Richard make the trip to the mechanic together.
After visiting the mechanic and getting the Land Rover fixed, Richard meets with the Minister of Education, who is concerned about the stability of the colony on the Polynesian island as a government vehicle was recently stolen by members of the Bolgi tribe.  Nathaniel then takes Richard to Gelmbolg, where Richard meets Nathaniel's and Nixon's mother.  Nixon's mother is furious with Richard because she spent all of her savings to send Nixon to school against the wishes of the Bolgi elders because Nixon is intelligent and she believed he could look after her and other members of the Bolgi tribe in the future if he received a good education which would enable him to have a high income.  Nixon's mother demands that Richard repay her the money she spent on Nixon's education.  While Richard is in Gelmbolg, he hears that the nearby Endai tribe are feuding with the Bolgis.
The next day, as Richard looks for Nixon's mother in order to repay her because the sum of money Nixon's mother seeks is trivial to Richard, Richard sees a group of Endai warriors rush the Gelmbolg village.  None of the Bolgi are present in the village.  The Bolgi elders meet and decide to join forces with the Endai to resist the Colonizers.
Richard meets with a member of the Educational Ministry in town, where some Endai come and smash bottles angrily as a rite of initiation for their youthful members.  A nearby village is burned to the ground and Richard drives to the nearest airport with Nathaniel and Rachel.
Nathaniel asks Richard to loan him the money for a plane ticket to England while at the airport.  Richard is initially reluctant but Rachel convinces Richard to purchase the ticket.  As the fire begun by angry native citizens of the Polynesian island spreads, Richard, Nathaniel, and Rachel, board a flight headed to England.

ANALYSIS
This book stresses the ideal that colonial cultures should not seek to change the lifestyles of the native citizens of an area.  A major theme in the book is the burden that Western influence places on the preexisting culture of Africa and Polynesia.  Nathaniel realizes that his family and friends will criticize him for pursuing Western education, and accuse him of following the ways of the white man, but he believes that obtaining a Western education will enable him to make transactions with foreigners directly, and eliminate the colonizers as middle men in the export trade of Polynesia.  Nothing in the book suggests that either culture is superior to the other, but a counter argument to the idea that Western education signals financial freedom for Polynesians is not expressed.
Much of the story is told in flashbacks and there are many metaphorical descriptions of the landscape and animals of the territory.  The novel has an unreal tinge and the generic characters give way to the metaphorical implications of the story relating to colonialism and financial independence.  Botha constructs vivid images of the scenery and incorporates psychological descriptions which convey an emotional state of each scene to the reader rather than a photorealistic image.

• A Polynesian boy is expelled from an English school
• The boy's tribe becomes angry with the English settlers and revolts
• The boy's English teacher leaves Polynesia for England with the boy's brother

SOURCE

Botha, W. P. B. Wantok: (one Talk). Oxford: Heinemann, 1995. Print. Book about the development of a revolt on a Polynesian island.

THE INSECT SUMMER by KNUT FALDBAKKEN SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS

THE INSECT SUMMER, or, INSEKTSOMMER, by KNUT FALDBAKKEN


A 15 year old boy named Peter lives in a city of Norway.  Every summer he goes to the countryside to spend time with his Aunt Linn and Uncle Kristen on their farm, during which time he celebrates his birthday.  Kristen is Peter's biological uncle.  A girl named Marie lives in a cottage on Kristen's land and performs maid services for the family.  Peter has a friend named Jo who lives on one of the nearby farms.  Jo's sister, Gerd, has shown interest in Peter in the past.
When Peter gets off the train in the countryside, his uncle informs him that Marie has disappeared, and that there is a new tenant living in the cottage, named Cathrine.  Jo trades Peter pornographic magazines for dancing lessons.  Linn sends Peter up to deliver milk to Cathrine, and Cathrine makes a sexual advance toward him.  Kristen sends Peter into town to pick up some roofing supplies, and Peter runs into Gerd along the way.  As Gerd and Peter ride their bicycles back into town, it begins to rain and they take shelter in a barn.  There, Gerd and Peter kiss eachother and Peter feels her breasts.
The next day, Peter is fishing when he decides to find a place to take his clothes off because it is so hot outside.  Stretched out on the grass, he sees Cathrine, and some of his uncle Kristen's items.  Peter returns to fishing.  As he looks around for a new spot, he sees Kristen cutting Marie's dead body loose from a tree limb overhanging the river, and Kristen explains that she had drown by becoming entangled in the limb.
A funeral is held for Marie.  In his bedroom, Peter finds a love letter addressed to Kirsten from Marie.  Although he cannot prove anything, Peter becomes suspicious that Kirsten killed Marie.  The town has a dance.  At the dance, Peter drinks alcohol with his friends who dare him to dance with Cathrine.  As he approaches Cathrine, however, he runs into Gerd.  Gerd and Peter dance until a fight breaks out over Cathrine at the dance.  Kristen and Peter both fight well, and then Kristen takes Cathrine home.  Peter returns home an hour later and, observing that Kristen is not home, Peter tells Linn that Kristen is with Cathrine.
Linn sends Peter to deliver milk to Cathrine.  While Peter is at the cottage, he confronts Cathrine about her relationship with Kristen.  Cathrine promises to break off her relationship with Kristen and to have sex with Peter if he can sneak away from his birthday party.
During Peter's birthday party, Peter sneaks away to the barn to wait for Cathrine.  Gerd shows up instead of Cathrine.  Peter sees Cathrine and Kristen sneaking away together and has sex with Gerd.  Peter returns home to find that Kristen is informing Linn that divorce papers will be arriving the next day.  In the morning, Peter finds Linn hanging in the barn, having committed suicide.  Kristen remarries to Cathrine immediately and Peter returns home to the city.

ANALYSIS
This book approaches the subject of becoming a man.  Peter begins to notice women for their beauty.  He feels jealous of Cathrine and of Gerd for their romantic interests, yet he pursues both women simultaneously because he is so eager to have sex.  Peter and Jo have a borderline homosexual relationship as they waltz with eachother, and Jo offers to masturbate with Peter and asks Peter how gay men have sex with one another.  While he is standing in the woods, Peter has a moment during which he realizes his heterosexuality as he ejaculates in his pants while staring at a woman.  Generally, Peter is confused and sexually aroused.  He acts upon any opportunity he gets to pursue a heterosexual relationship and is unaware that Jo's actions imply homosexuality.
The subplot regarding Kristen's murder of Marie, and then divorce of Linn, keeps the book exciting.  Kristen probably murdered Marie to keep her quiet about their relationship, although there was not much motivation for him to do this if he planned to divorce Linn, anyway.  Kristen represents full yielding to sexual urges over morality, to me.  Peter looks to Kristen as a role model in his time of need and is greatly disappointed.

• Boy goes to visit aunt and uncle on a farm during the summer
• He meets the new tenant of their cottage and wishes to have sex with her
• Boy finds the old tenant of the cottage dead in the river, suspects his uncle of killing her
• Boy ends up in a relationship with his best friend's sister, and his uncle divorces his aunt
• Boy's aunt kills herself, and the uncle marries the new tenant, and the boy goes home

SOURCE

Faldbakken, Knut. The Insect Summer. Trans. Hal Sutcliffe and Torbjorn Stoverud. London: Peter Owens, 1991. Print. Book about a boy's summer at his aunt and uncle's farm.

IN THE UNITED STATES OF AFRICA by ABDOURAHMAN A. WABERI SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS

IN THE UNITED STATES OF AFRICA by ABDORAHMAN A. WABERI

SUMMARY
The world began as Pangea, a single land mass, and split apart into several continents.  Africans had high confidence from the beginning due to their high degree of separation from other races in regard to skin color.  There was once a Devil in Africa, but African Queens defeated the Devil, banishing it to Europe.  Europe is then chronically consumed by war and strife between ethnic groups while Africa is relatively peaceful.  One uncharacteristically violent African administration left in its wake the country's first railroad.
In the 21st century, many impoverished Europeans are flocking to Africa.  Many Africans advocate a practice known as 'Africanization', or, the removal of all non-native Africans from the continent because European refugees are draining the African economy.  When European settlers die there is no investigation into their murders, and there exists a city cleanup machine in Africa to sweep bums off the streets.
A white girl named Maya lives with adopted parents.  She excels in school and the arts, despite being taunted for her race, and creates inspiring European art.  Maya's adoptive mother falls ill and she returns home in time to watch her adoptive mother die.  Her adoptive father is unable to care for himself so Maya must supplant her adoptive mother as the old man's caretaker.
Fed up with prejudice against whites in Africa, and her curiosity enlivened by the death of her adoptive mother, Maya goes to France to meet her biological mother.  Maya's biological mother lives in Paris, FR, and has rotting teeth due to France's poor dental care.  Next, Maya meets her biological father in a shack which smells badly.  As Maya's father prepares to give her what looks like a packet of coal, the room's stench overwhelms Maya, who runs out of the room, and showers in her hotel room immediately.  The next day, Maya is on a flight back to Africa.

ANALYSIS
This book attributes Africa's poverty to random bad luck.  In this universe, the problems of Africa have stricken Europe rather than the cradle of life, leaving Africa to rapidly progress as Europe has.  Considering the first great civilization, Egypt, was in Africa, a highly advanced Africa in comparison to Europe is not an impractical scenario.
Maya's personal journey transitions from dissatisfaction to gratitude.  She is unhappy that she faces racism until racism is the least of her problems in impoverished France, when she becomes grateful for her adoptive African parents.  The inconveniences of first-world problems are put in context by her experience.
On the other hand, Maya is, in a sense, homeless.  She is viewed as an outsider in Africa for her skin color and she is viewed as an outsider in France for her cultural background.  Maya's predicament raises the question of what gives a person their national identity.  However, the novella does not answer the question it poses, which leaves the reader to decide what defines a person themselves.
Waberi writes this book from the perspective of an unknown narrator who speaks in the tone of a bedtime story and is intimate with Maya.  The narrator is not one of her adoptive or biological parents.  The novella is told through a sequence of stories which have occurred in the past as they are related to Maya.

• an advanced student from 1st world Africa is adopted
• the student is mocked for having European heritage
• the student visits Europe to find her biological parents
• the student is appalled by her parents' poverty and gleefully returns to Africa

SOURCE

Waberi, Abdourahman A. In the United States of Africa. Trans. David Ball and Nicole Ball. Lincoln: U of Nebraska, 2009. Print. An adopted woman seeks out her biological parents.

WHIRLPOOL by LIU HENG SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS

WHIRLPOOL by LIU HENG

SUMMARY
A man named Zhou Zhalou who comes from Fujian, CN, studies medicine in urban China.  While at school, he had to dissect a woman who had donated her body to science and remarked that her essential humanity was absent in her lifeless body.
Zhalou goes on to become a Department Manager at a Scientific Institute in Beijing and regularly gives lectures around China.  He has a wife, a 10-year-old son, and a daughter who is slightly older than his son.  After giving a lecture, Zhalou returns to his hotel to find a note from a stranger requesting a meeting.  Zhalou obliges the stranger, and arrives at the meeting place to find a beautiful woman named Hua Naiqian who works under him at the Institute.  Although Naiqian is married, her husband, Lin, is impotent and she is not attracted to him.  Zhalou and Naiqian kiss, but vow to keep their working relationship intact.
Naiqian is a Master's student and has just completed her final thesis.  A man named Liu, who is an older peer of Zhalou's, grades Naiqian's thesis and penalizes her for incorrectly citing 2 works in her bibliography.  Zhalou attends a party at Naiqian's house, after which she drunkenly tells Zhalou that she finds Lin to be weak and cowardly.
Zhalou's family has been planning a vacation and request to come with Zhalou on his next lecture trip, but he insists that his family stay at home.  On this trip, Naiqian and Zhalou have sex for the first time.  Angry with himself, Zhalou attributes his weakness to primitive urges.
When Zhalou returns, he beats his son for smoking cigarettes.  At work, he is awarded a prize for outstanding achievements in science, a feat embroidered by his young age, and Liu congratulates him.  The executives of the Institute offer Zhalou a chance to interview for the position of Vice President.
Zhalou breaks up with Naiqian, because he does not love her and is only excited by her body, but insisting that he once did love her, and that their love has faded.  Naiqian is upset by the breakup, and tells Zhalou that she is divorcing her husband Lin.  Unaware that Zhalou has been sleeping with Naiqian, Lin approaches Zhalou and asks him to intervene in the divorce.  Lin feels that the divorce would hurt his children, and he and Zhalou both fantasize about killing Naiqian.
Zhalou wins the job of Vice President and sends word to his family, who are on vacation without him.  Naiqian comes to Zhalou's apartment, begging him to have sex with her again.  After Zhalou refuses, she becomes upset, and says that while she will not tell his family, she will prevent him from leaving her without consequence.  Later that day, Zhalou gives his acceptance speech for the Vice President position, and although he knows Naiqian is in the crowd, he ignores her completely.

ANALYSIS
This novella is about what makes a person human.  Zhalou was upset by the lifelessness of the corpse he dissected in school, indicating that he has a passion for the human spirit.  The urges Zhalou felt for Naiqian were, as Zhalou describes them, primitive, and he describes the emotion he felt when beating his son similarly.  Scholarly pursuits give Zhalou a sense of self-worth because they demonstrate to him that he is not an animal or a corpse.  Morality also factors into his perception of humanity as he feels compelled to act out of interest for his family.  Zhalou has control over himself, which he feels makes him dissimilar to animals and corpses, thus making him human.  When Zhalou ignores the woman who ignited his primitive desires to focus on his scientific achievements and the moral sanctity of his family, he realizes what he feels is his full potential as a human.
Zhalou's need to prove himself as being extraordinary is complicated by the fact that he comes from rural Fujian, CN, and is seeking to prove himself to elites in urban Beijing, CN, who initially viewed him as being primitive because the elites of Beijing, CN stereotype rural areas and their inhabitants as being primitive.  Additionally, Zhalou is much younger than his peers of similar stature.  His youth represents a perceived inadequacy to some and he is eager to prove that what he lacks in age he makes up for in capability.  By conquering temptation, he has conquered the demise that his enemies expect he will meet.  Zhalou's successful cessation of his extramarital affair represents a victory for him on multiple levels.
This book was great!  Without preaching or generalizing, this book takes the reader along for the journey of a young professional accomplishing their personal goal, which is what I certainly want to do in my life, making me all the happier for Zhalou.

• Accomplished scientist begins an affair on a lecture tour
• Scientist is offered a chance to interview for a promotion
• Scientist breaks up with the person he was dating
• Scientist achieves the promotion

SOURCE

Liu, Heng. "Whirlpool." The Obsessed. Trans. David Kwan. Beijing, China: Chinese Literature, 1991. N. pag. Print. Book about a scientist conquering temptation.

AFTER THE SNOOTER by EDDIE CAMPBELL SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS

SUMMARY
Eddie Campbell lives in Scotland and enjoys playing football with his friends who are Celtic fans.  He makes a shot that is important to him in a game.  On the day when his father was scheduled to take Campbell to a match, Eddie is hit by a car and hospitalized.  At the hospital, he begins reading comics and falls in love with them.
There were no artists living in Campbell's neighborhood.  His father discouraged his interest in art as impractical.  Campbell is the only boy at many events he attends.  The first job Campbell gets as an artist is as a court room sketch artist for the local news station.  An insect called a 'snooter' flies into Campbell's home at night and bites him, causing a rash.  Campbell designs a 'snooter' superhero costume which resembles a quadruped fly.  The goal of the 'snooter' is to reduce complacency but it has little effect.
He moves to Australia from Scotland.  Against his father's advice, Campbell begins self-publishing out of his home in Australia and starts a family with his wife.  He rents a home and enjoys the simplicity of the rental arrangement.  A man from Georgia, US, represents Campbell's artwork in the United States.
A Hollywood company shows interest in Campbell's work for a film, and, although the movie is never filmed, Campbell receives a check large enough to buy a home for his family.
The family spends more than Campbell earns per year after buying the home and Campbell is stressed about money.  Although Campbell sees no need for his family to have a dog, he buys his children a dog due to the children's demands.  Neighborhood cats choose to hang out at Campbell's home rather than at the homes of their respective owners.
In the middle of the night, Campbell awakes to find an old man and the quadruped 'snooter' in his kitchen.  While the old man is eager to drink, the 'snooter' lectures Campbell on the evils of alcohol.  Campbell unmasks the 'snooter' to find that it is 'Mr. Dry' wearing Campbell's old 'snooter' costume.
Time passes and Campbell's income becomes more steady.  Campbell goes on a lecture tour with a friend named Neil who practiced self publishing, just as he did.  One of Campbell's movies is filmed and Campbell is invited to the premiere in Paris.  Campbell goes on a world tour giving lectures and selling his graphic novels to precede the movie premiere.  During breaks on his trip, Campbell puts the finishing touches on a new manuscript.
On his journey, Campbell visits all the significant places from his childhood.  When he returns, his children tell him that they barely remember what he looks like.  While Campbell is home, his daughter cuts herself breaking in through the window because Campbell's son locked the house doors as a prank while accessing pornography on the internet.  Before long, Campbell goes to Spain for another business trip.
Campbell goes to Paris with his family for the movie premiere.  He visits a famous cemetery where many artists such as Oscar Wilde are buried and pays his respects.  While Campbell is watching the film, Campbell hallucinates the 'snooter' as a character in the movie, offering Campbell a drink.  After the premiere, Campbell's wife congratulates him and while they are having sex, Campbell finds himself unable to perform because Campbell is comparing himself to his father and his wife to his mother.

ANALYSIS
Campbell is unsure of many of the decisions he has made in his life.  He identifies the car crash as a life changing moment for himself where he chose the path of the artist.  As an adult, he looks back on his life and imagines himself progressing in several different ways.  At the end of each of these imaginary paths, however, he finds that he winds up living in a cliche.
Being an artist is not as much fun as Campbell imagined it would be.  The insect he calls the snooter which bit him identifies his drinking alcohol and becoming complacent with old habits as the poison sucking the fun out of his life.  Because Campbell's father is a drinker, and Campbell does not want to become his father, Campbell dislikes himself for drinking and behaving similarly to his father.  What he most wants is to break free of a cliche and ordinary existence, and his alcohol and complacency in his lifestyle is the hindrance to that achievement.
In this graphic novel, Campbell tells several stories of people being bitten by the snooter and their lives being ruined.  In each of the stories, the person drastically changes the direction of their course in life due to regrets.  It is unclear if Campbell is suggesting that complacency saves people from making bad decisions to change, in certain instances.
My University recently added 'Comics' as a Major.  This book is a graphic novel and makes an excellent case for the art form as a serious academic endeavor.  Campbell is good-natured enough to poke fun at the parable-like nature of some of his stories, which lessens the feeling that he may be speaking down to his reader.  While this book is 90% autobiographical, it contains enough fictional elements to be considered fiction, at least for me, and I'm the one who wrote the page.

• Man becomes an artist
• An insect bites the man and begins speaking to him as his good conscience
• Man self-publishes and ends up with a movie deal
• The insect still haunts the man after he is successful

SOURCE
Campbell, Eddie. After the Snooter. Paddington, Qld.: Eddie Campbell, 2002. Print.Book about a man on his journey to success in the art industry.

THE POTBELLIED VIRGIN by ALICIA COSSIO SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS

THE POTBELLIED VIRGIN, or, LA COFRADIA DEL MULLO DE LA VIRGEN PIPONA by ALICIA YOSSO

SUMMARY
In a small town there is a Spanish family named the Benavideses who oppose the Indian Pandos family in a small town.  All of the Pandos' land was stolen by the first Benavides to arrive in the area,  Both the Pandos and Benavides families are run by men, although the Benavides men run their family from abroad and allow the townspeople to believe that the Benavides women are in charge while maintaining order with a military force.
One member of the Benavides family, Manuel was told he was a bastard by his parents and defected to become a Pandos.  Jose Pando is a longtime servant for the Benavideses.  The two families share little in common besides devotion to a statue of a potbellied virgin.
The town's former priest, de los Angeles, founded the sisterhood of virgins for which the statue of a potbellied virgin stands.   De los Angeles founded the sisterhood to purify young Indian girls the Pandos family was using to keep the Indian race alive.  Since the creation of the statue, the Benavides girls have been charged with cleaning and dressing the virgin and cutting off their own blonde hair in turns to fashion the statue wigs.  One day when the Benavides girls were dressing the statue they were attacked by the townspeople for dressing too provocatively, and Manuel Pandos came to their rescue.
Dona Carmen Benavides gained favor with de los Angeles.  She sent her sons into the Priesthood and lobbied the Vatican for a deaconry.  The sisterhood gained permission from the Vatican to excommunicate people.  De los Angeles dies, and the town has not found a replacement by the time Dona Carmen decides to seize control, declaring herself leader of the town's church and enforcing with an old family hunting rifle in the hands of Jose.  Carmen kidnaps three missionaries and bribes them to allow her to run the town's church.
A drought sweeps the area, and the bishop orders that another wooden virgin be carried to each drought-ridden town.  After the virgin leaves town the drought returns, so villages begin fighting over the statue.  The bishop decides to put the potbellied virgin into circulation, as well, to stop the bickering.  After the sisterhood refuses to comply with the bishop's orders, the ishop sends in the Benavideses' troops who the townspeople band together to fight against with household items.  Although many civilians are injured or killed, the townspeople drive the soldiers away.  People whisper that the virgin lost her potbelly because she gave birth to a God during the battle.
Carmen hires a new organ player for the church named Figueroa.  Magdalena Benavides and Figueroa run away together.  To replace Magdalena as handmaid to the virgin, Carmen hires Manuel's daughter, Marianita.  The virgin's potbelly returns.
Manuel Pando and the church's magistrate promote a communist agenda.  Jorge Pando spraypainted the town's walls with communist graffiti and Carmen gives Jorge a bicycle so that Jorge will not spraypaint the town anymore.  Under pressure from the sisterhood, the magistrate sends his daughters, Socialjustice, Surplusvalue, and Passionaria, to give thanks to the virgin.  Carmen then orders all the books which Manuel Pando enjoys from the library and burns them.  After Carmen catches the magistrate crossing out one of the sisterhood's signs, Carmen fires the magistrate and hires Nicasio Pando.
Townspeople argue about whether or not to resist the Benavideses.  Jorge and his friends build Molotov cocktails and kill one of their opponents.  Some communists murder Nicasio.  Jose Pando defects from the Benavideses and tells Manuel Pando that the men run the Benavides family and that the army is paid by the Benavideses to suppress the Indians.  Manuel spreads the word to the townspeople just as the military throws a parade to announce its good intentions.  Everyone but the Benavideses leaves town.

ANALYSIS
The Benavides family is a symbol for the Spanish conquistadors of South America.  The Pandos family is a symbol for the native inhabitants of South America.  The interactions between the two families in this novel illustrate the injustice many native inhabitants of countries endure at the hands of colonists.  In the end, the Indians leave the Benavideses' ill-gotten town, choosing to self-govern rather than be controlled by illegitimate rulers.  It's not clear if relocating is a suggestion the author is making.
A communist interpretation of the word 'bourgeoisie' is used in this novel to emphasize that the entire production chain is corrupted for natives in a colonized society.  In order to get a job, one must speak the language of their employers.  If the employers are colonists who have stolen all of the nearby land, rendering the natives poor, then one must submit to being colonized in order to survive in the colonial society.  Provided conquering the colonists is not an option, the only recourse for a native who does not wish to bow to an alien ruler is to leave.
The virgin symbolizes white purity to the Spanish settlers.  To the Indians, it symbolizes hope.  The statue gives birth when the Indians mount a resistance to the Spanish army, implying that the spirit which had been coiling within the townspeople had released.  When Marianita, an Indian girl, became the virgin's new handmaid, the virgin became pregnant again.  This second pregnancy resulted in the second rebellion of the town's desertion by its original rulers.
Although the metaphors in this book were entirely too heavy-handed, Cossio has an enjoyable writing style.  There is very little dialogue and nearly all conversations are summarized.  The obvious symbols and direct narrative waste little of the reader's time.  viva la reabhloid

• Two rival families live together in a small town
• One of the families siezes control of the church and oppresses the other family
• The oppressed family decides to leave the town

SOURCE

Cossío, Alicia Yánez. The Potbellied Virgin. Trans. Amalia Gladhart. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print. Book about the fight for domination of a small town.

THE LAKE by GERHARD ROTH SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS

THE LAKE, or, DER SEE by GERHARD ROTH

SUMMARY
Paul Eck is a representative for a pharmaceutical company who is travelling to various Doctors' offices and offering his drugs to them.  He takes many pills to improve his cognition, aid digestion, relieve allergies, induce drowsiness, and reduce pain, and is dependent on the drugs he takes.  Paul Eck's parents divorced 30 years prior to the start of the novel.  He has not seen his father since the divorce, although his father is wealthy from a hunting and fishing business and continued to pay for Eck's medical studies after they ceased contact.  Eck's father participated in the Hungarian resistance movement and was involved in smuggling guns from Switzerland through Hungary to Serbia.  Eck's mother committed suicide exactly one year before the novel begins, and Eck was forced to mop up his mother's blood after she'd died.
Eck takes a bus to a historic castle and accidentally wanders into a former concentration camp. The next day, he tries to sell drugs to Professor Basaglia at a medical clinic where there are many sick and hopeless people.  Eck meets two women in a cafe who pleasure him sexually and then he is robbed of his money, wallet, and passport by a group of men who were alerted by the women that Eck had money.  After he awakes, he sneaks across the border to return to his home and checks into a hotel to rest.  He decides to not accompany his father for a boating trip which Eck's father invited Eck to, and a storm breaks out on the day of the trip.
The next day, Eck reads in the newspaper that his father went missing in the storm.  Eck visits a friend of his who is a mechanic and takes Eck on a boat trip across a river where Eck sees a trailer park which rents rooms by the night, and Eck checks into the trailer park.  He then goes to see his family doctor who uses acupuncture, and spiritual healing, as well as brutal surgery and recommends his drugs.
A boy named Hermann asks Eck for a ride and Eck obliges, first stopping at a hunting store to buy a gun using a false identity and steps outside where two policemen find Eck and ask him to come to the morgue to look for Eck's father's body.  After identifying the body, Paul Eck is announced as a suspect for the murder of his own father, and told to stay in the trailer park by police.  He is approached by a strange man who knows that Eck was invited to the lake by his father and tells Eck to be careful.
Eck visits his grandfather's home in Hungary and is followed by a blue Toyota for the whole trip.  A police officer emerges from the Toyota the next day and accompanies Paul Eck and his friend named Robert on a boat ride while they look for a clue Eck's friend claimed to have seen.  While they are gone, Eck's trailer is stripped and searched.  A journalist who is interested in the story approaches Eck and offers to help piece together information on the case.  The next doctor Eck visits is named Dr. Goriupp and tells Eck of his father's involvement in the gun trade.
A gypsy who previously worked for Eck's uncle finds the car in which Eck's father was murdered before  the body was chopped up and put in the ocean.  Eck sees his stepbrother there and they plan to go fishing to discuss family matters the next morning.  On their fishing trip, Eck and his stepbrother fight and capsize their boat, resulting in a cut on Eck's forehead.
To get his wound stitched, Eck returns to Dr Goriupp.  While stitching Eck's head, the doctor begins coughing blood, and Eck hallucinates that the doctor is a cannibalistic monster, causing Eck to shoot the doctor in the eye.  A short while later, Eck awakes in the gypsy's home after experiencing drug-induced amnesia.  When Eck returns home he meets the journalist who tells him the police suspect a military man named Laposa of shooting both Dr. Goriupp and Eck's father.  Eck and the journalist go to the military base where they witness Laposa being arrested and confessing to killing Eck's father.
A gun fight breaks out in the trailer next to Eck's trailer which sparks a fire.  Eck takes some LSD he was given by a Swiss colleague.  Paul Eck and Robert fly away in Robert's plane.

ANALYSIS
There are many references to genocide in this novel.  Eck visits both a Jewish and a Serbian cemetery.  He also sees a former concentration camp, a Swastika, and a racist meeting in his journeys.  Paul Eck clearly feels guilty about the crimes of Nazis and the Bosnian Serbs.  Eck mentions that he feels like the stains of the past are haunting him presently when he discusses cleaning up his mother's blood.  I believe the purpose of the thematic inclusion of wartime material is to emphasize that the aftermath of genocide still haunts Europe.
Some silverfish infest Eck's trailer.  Although they appear to fall with gravity after the murder is resolved, Eck sees them the next day when he opens the Bible, which he falsely swore on earlier in the novel.  He leaves the trailer where the silverfish are contained.  The silverfish resemble most closely his conscience, and after the trailer park burns down, it is implied that Eck feels relieved as he hallucinates becoming one with the birds under the influence of LSD.
Throughout the novel, Eck experiences many discomforts within his body.  The reaction of his body to alcohol, and drugs, is well documented.  Every stomach ache Eck endures in The Lake is well documented and it is clear that he likes to tense his abs, and feel warm and full.  Why Roth shared these facts about Eck, I don't know.  To be honest, spending so much time as a reader swimming around inside of Eck's body as well as spotty translation made this book sort of dull for me.  Next week, I promise by book will not have anything to do with genocide, as that seems to be a recurring theme in my selections.

• pharmaceutical representative goes on trip to sell prescription drugs
• the representative's estranged father is secretly involved in the illegal gun trade
• the representative's father is murdered and the representative becomes a suspect
• the police discover that the representative's father was murdered by someone involved in the illegal gun trade

SOURCE

Roth, Gerhard. The Lake. Trans. Michael Winkler. Riverside, CA: Ariadne, 2000. Print. Book about a man suspected of killing his estranged father.

THE PRIVILEGES by JONATHAN DEE SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS

THE PRIVILEGES by JONATHAN DEE


SUMMARY
A young couple, Cynthia and Adam Morey, are getting married in Pittsburgh, US.  The bride has chosen an unpopular bridesmaid.  In total, the wedding costs $38,000 American, and everything is being paid for by Cynthia's stepmother and father.  Adam's parents buy the couple a honeymoon in Mexico during which Cynthia becomes pregnant with a girl named April.
One year later Adam and Cynthia are living in New York, US, and have another child named Jonas.  Adam worked at Morgan Stanley, but quit to work at a smaller firm named 'Perrini Capital'.  The Moreys send their children to private schools which cost $60,000 each year, and Cynthia likes to buy her children expensive items.
Cynthia is a stay at home mom.  Adam's boss at Perrini capital takes Adam, Cynthia, and the children to his vacation home for the weekend.  Cynthia is offended by the boss' wife and the family leaves early.  They are jealous of the boss' luxurious home and expensive car, the boss promises Adam that one day he will be just as rich, and Cynthia encourages Adam to pursue the wealth they've seen.  Adam wants to succeed, but not become a clone of his boss.
Cynthia's mother calls her and asks her to pick up her stepsister named Deborah from the hospital.  Deborah was in the hospital because she overdosed on drugs.  Cynthia has to rush to take the children to the dentist, and briefly loses them in the New York train system.  After this event, years pass without the two speaking to eachother; this silence is a result of mutual ambivalence toward eachother.
Adam feels pressured by Cynthia to increase his earnings.  He begins using illegal insider information to profit from stock market put and call options.  The illegal network which develops involves switching prepaid phones each month for Adam and his partner, offshore bank accounts, and stock broker accounts in fake names.  After Adam is fired from his job at Perini because the boss is angry that Adam doesn't want to take over Perini Capital and suspects him of plotting to start his own firm and steal Perini's analysts, Adam confesses his insider trading to Cynthia, who applauds his bravery and diligence.
By this point, April is 15 and Jonas is 14.  One of April's friends, Robin, hides at the Moreys after being beaten by her father.  Cynthia allows April and her friends to go to parties and drink alcohol. Jonas is in a band which he wants to call, 'The Privileges'.  Robin's mother commits suicide.
Jonas goes on to attend the University of Chicago where he feels divided from the rest of the student body because of his family's wealth.  Nikki is the name of Jonas' girlfriend.  April visits Jonas and meets Nikki. Later, April goes clubbing in New York with Russians, taking drugs and drinking alcohol, and the driver of the car April is in crashes into a van.  She is not hurt in the car crash.  Jonas happens to see April by the side of the road while he is shopping the next day, and takes her home.
Adam has opened up his own hedge fund which is preparing to file for its own IPO.  The Moreys begin receiving unwanted media attention and commit to getting April out of the clubbing scene.  Cynthia's father falls ill in Florida, US, and a stranger calls on his behalf asking Cynthia for money, which she denies, but agrees to go to Florida and assist her father emotionally and financially.  April and Adam return from a business trip in China to Florida.  Cynthia's father's cardiac problems progress in unison with dementia.
Jonas is working on a Master's thesis in art and goes to the apartment of an artist he likes.  The artist, named Joseph Novak, beats Jonas with a pipe and drags Jonas into the apartment.  Cynthia is calling Jonas but Novak throws away Jonas' cell phone and Jonas is afraid, so he stays in Novak's apartment.  As Novak finishes an elaborate drawing, Jonas gets up and leaves the apartment.

ANALYSIS
This book offers a unique insight into the lives of the richest people.  Through Jonas' wrestling with stereotypes, Dee depicts rich people as complex human beings, rather than contemptuous, carbon-copy moneybags on two feet.
There is a persistent theme of the Christian religion throughout the novel.  Cynthia repeats to herself, 'God gives you nothing you can't handle'.  Her father prepares for battle in a war flashback in his hospital bed as he is about to die, preparing him for his last fight.  Jonas discovers his strength as he is pushed to the limit by an attacker.  April, who felt as though she was shortening her useless and boring life with drugs and partying, receives a speech about keeping faith from her father.
In the beginning of the book, April asks her father where they come from, and the father says his family is from England, and the mother's from Russia.  April meets up with Russian drug dealers and her father buys an expensive flat in London, GBR.  I doubt Dee was implying that Russians are inferior to Englishmen, but if that's not what he was implying, I'm not sure what his purpose in including those details was.
A suspiciously coincidental sequence of events in the Moreys' lives wrap themselves up in an equally suspicious neat little bow about staying positive.  Unrealistic and corny, but positive.  The book kept me entertained and left me feeling better than when I started reading it.

• Man with family is pressured into making more money
• Through illegal means, he builds a legal Hedge Fund empire
• The man's wife's father becomes ill in the hospital
• While the man's son is kidnapped, the son's grandfather is on the verge of death
• The son escapes his kidnapper

SOURCE

Dee, Jonathan. The Privileges: A Novel. New York: Random House, 2010. Print.Book about a family keeping their faith amidst struggles in their climb up the social ladder.

1985: WHAT HAPPENS AFTER BIG BROTHER'S DEATH by GYORGY DALOS SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS

1985 by GRORGY DALOS 

SUMMARY

This book is told through 3 memoirs and various newspaper articles and official documents.  The authors of the memoirs are Winston Smith, James O'Brien, and Julia Miller.

Big Brother died on December 10th, 1984, after a brief period during which he showed signs of recovery.  He was the commander of a country called Oceania.

O'Brien employs Smith to command the staff of a propaganda newsletter extolling the virtues of Oceania.  This newsletter, called the TLS, forms the beginning of the resistance against the thought police.

2 factions initially fought to replace Big Brother: The Aluminists, led by Big Sister, and the Paper faction.  While the Paper faction wants peace, the Aluminists want to keep fighting.  A public meeting is held to discuss the future where the public demands better leadership.

The TLS begins to publish sentimental pieces which trigger a response in the community.  Big Sister demands the instigators be arrested by the thought police but is killed by the thought police because they fear she will cause rebellion.  When her Aluminist counterparts threaten to release the number of people killed or imprisoned by the thought police, the thought police begin releasing those in their custody.

A Shakesperean play is effected, the first play which was not  propaganda piece to be performed.  Citizens revolted against dissenting thought policemen in the audience.  The TLS staff and their supporters form the Intellectuals Reform Association, or, IRA.

After signing the peace treaty, Oceania lost all of its colonial empire to Eurasia, and the 2 million unemployed colonial soldiers who return home cause crime and food shortage, so that the government delivers food according to level of unrest to suppress revolt.  The IRA demand a 10-point reform including the dissolution of the thought police, an end to propaganda and anti-freedom campaigns, and the reduction of army size.

Working-class Muslims begin rioting in the city and the IRA teams up with them to secure more social liberties.  The remaining thought police government holds a contest for citizen-inspired policy reforms in response. 

Together, the IRA and working-class overthrow the thought police and seize power.  However, they are quickly overthrown by the old thought police.  In order to compromise with the people, the new Oceanian government promotes social liberties.  Winston Smith and the leader of the Muslims are executed.

ANALYSIS

Obviously, the events of this novel follow those of 1984, a book by George Orwell.  Information about 1984 by George Orwell is readily available and can be easily accessed using any search engine.  This book does make sense without its predecessor.

The revolution of the IRA in this novel is compared to the Russian and French Revolutions.  Repression is mocked as people hurriedly release emotions quite different from the feelings they expressed under Big Brother's dictatorship.  Dalos paints O'Brien in a sympathetic light.  While dictatorships and oppressive governments are awful, the people enforcing these laws are human like the people they oppress.  Deep down, everyone seems to want freedom in this novel.

The alliance of an organization named the IRA and the Muslims caught my eye in this novel.  While the IRA and terrorist organizations such as the Taliban and Al-Qaeda are sometimes compared, they share little in common.  Thankfully, no psychopath such as Osama Bin-Laden has come to power in Ireland, which is why the level of "terrorism" committed by the IRA consists mostly of graffiti currently, while car bombs and other violent attacks are an everyday occurrence in the Middle East, where the Taliban and Al-Qaeda are based.  The IRA stands for Irish Republican Association in real life, and was formed by Protestants and Catholics who sought to overthrow the British colonial rule in Ireland.  There was a period in Ireland when the Loyalists, who advocated for British rule both in religion and government, fought against the Republicans, each using terrorist tactics against eachother, attacking bars and other meeting areas.  However, Dalos does not compare the IRA to Muslims in a negative light.  I enjoyed his comparison of the struggle for religious freedom in the Muslim community to the struggles of the Catholic community in Britain.  Additionally, Dalos  named the Muslim and Catholic organization an Intellectual association, implying that he respects the intelligence of Muslims and Catholics, Irish or otherwise.  His depictions were well-informed and respectful.

• The leader of a dictatorship dies
• An Intellectual Reform Association forms and promotes social freedom
• The Reform movement is quelled but the government implements more liberal policies

Dalos, Gyorgy. 1985. Trans. Stuart Hood and Estella Schmid. New York: Pantheon, 1983. Print. Book about the aftermath of Big Brother's death.

THE PATIENCE STONE by ATIQ RAHIMI SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS

THE PATIENCE STONE, or, SYNGE SABOUR by ATIQ RAHIMI

SUMMARY
A man and a woman live together in a wartorn village.  The notable background of the story is unfolded through the woman's flashbacks and are as follows:
The man was a hero in a religious war.  The woman was promised to the man at the age of 17 by her father who was infatuated with the idea of his daughter marrying a hero.  Before they got married, the woman was captured by a religious merchant who tied her up in a basement and forced her to have sex with many men.  When the hero returned from war and first met his new wife, he did not acknowledge her, he merely sat down next to her in silence, claiming her as though she was a possession.  Not until 3 years after they were married did they first have sex, and because she was on her period she bled, which the hero took to be proof of virginity.  During a battle, the hero was shot in the neck, yet he miraculously lived in a comatose state.
In the present, the man sits in the living room, attached to an IV and breathing tube, staring absently at the wall.  Although the woman tries to keep her 2 daughters away from the man, one of the daughters sneaks in and complains that she is not allowed to see her father, and takes the tube out of his mouth long enough for a fly to dart in, which the hero does not notice.  The woman increasingly laments the countless prayers she offers to God as she takes care of the hero injured in a holy war.  The people of the village keep time by the cycle of prayers they are instructed to make.  While the woman recounts the story of their first intercourse, she draws menstrual blood onto her finger, and jams it into the man's beard, insisting it is clean.
The woman begins to question her faith.  An old, mysterious woman appears, babbling incoherently.  Religious soldiers embark on a raid of the neighborhood and find the old woman, and break into the main characters' home and steal the man's wedding band and Koran, allowing the hero to live only because they see he is a good Muslim.  The children play in the rubble, but are sent to stay with their aunt for their safety.  The woman laments that her Koran is stolen.
The woman tells the man that she is upset about their history; and tells him he has become her patience stone, listening to her stories.  The woman recounts her mother's story about a King who kills all of his newborn daughters because he wants a son.  The Queen speaks to one of the daughters who is magical and is told she will inherit a grand realm if she saves the daughter.  After the Queen runs away, the King goes on a warmongering quest for her, and eventually the Queen's realm prepares to do battle against the King's invading force.  Instead of a traditional ending, the woman says that this story leaves the listener's bias to its own devices.
Another Religious force sweeps the area and the woman hides the hero.  When the soldiers are gone, she tells the hero the story of her rape.  He rises from his comatose state, and the woman proclaims that it is a miracle, but then her husband murders her.  The book ends with a fly buzzing around the dead woman's body.

ANALYSIS
While the woman believes the tables have been turned on the hero and he now serves her instead of her serving him, it still appeared to me as though she was getting a raw deal by tending to him while he contributed nothing.  The stories told by this woman exposed a difficulty in being forced into a situation and then accused of being unholy because of it.  Unfortunately, the hero, soldiers, and merchant, were strong enough that they could choose to overpower and eventually kill her.
The recounted story about the cat suggests that the woman was seen as a pet, like a cat, with which her father could do whatever he pleased.  Bearing a great similarity to Henry the 8th of England, who killed his wives if they gave birth to a daughter, the King from the woman's mother's story is incredibly cruel and immoral, also treating woman as though they are less than human.  Asserting a strong belief in one's cause is emphasized by the need to imagine your own ending to the mother's story.  In the world of the mother's story, if you do not believe you will win, you may lose.
This story feels less like a didactic message and more like a slice of life.  It is tragic, and what is most unjust about the sexual relations in the story is that the hero cannot even be asked to stay in a coma, the easiest state to exist in, in order to give his wife moral support, and rises from the dead just to kill her because, in his mind, she allowed herself to be raped.

• man who has mistreated his wife becomes her patience stone in a coma
• woman is harassed by men and then blamed for allowing herself to be mistreated
• man rises from his coma to murder his wife for being impure

Rahimi, Atiq. The Patience Stone: Sang-e Saboor. Trans. Polly McLean. New York: Other, 2009. Print. Book about a man who becomes his wife's patience stone.

THE TATTOOED SOLDIER by HÉCTOR TOBAR SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS

THE TATTOOED SOLDIER by HÉCTOR TOBAR

SUMMARY
Antonio, the main character, sees the man who killed his wife and son in a park at the beginning of the novel, recognizable by a distinctive tattoo of a Jaguar.  Antonio is a Guatemalan immigrant who does not speak English well because, as he complains, he can stay in his enclave of Los Angeles and never be forced to speak English. After losing his job, Antonio becomes homeless with his friend, Jose Juan.  The owner of the shop Antonio and Jose once worked at went bankrupt.
The murderer of his family is named Guillermo Longoria.  Longoria reveals that he was forcefully conscripted into the Guatemalan army.  The killing of Antonio's family was part of a genocide in Guatemala perpetrated against the indigenous population.  Longoria and Antonio both have indigenous genetics, and Longoria has darker skin than Antonio.  Longoria works at a postal office and enjoys playing chess at the local park, although he never wins.
In the next part, we are taken to the past in Guatemala.  Longoria recounts being removed from the squad to which he was originally assigned, the Jaguars, and assigned to assist a mercenary squad, and takes unofficial command of the unit.  Antonio and Elena are advised by Antonio's wealthy parents to move to San Cristobal, and do.  They live in a village on the outskirts where there is not clean water.  Elena, already on government watch lists, writes a letter to an official in protest of their lack of water and Longoria's death squad is sent to kill her.
After his wife and son are murdered but before the events of this novel, Antonio sees Longoria on a bus.  Antonio does nothing, and regrets this later.
In the present day, Antonio decides to murder Longoria and he thinks Longoria doesn't recognize him.  Longoria, nervous about a gang shooting that killed one of his former Jaguar brother's children, buys a gun.  The store owner reminds Longoria that it is not legal to walk with a loaded gun so he takes the clip out.  Antonio comes to one of Longoria's chess games at the park and hides.  One of the old men Longoria plays chess with warns him about Antonio, but he doesn't pay attention.  Antonio strikes, and breaks Longoria's arm with the pipe and Longoria draws his gun and realizes that the clip was still out as he tries to shoot Antonio.  A police officer emerges, and while Longoria escapes, Antonio is caught, but isn't arrested.
Antonio rallies with the homeless men in his camp and decides to buy a gun.  Jose Juan loans Antonio the money and his friend, Frank, leads him to a man's apartment to collect the gun.  After arriving at the man's apartment, they discover Frank's friend is in jail.  A teenage father approaches Frank and Antonio and leads them to a woman who does have a gun, which Antonio buys.
Longoria breaks up with his girlfriend because she stole something.  His broken arm heals while Antonio stalks him, learning his routine.  The Los Angeles riots in response to the Rodney King beating break out, and Antonio waits for Longoria at his apartment building.  Antonio shoots Longoria.  Longoria wanders through the burning city, wishing that the American soldiers who trained him in North Carolina would pick him up.  Antonio finds him and finishes him off.

ANALYSIS
The Jaguar could represent a bad mark of the past which is tainting the present.
Longoria is bombastic, subservient, and hypocritical.  He believes cleanliness is next to godliness and that what separates him from other people with dark skin is his civilized nature, and through racial taunts he receives in the military I gathered he was fed the idea that he was separate from the Mayans he was killing because of his training.  He has a little man complex and while he wants to take over the world and cleanse LA of the same type of people he killed in Guatemala, he cannot think for himself, as evidenced by his bad chess play.
This novel draws parallels between rogue armies and gangs, saying that bad politicians are no better than gangsters.  Inevitably it oversimplifies some subjects it touches on indirectly to a base level.  The civil rights movement in America is compared to revenge for the racial extermination in Guatemala.  Might be some stuff I'm missing, but this is what you get for free!

• man sees murderer of his family
• he attacks the murderer and breaks his arm
• the LA riot breaks out
• the protagonist finishes off the murderer of his family

Tobar, Héctor. The Tattooed Soldier. Harrison, NY: Delphinium, 1998. Print. Book about a man seeking revenge against the murderer of his family.