Book 19 - Margery Allingham, Traitor's Purse

There is no need to write anything more about this book as this piece from A.S. Byatt says all I could and more. It is a brilliant appreciation and is well worth your time.

First published
1941

Link to Last Book
Simples. The last book was an example of current detective fiction so this time I thought I would go back to one of the writers from the 'golden age of crime'

Book 18 - Peter May, Extraordinary People

“Paris St Germain or PSG as they are affectionately known to their fans” Affectionately! That word really bothered me - it is so sloppy. Paris St Germain are known as PSG in the same way that the Scottish Nationalist Party is known as the SNP - it is not an affectionate name it is a more convenient name. Not only that affection is a pretty feeble way of describing the relationship between a fans and their teams - the emotion is more intense than that. I know that one word in a book is statistically insignificant and no basis on which to make a judgement (I could not throw that stone as I, in common with most people, have often written words that are not quite right) but sometimes such things can bring me up short and make me wonder if what I’m reading was written in too much haste. Maybe it was or maybe it something else that happens in some thrillers - a tendency to over-explain background details.

This might be a weakness it can also be a strength . Thrillers can often deal with current issues and use them them as a frame for stories of wrong doing and corruption. In so doing they have a duty to explain what is happening and the forces guiding peoples actions. As such they can be vehicles for state of the nation novels hiding under the guise of formula fiction (in so doing they can tackle bigger themes than more lauded literary novels but that is a debate for another time). But you have to be skilled at digesting your research and knowing how many ’T's to cross and ‘I’s to dot to make the story sing. Sometimes that doesn’t happen and describing what is current at a particular time can leave the book dated. I mean that in a precise sense - not old fashioned, as such, just something that can be precisely dated.

‘Extraordinary People’ was written ten years ago and the plot revolves around a lot of internet searching. Now ten years equals several generations in computer lifetimes. What we now take for granted was not so then. Google for example still had slightly cult status (I do not want to press this too hard and suggest it was hardly known - it was of course widely used in 2005 but it was still a thing of wonder. Remember that kids: Google was once new and exciting. The algorithm that allowed it to rank hits according to relevance - something far superior to anything that went before - was indeed revolutionary. It is thus perfectly plausible for someone to ask in 2005:  “What search engine do you use?” “Google” “Good. The same as me” Nevertheless reading this in 2015 gives you a bit of a jolt as you realise how much of our mental world has changed in a relatively short time. Google is now so much part of the modern world, you don’t even think about it. Today you would not spend much time describing searching on the internet but in this book that happens. As I say things can be dated.

That is not a criticism by the way, I actually like things to be rooted in a particular time and place. At the moment I’m reading ‘Traitors Purse’ by Margery Allingham where there is this short passage “She drove very well, with confidence and with unusual sympathy for the machine. He appreciated that. So many people approach the petrol engine as if it were something vindictive, to be mastered with a firm hand.” That, of course, bears no relation to driving today instead it is a small reminder of how things were 80 years ago. Those details in the fabric of a text are just as revealing as signposts that say 2005 or 1940. However, comparing the two texts, I think that describing cars and driving rather more interesting than trying to explain what  happens in a Google search.

Be that as it may i get the feeling Peter May has done his research and has firmly rooted it, with a sense of place. The central character, Enzo Macleod, is a Scottish forensic scientist who gave up his career for love and relocated to France. Peter May is also a Scotsman living in France and that congruence gives me faith in the way he describes the place. I must also declare a personal interest: for years I have holidayed near Cognac and have a love of the countryside of Southwest France. When reading the book I could picture the places, the town streets, and the heat. Nevertheless there is still the hint of undigested research. The first two sentences of the book are: “The Rues des Deus Ponts cuts across the centre of the Îles St. Louis, from the Pont Marie straddling the Seine on the north side, to the Pont de la Tournelle on the south. The island is no more than two hundred metres across and, side by side with the Île de la Cite, stands at the very heart of old Paris”. It could almost have come from a guide book.However these are details, mere quibbles. 

It is nevertheless it is remarkable that I have written this many words yet mentioned nothing about the plot or the action that animates it. My bad.

The central conceit is a bet made by Enzo Macleod that he could  solve some open historical cases because of advances in forensic science. This is actually quite a neat devise because it sets up a framework for a series but also offers the possibility of playing one period of time against another (though this does not happen to any great extent in this story). 

The first case (this book) is that of a high ranking public official, turned media personality who disappeared. There was no proof proof that he was dead let alone murdered There is no proof that he was dead let alone murdered but as this is a detective story we all know it was foul play. After some rather improbable guesswork bloodstains are found seeped into the some flagstones in a church. DNA, the big forensic advance since the original investigation,  identified the blood as that of the missing person. After some more  guesswork  part of the body is found, in a cask with cryptic clues about where other parts of the body could be found and one of the people responsible. Lots of Googling to interpret the clues and a whiteboard to draw the links and the chase is on and the set-up is repeated a couple more times. That is all I am going to say because I don’t want to give away anymore of that actual plot, except to say it ends with an inevitable showdown with the psychopathic killer.

You will note from the brief description that it is a high-concept novel and also that it is a slightly false prospectus. Apart from DNA to identify the body the investigation owed little to advances in forensics. it was basically Hercule Poirot solving crossword clues.

So the question is did I enjoy it? Yes I did. I read it quite quickly. Did I think it was good? Hmm. Not so sure. That is a totally different question. Some of the action is preposterous and the characters are rather sketchy, i.e. outlined with a broad brush. But that is the interesting thing about detective series there is scope for the central character to evolve as more details are added to the back story. So I will have to reserve judgement until I have read some more.

First published

2006

Link to Last Book

The last book was a psychiatrist unearthing the stories his patients, discovering what was important and what was bothering them. Acting a bit like a detective. So I though I would read some genre detective fiction.

Book 17 - Stephan Grosz, The Examined Life

Some books are both fast and slow.

It is terribly easy to gallop through these short vignettes, wanting to know what happened, find out about a person’s troubles and the lessons we could learn. It is easy because they are short and you can read them in those small gaps in life, such as waiting for a bus, or for a meeting,on the other hand you can stretch out for an evening. So you don’t have to put aside long stretches of time but if you do the cumulative effect of the stories becomes more compelling.  In the end I read this as a couple of snacks and two longer meals. Then it was gone.

Now it has actually been some time since I finished it (my idea of writing one of these posts a week fell by the wayside a long time ago) and so coming back to it I had to remember what I had read. With one exception I had forgotten most of the details. I could remember various incidents and some of the conclusions, but the details were gone. This meant I had to reread but this time I didn’t rush. I thought more about each encounter, tried to align what I was reading with my own experiences and therefore paused and thought. It was a more considered experience and so the book was both fast and slow.

Doing this I remembered something I learnt at school. It is an odd thing that the main lessons I have taken from school have nothing to do with the subjects but were little things that came out of conversations between teachers and the class. It was always slightly to the side of the curriculum, when they talked about their own experiences, passed on a bit of wisdom, or just something they found amusing.  In one such session an english teacher said that the way he got inside a book was to read it quickly, first, as an overview, to get out of the way the question of what happens next. Then comes the main, careful read, paying attention to what had been missed. Afterwards there is a final flick through, picking out random passages, remembering how they fitted in and the incidents surrounding them. Now this is not unusual advice (in fact it’s pretty standard) but it has stayed with me because I believed he was passing on something from his own experience.

And this is what this book is about - the passing on of experience. A therapist extracting enough information from people so they could make sense of their stories. The chapters are short, just a few pages, so that they can focus on a single story with a clear lesson or theme. With 30 stories there are many lessons but only, of course, if you remember them and as I found out it is quite easy for them to merge.

But this brings me back to the chapter I remembered most clearly when I first read the book. It was unusual in not being based on a therapy, instead it was more abstract about the use of praise or criticism in childhood development. But like every other chapter it is anchored by stories of people’s behaviour. It starts with Grosz remembering a nursery assistant giving too much, unwarranted praise to his child and him being at a loss as to how to explain that he would prefer it if she didn’t praise so much. This is at odds with the current climate, which seems to demand the scattering of praise, thinking it makes a child feel good about themselves and is therefore encouraging. But if it is given without thought empty praise, like thoughtless criticism, is an expression of indifference. This point is illustrated with the observation of an 80 year old remedial teacher. 

“I once watched Charlotte with a four year old boy, who was drawing. When he stopped and looked up at her - perhaps expecting praise - she smiled and said, ‘There’s a lot of blue in your picture.’ He replied ‘It’s a pond near my grandmother’s house - there is a bridge.’ He picked up a brown crayon and said ‘Here, I’ll show you.’ Unhurried she talked to the child, but more importantly she observed and listened. She was present.

Being present builds a child’s confidence because it lets the child know that she is worth thinking about. Without this, a child might come to believe that her activity is just a means to gain praise, rather than an end in itself. How can we expect a child to be attentive if we have no been attentive to her?”

Who knows why I remembered this particular passage out of all the others but it is a good example of the virtues of the book and the way it moves from the personal to the general, from observation to context and finishes with an insight. All in a very gentle way. Just like Charlotte Stiglitz, the remedial teacher the book is the result of a lifetime spent paying attention.

First Published

2013

Link to Last Book

Most of the stories are about recovering memories and then making sense of them.