Books I Read in Japan - Part Two
Books 17 - 20
Book 17: Pet: A Novel by Catherine Chidgey
Pet is set in New Zealand in the 1980s and revolves around a class of 12 year olds at Catholic school vying for the attention of their charismatic new teacher, Mrs. Price. Justine and her best friend Amy are on the fringes of the popular crowd. When Mrs. Price anoints Justine as her new pet, it drives a wedge between the two girls and elevates Justine’s social status. The attention seems benign at first - asking Justine to clean up the classroom, or run special errands for her, but quickly becomes more sinister. Everyone has a vulnerability to be exploited. A series of thefts pit everyone in the class against each other, culminating in a witch hunt where Amy is framed as the thief. She doesn’t want to believe it, but with time, Justine is the only person who can see beneath Mrs. Price’s facade. Her insight grows deeper once Mrs. Price starts dating her recently widowed father. Could it be that Mrs. Price is the one behind the stealing? A tragedy occurs that rocks the school, exposing religious and cultural differences that were simmering below the surface of the small, conservative town.
I very much enjoyed Pet. It is a lot more twisted than I expected. The author captures the uncertainty of puberty and the fraught dynamics of girlhood very well. The ending is more than a little over the top, but still impactful. The main question the book posed was how well can you really know anyone?
Book 18: 2084: A Novel of Future War by Elliot Ackerman & James Stavridis USN
2084 is the third in a series of novels imagining what war will look like in the future, if that isn’t abundantly obvious from the title. In this outing, chaos envelopes the earth in the form of climate change that is rendering portions of the earth uninhabitable. The equatorial countries (led by Brazil, Nigeria and Indonesia) suffering the greatest impact join together, calling themselves the Reparationists. They are the least responsible for the climate change but bear the heaviest burden. Their leaders believe the rich countries of the world should give up parts of their territories for their displaced citizens. Those wealthy countries, called the Consortium, are headed by China and the US. Beset by internal conflict, they have no patience for the Reparationists’ pleas. When negotiations break down, the Reparationists see no other choice than to take the Consortium’s land by force. An armada of ships heads north, and the Consortium must decide whether to kill thousands of people or allow a peaceful settlement.
This book isn’t going to win any awards for writing, but the authors’ ideas are fascinating. I find it to be a relatively believable scenario. Evaluating the trilogy as a whole, the first book in the series, 2034, is the best. I would start there if interested.
A random aside about fascinating ideas - Neal Stephenson has some unbelievably killer plots, but his books are somehow the most boring and tedious slogs I have ever encountered. I tried so, so hard with Seveneves and Fall; Or, Dodge in Hell and I had to give up. NO MORE STEPHENSON no matter how “interesting” the topic.
Book 19: We Are All Guilty Here by Karin Slaughter
We Are All Guilty Here is a mystery set in the typical charming town where everyone knows each other and the worst crimes are speeding tickets. That all changes when two girls disappear during a fireworks show. There is blood at one of the crime scenes - a lot of blood. For Sheriff Deputy Emmy Clifton, this case is personal; one of the missing girls is her best friend’s daughter, a girl she blew off earlier in the evening while preoccupied with her own problems. Emmy and her father, the Sheriff, are the lead investigators on the case, and to everyone’s relief, a suspect is eventually captured and send to prison. The book then jumps forward 12 years. Another girl disappears under similar circumstances. Fearing they charged the wrong person, the sheriffs accept help from a enigmatic former FBI profiler to bolster their investigation.
There are two ridiculous twists in the second half that essentially ruin the book for me. The story is strong enough on its own merits without adding this Gone Girl-style business. I also refuse to believe that a person who almost kills someone in a car accident while drunk/high, a person who disappears for years to avoid criminal charges, would ever be hired as an FBI agent. Although . . . KA$H Patel and his branded bourbon suggests I am vastly overrating the quality of the FBI’s hiring decisions.
This is not my typical choice of book; my work book club chose it. I classify it as airport fiction, but it’s good for me to get out of my comfort zone from time to time. And, it’s the only book club book so far that everyone finished, so we had a lively discussion!
Book 20: The Finish: The Killing of Osama bin Laden by Mark Bowden
I very recently watched a Netflix documentary on this topic, so I’m not sure why I decided to read The Finish so quickly afterward. Mark Bowden is one of my all-time favorites and I missed this when it was originally published. It is meticulously researched and documents . . . exactly what I just saw on TV. This one’s on me. I wholeheartedly suggest these Bowden books for the military history enthusiast: Black Hawk Down (US military intervention in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993), Killing Pablo the hunt for Pablo Escobar) and Guests of the Ayatollah (the Iran hostage crisis beginning in 1979). One caveat on Guests - it was published in 2006 so it’s been a long time since I’ve read it. I suspect some of the commentary on Islam aged poorly. I do not endorse any racist or otherwise negative views the author may espouse.