The Art of T.S. Eliot by Helen Gardner →

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The Art of T.S. Eliot by Helen Gardner focuses on the poetic style and images of Eliot’s work. The author sees his earlier work only as preparing him for his masterpiece, “Four Quartets”, which she identifies as a turning point in his work.

The real world did not reflect all that Eliot believed about the spiritual world where he saw hope for redemption. His poems were about art, old age, regret and redemption. His hope, in a religious sense, was that the making of art was the highest justification of human life. These are poems of self-examination and regret where art helped fill the need for penance.

Gardner's says of Eliot’s earlier work that he often imitated the voices of other poets but then moves on to a more independent style. He wrote “The Waste Land,” in a way that underscored the musicality inherent in natural rhythms.  This thematic evolution did not overshadow his core ideas which seem best understood in the Quartets.

Eliot’s famous quote: “We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring. Will be to arrive where we started. And know the place for the first time,”,

This leaves a question: Did Eliot move onto plays after his poetry because after the Quartets he had nothing left to say? Maybe he really did feel he arrived at where he started?

T.S. Eliot Quotes

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.

Do I dare disturb the universe?

The True Life of J.S. Bach, by Klaus Eidam →

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician best known in his day as a virtuoso organist as well as a composer. Church music was very important in his day and his music had an enthusiasm and seeming freedom, despite its immense complexities. The music fit together in a way that left many amazed, but others seeing in it reinforce the idea that music is actually revealed.

Klaus Eidam wrote “The True Life of J.S. Bach” and challenges other writers’ thoughts about Bach presenting his image and music as a progressive consequence of the German Enlightenment.

Musicologist Jules Combarieu believed, much like Bach, that music is the “science of thinking in tones” and that harmony is derived from mathematics. Bach implied, and Eidam went further in his writings saying, that harmony comes from mathematics, even before it came into being in music and is defined as a hidden arithmetic movement.

Eidam was deeply moved by Bach’s organ piece, “Toccata and Fugue in D minor.” The piece opens with a toccata section, followed by a fugue that ends in a coda. It is one of the most famous works in the organ repertoire and does leave you wondering how anyone could have written it.

The book concludes discussing musical relationships and suggests that they parallel the rhythm of the cosmos within the deep structure of music.

Quotes

The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.

It's easy to play any musical instrument: all you have to do is touch the right key at the right time and the instrument will play itself.

Music is an agreeable harmony for the honor of God and the permissible delights of the soul.

As a Man Thinketh, by James Allen →

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Allen’s book, “As a Man Thinketh” starts out :

“Mind is the Master power that molds and makes,

And Man is Mind, and evermore he takes

The tool of Thought, and, shaping what he wills,

Brings forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills:

He thinks in secret, and it comes to pass:

Environment is but his looking-glass.”

Published in 1903, Allen's book remains a timeless beacon of self-help literature. It was an early leader in the genre  , drawing profound insights from Proverbs 23:6-8 in the King James version of the Bible, and focusing on the enduring power of thought.

The book vividly illustrates how the power of thought, when consciously applied, can be a transformative force in each individual's life, leading to the creation of both favorable and unfavorable conditions.

Allen's book is not just a theoretical guide but a practical tool that empowers readers to take control of their lives. He aptly described it as " a book that will help you to help yourself,” "a pocket companion for thoughtful people,” and "a book on the power and proper application of thought.”

Quotes

• "Men do not attract what they want, but what they are."

• "A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts."

• "Cherish your visions. Cherish your ideals. Cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all heavenly environment, of these if you but remain true to them your world will, at last, be built."

• "The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors, that which it loves, and also that which it fears. It reached the height of its cherished aspirations. It falls to the level of its unchastened desires– and circumstances are how the soul receives its own."

• "Men are anxious to improve their circumstances but are unwilling to improve themselves; they, therefore, remain bound."

• A thought precedes "Every action and feeling."

• "Right thinking begins with the words we say to ourselves."

• "Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself."

• "You cannot travel within and stand still without.

Past Tense, A Jack Reacher Novel, by Lee Child →

Past Tense, A Jack Reacher Novel, by Lee Child, delivers insight into the Reacher family’s history, going back to the place of birth for his father. The trip leaves him on foot in the middle of rural New Hampshire, walking where he has to choose between going to Portsmouth or Lacona at a fork in the road.

Thirty miles from the town, a young Canadian couple has car trouble and stops at a small motel buried on a small road in the forest where they are only guests. They find the motel unsettling, and Child leaves us just as uncertain about their fate for much of the book. This is a noticeable change in the past plots that work well.

Reacher finds questionable evidence of his father’s existence, but a 75-year-old assault case named Stan Reacher is called surprising, similar to some trouble Reacher finds in town. He wakes up from a sound sleep from a noise below the threshold of consciousness, is prompted to find and help a woman under attack, and gives her assailant a beating. The assailant has a similar profile to the assault case victim found on his father’s police records.

More connections are found, and they take him, just in time, to the strange motel where the Canadian couple desperately needs him.

This Reacher story has some new plot twists and ultimately holds our interest.

Interesting Items

Someone, somewhere, buys one of Child’s Jack Reacher crime thrillers every 13 seconds. 

Past Tense, published in November, is the 23rd Reacher novel.

The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis →

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C.S. Lewis said that we will be transformed in eternity, wherever we eventually go.  “The Weight of Glory” discusses the transformation processes and was presented in 1941 when Lewis delivered a sermon at the pulpit of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin in Oxford.

“It’s a serious thing,” Lewis says, “to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw them now, you would be strongly tempted to worship.” We’re all immortal and all continue in eternity. Being with God will make us Godlike.  Understanding the “weight of glory” will direct us to be different in how we serve others, but even with that change, getting over the feeling of our selfishness is an important challenge.

Lewis tells us that men today tend to think the highest virtue is unselfishness but explains that the Christians of old would have said it was Love. Replacing Love with the term “unselfish” carries with it the suggestion that the goal is not primarily securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point.”

Obtaining this view of glory means that we except that there are no ordinary people, which means we have neve talked to a mere mortal, and that directs us to conduct all our dealings with each other with love. This means that your neighbor is the holiest object you will encounter and an important part of why you’re here.

Lewis says that “almost all our modern philosophies have been devised to convince us that the good of man is to be found on this earth, but our real goal is elsewhere.”

Finding the path to glory in how we serve, and love others is much of Lewis’s core message. By following that we take on the weight of a more compassionate vision of Christianity and a different understanding of what true faith and forgiveness is.

Memorable Quotes

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it, because by it I see everything else.”

See Literary Favorites Section for more on C.S. Lewis Click Here

One Shot, A Jack Reacher Novel, by Lee Child →

Lee Child’s book, “One Shot, a Jack Reacher novel”, is a book you won’t want to put down and is a great read, but it is time to ask why this formula has worked so well over 20++ books? How does this big tough guy, who wanders the country, deals with bad guys and beautiful women, continue to resonate with what seems to be the same old plot?

Reacher now seems so familiar to us that he is like a family member we know very well. We look forward to finding out what our friend is up to now but is the same old plot? Yes and no. It is the same old Reacher but what is surprising is that the plots continue to surprise us in the twists and turns they take, and they continue to be exciting fast paced. You don’t see what is coming.

By comparison I have put down a Steven King novel because I could see exactly what was coming and just wasn’t ready to deal with it. One time it was a couple of months before I wanted to go back, but I did go back. King is still a favorite, but Child’s plots are indeed canny.

Reacher sees the news on TV and learns of the Friday Night Massacre sniper attack and he decides to go to Indiana where James Barr, a former Army Infantry sniper has been arrested for killing 5 people insisting he’s the wrong man: His only request is to “Get Jack Reacher for me.” Barr knew of Reacher when he was in the army year ago.

Barr may want to have Reacher found but that is odd since Barr had been involved in an identical crime back years ago in the military and Reacher wants to make sure that he is convicted of the murders this time. The facts of the crime are solid, and the only real question is how was it possible that Barr didn’t commit the crime as he claimed?

Innocent people are killed, Reacher is framed, and as the police turn against him  he goes underground vowing revenge.  

O yes, by the way, a beautiful woman from his military past shows up, of course.

You really don’t know for sure who the puppet master, #1 bad guy really is until the end. Another good read. Can Lee Child keep this series going?

Top Quotes

“Never forgive, never forget. ...

• “No, I'm a man with a rule. ...

• “I'm not afraid of death. ...

• “I'm not a vagrant. ...

• “He had fallen out of the ugly tree, and hit every branch.” ...

• “I don't care about the little guy. ...

• “I was in the machine. ...

• “A handgun at two hundred feet is the same thing as crossing your fingers and making a wish.”

Reflections on the Psalms, by C.S. Lewis →

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Psalms 1 begins: “Blessed is the one, who does not walk in step with the wicked, or stand in the way that sinners take, or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law, day and night.” Psalms written as poetry, song, praises, and prayers of meditation.

C.S Lewis’s “Reflections on the Psalms begins saying: “This is not a work of scholarship, I write for the unlearned about things in which I am unlearned myself.” His approach conveys his intent of presenting himself as just another student rather than the obvious great teacher that he was. 

The message is of the Lord looking over the righteous, but some critics say that it applies a Christ centered worldview of God, in contrast to the Old Testament view. 

Lewis tells us that words like “devilish” used in the chapter titled, “The Cursing’s” can feel like the spirit of hatred which strikes us in the face like the heat from a furnace mouth. In tackling these types of scripture we find that the more that is written about them the more trivial and even comical they become, suggesting that they just ought to be left alone. Lewis didn’t leave them alone but attempted to find real connections to the Lord he knew in them.

Lewis is well known for his allegorical writings, but he still insists on downplaying that aspect of his work saying, “some of the allegories thus imposed on my own books have been so ingenious and interesting that I often wish I had thought of them myself.” 

In the final chapters, Lewis deals with the idea of “Second Meanings” and with the manner in which the “Scriptures” came to be written, and they’re how the second meanings evolved, even comparing Pagan mythology and religion. “Lewis’s musings on myth have alarmed some of his less literate admirers, just as they have riled his less literate critics, who both misunderstood his language, believing it to imply the factual falsity of the Christian faith.”

Lewis addresses the assumption of saying, “because it comes in the Bible, all this vindictive hatred must somehow be good.” Lewis disputes this saying this is incorrect and to help change this view he tells us “every psalm must be read as a poem, we must dissect the language used, recognizing the words not as a spur-of-the-moment outburst, but a well-planned and honest prayer to God.”

The book is a meditation of the human condition and is of value in gaining more understanding and perspective. 

Is C.S. Lewis a Great Literary Influence? Of course he is. See Literary Influence Section - click here

Quotes

“The most valuable thing the Psalms do for me is to express the same delight in God which made David dance.”

“No single book of Scripture, not even of the New Testament, has, perhaps, ever taken such hold on the heart of Christendom.”
― J.J. Stewart Perowne

“The psalms teach us about God and our relationship with Him; that is the heart of theology. The Psalter may be thought of as a portrait gallery of God, presenting us with multiple images of who God is.”
― Tremper Longman

The Secret Life of Bees a novel by Sue Monk Kidd

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This is the story of Lily Owens, born in 1950, as told by her in 1964 in South Carolina. The Civil Rights Act is just passing, Lyndon Johnson is running for President, and some blacks are voting for the first time.

Lily’s mother died when she was four years old, and Rosaleen, a black stand-in mother, raised her. Rosaleen has gotten in trouble and arrested trying to vote. After another terrible fight with T. Ray, Lily decides to run away for good, but first, she has to get Rosaleen, who was beaten up in jail and is in the hospital under guard.  She finds a way to help Rosaleen escape, and they both escape to Tiburon, South Carolina, a town that holds the secret of her mother’s past. She chose to run to this town because of a picture of a Black Madonna with Tiburon’s name on the back. Her mother had the image in her things, and her choice to go to the city was random, she thought.

They find a place to stay in Tiburon at a honey farm with May, June, and August, black beekeeping sisters, who not only open their arms to help them but share their special affinity for the world of bees and honey and the Black Madonna. Lily learns about bees and even finds a boyfriend.

This novel's beauty of language allows you to feel the time, place, and characters. Lily is white, and even though the people she draws close to are black, we see them through her eyes and heart.

The bees add to the story of a countryside that seems alive, and we almost feel the heat of the day and the sounds of the night.

We connect with Lily’s secret life and feelings. Even some of the expected moody adolescent girl concerns and the pain she feels for the loss of her mother are feelings we share.

August is the oldest sister and helps Lily understand herself and “find the mother in herself.”

What Does the Secret Life of Bees tell us about Christianity? You can see a short essay on this subject in the Daily Comments section or click on the title.

Quotes

“If you need something from somebody, always give that person a way to hand it to you.” 

“Knowing can be a curse on a person's life. I'd traded in a pack of lies for a pack of truth, and I didn't know which was heavier. Which one took the most strength to carry around? It was a ridiculous question because once you know the truth, you can't ever go back and pick up your suitcase of lies. Heavier or not, the truth is yours now.” 

“It is the peculiar nature of the world to go on spinning no matter what sort of heartbreak is happening.”

 “Stories have to be told, or they die, and when they die, we can't remember who we are or why we're here.”

Gone Girl, a novel, by Gillian Flynn →

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Both Nick and Amy are talking directly to us, the readers, in Gillian Flynn’s “Gone Girl”. We first meet them both at a party where they are first drawn to each other. We jump ahead 8 months and they meet again, finish falling in love and get married. They seem like the perfect couple living in their brownstone, Brooklyn Heights home. Nick loses his job and they move back to North Carthage Missouri. Amy hates leaving New York.

Both characters are interesting but as the story proceeds neither really believe that they are living happily ever after. To celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary Amy got up and started making crepes and then Nick came into the kitchen, happy about the crepes, wondering why Amy was humming the theme song from “M*A*S*H.” (“suicide is painless”).

This novel is really a modern-day version of the old movie, War of Roses, the 1989 movie where Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner played the parts of the doomed Roses. It is hard to tell whether both Amy and Nick are doomed as the plot takes sudden turns and we are left wondering which of the conflicting stories is true. It is obvious they are skilled at lying to each other and we wonder if they are lying to us.

Amy’s parents are successful writers of a book about a wonderful girl named Amazing Amy. Modern Day Amy seems to be writing her own life’s book as she goes through each day filled with odd details.

Nick borrowed the last of Amy’s money to buy a bar for himself and his twin sister, but Nick also has his own secret life that doesn’t involve Amy.  

Flynn’s skill in creating the plot of this novel is clear as we turn the pages, surprised from the beginning to the end and subject to sudden and unpredictable changes of mood and mind. The characters are ones we don’t want to let go of but many may be glad to let go of this couple in the end.

Quotes

“There’s something disturbing about recalling a warm memory and feeling utterly cold.” 

“There's a difference between really loving someone and loving the idea of her.” 

“Love makes you want to be a better man—right, right. But maybe love, real love, also gives you permission to just be the man you are.” 

“It’s a very difficult era in which to be a person, just a real, actual person, instead of a collection of personality traits selected from an endless Automat of characters.” 

Without Fail a Jack Reacher Novel, by Lee Child →

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“Without Fail”, Lee Child’s sixth book, takes place after a Presidential election with threats being made against Vice President-elect Brook Armstrong, the junior senator from North Dakota.

M.E.Froehlich  is in charge of the secret service team assigned to protect Armstrong. She wants to make sure he is safe and she wants to find someone with the real life skill to test that. It doesn’t take her long to think of Jack Reacher because she had been the girlfriend of his brother Joe (see Killing Floor book one) and she had a clear idea of how effective he would be.

Jack has no home address, travels without identification, luggage or credit cards, and Froelich’s efforts to find him required her government connections. When she first meets him, she says: "I want to hire you to assassinate the Vice President of the United States." When he learns that she just wants the VP’s defenses tested, he agrees. A few days later he returns reporting and showing pictures of how many ways he found to have penetrated Armstrong’s security.

With the test behind him Reacher is drawn into an active criminal plot where he needs to find someone who really is after the Vice President. It becomes clear that whoever is behind this has put a lot of time and work into a plan, intent on killing. Reacher is confident in his ability to solve the mystery but the Secret Service has drawn different conclusions and then with problems they have to pass the lead to the FBI.   Reacher sees what they don’t and sets off on his own.

The criminal plot and the serious threat it presents is clear long before a motive is. Reacher is the one that finds the motive.  The weakness of the story is really that the motive and some of the focus of the threat are not realistic perhaps not believable. Even with that weakness in the plot the Reacher character’s approach is to respond breaking down in every changing detail, down to a second by second accounting of the progress. This pulls us into the story, raises the tension and holds our interest to the end.

Quotes

“A good coat is like a good lawyer. it covers your ass.” 

“problem shared is a problem halved.” 

See Literary Favorite Section for more about Lee Child and links to his other book reviews - click here

Notes From The Underground by Fyoder Dostoevsky →

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Notes From The Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky is interesting but challenging to follow, and the dialog rambles. It resembles Faulkner's “string of consciousness” style. If comparing Underground to James Joyce’s Ulysses is unflattering to one of the two books, then Dostoevsky would be the one to take offense. (opinion from the reviewer)

Fyoder Dostoevsky thought that men lived in an indifferent and hostile world and that their own choices defined the meaning of their lives. His book, Notes From Underground, is told by an anonymous narrator who investigates the truths he feels are important by presenting his thoughts to us.

The narrator’s thoughts seem like an endless stream of consciousness, often leaving us wondering if he really has a point to make. He tries to assure us, saying, “Everything that can be said about him, and more particularly about him, he already knows………He has overheard, anticipated, and invented it all.” This leaves us realizing that even if he is sure of himself, he is using his own dialog to investigate or invent a variety of truths, and we are still left wondering what the point is.

The novel begins with the narrator telling us “I am a sick man……..I am a wicked man.”  He adds to this his declaration that he is “sufficiently educated not to be superstitious, but I am.” We also learn that he is also a minor civil servant living in nineteenth-century St. Petersburg, Russia and he has withdrawn into what he calls the “underground” in total alienation and isolation from society.

The narrator's "underground", or mind, is full of fears and desires. He approaches many of his concerns as a psychologist, commenting on industrialism, utopianism, Western markets, and "the grip of science and technology on truth."

When this book was written, Russia was beginning to absorb the ideas and culture of Western Europe at an accelerated pace, and the Underground Man responded by rejecting the new thoughts and feeling that man’s free will needed defending. Or perhaps it was just a license to ramble on about everything.

Quotes

“How can a man of consciousness have the slightest respect for himself?”

“I've never been a coward at heart, although I've always been a coward in action;”

“An intelligent man cannot become anything serious, and only the fool who becomes anything.”

“I swear to you gentlemen, that to be overly conscious is a sickness, a real, thorough sickness.”

 
“To love is to suffer and there can be no love otherwise.”

Elevation, a Novel, by Stephen King →

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Stephen King, when discussing this book, said it was “a riveting, extraordinarily eerie, and moving story about a man whose mysterious affliction brings a small town together—a timely, upbeat tale about finding common ground despite deep-rooted differences.” The book is only 146 pages long and has no blood or monsters.

Scott Carey, the main character, is a big guy who weighs 240 pounds, but when we meet him, he begins losing a few pounds every day. After 28 pounds, he tells his doctor friend about it. His body size and appearance don’t change, and no matter what clothes he puts on or what weight he is carrying in his hands or pockets, his weight doesn’t change.

His outlook doesn’t suffer, and he reaches out to help his neighbors, two lesbians whom he has been trying to make friends with. He also wants to help his town. He is just a nice guy. Oh, yes, and a couple of political sidebar comments are in the dialog for no real reason.

So, how do you write a review of this book without adding spoilers? The answer is you don’t. Interesting plot. You don’t want to put it down well written.

Killing Floor A Jack Reacher Novel, by Lee Child →

 

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The Killing Floor starts after Reacher has spent his entire life in the military, serving all over the world. He is thirty-six months into civilian life after being honorably discharged, with no ties to anyone or anywhere, traveling aimlessly around the country.

Reacher finds himself in Margrave, Georgia, where he gets off a bus, makes a last-minute decision about even going to this town, walks into town, goes into a diner to have breakfast, and is immediately arrested for murder.  Reacher finds himself in the town jail with a local banker, but they are both taken to the area prison to sit out the weekend. They are told they will be on the 6th floor, where weekenders from town are held, but they are taken to the 3rd floor and left for the night by mistake.  

The next morning, they are both approached by violent prisoners intent on killing them. This is only the first experience of Killing Floors in this story, but thanks to Reacher, they remain alive, and the apparent plot does not work. Both men are released a day early.

Finlay and Roscoe, an attractive lady officer from the police department, had worked hard to verify Reacher’s alibi and cleared him, but they also learned that one of the men he was accused of murdering was his own brother, who was working undercover for the Treasury Department in the area. Reacher can see that these two, along with a friend at the FBI, are the only ones he can trust.  He moves in with Roscoe and is determined to find out what happened to his brother.  

The town is the center of a huge Treasury Department investigation, and everything is secret. Margrave is a town on a payroll with manicured lawns, successful businesses with no customers, and everything polished and perfect: they all seem to be in on something.

They learn that counterfeiting is involved and that a deadline for something big is coming in a few days. Reacher and his new friends uncover a huge-scale criminal operation. The bad guys don’t tolerate mistakes, and they brutally kill those they can’t trust who cross them.

Reacher and Finlay eventually solve the mystery.

Lee Child’s Reacher character is presented as very strong, professional, and a good guy who is patient and cautious: he has no hesitation about killing the bad guys. Like the town of Margrave, the story is a little too neat. If this is the first book you read about Jack Reacher, it may be a while before you get hooked on this series, but it will happen.  

Quotes

“No, I'm a man with a rule. People leave me alone, I leave them alone. If they don't, I don't.” 

“A person less fortunate than yourself deserves the best you can give because of duty, honor, and service. Do you understand those words? You should do your job right, and you should do it well, simply because you can, without looking for notice or reward.” 

“I'm a rich man. To have everything you need is the definition of affluence.” 

“I'm not afraid of death. Death's afraid of me.” 

Toni Morrison Explained by Ron David →

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Toni Morrison was the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. She was also an American novelist, essayist, editor, teacher, and professor emeritus at Princeton University. Ron David has presented his thoughts on Morrison in his book, “Toni Morrison Explained”.

The book is a good overview although not a literary critique, or in depth look into her life. David’s approach is chatty, with a lot of talking about what she accomplished or failed to. He offers thoughts on the meaning of some of her best-known books: Song of Solomon, The Bluest Eyes, Sula, Tar Baby, Beloved, and more.

Morrison’s writings reflect her own views of the bible and its doctrines, as well as her use of music and myth to make her thoughts clearer and resonate. David offers a range of interpretations to Morrisons work and is well worth reading even if you have already read her works.

In a 1988 interview Morrison answered a question on feminism. She was asked why she didn’t identify her works as feminist in a 1998 interview. She replied: "In order to be as free as I possibly can, in my own imagination, I can't take positions that are closed. Everything I've ever done, in the writing world, has been to expand articulation, rather than to close it, to open doors, sometimes, not even closing the book – leaving the endings open for reinterpretation, re visitation, a little ambiguity." She went on to state that she thought it "off-putting to some readers, who may feel that I'm involved in writing some kind of feminist tract. I don't subscribe to patriarchy, and I don't think it should be substituted with matriarchy. I think it's a question of equitable access, and opening doors to all sorts of things."

The question on feminism is an example of the depth of thought Morrison brought to her writings and if all we had was the overview of David’s book on the subjects of her writings, we would have missed a lot.

Morrison is an intellectual force and Ron David’s book is very good in what it does, but alone it would be inadequate in understanding Toni Morrison.

See more about Toni Morrison in Literary Favorites Section click here

Quotes

“If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.” 
“You wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down.” 

“Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.”

 “At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint, or even remember it. It is enough.” 

“She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order.” 

Sweet, crazy conversations full of half sentences, daydreams and misunderstandings more thrilling than understanding could ever be.” 

The Reckoning by John Grisham

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John Grisham’s story “The Reckoning” takes place in 1946 in the fictional town of Clanton, Mississippi. It is his sixth novel to take place in this town and like Stephen King’s Castle Rock Maine it may become a signature for him.

Pete Banning is the patriarch of the family that has been part of the town’s history for generations. He owns 640 acres debt free, is a successful cotton farmer, and faithful member of the local Methodist church.

Pete’s World War II service in the jungles of the Philippines distinguished him a decorated war hero, but his capture and time fighting after he escape leave him lucky to be alive. He longs for his family and for Liza his beautiful wife. After being missing and presumed dead he returns, and everyone is surprised, shocked and thrilled to have Pete, a genuine war hero, return.  

A few months after his return Pete gets up and goes about his normal activities before going into town, where he walks in on Dexter Bell, the pastor of the local Methodist church, and pulls out a gun and shoots three times, killing Bell.

Sheriff Nix Gridley arrests Pete and takes him to jail.  Pete will not answer the question as to why he did it only saying, "I have nothing to say."  It becomes clear that Pete was not afraid of death and was willing to take his motive for the shooting to his grave.

The mystery in this plot is why would a respected war hero cold-bloodily gun down the local pastor and why does he refuse to allow his attorney to plead insanity?  Pete has no intention to let us know the answer to this.

Liza falls apart, even before the murder, and is committed to an insane asylum. We want to know if the shooting has something to do with Liza, but that is unclear until late in the book

This novel is unlike anything Grisham has written before, taking us from the Jim Crow south to the jungles of the Philippines and back to the Clanton courtroom.

The timeline of the novel doesn’t start at the beginning and we learn about the war experiences looking back from Pete’s return, leaving us with uncertainties as to why we need to learn about those experiences at first. The ending of the story pulls it together and it is a interesting story, but it takes a commitment to stay with it.

See Literary Favorites for more about John Grisham and links to the other Grisham books reviewed here.