The Last Policeman

The Last Policeman by Ben Winters

It has been a long time since a book sucked me in like this. Like since I first picked up John Grisham in

middle school and read a book in a day. I didn't quite achieve that level of gobbling, but I did devour this one in two days, no small feat with little kids running around. I'm beginning to think I'm more of a fan of mysteries than I thought.

So here's the premise: As we learn in the first few chapters of the book, an asteroid is going to hit earth in 6 months, which is pretty much guaranteed to kill at least half of humanity on the planet and leave the other half in pretty dire straits. Civilization will be gone. 

Given this future, many people are committing suicide. It's become so common that police aren't even investigating deaths that even suggest that the person took their own life. Except for one. Newly minted detective Henry Palace stumbles upon a so-called hanger in the bathroom of a Concord, NH, McDonald's one day and something about it seems off. Like it might just be a murder. It causes an itch that he just has to scratch, and so he, alone among his colleagues, sets off on the case.

All this leaves the reader wondering not just who killed the victim, Peter Zell, but whether he was a victim at all. Could it be that Palace just needs this case to keep his mind off the impending doom? Where some on planet earth have reacted to the asteroid by checking out and checking off so-called bucket lists, others have descended into drug-induced oblivious, still others by doubling down on religious faith, and more by ending it all, Henry's philosophy is to just keep on keeping on. There is no exotic vacation for him, no philosophizing on what is about to come. There is only daily routine, as he makes clear to a colleague who can't stop obsessing over the news:   

With a quick flat chop I knock over the cup of coffee on Andreas's desk, and the cold brown liquid gushes out, rushing over the pamphlet, flooding his ashtray, his paperwork and computer keyboard.

Hey," he says dumbly, pushing back from the desk, turning all the way around. "Hey."

 "You what I'm doing right now?" I say, watching the muddy liquid rush toward the edge of the table. "I'm thinking: Oh no! The coffee's going to spill onto the floor! I'm so worried! Let's keep talking about it!"

And then the coffee waterfalls over the side of the desk, splashing on Andreas's shoes and pooling on the ground beneath the desk.

"Oh, look at that," I say. "It happened anyway." (174)

And so the book becomes not just a murder-mystery, but a rumination on how to live life when we know that life is short. Sure, we don't have a sure date when it will all end, but we do know where we're all going to end up, asteroid or not. So what do we do with this time? I like Henry's outlook, but it is hard to achieve sometimes.

Winters sure knows how to write suspense. He reveals the story little by little, but he knows when and what information to withhold so it doesn't feel cliche or obnoxious. And I must say that I found all of the Concord references pretty fun. Winters goes out of his way to name-drop local landmarks -- Penuche's, The Barley House, Eagle Square, Rollins Park. Good fun. 

The book ends with five more months to go before the asteroid hits. Apparently it is part of a trilogy. I look forward to the next installment. 

The Anthropocene Reviewed

 The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Greene

Ever wanted to give a Yelp review to some of the strange facets of modern life? John Greene did. And

because he's John Greene and has sold millions of copies of books, he got to do so in a book. Must be nice. 

Then again, it's pretty nice for readers too. In a collection of short essays, Greene tackles topics as diverse as Diet Dr. Pepper (4 stars) to Plague (1 star) to the weather phenomenon Wintry Mix (4 stars). But the book isn't really a review of life in the Anthropocene. Tucked into each essay, which is supposedly about the common human experience, are revealing tidbits about John Greene's personal journey through the Anthropocene. It's not about our lives -- it's about his life. Which is fine. Because I came away liking John Greene even more than I already did. Like the characters in his novels, Greene is quite vulnerable here. He talks about his social awkwardness, his bouts of depression, his family, his quirks. It is easy to look at a guy like Greene and feel nothing but envy. He's wealthy, beloved, celebrated. But he makes clear here that he's just a weirdo human trying to make sense of it all just like the rest of us. 

Bottom line -- this was a great read. There was some banality, sure, but also some very interesting stuff. I particularly liked the last essay, which was about a famous (but not to me) photo called Three Young Farmers on Their Way to a Dance, taken in pre-WW I Germany. In the essay, Greene riffs on the meaning of historical artifacts in our lives, and how they aren't so much a reminder of the past as a mirror of the present. 

There are some annoyances. He quotes people a lot. A LOT. We get it John: You are well read and there are people who put your ideas more eloquently than you can. And you are well read. But it's a minor annoyance. I give The Anthropocene Reviewed four-and-a-half stars.

Spindle City

 Spindle City by Jotham Burello

Joseph Bartlett never really wanted to be a mill owner. His rise to the position was accidental, the result of a

fire started when a paid spy dropped a kerosene lamp while attempting to steal a set of crooked books kept by his ne'er-do-well brother-in-law. It's an event that could be looked at two ways. On the one hand, perhaps it suggests that ownership was Bartlett's fate. On another, it is indicative of the skeletons that every mill owner had in their closet, skeletons invisible to all but the workers they exploited and the rare labor activists trying to help them. 

Joseph Bartlett seems to think it is the latter, which is why he, alone among Fall River, MA, owners, cozies up to labor activists trying to procure better working conditions for mill workers. But Joseph never can quite atone for his role in the fire. In the opening pages of the book, his wife dies. And then his eldest son is caught sexually abusing a mill worker. The family, it is clear, is in decline -- just like the New England textile industry itself.

This event also follows its perpetrator, Hollister, who is sent away to a New Hampshire military academy and who seems like he will at least make good in the army -- only to fall victim to a mustard gas attack that, at the end of the book, leaves him a shell of a man. 

In the end, all of the characters in the book -- including Fall River itself -- seem to fall victim to forces well beyond their control, be in the machinations of war, economics, or class. Maybe that's the real story of the book, the struggle for individuals to define their own lives in the face of apparently insurmountable obstacles.  

Set in Fall River, MA, in the early part of the 20th century, this novel tells the story of the waning days of the New England textile industry -- and the families who grew fabulously wealthy from it. The former is the result of cheaper labor, and closer proximity to cotton, in the south. The latter is a bit more complicated.

The meta-saga is told through the lens of the Bartlett family and its patriarch, Joseph. 

The 25th Hour

 The 25th Hour by David Benioff

Set on the day before he is to report to a federal prison in Otisville, NY, this book tells the story of Monty,

his friends, and family as they prepare for his upcoming 7-year absence after a conviction on a drug charge. There is Slattery, a wall-street wunderkind who not-so-secretly thinks Monty has it coming. Jakob, a pre-school English teacher who can't seem to think past his own woes. Naturelle, Monty's girlfriend who is awaiting the relief that will come when the hour finally arrives. And Doyle, a faithful pit bull blissfully unaware of it all.  The trio of friends met at the prep school where Jakob now teaches; it was there that Monty discovered the power of the "sway" earned by supplying rich kids with drugs. 

The novel is structured around each hour until Monty is report to jail. The chapters alternate between narrators. As the numbers rise, there seems to be a hint that Monty will do something dramatic to get out of his situation: Run? Rat out his superiors? Commit suicide? Or nothing at all?

This is certainly an angsty book, a bit hard to read given the impending end of summer and beginning of the work year. But it certainly was compelling. Each chapter is a little vignette that pulls you in. I will say that it all seemed a bit cliche. There is no great truth here, just some diversion and entertainment.