While it is conventional for a novel to have both a main plot and a subplot, this reviewer notes that one generally distracts from the other, successfully.
THE WISDOM OF BEER by Christopher G. Moore 310 pp, 2012 Heaven Lake Press paperback. Available at Asia Books and leading bookshops, 495 baht.
Why shouldn't a story have only a single theme?
This thought came to me again while perusing the most recent work of fiction by Christopher G. Moore, the critically and popularly acclaimed Canadian expat whose two dozen books I've reviewed since his settling in these parts in 1988. He understands the Thai mindset and is fluent in the language.
While Moore's eagerness to share his knowledge of the Kingdom is commendable, the serious question arises in us is there a story in there somewhere? I had it with The Wisdom of Beer. With hundreds of millions of confirmed beer drinkers out there, the subject was an inspiration.
The beer quotes over the centuries heading each chapter were all chosen. Every beer has a story about their origin or something dramatic about each. A beer-taster travelling from one land's breweries to another and learning about them, with a bit of adventure thrown in, is what the title suggests. The result would have been informative and enjoyable.
Uncovering the secret of ancient Chinese hell beer works. But not throwing in the Russian mafia, heisting an armoury in Chon Buri, AWOL US sailors, a wealthy local businessman, his son unable to gain respect and his katoey girlfriend, monk, Shans, a Pattaya beer-bar, Thai police, a macaw.
The only Chinese beer I've had is Tsingtao. Good, by no means outstanding. That the country has a magical beer, used to put before spirit houses is acceptably imaginative. It might have carried the tale. But all the other things ought to have been put into another book.
I await a novel about actual beer _ if not with the plot I suggested, then another. There must be a shelf of reference material to draw from. Perhaps tea table size. It would do what The Wisdom of Beer doesn't: Give the reader wisdom about beer.
THE DROP by Michael Connelly 390 pp, 2011 Grand Central paperback. Available at Asia Books and leading bookshops, 480 baht.
Let right be done
When an author names his literacy creation after a personage of the past, he (or she) assumes that the reader instantly makes the connection. Not that the character needs to have the same personality. What noted American crime fiction writer Michael Connelly has done is choose a personage unfamiliar to many.
Hieronymus Bosh was a 15th-16th Flemish painter of allegorical figures. The LAPD detective who features in the author's two dozen novels to date answers to that name, but allows Harry Bosh to those who can't get their tongues around the full version. The single father of a daughter, he's approaching retirement age.
As his fans are aware, Bosh is first and foremost dedicated to doing what is right. He comes down hard on what is wrong _ morally and ethically. There is no grey in between which is acceptable in any circumstances. There are two examples of this in The Drop.
In one, a Los Angeles councilman has it in for the police department in which he held a senior position but was forced out because his surly attitude made him nothing but enemies. Determining its annual budget with prejudice, his former colleagues are trying to sabotage his political position. To complicate matters, Bosh is investigating the death of his son.
At the same time, our hero has been given a cold case to solve. The rape-murder of a young woman in 1989 reached a dead end but wasn't closed. DNA testing not earlier done, points to a sex offender already behind bars, but only eight years old in 1989. How is this possible. Then the actual predator is found, a serial rapist-killer many time.
Bosh is asked by his superiors not to interfere in the underhanded treatment of the councilman, "for the good of the police department," but as much as he dislikes the man, he refuses to go along with it. (The son committed suicide.) His conscience won't permit a wrong to be done, even for the right reason.
When a younger predator attacks the older one who had abused him as a child, Bosh intervenes though the death would have been a boon to society. What is right is for the criminal justice system to deal with him. Which raises the serious question in our minds of what we would do under the circumstances.
Michael Connelly is a top-drawer crime fiction writer. What's more, he keeps his stories under 500 pages and doesn't pad.
