My Friend Matt and Hena the Whore by Adam Zameenzad

First published in 1988

Adam Zameenzad's novel follows a 9-year-old boy, Kimo, and his friends Golam, Matt, and Hena, on their various journeys and adventures in war-torn African villages over the course of three years. Told from Kimo's point of view, the story is alternately hilarious and tragic -- similar, in that sense and in its poignancy, to What Is the What, although the story is quite different. Adam Zameenzad does a marvelous job of capturing a child's naive wisdom as he lets us see the world through Kimo's innocent eyes.

Kimo and his friends encounter missionaries, reporters, soldiers, beggars, relief workers, and revolutionaries as they travel from their small village to the big city and back. They are exposed to, but never quite understand: the religions of Christianity and Islam that seek to displace the village's native belief in spirits; the politics and corruption that underlie civil war; the magic of television and plumbing. As they cope with famine and violence and people who want to exploit them, they respond with resilience and humor and generosity of spirit.

Zameeenzad's short, powerful novel tells a magical, life-affirming story about kids surrounded by love and death. It deserves a wider audience.

RECOMMENDED

Sweet Reason by Robert Littell

First published in 1974

Robert Littell has made a career of writing excellent espionage novels. Sweet Reason, his second novel (after The Defection of A.J. Lewinter), is a departure from that niche. This 1974 novel is a war story, or more accurately a war comedy: not as outrageously funny (and not nearly as profound) as Catch-22, but in the same satirical vein, and funny enough.

The U.S.S. Eugene F. Ebersole, a rusty, leaky, dilapidated destroyer commissioned during World War II, is dispatched to the Vietnam War by mistake. The novel takes place during the first three days after its arrival at Yankee Station. On Day One, the crew mistakenly sinks a junk (the captain proclaims a military victory and recommends himself for the silver star) and the destroyer plows into a downed jet during a rescue attempt (the pilot "was probably dead anyhow," the captain muses). Day Two begins with a Congressman boarding the destroyer for a photo op. To make sure the Congressman gets on the news, the destroyer finds a target to shoot at -- with unfortunate results. On Day Three, the sonar operator thinks he's spotted a submarine and the captain gives orders to sink it but ... well, you get the idea. Meanwhile, anonymous typewritten messages from "The Voice of Sweet Reason" appear, complaining of racial segregation aboard ship and urging the crew not to maintain the ship's engines or to fire its guns: a plea for mutiny that some crew members embrace.

The humor in Sweet Reason is amusing more than laugh-out-loud funny and the characters are a bit one dimensional despite the backgrounds Littell invents for them. As an indictment of war's folly or of career military officers, Sweet Reason succeeds, but only in a rather obvious way and not as well as other novels that have covered the same ground. The ending is a bit over-the-top. While Sweet Reason is an easy, sometimes entertaining read, Littell was wise to stick to espionage novels, where his authorial abilities are more triumphantly displayed. (If you want to read Littell at his best, you should try The Sisters, a novel that tells a grimly serious story with a wonderful comic touch.)

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

The Tenancy by Eva Figes

 

First published in the UK in 1993; published by Minerva on April 25, 1994

Edith lives in a building that is getting old, hasn't been cared for, and is falling apart. The roof leaks, the plumbing doesn't work, repairs are never made. The building could be a metaphor for Edith's life: she hasn't taken care of herself, sacrificing her happiness to care for a mother who constantly criticized her, who complained that Edith didn't keep up her appearance and had lost her chance at finding a husband. Now that her mother is in a nursing home, Edith is alone and run down. Her wealthy brother, always favored by her mother, is indifferent to her; most of the other tenants in the building are a mystery to her. When the building's ownership changes hands, strange things begin to happen: a dangerous looking man with a vicious dog moves into an unoccupied apartment; workers come and take out rotting windows without replacing them. Bureaucratic building inspectors are usually impossible to reach; when they respond, they describe a remedial process that will drag on for years. The situation progresses from bad to worse.

The Tenancy, while unrelentingly depressing, is beautifully written. Figes perfectly captures the sense of malaise that infects people who are struggling against forces beyond their control. She portrays a small community of isolated people and their different approaches to adversity: some withdraw, some try to help each other, some abandon hope. Figes writes without bitterness but she offers no false hope in her story of people worn down by their environment, by their past, and by an uncaring society. With true economy of language, Figes sketches out the important moments in Edith's life, bringing her fully to life, albeit a dismal life. Fortunately, this is a short novel; it might be too depressing to handle if it went on for much longer. It isn't a novel for readers who want happy (or at least hopeful) endings. But it paints a striking picture of helplessness in gorgeous language, and it inspires thought about the fear society instills in those it neglects.

RECOMMENDED

The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys by Chris Fuhrman

First published in 1994

This coming of age novel has been compared (for its style and bravado) to A Confederacy of Dunces. Unfortunately, Fuhrman's novel takes few chances, offers few insights, and reflects none of Toole's caustic wit. An altar boy named Francis and his friends get in trouble at his Catholic school for drawing an explicit comic book. Francis and his friends devise a plan to capture a bobcat and set it loose in the school to make the principal forget about punishing them. Along the way, Francis makes faltering attempts to have a relationship with a girl who seems to like him. In the end, Francis grows up a bit. Yawn.

To be fair, this is a novel that has appealed to many, particularly to younger readers. Even though it's the sort of book I generally enjoy (and one I looked forward to reading), it just wasn't the novel for me. The story neither moved nor entertained me. Through most of the novel, nothing happened that seemed to be of any consequence. The humor seemed childish. I will grant that the last few pages are quite good but the journey to get there was tedious. Fuhrman's prose style is adequate but unexceptional. This novel did nothing for me and I can't recommend it, but again, your mileage may vary.

NOT RECOMMENDED

Paris Trout by Pete Dexter

First published in 1988

Paris Trout runs a general store in Cottonwood Point, Georgia.  He's a racist but, more than that, he's violently paranoid and increasingly obsessed with his own fingernail clippings and urine. When a young black man buys a car from him on credit, supposedly purchasing insurance with it, and gets into an accident, Trout won't repair the car and won't let him off the hook for payments, telling him he didn't buy that kind of insurance. This leads to blood, but the victims are female members of the young man's family. Trout feels entirely justified in his actions and more than a few townspeople see things his way -- after all, a man has a right to collect his debts.

The novel follows Harry Seagraves, the best lawyer in town, as he prepares Trout's defense and during the trial and its aftermath. Seagraves takes a particular (not entirely professional) interest in Trout's wife, who is rather horrifically abused by Trout. Other notable characters include a young lawyer, Carl Bonner, the youngest Eagle Scout in Cottonwood Point's history, who tries to help Trout's wife; and Bonner's wife, who is frustrated that her husband has become such a stick-in-the-mud.

The dark humor in this novel alternates with a chilling depiction of southern racism and Trout's madness, and the characters are unforgettable. This isn't a simple-minded examination of contrived racism as some of the reviews at this site might suggest. The complex relationship between Trout and the townspeople -- they don't want to be associated with racism that's quite so overt, yet they don't want to upset such a wealthy and powerful (not to mention violent) citizen -- is deftly portrayed. Except for the clearly innocent victims, nobody gets off easily as Dexter examines the town's dynamic. This is a chilling and powerful work by a careful, evocative writer.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED