Red Sky at Morning by Richard Bradford

First published by J.P. Lippincott in 1968

Red Sky at Morning is a coming of age novel, albeit a relatively quiet one. Unlike some of the book's fans, I don't think it has the power or emotional depth of Catcher in the Rye, but then, few novels do. There is some intensity in the conflict between the narrator, 17-year-old Joshua Arnold, and the neighborhood tough, Chango, and the absence of Joshua's father that compels his transition to adulthood is well handled. Many of the episodes in Joshua's life are amusing and a few are downright funny, making this an enjoyable read.

So here are my quibbles, preventing me from highly recommending the novel:  Joshua's father builds ships but leaves home to help the war effort more directly.  The father is a likable character.  I enjoyed the banter between Joshua's father and the employee he left in charge of the shipyard, and between Joshua's father and Joshua. But when the same kind of light-hearted sarcastic dialog was taken up by Joshua's friends Steenie and Marcia, it seemed to me that too many characters were speaking in the same voice, as if they had all been cloned from Joshua's father. More importantly, I was left with the feeling that the novel was striving relentlessly to be light-hearted even in the face of circumstances in Joshua's life (unnamed here to avoid spoiling the plot for those who haven't read the book) that should have been tragic. Finally, I didn't buy Chango's character change at all. I can accept that the events in the novel would have had an impact on Chango, but the immediate and extreme alteration of his personality that Joshua describes isn't credible.

I came to this novel late in life. Perhaps if I'd first read it as a teenager or young adult, or perhaps if I had ever lived in the southwest (which is lovingly described), it would have left a greater impression. At any rate, although younger readers who might most enjoy Red Sky at Morning will likely find it a bit dated, I recommend the novel.  I nonetheless feel it lacks the depth that causes some readers to hold it in high esteem; to me it falls well short of greatness.

RECOMMENDED

Adventures of the Artificial Woman by Thomas Berger

Published by Simon & Schuster on April 27, 2004

This thin novel skates into a guarded recommendation because of its amusement value.  Ellery Pierce makes robotic contraptions that a movie like Jurassic Park might use.  Having had little luck with women, he uses his talent (and workshop) to craft one of his own design.  Perhaps he made her too well, because she has little use for him while pursuing a fleeting career in Hollywood (rising to the pinnacle before crashing to the soaps) and then running for the presidency, on a write-in ballot no less.

The concept of an artificial partner, designed to give the creator what he (or she) wants without all the hassle of an actual human being, has a certain comic appeal,.  The robot rejects the creator's dominion, behaves with vexing independence ... a cute but unoriginal concept.  Unfortunately, Thomas Berger does nothing new or meaningful with the idea; worse, he makes the artificial woman into a political bimbo, a robotic Chauncey Gardiner.  At its best moments, the novel delivers some chuckles; it aggressively fails to do anything else.  A novel like this could illustrate the superficiality of basing judgment on appearance or offer insight into relationships between real men and women.  Berger instead opted for a simple, unimaginative story that is intermittently funny.  Take it for what it is if you choose to take it at all.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Nana by Émile Zola

First published in 1880

You don't have to be a scholar of French literature (I'm not) to appreciate Nana. Set in the late 1860's and early 1870's, Zola's novel (the ninth in his Rougon-Macquart series) follows a talentless but beautiful stage actress whose physical charms (which she generously shares with upscale men) make her the talk of Paris. Nana is soon living well beyond the means of the various men who support her; their desire for her inevitably leads to their downfall, while the smiling Nana simply moves on to the next admirer.

Zola paints beautifully detailed portraits: the theater, the city, Parisian aristocracy and the crowds that clog the streets all come alive in vibrant color. The characters peopling the novel represent all the traits, good and (mostly) bad, that a sharp-eyed writer could hope to put on display: cruelty, lechery, indifference, pompousness, greed and corruption, occasionally offset by kindness and generosity. Zola was apparently saying something about the superficiality and decadence of society (Nana is ultimately doomed, as is the French empire), but from the modern reader's standpoint, the novel works as sort of an entertaining soap opera, a spoof of the upper class, an old school view of the sexual power women wield over men. Above all, it's often very funny. The novel is easy to read and well worth the time.

RECOMMENDED

The Gift of Stones by Jim Crace

First published in 1988

The Gift of Stones tells a story that works on both a micro and a macro level.  It is the story of civilization making the transition from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age as seen from the perspective of a few individuals living in a small village of stoneworkers.  The villagers are skilled craftsmen; they live comparatively well, trading carefully-fashioning tools and arrowheads for food and other goods furnished by farmers and hunters.  They don't know that their way of living is coming to an end.

When a horseman shoots a boy with an arrow, causing the boy to lose his arm, he cannot work as a stoneworker and so becomes a storyteller.  His stories are inspired by what he has seen a day’s walk from the village, including a woman and daughter who live by the sea.  The woman whores herself and lives meagerly until the spring when geese arrive and provide a feast of eggs and goose meat.  The boy takes an interest in them that they don't entirely welcome.  When events force them to choose between moving or starving, however, the woman and daughter accompany the boy to the village.  Having no skills, their lives continues to be difficult despite the help the boy tries to provide.  As a storyteller, he represents the conscience of the village, but most of the villagers have little use for a conscience.

Late in the novel, a tragedy occurs that involves a bronze arrowhead.  The arrowhead heralds the coming of the Bronze Age and the end of village life -- the villagers recognize that bronze is superior to stone and that their skills will no longer serve them.  The storyteller is the only villager whose career cannot be supplanted by new discoveries or technologies:  he continues to act as a guide for those who are willing to listen.

The Gift of Stones is a parable, a lesson in the enduring role of the artist in a society that inevitably changes.  The novel can also be read as a comment on the natural bonding of societies (in this case, the village of craftsmen) and their intolerance of outsiders.   But The Gift of Stones is also a moving story of individuals confronting forces that they are powerless to affect.  Crace's elegant prose reminds us of what it is to be human, even in the context of the distant past. The story is simple but powerful and Crace tells it so gracefully that the novel is a joy to read.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED