Opening Sentence of the Day: Cause Celeb

It used to seem extraordinary to me that someone like Henry could actually exist, extraordinary that a person could be transported into an environment so alien to his own, and remain so utterly unaffected by his surroundings.

-- Cause Celeb by Helen Fielding.

This was her first book, before Bridget Jones.  It was published in England in 1994, but not in America until 2001.

It is more serious than Bridget Jones.  It is still lighthearted and has funny bits, but it has, so far, a more substantive plot.  The heroine is a relief worker in Africa, facing a flood of new refugees because of a pending famine. But I suspect she is going to get her celebrity connections involved, and there will be much comic skewering of celebrity culture.

Teaser Tuesday: With a Jug of Wine

I think most Americans would shudder at the thought of eating squid, although the meat is twice as sweet as lobster and as delicate as frogs' legs. Let me urge you to unshudder and take a chance on squids a l'Amoricaine.

--  With a Jug of Wine by Morrison Wood, "well known food columnist" -- it says so right on the cover.

Now that fried calamari is a pretty standard restaurant appetizer, I don't think squid causes the shudders Wood predicted when he wrote these words back in 1949.  However, the comparison to frogs' legs might raise some eyebrows now.

This is the second of the books I'm reading for the Foodie's Reading Challenge, hosted by Margot at Joyfully Retired.

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia at A girl and her books (fka The Printed Page), who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

Passages to the Past is hosting in April. Please visit Amy's entertaining and comprehensive blog devoted to historical fiction.

I got some great books last week:

The Thunder Tree: Lessons From an Urban Wildland by Robert Michael Pyle (from OSU Press)

Cimarron Rose by James Lee Burke (for which he won the Edgar Award)

The Private Patient by P. D. James (a very nice hardback I found at a book sale at the history museum in Shelton, WA)

Principle-Centered Leadership by Stephen R. Covey (author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People)

Rebus: The Lost Years by Ian Rankin (a three-novel omnibus that includes Let It Bleed, Black & Blue, and The Hanging Garden). I'm on a Rebus tear now that I finished listening (out of order) to Strip Jack and went back and read the first one, Knots and Crosses. 

What books came into your house last week?

Review of the Day: The Losing Role

The Losing Role is a WWII espionage story from the German point of view, based on an actual German spy mission in which English-speaking German soldiers were sent behind American lines.

Steve Anderson was drawn to the story because, although the operation took on legendary status, it was really a debacle. Most of the soldiers recruited for the effort had been actors, waiters, or sailors – exposed to some American English, maybe, but not really fluent and not capable of pulling off such an audacious campaign of wartime terrorism.

Max Kaspar gets plucked off the Eastern Front and into the operation because he is an actor who spent years in New York. As the official plans go awry, Max forms his own plan, one that finds him at cross-purposes with everyone he encounters.

Telling the story from Max's perspective gives it an edge not possible with an American narrator. The Nazis and their SS goons are the real bad guys. Max is stuck in the middle, with mixed feelings for America where he failed as an actor, and grieving for his country and its inevitable destruction. His is a story of thwarted ambition, personal identity, lost love, divided loyalty, and, above all, the striving for freedom.

Anderson's journalism background reveals itself in the clear way he tells the story, with descriptive details instead of leaden explanations. He understands the rule that it is better to show the reader than tell the reader.

He also has a great ear for dialog, which is crucial in a story about language and linguistic subterfuge. Again, without telling, simply by doing, Anderson subtly distinguishes between Germans with varying levels of fluency in English -- from those who have mastered American slang, to the hero who is fluent but too formal, to those who get it all wrong.  Much of the plot turns on these distinctions.

The Losing Role is a terrific book that deserves a wide audience. It is exciting and funny and keeps you thinking long after the action is over.

OTHER REVIEWS

Man of la Book (review, author interview)

If you would like your review listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

NOTES

My interview with the author is here. You can read more about Steve Anderson and his other books on his website.

Opening Sentence of the Day: With a Jug of Wine

"Once upon a time there was a DELUXE young lad by the name of HORACE, who was classified 3F."

-- from the Introduction to With a Jug of Wine by Morrison Wood, "well known food columnist" -- it says so right on the cover. I have no idea where that story is going.

"It is, of course, possible to cook without wine."

-- from Chapter 1. I have a better idea what he's getting at here, especially when he goes on to compare cooking without wine to wearing clothes made out of gunny sacks -- possible, but not pleasant.

I added this book to my cookbook library several years ago, excited to have found it at the big San Francisco library book sale at Ft. Mason (my favorite book event of the year when I lived in SF).  It is vintage and kitschy and I am excited to finally read it.

This is the second of the books I'm reading for the Foodie's Reading Challenge, hosted by Margot at Joyfully Retired.