Teaser Tuesday: The Great Leader by Jim Harrison

They quickly loaded her small tacklebox, two spinning rods, and the picnic hamper. She was so effervescent that it verged on playacting and he cautioned himself in his haze against looking for something wrong rather than right.

-- The Great Leader by Jim Harrison.  This is a good example of Harrison's prose, because it touches on his favorite themes -- fishing, eating, and sex -- and uses words that are out of the ordinary enough to catch your attention (effervescent and playacting) without being pretentious. 

I'm a big Jim Harrison fan and always enjoy his novels, novellas, essays, and memoirs.  His latest books, The Farmer's Daughter (reviewed here) and The English Major (reviewed here) didn't light me up the way his earlier books did.  I don't know if it is because I'm getting older or Harrison is.  But I still enjoy reading whatever he writes.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event. 

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).

Book Dragon's Lair is hosting in October.  Please stop by this friendly blog to find reviews and recommendations for your next fantasy novel, cozy mystery, romantic suspense, or who knows . . . .

One book came into my house last week.  It is a new mystery set in the Cotswolds in England.  It looks terrific and I plan to get right to it, even though I normally let books percolate on my TBRF shelves for years.




Cold by Stella Cameron.  This is the first book in a new series of English mysteries featuring Alex Duggins. I haven't read Cameron's other books, but the description of this one has everything I like.

PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

You can't outrun the past... ...and tripping over a frosted corpse is a complication that could destroy Alex Duggins' attempt to restart her life. The discovery of a murder victim threatens to unearth some old secrets, including her own. As the tiny town of Folly-on-Weir braces for a chilling winter and snow blankets Britain's Cotswold Hills, a killer faces a deadline. A terrible crime was believed to be safely hidden, but time and conscience can wear on a secret. The clock ticks and with the police breathing down her neck, Alex knows she's at the top of the suspect list. Desperate to clear her name and find the real murderer she begins to peel back the layers of deception that have long-concealed one of the town's darkest secrets. But time is also running out for a killer who has nothing left to lose. What's one more murder? Someone intends that Alex will be the next snow-covered body found in the beautiful hills above the town.

Book Beginnings on Friday: The Great Leader by Jim Harrison

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I am trying to follow all Book Beginning participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

MR. LINKY



MY BOOK BEGINNING

Detective Sunderson walked backward on the beach glancing around now and then to make sure he wasn't going to trip over a piece of driftwood.

-- The Great Leader by Jim Harrison.  This is Harrison's latest novel, the story of a retired (just) Michigan State Police detective tracking a cult leader on the lam for child abuse charges.  The "mystery" plot is secondary to typical Harrison musings on age, sex, and the natural world.  

I'm a big Jim Harrison fan and always enjoy his prose -- novels, novellas, essay, and memoir.  His latest books, The Farmer's Daughter (reviewed here) and The English Major (reviewed here) didn't light me up the way his earlier books did.  I don't know if it is because I'm getting older or Harrison is.  But I still enjoy reading whatever he writes.

Review: Parachutes & Kisses by Erica Jong

Parachutes & Kisses is the third book in Erica Jong's Isadora Wing trilogy that started with the terrifically good Fear of Flying (noted here) and How to Save Your Own Life (reviewed here).  I ate up the first one, really liked the second one, and am cool on this third one.  The writing is magnificent, but Isadora as an emotionally whirling divorcee is a less likeable and occasionally tedious, as she juggles multiple lovers, grieves the death of her marriage, and tries to talk her ex-husband into returning.

The best thing going in this book is Jong’s unabashed homage to her literary heroes, including Cheever, Roth, Bellow, Updike, Keats, Henry Miller, and Colette.  I was struck by the idea that this was her “Updike” book the way Fear of Flying was a “Roth” book and How to Save Your Own Life was a “Miller” book.  This story of bed hopping in the Connecticut suburbs is the female version of so many John Updike novels.  She even ends with an (acknowledged) appropriation of Henry Bech’s cultural exchange trip to Soviet Russia.

Although crowded with sex scenes (one that actually nauseated me), Jong’s literary reflections and several exemplary passages redeemed the book, but just.  For example:

Isadora’s generation is middle-aged. . . . They have reached the age where they meet their new lovers at A.A.; the age where some of their friends are addicts, some of the friends are bankrupt, and some other friends are dead; where their children want real horses, not toy ones, and where they no longer worry about their own pregnancies but about their daughters’.

That kind of dense summing up that crams together so many details and ideas is why I read Erica Jong.  At her best, she is right up there in the American fiction pantheon.  I would not recommend Parachutes & Kisses as a standalone novel, but for readers who loved Isadora Wing in the earlier books, there is something to be gained by finishing the trilogy.

OTHER REVIEWS

My review of How to Save Your Own Life
My review of Bech: A Book by John Updike
My review of Serenissima by Erica Jong

If you would like your review of Parachutes & Kisses or any other Erica Jong book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

Teaser Tuesday: Pacific Northwest Cheese: A History by Tami Parr

Although many artisan cheesemakers of this era learned to make cheese by trial and error, Pierre Kolisch, a former attorney, learned to make cheese by studying cheesemaking in France for two years . . . .  Kolisch then returned to his native Oregon, purchased five acres in the central Oregon town of Redmond, acquired goats, and started Juniper Grove Farm in 1987.

-- Pacific Northwest Cheese: A History by Tami Parr.  Mmmmmmm . . . Juniper Grove is one of my favorites.

Pacific Northwest Cheese is an entertaining new history of regional cheesemaking.  Tami Parr uses the stories of local cheesemakers and industry innovations to describe the early days and development of the cheese business in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.

Parr is the author of Artisan Cheese of the Pacific Northwest and the creator of the Pacific Northwest cheese project.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.