Michael

Gun, with Occasional Music is Jonathan Lethem’s mash-up of hardboiled Raymond Chandleresque detective fiction and science fiction, perhaps in the Philip K Dick mold. I believe it was also Lethem’s first novel and sometimes it shows. The dialogue is pure detective fiction stuck in a near (?) future setting in Oakland, California, that gives off 1930s vibes. The vibes may be 1930s but the setting is not. There are evolved animals that take part in society, socially acceptable drugs, and babyheads, the creepy evolved children. It is considered extremely rude to ask questions, so detectives (or inquisitors as they are known) are somewhat disreputable. And there is a very unusual role for karma.

The main character is Conrad Metcalf, a weary, drug addicted detective with a conscience buried deep in his psyche. Of course, there are plenty of villains. Danny Phoneblum, the gangster who controls much of the underworld in future Oakland, California; Joey Castle, an evolved kangaroo working for Danny; and Kornfield, an inquisitor working for the “Office” are perhaps the main ones. As one would expect in a novel like this, there are no real heroes. Conrad and Walter Surface, a fellow detective and evolved ape come closest. The mystery of who killed Maynard Stanhunt drives the plot but seems almost secondary at times.

Sometimes the dialog seemed too hard-boiled, too noirish. It got on my nerves at times. Perhaps due to the genre, it was more than a little misogynistic. Some of the action made me roll my eyes.

On the other hand, I can’t remember when I had so much fun reading a book. Lethem gave his imagination free range, and the result is just wild. I loved reading this. I would recommend this to anyone who is willing to go along for the ride.

How to rate it? For its faults maybe a 3. For its imagination and fun factor maybe a 4 or 4.5. Let’s settle on 3.75.

The Book of Disappearance is speculative fiction that revolves around the sudden disappearance of all Palestinians in Israel and Israeli occupied territory and the response of Jewish Israelis to this disappearance. It is told through three characters: Alaa, a Palestinian; Ariel, a journalist, Alaa’s friend, and a “liberal Zionist; and Alaa’s dead grandmother, who appears mainly through Alaa’s memory and a diary he wrote in which he addressed her. One could also say that Jaffa where most of the action takes place is a character as well.

The disappearance of the Palestinians is mysterious and is never explained. It is interesting that many Israeli Jews in the novel are quietly worried that the IDF is responsible and are quietly relieved when it appears that they aren’t. If this is a true reflection of current Israeli society what does that say about their society if they could believe something like that. (in the book there are also many Israeli Jews are jubilant that the Palestinians are gone, something that I am sure represents the thinking of the current Israeli government).

Anyway, what did I think of the novel? I liked the speculative fiction aspect, and I liked the mysterious ending. I thought either the writing or the translation was sort of clunky and parts were stilted. I had to reread certain sections just to figure out what was being said. Some editions apparently have an afterward. Unfortunately, mine did not.

But most of all this made me extraordinarily uncomfortable. Azem shows the Israeli Jews as colonizers. There are certain aspects of Nazism that Israelis take on, though that is probably true of all colonizers.

I am afraid that this book presents the conflict only as a winner takes all. Israel wins; Palestinians must leave. Palestine wins, all Jews must leave. The abyss between the two groups is too deep to bridge. I am beginning to believe this now. Israel/Palestine, Ukraine/Russia, US-MAGA/Venezuela, Cuba, Greenland, Iran, Democrats, etc. Is it hopeless?

I will be thinking about this for a long, long time.

I will probably regret posting this somewhat incoherent review.

The Book of Disappearance is speculative fiction that revolves around the sudden disappearance of all Palestinians in Israel and Israeli occupied territory and the response of Jewish Israelis to this disappearance. It is told through three characters: Alaa, a Palestinian; Ariel, a journalist, Alaa’s friend, and a “liberal Zionist; and Alaa’s dead grandmother, who appears mainly through Alaa’s memory and a diary he wrote in which he addressed her. One could also say that Jaffa where most of the action takes place is a character as well.

The disappearance of the Palestinians is mysterious and is never explained. It is interesting that many Israeli Jews in the novel are quietly worried that the IDF is responsible and are quietly relieved when it appears that they aren’t. If this is a true reflection of current Israeli society what does that say about their society if they could believe something like that. (in the book there are also many Israeli Jews are jubilant that the Palestinians are gone, something that I am sure represents the thinking of the current Israeli government).

Anyway, what did I think of the novel? I liked the speculative fiction aspect, and I liked the mysterious ending. I thought either the writing or the translation was sort of clunky and parts were stilted. I had to reread certain sections just to figure out what was being said. Some editions apparently have an afterward. Unfortunately, mine did not.

But most of all this made me extraordinarily uncomfortable. Azem shows the Israeli Jews as colonizers. There are certain aspects of Nazism that Israelis take on, though that is probably true of all colonizers. As a completely secular American Jew who has never been to a synagogue service and who has no special feeling for Israel, what does that make me? I know that there are some who don’t care that I am secular and who has contempt and anger toward the Israeli government, and who doesn’t identify as religious. They see me as a Jew. Is this the attitude of most Palestinians?

I am afraid that this book presents the conflict only as a winner takes all. Israel wins; Palestinians must leave. Palestine wins, all Jews must leave. The abyss between the two groups is too deep to bridge. I am beginning to believe this now. Israel/Palestine, Ukraine/Russia, US-MAGA/Venezuela, Cuba, Greenland, Iran, Democrats, etc. Is it hopeless?

I will be thinking about this for a long, long time.

I will probably regret posting this somewhat incoherent review.

Written as a road trip with a middle-aged man and his frail, alcoholic, drug addicted, possibly demented 80-year-old mother.

Much of it went over my head, but much of what didn’t seemed a little condescending and pretentious. The main character, named Christian Kracht, seemed very unlikeable. He ridicules Switzerland and especially Zurich for its self-satisfied fixation on luxury bands and money. (The author Christian Kracht lives in Zurich).

Beyond some increasingly surreal events, not very much happens. Mother leaves the psychiatric hospital, joins son for a road trip, they have a couple of adventures, and (view spoiler)That’s it.

In the novel, the mother’s father was a Nazi and later implicated in arms dealing. The mother’s husband, and Christian’s father was a social climber who divorced his mother and took all the valuable art, leaving the mediocre paintings behind. This is a big deal for Christian. I would have loved it if the author had gone into this background a little more.

There were some witty moments, and I thought the ending was genuinely moving, but all-in-all, this wasn’t for me.

Elif Shafak is one of my favorite writers, and 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World lives up to everything I hoped it would be.

Part 1, titled The End deals with Tequila Leila’s last few minutes of consciousness after her heart stops beating, but before her brain has died. She has been murdered. During this time Leila took me on a journey through her life. She remembers in a fragmented way her childhood, her abuse, her journey to Istanbul from a town in the east of Turkey, her time as a sex worker, her happy marriage and finally her death. She has five friends all of whom are outcasts of one kind or another. Shafak has managed to make these characters as “alive” and real as Leila, the main character.

This novel, which paints a vivid picture of Istanbul, is about the family a person chooses, rather than the family you are born into. Leila and her five friends are a family.

Part 2 is called “The Body” and Part 3 “The Soul.” Any more information on these two parts would contain too many spoilers!

As always, Shafak’s writing has a wonderful flow to it. Her love for Istanbul and her home country shines through, while she freely acknowledges (in this novel) the corruption, poverty, and crime of the city. I don’t know how she does it.

And finally, she has created in Leila a character who has suffered in some horrible ways has nevertheless kept within her a core of kindness, compassion, and understanding the human condition.

What a great way to start 2026!

Careless People is a memoir/expose by Sharah Wynn-Williams about her time working at Facebook. It is both deeply horrifying and unsurprising. She presents Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sanberg, Joel Kaplan, and other top players at Facebook/Meta as hypocrites and liars, lacking any sense of ethical responsibility. Everything is in service to growth of the platform, and money. Mark Zuckerberg comes across as an entitled man-child, indifferent to the consequences of his actions or the actions of his companies.

The author starts out as starry-eyed and convinced that social media can be a vehicle for good in the world. She talks herself into a job at Facebook and then stays as she becomes more and more disillusioned and worried about the direction of the company. She blames herself for her part in all the mess created by the leaders of the organization. She wonders if she should have resigned before she was finally fired. My answer is yes. However, I do understand that she had severe health issues, and she needed the health insurance, and it would be hard to leave all the money behind. I would do the same thing. Nevertheless, she should have left earlier.

But she has written a brave, audacious, terrifying look at the inner workings of one of the most powerful companies in the world.

The plot of this novel is not too far off from other novels with gay central characters. “Tarek’s who life is planned out for him. A doctor like his father, he has taken over the family practice, married his childhood sweetheart and is well respected in. society. Then Ali, the son of one of his patients, enters his life…” (from the back cover).

The main characters are Tarek, the doctor; Ali, his assistant and lover; Mira, his wife; Nesrine, Tarek’s sister, Fatheya, the family maid, Rafik, Tarek’s son who he never met; and Mèmie, Tarek’s implacable mother. It sounds like the cast of a soap opera, but in its depth of emotion is far from a cliched soap opera.

This is the novel about navigating the complexities of gay life in 1980s Cairo, about class differences, and about religious differences. It is both raw and tender in the way it treats the events of these characters’ lives. They are far from perfect. They are wounded and trapped in the customs and laws of Egyptian society, but they are all far from bad people. They are figuring out how to endure heartbreak.

The book is very sensual in places, but it is not over-the-top sexual. It is beautiful.

This did not end the way I wanted it to, but nevertheless, there is a hint of hope at the end.

Goyhood is the story of Marty (later Mayer) and David twin brothers from a small town in Georgia. They find out that they are Jewish when they are 12. Marty leaves for Brooklyn and becomes a scholar of the Talmud and has married into a famous (ultra-Orthodox) rabbinical family. His brother becomes something of a ne’er-do-well, until one of his insane investments pays off and he becomes very, very rich. And then their mother dies back in Georgia, and the brothers find out that she lied, and they are not Jewish after-all. Marty decides that he must convert to Judaism if he wants to keep his life as it is and his wife (technically they are no longer married). So begins a madcap road trip from small town Georgia to Brooklyn with Marty, David, and two others they acquire on the way: Charlayne, an influencer and Popeye, a one-eyed dog.

The novel delas with themes of identity, the nature of God, love, forgiveness, and family. It does so in ways alternately serious and funny. The writing style is breezy and easy to read, and I could tell the author is a journalist. However, something in Goyhood didn’t gel for me. It was fun to read, but something was off. I couldn’t help rolling my eyes at some of the episodes, and I got very impatient with both Marty and David at times. I wanted to tell both of them to grow up. In addition, some of the Talmudic references went over my head and I found that I didn’t care about the others.

I also wanted to know more about Sarah, Marty’s wife. She is the only one I felt sorry for, the only character I really cared about.

All-in-all, for me this was a flawed, but entertaining and feel-good novel. I’m glad I read it.

Goyhood is the story of Marty (later Mayer) and David twin brothers from a small town in Georgia. They find out that they are Jewish when they are 12. Marty leaves for Brooklyn and becomes a scholar of the Talmud and has married into a famous (ultra-Orthodox) rabbinical family. His brother becomes something of a ne’er-do-well, until one of his insane investments pays off and he becomes very, very rich. And then their mother dies back in Georgia, and the brothers find out that she lied, and they are not Jewish after-all. Marty decides that he must convert to Judaism if he wants to keep his life as it is and his wife (technically they are no longer married). So begins a madcap road trip from small town Georgia to Brooklyn with Marty, David, and two others they acquire on the way: Charlayne, an influencer and Popeye, a one-eyed dog.

The novel delas with themes of identity, the nature of God, love, forgiveness, and family. It does so in ways alternately serious and funny. The writing style is breezy and easy to read, and I could tell the author is a journalist. However, something in Goyhood didn’t gel for me. It was fun to read, but something was off. I couldn’t help rolling my eyes at some of the episodes, and I got very impatient with both Marty and David at times. I wanted to tell both of them to grow up. In addition, some of the Talmudic references went over my head and I found that I didn’t care about the others.

I also wanted to know more about Sarah, Marty’s wife. She is the only one I felt sorry for, the only character I really cared about.

All-in-all, for me this was a flawed, but entertaining and feel-good novel. I’m glad I read it.