Saturday, October 29, 2011
News of a Kidnapping by Gabriel Barcia Marquez
News of a Kidnapping opens with the abduction of Maruja Pachon along with her sister in law and personal assistant Beatriz Villamizar in Bogota, Colombia in November 1990. Marquez wrote the book in order to chart the kidnappings of the two women and how it affected them and their families.
The previous August Diana Turbay, director of the TV news program Cripton and daughter of former Colombia president Julio Cesar Turbay was abducted by the same group, named The Extraditables which was a cover for Colombian drug baron Pablo Escobar.
Marquez soon realised that the three kidnappings, along with those of journalists Hero Buss and Francisco Santos Calderon are connected. Throughout the book Marquez vividly recounts the tribulations of the kidnapped victims, the initial kidnapping, the first days of captivity, the conditions they endured and the absolute terror they had to live with day in day out.
Throughout the book the tension builds as negotiations between the kidnappers on one side and the government and relatives of the victims on the other drag on. Months pass and some of those kidnapped are released. Others are not so fortunate among them Diana Turbay who was killed in a botched rescue bid.
In News of a Kidnapping Marquez, the award winning storyteller, returns to his roots as a reporter. It is to his credit that Marquez avoids the gory sensationalism of true crime writers. The reader is left with an impression of a violent Colombian society in the 1990’s slowly ripping itself apart.
Labels: News of a Kidnapping by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. A review.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Nineteen Eighty Three by David Peace
Yorkshire 1983 and Detective Chief Superintendent Maurice Jobson is heading the investigation into missing schoolgirl Hazel Atkinson. Jobson, a corrupt police officer, is puzzled by the similarities between this disappearance and a similar case he investigated and solved a number of years ago, a case for which a suspect had been charged and is currently serving a sentence for.
As the novel progresses Jobson replays the events of the previous investigation particularly his part in the conviction of the suspect Michael Myshkin which was trumped up.
Nineteen Eighty Three is told by three protagonists; Detective Superintendent Maurice Jobson, John Winston Piggott solicitor for Michael Myshkin and BJ a rent boy who somehow knows the dirty secrets of the good and great in Yorkshire.
The novel which alternates between Jobson, Piggott and BJ, will be confusing for some readers. In its defence the structure of the novel fills in many blanks in the story of the Red Riding Quartet. For example we are told of meetings between two of the characters from both points of view.
Nineteen Eighty Three is much more than your typical crime novel. David Peace shines a light on Yorkshire society in the early 1980’s, a society which at the time was rejoicing in the re-election of Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister. As England seemed to be striving and thriving under the leadership of the Iron Lady, police corruption and brutality are rife throughout Yorkshire.
The novel is broken down in a series of short chapters. The writing is rhythmic, hypnotic and repetitive. The tension is built up, the horror reinforced. Police interrogation techniques are repeated verbatim again and again.
But you need to be warned. This is not a stand-alone novel. It is of no benefit to the reader to suddenly pick Nineteen Eighty Three up and expect to grasp the whole story. You will need to start at the very first novel in the series then work through to the conclusion.
In Nineteen Eighty Three there are no happy endings. Brutality reigns supreme. The perpetrators are not arrested in order to make the streets safe. The police are still corrupt, the city is still a battleground. Nineteen Eighty Three concludes the Red Riding Quartet.
Labels: Nineteen Eighty Three by David Peace. A review
Sunday, October 02, 2011
An Evening with Ray Bradbury 2001
An evening with Ray Bradbury took place in 2001 as part of The Sixth Annual Writer's Symposium by the Sea. On a personal note Bradbury's stories have put me in contact with some of my best friends. Walk through the streets of Dublin and listen to the echoes of "Getting Through Sunday Somehow".
In this leacture Ray Bradbury showers the audience with advice. A master class from the genius. Have you started writing yet?
Labels: An Evening with Ray Bradbury 2001
