Quick Reviews: Dr. Sleep, Camp of the Saints and Vengeance

"Dr. Sleep" by the well regarded Madison Smartt Bell  is a novel about a sleepless hypnotist. Strugglingwith the present and his past, freed yet burdened, the main character walks through London encountering and initiating conflicts that are personal and universal. It is a detective story where too many things are sought: a child killer, the author's self, the author's relationship with his lover, the conflict between mystery and reality, a resolution with true evil. But in the stew are some lovely isolated segments, thought provoking and well worth the read. An interest in Giordano Bruno and Frances Yates will help.

"Camp of the Saints" by Jean Raspail is a notorious book ostensibly about the West and its conflict with the undeveloped world. (It is usually dismissed as nothing more than a racist screed.) One day the undeveloped world wakes up and decides to participate in the developed one. The question the author asks is, "In a world of limited resources, what are the West's responsibilities to these people and does the West have the responsibility--and the will-- to protect itself?"
This is an ugly story. If you Google it you will get racist and skinhead sites and little else. That is a shame because the question is not a stupid one, it is asked and ignored by every thinking person every day. It is just more fit for an editorial than a novel. The preface makes the real point, though. "..[this book raises]..a problem absolutely insolvable by our present moral standards." "To let them in will destroy us, to reject them will destroy us." Not for the faint of heart. And should be read with a fake book jacket on it.

"Vengeance" is by John Banville, the Booker Prize winner who here is moonlighting as a detective writer, Benjamin Black. The major character is the recurring Pathologist Quirke, the scene is Ireland. This is simply a better written mystery than one usually sees, with good characters, a complex plot (that takes over 100 pages to start) and good setting. The story seems less important to the writer; the mystery is pretty transparent from early on. But there is a claustrophobic closeness of the writer's lens on the characters that somehow provides tension and unease. And in this postmodern world everyone brings their own false flag memories or perceptions. Very worthwhile.