Andrew Klavan’s A Woman Underground

Book number 51 of 2024

Andrew Klavan is one of my favorite writers and thinkers. He has written many mysteries, thrillers, and some very good nonfiction, as well as producing a weekly podcast on politics and culture. A Woman Underground is the fourth book in his Cameron Winter series, which just gets better and better with each installment.

Winter is a wonderfully deep and complex character – a professor of Romantic literature at a small midwestern college, he was an especially deadly counterintelligence assassin for some very dark and secret missions earlier in his life. Every novel in the series has flashbacks to Winter’s career as a deadly assassin, as he relates them to his therapist – a kindly, older woman who is very much attracted to him. Winter is incapable of maintaining any kind of relationship, because his parents, wealthy New Yorkers, had neither the time nor the inclination to care for him.

His nanny was a refugee from East Germany, and he never got over his childhood crush of her niece, Charlotte Shaefer. His unrequited love has served as an excuse to avoid any intimacy in his adult life. He is a deeply troubled man with a code of honor he tries to live by, even though he is not at all religious. Think of a Raymond Chandler character dropped into the 21st century.

A Woman Underground begins with Part 1: The Scent of Something Gone, Winter realizes that Charlotte may be trying to get in touch with him. One evening he comes home to his apartment and smells the lingering scent of her perfume in the hall. The next morning, he studies the building’s security video, and he sees a bundled up woman carrying a book. The book turns out to be a novel that is popular with right-wing extremists, and it features a heroine who is too similar to Charlotte to be a coincidence. Winter quickly tracks down the author. To avoid any spoilers, I won’t reveal any more details!

Klavan does a masterful job of balancing four(!) separate stories while keeping the reader glued to the page. First, there is the main plotline of Winter tracking down Charlotte. Then, there is a plotline involving an old mission Winter was assigned to bring back an agent who had disappeared in Turkey. When Winter is in therapy, he keeps returning to this story, even though his therapist knows he’s doing it to avoid facing what’s really causing his psychological distress. Third, there’s the plotline of the novel Charlotte was carrying when she tried to see Winter. In it, a small group of right-wingers try to decide what to do during the riots that caused so unrest and destruction in the summer of 2020. Cameron is reading this novel to try to pick up clues as to where Charlotte might be. The fourth subplot is some sexual shenanigans Winter’s colleague at the college gets himself into. Believe it or not, all four of these stories slowly come together into one.

A Woman Underground is a pivotal chapter in Cameron Winter’s development. Several things that had stunted his emotional and psychological maturity are dealt with and resolved. The path to that resolution, however, is a harrowing one. As Klavan describes him, he spends most of the book on the verge of a nervous breakdown. It is only through his therapist’s insightful and compassionate work that he is able to come out whole. By the end, it’s clear that Winter has emerged battered, but stronger and more resilient. I can’t wait to see what Andrew Klavan has in store for him. Bubbling under the surface of the various subplots is a potential global conspiracy that involves extremely powerful Americans who have been compromised. It’s enough to turn the most level-headed person into a paranoid lunatic, and the people Winter can completely trust are down to very few. Things are getting very interesting in Cameron Winter’s life!

Charles Williams’ Shadows of Ecstasy – Can Man Conquer Death?

Book number 50 of 2024

I continue to enjoy the dark fantasy of the Inkling Charles Williams. Shadows of Ecstasy is his fifth novel, published in 1933, and it has a very interesting premise: what would happen if the people of Africa – led by a “High Executive” – rose up and overthrew all of the Western Powers, inaugurating a “Second Human Evolution” based on an esoteric brand of paganism?

The story begins with a dinner at a British college honoring an explorer who has returned from his travels. Roger Ingram is a professor of literature, and his good friend, Sir Bernard Travers, is a renowned authority on the stomach. Ingram’s wife is Isabel, and her sister, Rosamond, is engaged to Sir Bernard’s son, Philip. At the dinner, Roger and Sir Bernard are introduced to Nigel Considine, a strangely charismatic figure who speaks in an obscure manner, quoting scripture and classic poetry. Sir Bernard can’t shake the feeling that he’s seen Considine before, and eventually he realizes that he photographed him 50 years earlier when he (Sir Bernard) was a little boy. Considine doesn’t appear to have aged at all.

Meanwhile, mysterious things are happening in Africa: communications are being cut off, and European forces are being driven out. Philip Travers is supposed to go to that continent to work on an engineering project, but it is put on hold. A Mr. Simon Rosenberg, one of the richest men in the world and main investor in Philip’s company, dies in mysterious circumstances. His estate will go to two nephews, Ezekiel and Nehemiah, who are Orthodox Jews committed to restoring the Temple in Jerusalem.

The newspapers publish a statement from the High Executive of the African Allies proclaiming their intention of casting off the colonial powers and ushering in a new age that is anti-intellectual. Here’s an excerpt:

Assured that at this time the whole process of change in mankind, generally known as evolution, is at a higher crisis than any since mankind first emerged from among the great beasts and knew himself; assured that by an equal emergence from intellectual preoccupations, the adepts of the new way have it in their power to lead, and all mankind has it in its power to follow, not certainly by the old habits of reason but by profounder experiments of passion, to the conquest of  death in the renewed ecstasy of vivid experience; assured of these things the Allied Supremacies appeal to the whole world for belief and discipleship and devotion.

CHARLES WILLIAMS. Shadows of Ecstasy (Kindle Location 603). Delphi Classics. Kindle Edition.

In London, persons of color are targeted by mobs in reaction to this proclamation. Roger and Isabel shelter an African man in their home, who turns out to be a Zulu king named Inkamasi. An Anglican priest, Ian Caithness, is Sir Bernard’s good friend and is staying at the Travers’ home while attending a conference. Now all the main characters are introduced.

When Philip and Sir Bernard offer to escort Inkamasi back to his home, they are met by Considine, who exercises some sort of hypnotic power over the African king and takes him away. He invites Sir Bernard, Philip, and Roger to dinner at his home. When they arrive, Inkamasi is there, but is almost catatonic. In the course of the dinner, Considine admits he is the same man as Sir Bernard photographed fifty years ago. As a matter of fact, he states he is almost two hundred years old! He claims to have a discovered a way to channel all of his energies into himself so that he never ages. Things get a little vague here, but his method seems to boil down to denying himself any relationship with any other person and devoting everything to self-love.

‘So far’, Sir Bernard said, ‘both the stomach and the mind seem normally necessary to man.’

‘O so far!’ Considine answered, ‘and normally! But it’s the farther and the abnormal to which we must look. When men are in love, when they are in the midst of creating, when they are in a religious flame, what do they need then either with the stomach or the mind?’

‘Those’, Sir Bernard said, ‘are abnormal states from which they return.’

‘More’s the pity,’ Roger said suddenly. ‘It’s true, you know. In the real states of exaltation one doesn’t seem to need food.’

‘So,’ said Considine, smiling at him. ‘The poets have taught you something, Mr. Ingram.’

‘But one returns,’ Sir Bernard protested plaintively, ‘and then one does need food. And reason,’ he added, almost as an afterthought.

Considine was looking at Roger. ‘Will you say that one must?’ he asked in a lower voice; and ‘O how the devil do I know?’ Roger said impatiently. ‘I say that one does, but I daren’t say that one must. And it’s folly either way.’

‘Don’t believe it,’ Considine answered, his voice low and vibrating. ‘There’s more to it than that.’

CHARLES WILLIAMS. Shadows of Ecstasy (Kindle Locations 458-468). Delphi Classics. Kindle Edition.

His dinner guests react differently to his revelation. Roger Ingram, a committed Romantic who is constantly quoting Shakespeare, Milton, and other poets, is attracted to him. Sir Bernard, the medical expert, is appalled, while Philip, the young man in love, is conflicted. Considine concludes his soiree with a musical performance by a chamber orchestra that plays havoc with his guests’ emotions.

Later that evening, African forces attack London and cause some panic, but they are repelled. Ian Caithness and Philip decide to rescue Inkamasi from Considine’s house, and they take him to an Anglican mass where his consciousness and spiritual health is restored. Inkamasi tells them that Considine is the High Executive whose goal is to overthrow western Christian civilization and replace it with paganism.

The next day, Sir Bernard decides to tell the Prime Minister that Considine is the High Executive. When Considine visits the Ingrams to invite Roger to join his movement, Rosamond calls the police. When they try to arrest Considine, he waves them away and walks past them as they fall over themselves.

The raids on London intensify, and mobs of people are in a panic. African men wound and kill each other in their devotion to “the conqueror of death”, Considine. Ezekiel Rosenberg is lynched when an English mob tries to find where he and his brother have stashed the jewels supposedly left them by their uncle Simon. Nehemiah is rescued by Philip from the mob and brought to his home.

Philip’s engagement to Rosamond is falling apart, and he can’t understand why. She has suddenly gone cold towards him, even though he loves her with a devotion approaching worship. Where her sister Isabel is a peacemaker and she encourages her husband Roger in his exploration of Considine’s philosophy, Rosamond takes an instant dislike to Inkamasi and Considine. But at the same time, she is attracted to Inkamasi’s regal bearing.

Roger Ingram is an interesting character – he is a true believer in the power of art to change lives:

Oppression lay, Roger thought, on him alone, perhaps because he alone was yet unused to a deliberate co-habitation with belief. The past popularity, the long tradition of religion supported its diverse champions against a present neglect. But art had never been popular, and its lovers in all ages were few and solitary. His own belief was as passionate as that of the Jew or the Christian, but it was more often thwarted and more greatly troubled.

CHARLES WILLIAMS. Shadows of Ecstasy (Kindle Locations 2448-2451). Delphi Classics. Kindle Edition.

Shadows of Ecstasy is probably the most difficult of Charles Williams’ works, because it gets bogged down in lengthy philosophical discussions that are vague and obscure. Roger Ingram drops many references to poems that I’m simply not familiar with, and I’m sure I missed a lot of meaning there. As I was reading, I couldn’t tell if Considine was the Antichrist or a heroic figure, which I suppose was Williams’ point. It’s Williams’ style to never overtly state what is happening, but rather use oblique and unfinished conversations to make important points. I learned to just keeping reading and get into “the flow” of his prose.

That said, Williams drops quite a few true gems into his writing. I loved this passage:

He [Roger] found a certain relief in talking to the priest, however different their views of Considine, as an ordinary Christian might find it easier to talk to an atheist than to a saint.

CHARLES WILLIAMS. Shadows of Ecstasy (Kindle Locations 2764-2766). Delphi Classics. Kindle Edition.

Events inexorably build to a horrific climax involving human sacrifice, petty greed, and betrayal. At then

end of the novel, things have returned to “normal”, but after a man who seems to be immortal has made himself known, how normal can the world be? Shadows of Ecstasy is a very thought-provoking and troubling tale, where every character is changed forever. It takes a real effort to read and understand, but it is worth it in the end.

Turgenev’s Fathers and Children – A Clash of Generations

Book number 46 of 2024

Continuing my exploration of classic Russian literature (you can read my review of Tolstoy’s War and Peace here), I decided to check out Ivan Turgenev’s Fathers and Children (also known as Fathers and Sons). A couple of years ago, I read Joseph Frank’s biography of my favorite Russian author, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and, according to Frank, Dostoyevsky was friends with Turgenev and had spoken well of Fathers and Sons.

The novel opens with middle-aged widower Nikoloai Petrovitch Kirsanov anxiously awaiting the arrival of his son, Arkady, who has graduated from the university in Petersburg. When Arkady finally arrives at the depot, he introduces a new friend of his, Yevgeny Vassilyitch Bazarov, whom he has invited to stay at their estate.

As their carriages arrive at the Kirsanov estate, it’s clear things are not doing well. Turgenev paints a picture of poverty and decay – emaciated cows, serfs driving pell-mell to gin bars, decrepit and dilapidated buildings. At the house, they are greeted by Nikolai’s brother, Pavel Petrovitch, who is a bit of an aristocratic dandy. He is glad to see Arkady, but Bazarov immediately rubs him the wrong way. The next morning, Pavel Petrovitch is not pleased to learn that Bazarov is a “nihilist”:

Pavel Petrovitch pulled his moustaches. “Well, and what is Mr. Bazarov himself?” he asked, deliberately.
“What is Bazarov?” Arkady smiled. “Would you like me, uncle, to tell you what he really is?”
“If you will be so good, nephew.”
“He’s a nihilist.”
“Eh?” inquired Nikolai Petrovitch, while Pavel Petrovitch lilted a knife in the air with a small piece of butter on its tip, and remained motionless.
“He’s a nihilist,” repeated Arkady.
“A nihilist,” said Nikolai Petrovitch. “That’s from the Latin, nihil, nothing, as far as I can judge; the word must mean a man who … who accepts nothing?”
“Say, ‘who respects nothing,’ ” put in Pavel Petrovitch, and he set to work on the butter again.
“Who regards everything from the critical point of view,” observed Arkady.
“Isn’t that just the same thing?” inquired Pavel Petrovitch.
“No, it’s not the same thing. A nihilist is a man who does not bow down before any authority, who does not take any principle on faith, whatever reverence that principle may be enshrined in.”
“Well, and is that good?” interrupted Pavel Petrovitch.
“That depends, uncle. Some people it will do good to, but some people will suffer for it.”
“Indeed. Well, I see it’s not in our line. We are old-fashioned people; we imagine that without principles, taken as you say on faith, there’s no taking a step, no breathing. Vous avez changé tout cela. [You have changed all that.] God give you good health and the rank of a general, while we will be content to look on and admire, worthy … what was it?”
“Nihilists,” Arkady said, speaking very distinctly.
“Yes. There used to be Hegelists, and now there are nihilists. We shall see how you will exist in void, in vacuum; and now ring, please, brother Nikolai Petrovitch; it’s time I had my cocoa.”
Ivan Turgenev. Fathers and Children (Kindle Locations 469-485). Standard Ebooks. Kindle Edition.

There is also another family complication – Nikolai has brought a young woman, Fenitchka, into the house and she has borne him a son. Arkady, quite proud of his fashionable and up-to-date morals, assures his father that he thinks it is all perfectly wonderful.

One thing I appreciate about Turgenev is his dry sense of humor. Here he is describing a government official, Matvy Illyitch Kolyazin:

Matvy Ilyitch received Arkady with the good-nature, we might even call it playfulness, characteristic of the enlightened higher official. He was astonished, however, when he heard that the cousins he had invited had remained at home in the country. “Your father was always a queer fellow,” he remarked, playing with the tassels of his magnificent velvet dressing-gown, and suddenly turning to a young official in a discreetly buttoned-up uniform, he cried, with an air of concentrated attention, “What?” The young man, whose lips were glued together from prolonged silence, got up and looked in perplexity at his chief. But, having nonplussed his subordinate, Matvy Ilyitch paid him no further attention. Our higher officials are fond as a rule of nonplussing their subordinates; the methods to which they have recourse to attain that end are rather various.
Ivan Turgenev. Fathers and Children (Kindle Locations 1076-1081). Standard Ebooks. Kindle Edition.

At a ball, Arkady and Bazarov are introduced to a local young woman who is a wealthy widow, Anna Sergyevna Odintsov. They have an extended stay at her estate, where she lives with her younger sister, Katya, and their irascible aunt, a pompous old princess. Arkady fancies himself in love with Anna, but he is too young and naïve for her to really notice him. She is much more interested in Bazarov, and what makes him tick. He doesn’t derive any enjoyment from any art, whether it’s music, paintings, or novels. For his part, Bazarov finds Anna Sergyevna fascinating – she is an independent woman who competently runs an extensive estate. She is well educated and interested in learning more about botany, chemistry, and other physical sciences. She is always entirely placid and serene; nothing disturbs her equanimity.

Late one evening, Bazarov and Anna are conversing in her room. She tries to pierce his armor of indifference and rationalism, while he struggles to not express his feelings for her. He finally gives in and says he loves her, but he is like a cornered, furious animal, and Anna realizes she has pushed him too far and immediately regrets it.

Bazarov plans to leave to go to his family farm, and Arkady impulsively decides to join him. The Bazarovs are a lot of fun – his father, Vassily, is a retired doctor who struts around in his shabby old military uniform. His mother, Arina, is a devout and devoted mother who showers an embarrassed Yevgeny with affection. After just three days, he’s had enough and makes plans to return to Arkady’s family estate. At this point, Turgenev gives us a beautiful piece of writing that captures the heartbreak parents feel when they realize their children have outgrown them:

Vassily Ivanovitch, after a few more moments of hearty waving of his handkerchief on the steps, sank into a chair, and his head dropped on to his breast. “He has cast us off; he has forsaken us,” he faltered; “forsaken us; he was dull with us. Alone, alone!” he repeated several times. Then Arina Vlasyevna went up to him, and, leaning her grey head against his grey head, said, “There’s no help for it, Vasya! A son is a separate piece cut off. He’s like the falcon that flies home and flies away at his pleasure; while you and I are like funguses in the hollow of a tree, we sit side by side, and don’t move from our place. Only I am left you unchanged forever, as you for me.”

Vassily Ivanovitch took his hands from his face and clasped his wife, his friend, as warmly as he had never clasped in youth; she comforted him in his grief.

Ivan Turgenev. Fathers and Children (Kindle Locations 2301-2307). Standard Ebooks. Kindle Edition.

As time goes on, the friendship between Arkady and Bazarov cools, and the friction between Arkady’s uncle Pavel and Bazarov comes to a head. Bazarov knows he has no one to confide in, nowhere to go where he would be comfortable. He is in thrall to his nihilism, but it is a dead end. Arkady moves on, falling in love with Anna Sergyevna’s younger sister, Katya. 

Fathers and Children is one of the most beautifully written novels I’ve ever read. It’s also nice that it’s relatively short: 255 pages, which is nothing compared to most Russian literature! Turgenev is, to my ears, like Hemingway in the way he strips down his prose to the bare essentials. With a few descriptive phrases, Turgenev conveys the atmosphere of a scene completely. For example, here’s the scene he paints of Bazarov when he finally returns to his home:

Bazarov leaned out of the coach, while Arkady thrust his head out behind his companion’s back, and caught sight on the steps of the little manor-house of a tall, thinnish man with dishevelled hair, and a thin hawk nose, dressed in an old military coat not buttoned up. He was standing, his legs wide apart, smoking a long pipe and screwing up his eyes to keep the sun out of them.
The horses stopped.
“Arrived at last,” said Bazarov’s father, still going on smoking though the pipe was fairly dancing up and down between his fingers. “Come, get out; get out; let me hug you.”
He began embracing his son … “Enyusha, Enyusha,” was heard a trembling woman’s voice. The door was flung open, and in the doorway was seen a plump, short, little old woman in a white cap and a short striped jacket. She moaned, staggered, and would certainly have fallen, had not Bazarov supported her. Her plump little hands were instantly twined round his neck, her head was pressed to his breast, and there was a complete hush. The only sound heard was her broken sobs.

Ivan Turgenev. Fathers and Children (Kindle Locations 1889-1896). Standard Ebooks. Kindle Edition

The overarching theme of Fathers and Children is the inability of different generations to understand each other. Arkady’s father is “progressive”, in that he has emancipated his peasants, but he doesn’t understand the nihilism of Arkady and Bazarov. Bazarov has no patience with his parents, and he can’t wait to leave home as soon as he arrives there. Even though these are characters from mid-nineteenth century Russia, we in 21st century America must deal with the same issues. How can the older generation pass on its values to the next, while still allowing its eagerly rebellious children to make mistakes, learn from them, and grow? It’s an eternal question with no easy answer.

The ebook version of Fathers and Children that I read is available for free at Standard Ebooks. You can download it here.

Edgar Wallace’s Four Just Men – Heroes or Psychopaths?

Book #33 of 2024

In one of my favorite P. G. Wodehouse novels, Freddie Threepwood mentions how much he likes reading thrillers by Edgar Wallace. I was browsing through Standard Ebooks catalog of free books, and I noticed it contained quite a few of Wallace’s works. So, I downloaded his first novel, The Four Just Men (1905), and settled down to read it.

It’s a relatively short work and a quick read. That’s about the most complimentary thing I can say about it, though. The premise of the story is one of the most unattractive I’ve ever come across. The Four Just Men are three men – George Manfred, Leon Gonsalez, and Poiccart – as well as a temporary (and largely unwilling) accomplice – Thery. They are so wealthy that they can travel all over the world without a care. However, they have taken it upon themselves to dispense justice to evildoers who get away with foul deeds. As Manfred explains to Thery:

“We kill for justice, which lifts us out of the ruck of professional slayers. When we see an unjust man oppressing his fellows; when we see an evil thing done against the good God” – Thery crossed himself, “and against man – and know that by the laws of man this evildoer may escape punishment – we punish.” (Loc. 67, Standard Ebooks edition)

So far, so good, and one example Manfred gives of their justice is the case of a priest who kidnapped a young girl in order to keep her as his sex slave. They tracked him down and killed him, after it was clear he would never be arrested.

The problem with The Four Just Men is that the current target of their vigilante justice is a British foreign secretary – Sir Philip Ramon – who is introducing a bill in parliament that would allow the extradition of political refugees to their repressive home countries. Not a nice thing, but certainly not deserving of death! Manfred, Gonsalez, and Poiccart are convinced that they can frighten Ramon enough to withdraw the bill. To accomplish this, they pull stunts like planting a bomb in the parliament members’ lounge and notifying the police. This isn’t justice, it’s terrorism.

Despite extraordinary efforts by the London police and some setbacks in their plot, the Four Just Men succeed in killing Ramon and disappearing into Europe. Their method of murder is a classic “locked room” mystery, but it isn’t too difficult to figure out how they did it. In collateral damage, poor Thery is killed in the process. They also murder a pickpocket who had the bad luck to lift Poiccart’s notebook, which contained details of their plot. These guys aren’t heroes, they’re psychopaths.

Wallace has managed to create the most unsympathetic protagonists of any book I’ve read. I understand that he was very prolific and popular for his time, but The Four Just Men is not very enjoyable. I kept wondering if there would be an interesting twist near the end, when all of their mayhem would be seen to serve a larger purpose. Nope. I may read the next book in the series to see if Wallace redeems them in any way, but I’m glad it won’t cost me anything except a little time!