Security by Gina Wohlsdorf - Another book I probably won't finish

I just... It looked neat on the shelf and I liked the concept. An ultra-deluxe high-rise with top security is infiltrated by a murderer. The perspective is from the cameras on the floors and grounds and sometimes the page is split for simultaneous action. Unfortunately, it's not holding up. The camera perspective is just a gimmick; the list of cameras at the start of each chapter is essentially meaningless. The perspective is sometimes right there with the characters and sometimes like they are being watched from afar. (Cameras generally don't have audio so that would make it hard to keep the pretense up but it would be interesting if it was done right.)

Now, this would be all right if the story, or the characters, were any good. Tessa is the designer/overseer of this big building, getting ready for the grand opening. Her leather jacket wearing, motorcycle stunt riding foster brother comes to talk to her. They met when they were 8 and 10, respectively. They haven't seen each other in years. There's sexual tension and it's way awkward not least because it's implied by the text and by another character that Tessa was very fortunate to get placed in the same home as this hottie. When they were preteens. It's mentioned several times that Brian is in shape but he's not, like, vain. And he's not too buff. Brian is also the type who doesn't listen to his love interest when he's told "no" or "go away". And it's really obvious from the text that that's okay because Tessa doesn't really want him to leave. She can't keep from being giggly and smiling while he tags along with her around her work place after she told him to skedaddle.

Franklin, the manager, is a person "only another narcissist could like" and he's gay. This is how he is introduced and it is later explained that he made up a story in his head about how his life was hard because he was gay but really everyone was kind and accepting and why would he think being gay can be challenging? He's sabotaging the hotel for the competition. The killer kills him within the first fifty pages but it's better to say he's tortured to death for no apparent reason. We are lovingly told how 22 bones in his body are broken and his jaw is broken and his screams reach the empty tenth floor and then he's bashed in the skull with a paperweight and dumped in an industrial dryer from which wafts his moans and the smell of burned meat. The maid just gets stabbed to death. I'll leave someone else to interpret this.

Then there's Henri, the fat, farting arrogant French chef who exclaims "Mon Dieu!" and "Zut Alors!" at regular intervals. He had damn well better turn out to be a spy from, I don't know, Wyoming or somewhere because otherwise this is the author's idea of humor. Also, the kitchen and ballroom are on the nineteenth floor which is a recipe for logistical headaches and disasters.

So, the "Killer" is roaming around, picking off lonesome people for no as-yet known reason but he appears to have a compatriot on the cameras and that's who is narrating the book. Sometimes. Sometimes the narrative is neutral and sometimes it's clearly the unknown watcher, who has way too much of an interest in Tessa. The way all the characters are described makes them seem slightly gross and pathetic and quite frankly I would be fine with the Killer throwing them all down an elevator shaft. This somewhat takes away from the tension.

You know what? I don't need to read anymore about the randomly sadistic gigantic Killer or Tessa and Brian's somewhat incestuous love story.

I'm going to continue reading Jamaica Kincaid's Annie Jones which is a much better book. Eleven year old Annie is growing up in Antigua and as she gets older and starts to turn into a young lady she notices that her mother, who she is very close to, is now treating her differently. It's a sort of slice of life book with reflections on growing up and daily routine and love for parents and the discovery of death. New schools, new friends, new observations.

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson

I cannot rave enough about this book. I finished it in July and I find myself wishing I could experience it all over again for the first time.
A little girl, having just recently lost her mother, spends the summer on an island with her father and grandmother. It's told in episodes. They find and foster a cat. Another little girl comes to visit. A man brings them fireworks for midsummer. There's exploration of the different parts of the island. Her father starts a garden.
What's brilliant about this book is the way the girl, Sophia, who is about six, works through her grief in her interactions with the world and others. There is only one brief mention of the mother's death but the sadness and bewilderment and rage and loss comes through in what Sophia focuses on and how she relates to the rest of the world. She can become terribly angry at things for no real reason. She suddenly has a need to build an entire imaginary world out of driftwood and stones and becomes deeply upset and scared that a storm might have washed them away. Her father goes out during a storm and her quiet dread is palpable.
The biggest relationship is with her grandmother though. They explore together, argue, build a town. She relies on her grandmother for advice and then challenges it. Her grandmother is clearly trying to do her best to help her granddaughter through a quiet, empty time filled with little understood emotions but she herself knows that her time is passing. There are important things she wants to pass on but she can no longer remember how to say them. She has little energy although she does her best to keep up.
There's a light that shines through this book. Everything ends eventually. But everything continues as well and there's so much out there to explore.

Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavic

Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavic, A Lexicon Novel in 100,000 Words, is a lyrical description of the events surrounding the so-called "Khazar Polemic" and conversion of the Khazar people. Written as an encyclopedia containing cross-referenced entries between three different sections (Christian, Muslim, Jewish), it relates the efforts of various scholars to pin down exactly what happened at the Khazar court when the Khagan invited representatives from the three religions to hold a discussion to convince him of which path to follow.

The Khazars were a real people and the Khagan really was their leader but apart from a few names from history (like Saints Cyril and Methodius and Al-Muqaddasi) this is a completely fictional account. This is reality as dreamed by many people from different eras, stitched together and retold a dozen times.

The story starts, for lack of a better way of putting things, with the Khagan's dream in which an angel told him that God is pleased with his intentions but not his deeds. Accordingly, he arranges the polemic mentioned earlier to gain an interpretation. Whoever is most convincing, wins the Khazar people to their religion. The process is helped or hindered by the princess Ateh, leader of a sect of dream-hunters, men who stalk other people's dreams for clues to pieces of the soul/body of the original Adam, from which they will compile the ultimate book. Peeking through the narrative are forces which conspire to stop this book ever being written.

The exact facts of the polemic and conversion have been lost in time and the encyclopedia details as well the efforts of various people to discover them. Unsurprisingly, each faith's source says that their own side won the argument and the Khazar people ceased to exist when they were absorbed into the larger Christian/Muslim/Jewish community. Reading about the Khazar practices, where faiths and peoples other than their own get more prominence in civic life, one gets the feeling that rather than converting to one single religion, assimilation into their own immigrant communities happened instead of the other way around.

Each entry tells a little more of the story and they don't have to be read in order. You can read from cover to cover or skip around. Whichever method you choose you'll get the whole story in a coherent manner but you'll have different perspectives on the scenes you read depending on the order you gain facts. I would really suggest reading the bit about Dorothea and the trial minutes last though.

This is a lovely, poetic history featuring a humunculus, devils, men who walk through dreams, hungry ghosts, impossible feats, and adventurous people. I really enjoyed this book. It is exactly the sort of dream-like, imaginary tale I enjoy, with real moments of horror, excitement, and love. Each entry is self-contained but reading each entry will give you perspective on others. Some of it is thought-provoking, especially on the nature of thought. He illustrates this with a metaphor of two men (author and reader) holding ropes with a puma (text, thoughts, ideas) caught between them. They can't eat the puma...

The book contains many wonderful vignettes and poetic proverbs; the translator did a great job. This book is like a cross between a fairy tale and a myth, dreamed by a storyteller, retold the next morning.