• I, ALEX CROSS
• by James Petterson
• [rated by PBS readers as #81!!]
• 360 pages

3/9/19

50 PAGES IN –

My guilty pleasure is reading detective novels. At first sight, the worst thing about Patterson is that if I love his character, Alex Cross, there are about a million books in the series.

Nonetheless, I’m thrilled to be reading a mystery. It is very sparse writing, to the point, no extra information given (so you are already involved and wanting to know more). I like the way you are instantly viewing this case from two different angles. Often the second angle, if there is one, shows up later. But Patterson is so confident of his characters that he introduces everyone and their angles right away.

I’m off. This may well be my fastest read in the whole bunch. Well, this and Charlotte’s Web!

Last note; I have read some great detectives in my day. I like the pacing and instant character development here, but so far, I haven’t yet seen why Mr. Cross earns this high honor above all the others.

3/15/19

Whew. This is fast. Fast and brutal.

On the one hand, after Junot Diaz and Kurt Vonnegut, I feel like I’m reading the guiltiest pleasure of all. A bunch

of law enforcement officers busting up a prostitution ring? Now we’re talking!

I’ve always loved brevity and pacing and this thing reads like a bat out of hell.

I know there will be a moment, when I’m on page 5000 of Crime & Punishment, when I’ll be silently yearning for a good prostitution raid and some pacing. I will have lost the will to live by the fifth page describing some ornate hall or a peasant family forced to catch and eat rats to live. And right about then, I’ll be missing this.

But the fact is – I’m halfway through and Alex himself is still not really dawning on me. Every time I open up the book and start reading passages about his family, I have to remind myself of the members of it. They don’t stick out. Well, except for Nana, but that’s because she keeps almost dying so she comes to mind.

And the fact is that this was apparently a huge series and maybe pretty far back (again, I am in the dark as to the dates, due to my complete unwillingness to do any research). But Alex doesn’t even compare to Spenser, Susan & Hawk. And the pacing, well it’s great, but it isn’t particularly unique. Again, this could have preceded and set the stage for other fast page turners, so that might factor in.

I’ll whip through and see if these halfway points change…

3/22/19

Considering how overwhelmingly full my life is, I whipped through this little opus. As I said before, it was the ultimate guilty pleasure. It makes me scared of going from this to some huge Tolstoy thing. But on the other hand, I have to get there at some point and maybe better

after something fluffy like this.

I enjoyed reading it, because I like crime stuff that is paced super fast. Having said that, I’m a little surprised that this series was so ultimately popular.

The characters were well etched, but with no discernible subtlety. But that is Patterson’s choice. He wants to be all plot and that is a valid choice, I guess.

He also likes to make sure we know he can write this stuff dark. Okay. Some love that. I find it like he is sort of strutting to do it that way.

There is a feeling I have that I’m about to be drowned in a huge opus. Have to pick the next one right away. But in the meantime, it was fun to read something with this kind of electrifying pacing. I doubt I will have that experience too many more times with this list.

Okay here I go to pick the next one!

• TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
• by Harper Lee
• [rated by PBS readers as #1!!]
• 323 pages

2/17/19

35 PAGES IN

Ah, just got it today and I’d already like to bury myself in it to the exclusion of everything else.

Check out this language, describing the summer heat.

“Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o’ clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum.”

C’MON! And that’s how it’s done.

3/8/19

Finished it last night.

From the first page, this is one of the best books ever written. There are whole books written on why it is so

good, but the fact that it is that good is almost as indisputable as drinking water and getting some sleep.

I enjoyed it thoroughly. I think it is my fourth or fifth time reading it. And unlike the previous books, I didn’t feel the shadow of the accolade while reading this one, even though it was voted #1. It simply belongs there. But I did read it with an overview of trying to ascertain why I thought it was so special. I mean, after all, anyone can ask an expert! Instead, let’s ask me!

The predominant reason I came up with was the totality of Scout’s central voice. There was a seamless blur between author and protagonist. You simply never doubted that this was an amazing and young voice talking to you.

Not only seamless, it allowed you to feel through Scout as well as looking over her shoulder. Characters came and went in the story the way they would in the mind’s eye of a child. One day, they were important; next day they were not. The most beguiling character is Atticus and here, you see the reverie with which normally level-headed Scout sees her father, as well as allowing his character to come through his actions and dialogue. You get her take and you get your own take. Throughout the book, that continues to feel rare.

As a child, you might not question why, when you wanted to see your dad holding court, you followed a grownup upstairs and displaced the black people in the front row automatically to take their seats. To you, that is how it’s done. But I can’t imagine how a horrendous image like that could be said more powerfully than in the status quo way she sees and says it.

My admiration for the writing here is boundless. Two big aspects of this for me were timing and brevity.

Though Lee can describe details in detailed or stark terms, she never uses a big word when a small one will work just as well. This helps one to stay with the elegant simplicity of Scout’s mind and Atticus’ dedication to doing what is simply right.

The timing comes through a child as well. Sometimes the school year can drag on and so does the narrative. The trial is a page turner, as it would be, both for her and for the town around her. After that, everything slows down again until you are itching for something to happen and yet, when it does, it is truly shocking.

This book is moment to moment truth. She never hijacks the narrative to make a point. When Scout wants to get rid of having her aunt there, she doesn’t get her way. The aunt stays. And why? Because there are truths that Scout can’t see but they are there anyway.

Last thing that moved me more than any other time I read it was the fact that, after we finally meet Boo, he is never seen again. Again, not the way Scout would want it,

but the truth nonetheless. It is the image of Boo back in his house after that breakthrough, after Atticus says to him, simply, “Thank you for my children Arthur,” is the haunting image that will be with me for a long time to come.

I loved coming back to “To Kill A Mockingbird.” And I know I will return to it again and love it. It is a part of our lives and we will always need to be reminded of it.

I urge anyone out there to reread it if, like me, you haven’t for decades. It is true. It will not disappoint.

And now…..

I picked three titles again. But one gave me a little frisson of excitement. It is I, Alex Cross by James Patterson. Named for the entire Alex Cross series, it is the first one. I love mysteries. I’ve never read Patterson. Looking forward to it!