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F R I D AY, S E P T E M B E R 2 9 , 2 0 0 6Book Roundup -- Abundance, Raven's Gate andThe GalleryPlowed through some books in the last few weeks.Abundance: A Novel Of Marie Antoinette by Sena Jeter Naslund --Naslund made waves with her bestseller "Ahab's Wife," which cheekilytold a backstory from "Moby Dick." After a contemporary novel thatcame and went, Naslund has returned to a historical setting, this timeto tell the story of Marie Antoinette. She owes a great debt to AntoniaFraser's bio "Marie Antoinette: The Journey." (It's mentioned first inthe acknowledgments.) Both are very sympathetic to Antoinette, withNaslund deftly working in some awareness of Marie's blindness to heractions. The chapters are short and brief, much like Marie's nimble buteasily distracted mind. It does deepen a bit towards the end as theFrench Revolution takes over, but not so much as one might want. Thebook is ultimately a bit superficial, but pretty and distracting.Raven's Gate by Anthony Horowitz -- Horowitz is the creator of myfavorite TV mystery show, "Foyle's War" and the best-selling kidsbooks "Alex Rider" (think a teenage James Bond.) "Raven's Gate" startsa new five book series about another 14 year old boy with hugeresponsibilities: this time, to save the world from the Old Ones, the evilthat has been lurking behind closed Gates for millennia. Not muchcharacter development to sink your teeth into, though the series picksup quite a bit in book two (which I've just started). Still, there's a nicehorror movie feel to the setting, with our hero in an odd little Britishvillage where everyone is naturally up to their necks in witchcraft. It'slike an episode of "The Avengers" or one of those Seventies Britishhorror films where menace can be found in placid country life.The Gallery by John Horne Burns -- this is a keeper. It's a novel aboutlife in Naples in 1944, published just a few years after WW II was over.I don't know what prompted me to pick it up (maybe the reference to agay subplot - unusual in a book this old). It's a very odd duck --chapters that serve as travelogue/essay/ memoir for Burns and what hesaw alternate with nine sketches of different people in Naples, everyonefrom a Red Cross volunteer who can't be bothered to associate withcommon soldiers to the owner of a wildly popular bar who doesn'tNext Blog»sal1mineo@hotmail.comSEARCH BLOG FLAG BLOGFOLLOW BLOGP O P S U R F I N G . C O MS U R F I N G T H E WAV E S O F P O P U L A R C U LT U R EB Y M I C H A E L G I LT Z & F R I E N D SPOPSURFING.COM: Book Roundup -- Abundance, Raven's Ga...http://popsurfing.blogspot.com/2006/09/book-roundup.html
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