Book Review: The Three-Body Problem

• Author: Cixin Liu 

• Translator: Ken Liu

• Where I bought this book: The Book Loft, Columbus, Ohio

• Why I bought this book: The title spoke to me, and in retrospect, the cover is cool

*****

     In the end, I think I'm just not smart enough to read this book.

   

    There is some serious science in here, and much of it is over my head, even though I have read and understand the concepts of astrophysics.

    My first concern was chapter 17, which described how a group without access to mechanical computation solved a complicated calculation by building a human computer. Literally. It used 30 million people to stand in for the inner workings: the hardware, the motherboard, and the other elements that mimicked the zero-one method of computer calculation. It sounds fascinating, but I'm not sure I understood how it happened.

    Then, in another section, it works on solving a problem by creating artificial intelligence, which in turn could force a proton to shrink from 11 dimensions to two -- and why three could not work. Again, a brilliant idea in theory, but far above my understanding.

    Like its science, the novel is complicated. It's difficult. It poses existential questions within a closed political system. 

    Now beware of this review. A spoiler alert is coming up. Fair warning -- even though it will be hidden, and you don't have to click on the link.

    Author Liu spends a lot of time introducing the characters and setting the scenes, in many different, confusing ways. The story is set in China, and we know something momentous is going to happen. Something, indeed, is happening, but we don't know what.

    The author -- and his excellent translator, who gives insight into the Chinese mindset at the time of the novel's setting -- provide us with a lot of hints. The three-body problem, perhaps, is a planet system with three stars, Or moons. Or planets. (Understanding how three bodies in space stay in a stable orbit is a pressing problem in physics.) Or it's about earth. Or it's a video games. Or it's aliens. War may be involved. Heck, even religion seems to come into play.

    OK. I can't resist. Spoiler alert    

    Meanwhile, deep in rural China, something else is going on. It's secret, and because we are in the period of the cultural revolution, it's a big secret that people will kill and die for. Or maybe they won't. Like I said, it's a secret.

    If this all sounds very confusing, that's because it is. Complicating matters is that the  characters are Chinese, with Chinese names and backstories. (For a native English reader, with a limited knowledge of the culture and history of China, it's difficult to relate to.) 

    And it jumps around in places and times. It doesn't tell a linear story. We learn about various characters over the spans of their lives.

    

    Still, once you start to figure out who is who and what may be going on, you'll find those characters are an interesting group, and their motives, once revealed, make sense. The story does come together with a (mostly) logical explanation in the end.

    But, of course, it is the first book in a trilogy. So my last question is whether I am smart enough -- or dumb enough -- to delve into the next two.

Almanac of Story Tellers: Brian Jones

 Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of  February 28th

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     It is the 59th day of the year, leaving 306 days remaining in 2022.

    On this day in 1942, Brian Jones, the founder of the Rolling Stones, was born.

 

    In 1962, Jones helped put together the Stones, including its songwriting duo, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. But it was Jones, influenced by the blues musicians that he listened to as a child, who created the legendary sound that told the songwriters' stories from their biting lyrics.

    The Stones were, of course, the "bad boys" of the British Invasion of the 1960s, often compared to the more likeable Beatles. But the Stones, it could be argued, were as popular and more inovative than the Beatles. 

    In large part, that was Jones' doing. He was nominally the group's guitarist, but he played both lead and rhythm guitar, sometimes, in a unique arrangement with Richards, sharing duties simultaneously. He also played the sitar, marimba, and other keyboard and wind instruments seldom heard in the early days of rock and roll.

    But Jones also developed an addiction to alcohol and drugs. As the Stones' popularity grew, he became less dependable, sometimes showing up late or not at all. In 1969, the United States refused to allow him to enter the country for a concert tour. In June of that year, he was replaced with guitarist Mick Taylor.

    In July, Jones was found dead at the bottom of the swimming pool in his home in Hartfield, England. The official cause was "death by misadventure," although rumors have persisted for years about his death.

Almanac of Story Tellers: Scott Momaday

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of  February 27th

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     It is the 58th day of the year, leaving 307 days remaining in 2022.

 

  On this date in 1934, Scott Momaday, a Kiowa writer who is credited with bringing Native American culture and literature into the American canon, was born in Oklahoma.

    His first novel, House Made of Dawn, won the Pulitzer prize for fiction in 1969. It tells the story, from various perspectives, of a man returning to his home in Jemez Pueblo after a hitch in the U.S. Army.

    The book in some way mirrors its author's life, who also lived both inside and outside his native culture. Like Abel, the book's protagonist, Momaday grew up on a reservation, was educated, and taught at major universities.

    Jemez Pueblo is a mostly Native area in northwestern New Mexico. The book details how Natives are seen and treated in America, and it outlines Native culture, including a peyote service and other elements concerning Native beliefs. It was mostly ignored at first, but its being given the Pulitzer prize led critics to re-evaluate it.

    In addition to House, Momaday wrote several other novels, along with books of poetry and short stories. His poems dealt heavily with Native beliefs and their connection with nature. His novels and short stories were influenced by his Kiowa history and culture.

    Momaday was awarded the National Medal of the Arts in 2007. The above photo shows President George W. Bush awarding Momaday the medal in a White House ceremony.    

Almanac of Story Tellers, Fats Domino

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of  February 26th

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     It is the 57th day of the year, leaving 308 days remaining in 2022.

    On this date in 1928, the piano player and singer who some credit with inventing rock and roll and having the first rock and rock hit, Fats Domino, was born in New Orleans.

 

    Domino scoffed at the notion he helped invent a new genre of music with his song, The Fat Man, which was released in 1949 and sold more than 1 million copies. "It wasn't anything but the same rhythm and blues I'd been playing down in New Orleans," he said.

    Still, Domino's influence on the music that revolutionized the way musicians told stories from the 1950s on is undeniable. He soon become one of the most popular artists of his era.

    His rolling, rythmatic piano playing, combined with his smooth baritone voice, helped bring the R&B sound out of the Black south and into white homes. Domino was among the first Black singers to attract white folks to his shows. In an era when laws prohibited Black and white people from mingling in an audience, that was remarkable.

    He had a string of hits in the 1950s, with some songs selling a million copies or more, a rare feat at the time. His early hits include Blueberry Hill, Ain't That a Shame, I'm Walking, and Walking to New Orleans.

    He lived most of his life in the working-class Lower Ninth Ward of his native city until he was uprooted by Hurricane Katrina.

    Donimo's admirers included many prominent singers and early rock and rollers. Elvis Presley once pointed out Domino, saying "that's the real king of rock and roll. Artists such as Elton John, Norah Jones, Willie Nelson, and Neil Young sang his songs at a tribute concert.

    Domino has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the National Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame, and the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.   

    He died in  2017 in Harvey, La.   

Almanac of Story Tellers: George Harrison

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is a story of  February 25th

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    It is the 56th day of the year, leaving 309 days remaining in 2022.

   

    On this date in 1943, the Beatle George Harrison was born in Liverpool.

    Although he was dubbed "the quiet Beatle," Harrison could arguably be called the most revolutionary and innovative Beatle. And the Beatles tell -- and, indeed, are the precursors of -- the story of the British invasion in American rock and roll.

    Harrison, the band's lead guitarist, helped pull the Beatles from boy-band pop into folk rock and Indian spiritual music.

     As the Beatles grew more popular in the mid-1960s, Harrison's songwriting duties increased. His song Taxman, from the 1966 album Revolver, opened the group to more topical lyrics. Its music music was influenced by soul and rhythm & blues melodies, and it in turn inspired British psychedelic rock and mod pop -- and even early punk.

    Harrison brought the sitar to Beatles rock, starting with Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown). He also exposed John, Paul, and Ringo to Transcendental Meditation, also influencing their music.

    After the Beatles broke up, Harrison launched his solo career with the triple album, All Things Must Pass, which included his classic song, My Sweet Lord.

    He began the era of rock concert as fundraisers, with his 1971 Concert for Bangladesh.

    He later joined with The Traveling Wilburys, an improvised group that included Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, and Tom Petty.

    Harrison died in 2001 in Los Angeles.

Almanac of Story Tellers, W.E.B. Du Bois

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is a story of  February 23rd.

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     It is the 54th day of the year, leaving 311 days remaining in 2022.

    On this date in 1868, W.E.B. Du Bois, one of the premiere intellectuals in any era, was born in Great Barrington, Mass.

    Du Bois was a polymath -- a historian, sociologist, economist, writer, editor, and activist. He wrote dozens of books and essays outlining his thoughts on Black people, and many of his views were distinct from other Black intellectuals of his day. 

    In the years after the American Civil War, Du Bois argued for full, immediate equality for his race. He rejected the notion that Blacks should compromise on their civil rights in exchange for education and justice, as Booker T. Washington advocated. And in opposition to the idea of integration espoused by Frederick Douglass and others, Du Bois said Black Americans should embrace their African heritage.

    Du Bois had a long history as world traveler, and as an activist for peace, socialism, anti-racism, and voting rights. He also promoted Black culture, writings, and art. He was the first Black person to obtain a doctorate from Harvard University.

    In his classic 1903 book, The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois spoke of the idea of Black people having a "double consciousness."

    One ever feels his twoness -- an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, who dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.

    Du Bois's first book in 1898, an  essay on The Study of the Negro Problem, addressed the image of  how white people generally viewed Black people at the time. He discussed what it meant to be a minority, with a different culture and background, among the majority white Europeans who lived in and dominated American society.

    "How does it feel to be a problem?" is the question he posed to his Black readers.

    In addition to his books of essays, Du Bois was a historian, The Gift of Black Folk: The Negroes in the Making of America; a biographer, John Brown: A Biography; and a Pan-African, Africa: Its Geography, People, and Products, and The World and Africa.

    He also wrote six novels, edited The Crisis, the official magazine of the NAACP, and wrote and recorded his autobiography.

    Du Bois died in 1963 in Accra, Ghana.

Almanac of Story Tellers: Don Pardo

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is a story of  February 22nd.

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     It is the 53rd day of the year, leaving 312 days remaining in 2022.

 

    On this date in 1918, Don Pardo, the voice of news, games, and comedy on NBC for seven decades, was born.

    For the last 38 years of his life, Pardo was the announcer for Saturday Night Live, booming out the show's name, and in his distinctive baritone, introducing the cast members, special guests, and hosts for more than 700 episodes.

    But wait! There's more. 

     He started working at radio station WJAR, an NBC affiliate, in Providence, R.I., in 1938. He moved to the network in 1944, staying with it for the rest of his career. He announced various radio programs, then worked as a reporter during World War II. He served as a roving announcer for KFOG in San Francisco.

      In November 1963, Pardo was the only announcer on duty at WNBC-TV in New York when President Kennedy was shot in Dallas, and Pardo was the first to announce the shooting

    In 1956, he began announcing game shows, beginning with the original The Price is Right. Ten years later, he began announcing Jeopardy, back when its host was Art Fleming. In 1975, he began working with the late night comedy sketch show, then called NBC's Saturday Night.

    But that's not all!

    His other duties including announcing the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and filing in on the NBC news station in New York, and on NBC Nightly News. He also participated in musical recordings or videos with Frank Zappa and Weird Al Yankovic.

    He is a member of the Television Hall of Fame.

    Pardo died in 2014 at his home in Tucson, Ariz.

Almanac of Story Tellers: Jordan Peele

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is a story of  February 21st.

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     It is the 52nd day of the year, leaving 313 days remaining in 2022.

    On this date in 1979, the comedian, screenwriter, and director, Jordan Peele, was born. 

   

    His comedy and his horror movies have told stories focused on popular culture and social issues, particularly race relations.

    With his comedy partner, Keegan-Michael Key, Peele helped create President Obama's "anger translator."  In numerous comedy skits, Peele would play the famously calm Obama giving a speech, while Key would rant and rave about the GOP, Fox News, Obama's birth certificate, and other indignities.

    After some 15 years acting in sketch comedy shows and in TV and movie roles, Peele moved to the director's chair, where he brought to the screen the film Get Out. Peele also had written the comedy-horror picture, which used the horror genre and its tropes to portray racism.

    It was a hit and received wide acclaim. Peele won an Academy Award for screenwriting, and he was nominated for best director. Get Out was nominated for best picture.

    Peele also helped create The Last O.G., along with the latest version of The Twilight Zone.

    In addition to his Oscar, Peele also has won an Emmy for his work on the Key & Peele comedy show. He has been nominated for more than a dozen local, national, and international awards for his work, and has won several, including the NAACP Image Award.

Almanac of Story Tellers: Buffy Sainte-Marie

 Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is a story of  February 20th.

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     It is the 51st day of the year, leaving 314 days remaining in 2022.

   

    On this date in 1941, the Indigeous Canadian-American folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie was born on the Piapot 75 Reserve in the Qu'Appelle Valley in Saskatchewan.

    In her songs and concerts, Sainte-Marie  told the stories of Native Americans and First Nations people. Her own heritage is Cree. Her mother died when she was an infant, and she was adopted by a Mo'kmaq couple who lived in Massachusetts.

    In addition to her music, Sainte-Marie is and remain an activist for peace, equality, women's empowerment, and above all, the rights of the Indigeous people. She says she chose to take action through music and writing songs because music can move and motivate people to seek justice.

    "Protest songs are good; they're important, and they talk about a problem," she said on her website. "But there are other activist songs which don't have a label, but they can enlighten and liberate, inform, motivate or otherwise encourage solutions."

    She hit the New York bohemian scene in the Village in the early 1960s, joining a wave of folk singers and activists. Her first big song, the one that led her to a record contract and a semblance of fame, was Now That The Buffalo's Gone, which told the story of what happens when Native land rights are ignored or stolen.

    Another song, Universal Soldier, was banned or shunned on many stations, and Sainte-Marie says leaders such as President Lyndon Johnson used it as an excuse to blacklist her. She said she wrote the song to persuade people to take individual responsibility for war.

    Now 81, she is still touring, singing, and exhibiting her art.

Almanac of Story Tellers: Smokey Robinson

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is a story of  February 19th.

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     It is the 50th day of the year, leaving 315 days remaining in 2022.

     On this date in 1940, the legendary soul singer Smokey Robinson was born in Detroit.

    Robinson was the driving force for Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the group who helped bring the Motown sound to his hometown. As a story teller, he did it all.

    In the 1950s and '60s, Robinson was the frontman, singer, lyricist, musical arranger, and producer for the Miracles. He wrote songs that were recorded by the Temptations, Mary Wells, and Marvin Gaye. He mixed jazz, pop and doo-wop to create a new sound. He helped found Motown Records and served as its vice president for years.

   None other than Bob Dylan called Robinson "America's greatest living poet."

    Among his hit records with the Miracles were Tears of a Clown, (which hit No. 1), You've Really Got a Hold on Me, I Second that Emotion, Ooo Baby, and Tracks of My Tears. Songs he wrote that became hits for other artists included My Girl, My Guy, Get Ready, and When I'm Gone.

    In the 1970s, he started a solo career that included several more top hits. In 2000, he record a gospel album, and an album of duets with Elton John, James Taylor, and Linda Ronstadt. He remains active, singing a combination of soul, R&B, and popular music.

    In 1988, he was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2012, the Miracles joined him.

Almanac of Story Tellers: Toni Morrison

  Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of  February 18th.

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     It is the 49th day of the year, leaving 316 days remaining in 2022.

   

    On this date in 1931, the award-winning author Toni Morrison was born in Lorain, Ohio. In her novels, she told the stories of Black women within the larger Black community. 

    Her life was all about story telling. It was in the culture of her family. It was in her education at Howard and Cornell universities. It was in her teaching in colleges and universities, including Texas Southern, Howard, and later at Princeton. It was in her first job as a fiction editor at Random House.

    At Random House, Morrison cultivated and mentored Black writers from Africa and the United States, such as the novelist Toni Cade Bambara, Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe, South African playwright Athol Fugard, and American activists and writers Angela Davis and Huey Newton.

    By 1970, she was writing and publishing her own fiction. Her debut novel, The Bluest Eye, told the story of a young Black girl, a victim of abuse, who wishes she had blue eyes because she is preoccupied with the standards of white beauty. In 1987, Morrison wrote perhaps her best and most famous novel, Beloved, a tale about an enslaved woman who kills her infant daughter rather than subject her to a life in slavery.

    The book won the Pulitzer prize. Morrison also won a PEN award, the Nobel Prize in Literature, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

    She continued to write novels about the consequences of racism on Black people in the United States, including Jazz, Paradise, Love, and Mercy, Her books detailed the Black experience both during the time they were enslaved, and afterward as they struggled to obtain equal rights.

    Morrison died in 2019 in the Bronx.

Almanac of Story Tellers: Chaim Potok

  Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is a story of  February 17th.

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     It is the 48th day of the year, leaving 317 days remaining in 2022.

   

    On this date in 1929, the author and rabbi Chaim Potok was born in New York City.

    Potok was one of the first modern authors to weave the stories of the spiritual and cultural life of Orthodox Jews into his fiction.

    He was ordained a rabbi in 1954, and spent the next decade in Jewish intitutions of higher education, where he taught and edited conservative Jewish publications.

    Potok published his debut novel, The Chosen, in 1967. It is believed to be the first novel to portray Orthodox Judaism sensitively and perceptively. The Chosen is a story of Reuven Malter, a teenage Orthodox Jew who wants to become a rabbi, and his friend, Danny Saunders, the son of an Hasidic rabbi, who often feels trapped in his conservative, closed religious world.

    Its sequel, The Promise, came out in 1969 and followed the boys into adulthood. In all, Potok wrote 10 novels and three short story collections.

    The Chosen received praise for Potok's portrayal of the Hasidic community, and for his efforts to define Orthodox and conservative Jewish culture in a modern world. It was criticized for its prosaic writing, cliches, and having flat characters. Still, it sold about 3.4 million copies and was a finalist for the National Book Award.

Almanac of Story Tellers: Koffee

  Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of  February 16th

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     It is the 47th day of the year, leaving 318 days remaining in 2022.

originalkoffee.com

    On this date in 2000, the Jamaican reggae singer and songwriter Mikayle Simpson was born in Spanish Town. She sings and raps under the name Koffee.

    Through her music, she tells stories about Jamaicans and of her childhood in Jamaica. She began singing in her church choir at a young age, and taught herself to play guitar by the time she was 12.

    Koffee released her first single, Legend, about world champion Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, on her Instagram account. The song went viral after Bolt reposted it on his page. She sang the song, with Bolt in attendance, when a statue of him was unveiled in Kingston in December 2017. 

    Her music also addresses the violence and social problems in her country. "With a lot of my music, it's about entertaining people while highlighting problems in order to try and find a solution," Koffee says on her website. "I genuinely want to make the world a better place.

    She continues to astound the world with her music. Her debut extended play album, Rapture, won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae album, making her the youngest artist and the first woman to win that award. The five-song EP topped the Billboard charts in its first week, and remained there for 32 weeks.

    She begins a three-month tour through the UK, Canada, and the United States in March. That same month, her second album, Gifted, will be released.   

Almanac of Story Tellers: Matt Groening

 Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of  February 15th

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     It is the 46th day of the year, leaving 319 days remaining in 2022.

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    On this date in 1954, the cartoonist Matt Groening was born in Portland, Ore. His parents were Homer and Margaret Groening.

     Yes, I am serious. The creator of the Simpsons really named the patriarch and matriarch of the animated clan with the longest run on television after his own father and mother. He also has a sister named Lisa and another named Maggie. Alas, he has no immediate family member named Bart, which he claims is simply and anagram for brat.

    Anyway, after graduation from what he described as "a hippie college" in 1977, Groening was living in Los Angeles taking odd jobs, trying to make do, and drawing a cartoon called Life in Hell. It soon ran as a strip in various alternative weeklies, and James Brooks, then running The Tracey Ullman Show, asked Groening to draw it up to run in animated segments on the Ullman show.

    Instead Groening, while awaiting an interview with Brooks, conceived of and drew a quick sketch of the Simpsons family.

    The rest, as they say, is history. The short segments proved popular. Ullman's show did not last much longer, but The Simpsons premiered in 1989. The next year, it became a weekly series, and was immensely popular. It is still running today.

    It tells the story of a typical family in suburban America, with a bumbling but loving father, a put-upon mother, a wiseass young boy, his overachieving and far smarter sister, and -- a few years later -- Maggie, the pacifier-sucking infant.

    Groening's subversive sensibilities, acerbic satire, and complex characters have helped make the show a hit, and it has aired more than 700 original episodes -- and a full-length movie. Groening has won numerous awards during his career, including 11 Emmys for The Simpsons. 

    He says he hopes to keep the show going until it hits 1,000 episodes, which would happen sometime in 2033.

Almanac of Story Tellers: Mel Allen

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of  February 14th

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     It is the 45th day of the year, leaving 320 days remaining in 2022.

    On this date in 1913, Mel Allen, the man called the "Voice of the Yankees" during their glory days in the 1950s, was born in Birmingham, Ala.

    Known for his catch phrase, "How a-bout that," Allen was a remarkable talent who was re-introduced to a younger audience when he hosted This Week in Baseball starting in the late 1970s. 

    But it was during his time with the Yankees when Allen gained fame across the United States. He started with the team in 1939, the year Lou Gehrig retired. He remained until he was abruptly fired in 1964, having spanned the entire career of Joe DiMaggio and most of Mickey Mantle's. In those early years, he also called home games for the New York Giants.

    When he started calling road games for the Yankees, first from a studio and eventually on road trips, Allen stepped down from calling Giants' games.

    His tenure with the Yankees came at a time when they appeared in 19 World Series -- including all but twice between 1949 to 1964. That meant he called those games on national radio or television, giving him a nationwide audience.

    When the Yankees fired him at the end of the season in 1964, also requesting that he not be the announcer for the national broadcasts that year, they never gave a reason. They still haven't.

    Allen died in 1996 at his home in Greenwich, Conn.

Almanac of Story Tellers: Georges Simenon

  Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of  February 13th

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     It is the 44th day of the year, leaving 321 days remaining in 2022.

   

    On this date in 1903, Georges Simenon, a Belgian writer believed to be the most prolific author of the 20th Century, was born in Liège.

    Simenon, who wrote in French, was the author of more than 500 novels, as well as numerous short stories. His works have been translated the most into other languages.

    He was productive early. He started working at 15 at the Gazette de Liège, a newspaper in his hometown. He covered simple human-interest stories, but soon branched out to the crime beat. Within a few years, he also was writing for the French newspaper, Le Matin, and moved to Paris.

    His first novel was published under a pen name, G. Sim. While writing hundreds of newspaper articles, he penned  80 to 100 pages a day, publishing 350 pulp mystery novels and similar seedy detective stories under more than a dozen pseudonyms. Indeed, the first novel he wrote under his own name was The Strange Case of Peter the Lett, in 1929.

    His work included more than disreputable, sordid crime fiction. In Peter the Lett, he introduced the Parisian detective Jules Maigret, whom he portrayed as a quiet, compassionate policeman. Maigret appeared in some 80 novels Simenon wrote, including The Yellow Dog, The Madman of Bergerac, and Maigret's Christmas. He has become one of the best known fictional detectives.

    Simenon's books, especially those featuring Maigret, have been made into 171 television shows and movies.

    Simenon died in 1989 in Switzerland.

Book Review: The Parting Glass

 

• Author: Gina Marie Guadagnino

• Where I bought this book: Barnes & Noble Bookstore, West Chester, Ohio

• Why I bought this book: It shares a title with a great old Irish song

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    Mary Ballard, born Maire O'Farren, left her home and her job in the west of Ireland for reasons unknown -- but eventually explained -- sometime in the early 19th Century.

    Her ensuing life in New York City as an Irish immigrant, a lady's maid, and denizen near the old Five Points neighborhood tells a tale of love and loss, heartbreak, and high living among poverty and destitution.

    Guadagnino's debut novel is a wonderful read.

    It's chock full of Irish history, New York City history, and the history of the Irish in New York. It touches on subjects including LGBT love, the empowerment of women, immigration, and the life of the rich and the poor in the 19th Century. 

    O'Farren -- or Ballard -- caters to her mistress, Charlotte Walden, a wealthy young woman of leisure whose sole goal in life is to find a wealthy husband. Walden, however, would rather love the man who runs the stables at her estate, near Washington Park in old New York City. That man, unknown to the  Charlotte, is Ballard's twin brother, Seanin. Of course, the Waldens are unaware of Charlotte's love for a common man.

    One more thing: Ballard holds in her heart her own unrequited and unspoken love for Miss Walden.

    But that's not all.

    On her nights off, Ballard hits the bars that line the streets of New York's lower east side. She finds a home at the Hibernian, run by Dermot, the man who sponsored and stood for her in New York. There, she meets another lover, a black woman who works as a prostitute and dreams of running her own brothel.

    Meanwhile, Dermot has his own connections with the Tammany Hall Irish who run that part of New York City, along with some ties to the Irish rebels back home. Here's is where Seanin returns to the story.

    Eventually, they all come together in a surprising and intriguing climax. Guadagnino does an impressive jobs with her research, her historical knowledge, and her writing.

Almanac of Story Tellers: Charles Darwin

  Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of  February 12th

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     It is the 43rd day of the year, leaving 322 days remaining in 2022.

     Today is celebrated as Darwin Day, because on this date, Charles Darwin, who told a new story about the history of all life, was born in 1809.

    Darwin's groundbreaking book, On the Origin of the Species, proposed that species evolve over time through a course of natural selection to best fit in with their environment.

    It was a revolutionary thoery, based on years of scientific study, including field research during the five-year expedition of the H.M.S. Beagle. It rejected the old beliefs that species were static, and that humans were unique and not related to other animals. Darwin's theory of natural selection explains that life evolved over millions of years from single-cell organisms to become all the plants, animals, and other living things that now populate the earth.

    It was, and continues to be, controversial. But it is accepted within the scientific community as the explanation for biological diversity.

    Darwin had postulated his theory between 1837-39, after returning from the trip on the Beagle. But it was not until 20 years later, in 1859, that he published his book, which caused a sensation.

    It was accepted in the scientific community, in part because others were leaning in the same direction. And while religious people objected, the book was detailed and provided enough proof to appeal to a larger audience eager to understand their world through science.

    Darwin, a private man, often let botantists, biologists, and other men of science debate and defend his book and his theories. In 1864, the scientific community put its stamp of approval on Darwin's work by awarding him the Royal Soceity's Copley Medal, its highest honor for scienctific work.

Almanac of Story Tellers: Alex Haley

  Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of  February 10th

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     It is the 41st day of the year, leaving 324 days remaining in 2022.

    On this date in 1992, the American author Alex Haley died in Seattle, Wash., at the age of 70.

    He famously wrote about his family's genealogy starting with Kunta Kinte -- a Gambian man who was captured, enslaved, and brought to America to be sold -- to Haley's own birth in Ithica, N.Y. Roots: The Saga of an Amercian Family was read by millions before becoming a TV miniseries that half of the American population watched.

    Roots also sparked an interest in genealogical research and showed why many African-Americans could not know their own ancestry because of the buying and selling of their kin, and the relentless splitting up of their families.

    Haley, who spent 12 years researching the book and interviewed a griot (an African tribal historian) about Kunta Kinte, later acknoledged that some of the tales were fictional. Indeed, when the novel was published in 1977, it was sold as fiction, even though Haley included details of his research in libraries and archives to buttress his interviews and his family's records.

    In addition to Haley's family history, Roots showed  the history of slavery in America, its impact on the slavers and the enslaved, and its legacy into the culture of modern-day America.

    While Roots was Haley's most ambitious and best known work, he also wrote other novels, stories, and a screenplay. 

    His first book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, was based on extensive interviews Haley conducted with Malcolm, a radical Black leader of the 1960s. The book, which portrays its subject's life from a street criminal to a spokesman for Black pride and Black nationalism, has been praised as a classic telling of the Black American experience.

Almanac of Story Tellers: Alice Walker

 Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of  February 9th

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     It is the 40th day of the year, leaving 325 days remaining in 2022.

    On this date in 1944, the American novelist Alice Walker was born. 

    The Pulitzer price winning author was known for her insightful and sometimes personal looks at the lives and culture of Black Americans, particularly woman. She was also a social activist -- after graduating from Sarah Lawrence College in New York in 1965, the native Georgian returned to the south, where she worked for the NAACP in Jackson, Miss.

    She also taught at Jackson State University and Tougaloo College, both in Jackson, and wrote poetry and novels. 

    Her debut novel, The Third Life of Grange Copeland, published in 1970, told the story of a Black sharecropper, husband, and father living in rural Georgia, who turns abisive towards his familty after suffering the abuses and violence from the racism of the south.

    In 1982, Walker wrote and published The Color Purple, for which she won her Pulitzer, and the National Booke Award for Fiction. 

    The novel tells the tale of Celie, a black woman growing up in the south. The novel is often explicit; Celie, then a young teen-ager, writes a letter to god after she- is beaten and raped by her father. It continues in this vein, following Celie's hard life through her 40s.

    The book was critically acclamied, but also caught the eyes of censors for its explicit language and sexual violence. It was made into ab Oscar-nominated movie and Broadway play.

    Walker, who has lived in northern California since 1977, continues to write poetry, short stories, and novels examining racial and sexual tensions, exploitation of minorities, and female empowerment. 

Almanac of Story Tellers: Jules Verne

  Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of  February 8th

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     It is the 39th day of the year, leaving 326 days remaining in 2022.

 

  On this date in 1828, Jules Verne, known as the Father of Science Fiction, was born in Nantes, France.

    He is perhaps best known for his Voyages extraordinaires, a collection of more than 60 novels and short stories that combined adventurous travel tales with "scientific fiction." The stories, written over a period of 40 years and including most of Verne's oeuvre, were enormously popular. Many were adapted, with Verne's help and approval, for the theater.

    They covered tales of exploration and the dangers of technology. One, his second novel, 1994: Paris in the 20th Century, spoke of a future dystopian society and was not widely accepted.

    But by and large, Verne's writings were enchanting, emphasizing science and its possibilities, and showing man's travels to be audacious and inspiring. Around the World in Eighty Days told of a trip Phileas Fogg took on a whim to win a bet -- despite being followed by police and encountering misadventures along the way. 

    Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (written in 1869-70) shows Captain Nemo seeking a mysterious sea monster in the then-futuristic submarine, the Natilus. Journey to the Center of the Earth follows a German scientist who believes volcanic tubes will guide him to, well, the center of the earth.

    Verne, who during his life traveled extensively, died in 1907 in Amiens, France.