Ashes of the Earth by Eliot Pattison


Eliot Pattison is the winner of an Edgar Award and finalist for the Gold Dagger for his book The Skull Mantra.  His most recent one is titled Ashes of the Earth: A Mystery of Post-Apocalyptic America. Usually, I would get the hell away from a title like that. But Pattison’s good reputation and the fact that I’d read some of his earlier novels were enough to convince me to give it a try. I’m glad I did.

The story takes place in Carthage, a colony of 12,000 survivors near the Great Lakes, thirty years after a chemical war has devastated most of the world while killing the majority of its population.

The main character, Hadrian Boone, is a former founder of this colony. He is now disillusioned and embittered by how everything is managed. He spends most of his time in bouts of depression and heavy drinking and ends up in prison-stints of various lengths for rebelling against the government. Then one day his best friend, Jonah Beck, a scientist/librarian/keeper of records, and thus one of the most important men of Carthage, is found dead. Beck apparently hung himself from a rafter in his office at the library.

While haunted by ghosts of people and events of his past, Boone decides to investigate his friend’s death, convinced that he was murdered. Looking for the killer or killers, Boone follows clues that will soon reveal much more than he could have imagined; it’s a path towards something that might be too complex and powerful for him to face alone. Something that could decide the fate of Carthage and possibly even destroy it.

The colony is a work-in-progress –we can imagine others scattered all over the planet—run by an authoritarian government with a man named Lucas Buchanan at the top. Buchanan is also one of the former founders of the colony but his and Boone’s paths have diverged drastically at some point. One of the reasons they did was the decision to force into exile all those still contagious and too sick or weak to be of any help in rebuilding the colony. Boone and Beck secretly made trips to that rejected settlement to bring medecine, food and other supplies.

Vestiges of the past are kept away from Carthage as much as possible to help maintain the focus towards the future. A government slogan in the town square underlines this: “We have not lost our history. We are free of history.” 

How can you go forward if you keep looking back, right? That is what lies at the center of the dilemma between survivors who remember the former world: what do we do with our past? Do we use it to build our future or do we try to erase and forget it entirely. But if you wander outside of the colony, you find the former world and its technology everywhere. As Jonah once told Hadrian: “The Dark Ages had to come before there could be a Renaissance.” But the government sends ‘scavengers’ on secret missions to find ‘salvage’, or remnants of the old world.

While drug trafficking and other criminal activities are rampant, conflicts arise between and within generations:  on one side, some want to forget the past mostly because of the painful memories about loved ones who died, and on the other side some want to try to get back to their previous lives, or at least whatever they can retrieve from it. Among those who never knew the old world, there are some who’d prefer to focus on building a brand-new world versus those, mostly kids, who are attracted by the beautiful world of the past they’ve heard about. Spreading rumours mention it still exists but you can only access it by committing suicide; many kids are convinced that by hanging themselves they will fall asleep and then wake up on the other side. Who's bringing them toys and objects in perfect condition from the old world? Who would gain from the deaths of the kids of Carthage? What did Jonah Beck knew that got him killed?

Eliot Pattison has created an intricate and engrossing mystery plot within an intelligent and realistic depiction of a possible future for our planet if ever a chemical war or any other apocalyptic event might befall us. As the author explains in the afterword: “Endings of worlds have occurred throughout human history. Some have been abrupt, (…). Some have been gradual, (…). But none have encompassed all of humankind. (…). This novel is certainly not meant to be a prophecy, but implicit in its backdrop are predictions about the state of technology and science after such universal destruction.”

With complex characters having to make difficult choices and take quick decisions that can decide their fate or that of others, Ashes of the Earth is filled with enough twists and surprises to keep readers engrossed until the suspenseful ending. It is a world sometimes as bleak as the one in McCarthy’s The Road but with Pattison’s personal view and interpretation. It is filled with hope while also sending a serious warning of what the future might hold for humankind.

A departure from his two previous series and the Tibetan world, Pattison here has found a rich territory to exploit: that of the colony of Carthage and the many interesting characters worth visiting again. If this novel is the start of a new series for Eliot Pattison, please bring me the next one.


JF
August 2011
(read from finished HC copy)
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Jo Nesbø in the New York Times and "The Snowman" contest

New York Times: before I tell you about the giveaway, I want to mention a great text that Jo Nesbø has written about the recent events (the Oslo bombing and the massacre on Utoya Island) in Norway. Here's the English translation "The Past is a Foreign Country" printed in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/27/opinion/27nesbo.html?_r=3&ref=global  
But wait, there's also a contest!
New giveaway: you can win a copy of Jo Nesbø's very scary novel "The Snowman". All you have to do to be eligible is send me an email at housecrimyst@gmail.com with your full name and address (and be 18 years or older). That's it. No tricky question. No purchase necessary. Oh wait, there's one other important detail. You need to send me your info before September 1st at noon Eastern Time. This contest is open to residents of the US and Canada only.
Book graciously provided by:

Nick STONE in French: Tonton Clarinette

Titre original : Mr Clarinet (2006)
Traduction de : Marie Ploux et Catherine Cheval

C’est en fouillant dans ma réserve de format poche, avant de partir en vacances, que je suis tombée sur ce titre. C’est souvent en vacances que je prends le temps de revenir en arrière vers les titres de la pile “quand j’aurai le temps”. Et je ne regrette pas d’avoir gardé celui-là.

D’abord j’ai aimé le nom du détective : Max Mingus. C’est court, ça claque, c’est efficace. Max est un ex-flic de Miami, reconverti en détective privé ayant fait de la prison pour règlement de compte. Il a su se faire respecter des plus durs en prison. Sandra, sa femme, a organisé sa sortie de prison : tour du monde pendant un an avec les économies réalisées pendant qu’il était à l’ombre, histoire de faire le vide et de repartir à neuf. Sauf qu’à quelques semaines de sa sortie, Sandra meurt dans un accident de voiture. Il n’y a plus rien ni personne pour lui au-delà des murs. Hormis peut-être un contrat de plusieurs millions pour retrouver un enfant disparu à Port-au-Prince depuis plusieurs mois déjà. Un enfant parmi des centaines qui disparaissent chaque année sur cette île oubliée des dieux. Un moyen de s’occuper l’esprit et de se refaire. Mais si la prime est aussi alléchante, c’est que la cause est probablement sans issue. D’ailleurs, les enquêteurs qui l’ont devancé y ont laissé sinon leur vie, du moins quelques morceaux. Aucune rançon n’a été demandée, alors que la famille du disparu, les Carver, constitue la plus grosse fortune de l’île. Une fortune érigée par le grand-père Gustav de façon pas toujours très nette et qui lui vaut bien des inimitiés.

Quel peut être le sort réservé à ces trop nombreux enfants disparus au pays de la magie noire et de Tonton Clarinette, ce croque-mitaine que les gamins apprennent à craindre dès leur plus jeune âge? A moins que le vaudou et les rites sacrificiels ne servent de camouflage à une machination plus diabolique encore.

L’histoire se déroule avant le terrible tremblement de terre qui a ravagé Haïti en 2010. L’auteur réussit très bien à nous faire sentir toute la misère et la précarité de la vie des haïtiens même avant le séisme.  La description de Cité Soleil est particulièrement évocatrice. Il est difficile d’imaginer pire et pourtant la nature s’est chargée d’enfoncer Haïti encore un peu plus…

L’auteur avance ses pions lentement et nous fait ressentir la touffeur écrasante de l’île. On progresse dans l’enquête à son rythme sans sauter d’étapes en s’imprégnant de la culture ambiante. Au passage, il réintroduit un personnage inquiétant qu’il avait réussi à faire emprisonner alors qu’il exerçait encore son métier de flic, mais qui a été libéré depuis et qui reviendra le hanter lors d’une prochaine histoire. 

Gallimard a publié au printemps dernier “Voodoo Land” (traduction de King of Swords -2007), qui se déroule en 1981 et semble être la première aventure de Mingus, alors qu’il était toujours policier à Miami. Tout comme Gallimard, je suis bien prête à miser sur cet auteur. Le troisième volume de la série a été publiée en anglais cette année sous le titre Voodoo Eyes. 


Nick Stone est né en 1966, d'un père historien et d'une mère issue de l'une des plus anciennes familles haïtiennes. Stone a remporté le prix Ian Fleming Steel Dagger en 2006 et le prix Macavity 2007 du meilleur roman pour Mr Clarinet. En français, Tonton Clarinette a remporté le Prix SCNF du polar européen 2009.


texte de Grenouille Noire



INTERVIEW w/ MEGAN ABBOTT

This interview was done while Megan was still working on "The End of Everything".   


THE TUG OF THE PAST

THE BEGINNING of EVERYTHING
“What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.” –T.S. Eliot

## I’ve read that you’ve been enjoying hardboiled and film noir since an early age; what drew you to that genre and what are the biggest influences, in books and movies, that shaped the writer that you are?

M.A.--As a kid, film noir seemed very glamorous to me, so different from the staid world of Midwestern suburbia. It wasn’t until much later that I came to the books. While I don’t think I could point to a one-to-one ratio of influence, other than the obvious ones (Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain), they all sort of jumble up in my head. All those old movies, true-crime books, hardboiled paperbacks, my favorite “classic” novels, like those by Faulkner, an affection for tabloid Americana—they all sort of form a collage in my head. I try not to analyze it too much because then it’d make it hard for me to write. The weight of all that influence.


## When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

M.A.--It was never a conscious decision. I think, to me, it seemed so fantastical—like saying I wanted to fly to the moon. I sort of backed into it, and I still have trouble saying I’m a writer.

Megan Abbott's THE END OF EVERYTHING


Imagine a 13-year old girl, Lizzie Hood, living in near perfect happiness except for the fact that her father has left.  Lizzie lives with her brother and mother. Although broken, it's a normal family.
But there's Evie Verver, Lizzie's best friend, and her family. The perfect family.

Until one day, when Evie doesn’t come back from school. 

Just like that, Lizzie’s world is shattered, the pieces like slivers of a mirror in which she catches images of her life. As with most broken mirrors, this one can’t be perfectly glued back together and Lizzie starts seeing the deformed reality with some of its secrets and lies and deception. The imperfect world.

“And I now know in a deep, desperate, world-crashing way that there’s no simple anymore, and there never was.”

Imagine a 13-year old girl, Lizzie Hood, longing for a lost friend. Her best friend. She wants to help find Evie but it seems too much at times to have the weight of that task on shoulders so fragile. “(…) I must save her, save them all.”

These others are not entirely like Lizzie, but not unlike her either. One of them is special in her eyes. He’s Evie’s father. Lizzie feels his power over her while sensing the pain like a deep void inside him. She holds on to him, trying to make him feel better, to give him hope. She’d do anything to make him happy.

“There’s a throb in my chest when I see him. (…) Then he turns his head and sees me… And it’s all the wonderful things in the world at once. (…) ‘What would I do without you, Lizzie?’ he says, and the look he gives does rough things to me inside.”

Like any kid trying to get attention, wanting to be noticed and liked (and loved) and vying for a special place in the adult world, Lizzie will often act needy and be pathetic at times without necessarily realizing it. But that’s what keeps her real and alive and focused amongst people who all seem adrift, following the flow of their individual miseries: Lizzie’s mother tries to go on without her long gone husband while Lizzie’s older brother seems a bit disconnected from the dramatic events, as if nothing’s changed; Evie’s sister, who’s always welcomed Lizzie and acted as a big sister, now mistrusts her; Evie’s father clings on Lizzie to keep his hope of finding his daughter, while his wife has already pretty much abandoned all hopes and is hiding in her own sadness and despair.

Through loss and fear and sadness, as well as hope and courage and that new feeling she’s not entirely sure how to describe, Lizzie will discover the world of adults and the important role that she can play in it as the days go by without Evie. Lizzie knows and believes that she can make things better but is unsure how. She decides to assume her role of helping get her friend back, even if it means lying, getting dirty (in different ways) and manipulating.
“I open my mouth. The lie is immense, and I don’t hesitate. (…) The words are magic. (…) I feel so powerful, like a god, thunderbolt in hand. And my thunderbolt hit. ”

If her lost friend comes back, how will it affect Lizzie’s world? Will everything get back to how it was before or is it already too late? Is this the end of everything? Or can there be a new start? 

In The End of Everything Megan Abbott writes beautiful yet simple prose. She doesn’t just put us into the mind of a 13-year old girl with a mind and a body aching to grow up, she makes us believe—for 240 plus pages—that Lizzie is real and that she’s telling us that story. Because some of its themes can be troubling and disturbing, it could have been a depressing book; in the hands of Megan Abbott it becomes an emotional ride, a coming-of-age-too-fast story that stays with you long after its resolution. The End of Everything is a gripping story that I have finished reading almost a month ago and that has not let me go yet; I still think about Lizzie, Evie and their world almost every day.

I’m not a big fan of sequels, but I wouldn’t mind if sometime in the future Megan Abbott could find a storyline worth exploring and writing about for Lizzie Hood and Evie Verver as adults. Then again, maybe it would be better just to imagine them living perfect lives with their perfect families. In a perfect world.

JF
August 2011

P.S.: for what it’s worth, Evie Verver’s and Lizzie Hood’s names can respectively be spelled into Vie Rêvée (Ideal Life) and Oh Idolize. OK, they’re not perfect anagrams, but I thought it was interesting. Evie’s perfect anagram is Ever Revive (or Revive Ever). Seemed fitting, that’s all.

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