Category: books

Jodi Picoult: ‘By Any Other Name’

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn books, writing

Many real and imagined authors have been suggested as the true geniuses behind Shakespeare’s plays. I have always believed they were written by Francis Bacon. Nonetheless, it’s exciting to see Picoult’s proposal.

From the Publisher

“From the New York Times bestselling co-author of Mad Honey comes an ‘inspiring’ (Elle) novel about two women, centuries apart—one of whom is the real author of Shakespeare’s plays—who are both forced to hide behind another name.

“’You’ll fall in love with Emilia Bassano, the unforgettable heroine based on a real woman that Picoult brings vividly to life in her brilliantly researched new novel.’—Kristin Hannah, author of The Women

“Young playwright Melina Green has just written a new work inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor Emilia Bassano. But seeing it performed is unlikely, in a theater world where the playing field isn’t level for women. As Melina wonders if she dares risk failure again, her best friend takes the decision out of her hands and submits the play to a festival under a male pseudonym.

“In 1581, young Emilia Bassano is a ward of English aristocrats. Her lessons on languages, history, and writing have endowed her with a sharp wit and a gift for storytelling, but like most women of her day, she is allowed no voice of her own. Forced to become a mistress to the Lord Chamberlain, who oversees all theatre productions in England, Emilia sees firsthand how the words of playwrights can move an audience. She begins to form a plan to secretly bring a play of her own to the stage—by paying an actor named William Shakespeare to front her work.

“Told in intertwining timelines, By Any Other Name, a sweeping tale of ambition, courage, and desire centers two women who are determined to create something beautiful despite the prejudices they face. Should a writer do whatever it takes to see her story live on . . . no matter the cost? This remarkable novel, rooted in primary historical sources, ensures the name Emilia Bassano will no longer be forgotten.”

From Christian Since Monitor

“A question underlying “By Any Other Name” is whether it’s more important for your work or your name to endure. Picoult argues in this substantive novel that, while a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet, even sweeter is being recognized for your achievements.” (See Review)

—Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of magical realism and contemporary fantasy novels and stories, including “Conjure Woman’s Cat.”

Coming in Oct: ‘Absolution’ by Jeff Vandermeer

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn books, writing

“The surprise fourth volume in Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach series―and the final word on one of the most provocative and popular speculative fiction series of our time.

“When the Southern Reach trilogy was first published a decade ago, it was an instant sensation, celebrated in a front-page New York Times story before publication, hailed by Stephen King and many others. Each volume climbed the bestseller list; awards were won; the books made the rare transition from paperback original to hardcover; the movie adaptation became a cult classic. All told, the trilogy has sold more than a million copies and has secured its place in the pantheon of twenty-first-century literature.

“And yet for all this, for Jeff VanderMeer there was never full closure to the story of Area X. There were a few mysteries that had gone unsolved, some key points of view never aired. There were stories left to tell. There remained questions about who had been complicit in creating the conditions for Area X to take hold; the story of the first mission into the Forgotten Coast―before Area X was called Area X―had never been fully told; and what if someone had foreseen the world after Acceptance? How crazy would they seem?

“Structured in three parts, each recounting a new expedition, Absolution is a brilliant, beautiful, and ever-terrifying plunge into unique and fertile literary territory. There are some long-awaited answers here, to be sure, but also more questions, and profound new surprises. It is the final word on one of the most provocative and popular speculative fiction series of our time.”

From Publishers Weekly

“Drawing heavily on bioresearch and scientific extrapolations, this foray into the human cost of bureaucratic paranoia and the abandonment of logic to “hope, prayers, and blessings” provokes, mystifies, and challenges readers in turn. VanderMeer’s horrifying declaration of the impossibility of knowing the other is a knockout.”

Vandermeer lives in Tallahassee, Florida.

—Malcolm

‘The Long March Home’ by Tosca Lee and Marcus Brotherton 

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn books, writing

Recent winner of the International Book Award in Historical Fiction, The Long March Home was released in May of 2023. The paperback edition came out in October.

From the Publisher

Jimmy Propfield joined the army for two reasons: to get out of Mobile, Alabama, with his best friends Hank and Billy and to forget his high school sweetheart, Claire.

Life in the Philippines seems like paradise–until the morning of December 8, 1941, when news comes from Manila: Imperial Japan has bombed Pearl Harbor. Within hours, the teenage friends are plunged into war as enemy warplanes attack Luzon, beginning a battle for control of the Pacific Theater that will culminate with a last stand on the Bataan Peninsula and end with the largest surrender of American troops in history.

What follows will become known as one of the worst atrocities in modern warfare: the Bataan Death March. With no hope of rescue, the three friends vow to make it back home together. But the ordeal is only the beginning of their nearly four-year fight to survive.

Inspired by true stories, The Long March Home is a gripping coming-of-age tale of friendship, sacrifice, and the power of unrelenting hope.

From Publishers Weekly

“Brotherton and Lee masterfully capture what it was like for soldiers to face war’s atrocities, as well as the heartbreak of those waiting for them back home. This is a winner. ”

–Malcolm

Malcolm R.  Campbell is the author of the Vietnam War novel “At Sea.”

‘Solvable: How We Healed the Earth, and How We Can Do It Again’ by Susan Solomon

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn books, writing

This book, from the University of Chicago Press, was released today. Solomon  “is known for pioneering work on the Antarctic ozone layer and for landmark studies of the timescales of climate change.”  Amazon Link

From the Publisher

“A compelling and pragmatic argument: solutions to yesterday’s environmental problems reveal today’s path forward.

“We solved planet-threatening problems before, Susan Solomon argues, and we can do it again. Solomon knows firsthand what those solutions entail. She first gained international fame as the leader of an expedition to Antarctica in 1986, making discoveries that were key to healing the damaged ozone layer. She saw a path–from scientific and public awareness to political engagement, international agreement, industry involvement, and effective action.

“Solomon, an atmospheric scientist and award-winning author, connects this career-defining triumph to the inside stories of other past environmental victories–against ozone depletion, smog, pesticides, and lead–to extract the essential elements of what makes change possible.

“The path to success begins when an environmental problem becomes both personal and perceptible to the general public. Lawmakers, diplomats, industries, and international agencies respond to popular momentum, and effective change takes place in tandem with consumer pressure when legislation and regulation yield practical solutions. Healing the planet is a long game won not by fear and panic but by the union of public, political, and regulatory pressure.

“Solvable is a book for anyone who has ever despaired about the climate crisis. As Solomon reminds us, doom and gloom get us nowhere, and idealism will only take us so far. The heroes in these stories range from angry mothers to gang members turned social activists, to upset Long Island birdwatchers to iconoclastic scientists (often women) to brilliant legislative craftsmen. Solomon’s authoritative point of view is an inspiration, a reality check, a road map, and a much-needed dose of realism. The problems facing our planet are Solvable. Solomon shows us how.”

–Malcolm

MAJOR WRITERS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS AMONG OVER 380 AUTHORS CALLING ON SOUTH CAROLINA LAWMAKERS TO REJECT RESTRICTIONS TO EVALUATE BOOKS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn books, writing

Proposal Could Lead to the Banning of Literary Classics and Acclaimed Contemporary Books

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 3, 2024
Updated on June 6 to add additional publishers that signed the letter

(NEW YORK)— More than 380 authors joined major publishing houses and civil rights, anti-censorship, and writers advocacy groups today to raise alarm over new South Carolina education standards for assessing books and other materials for public schools.

In an open letter to state lawmakers urging them to block the new regulations, the groups, publishers, and authors argue the new standards could lead to the removal of literary classics and critically acclaimed contemporary novels, simply for a sexual reference.

Along with publishers Hachette Book Group, MacMillan Publishers, Penguin Random House, Simon and Schuster and Sourcebooks, signers include ACLU of South Carolina, Authors Against Book Bans, Every Library, National Coalition Against Censorship, National Women’s Law Center, PEN America, the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, We Need Diverse Books, and notable authors of books for children and young adults, including Laurie Halse Anderson, Jodi Picoult, Katherine Paterson, Nikki Grimes, Daniel Handler, Elizabeth Acevedo, Peter Parnell, David Levithan, and Ellen Hopkins, among hundreds of others. Nearly 20 percent of the authors are South Carolina residents or have ties to the state.

The proposed regulations would impose a two-part test to evaluate if materials are age and developmentally appropriate and align with state instructional programs. The regulations will also create an appeal process to the State Board of Education, whose decisions on some books would affect all school districts. The regulations are slated to take effect on June 25.

The letter argues that the proposed regulations threaten free expression, the freedom to read, and the First Amendment, noting that librarians and educators are already “well placed” to curate library collections with appropriate books and materials.

“Adding government mandated ‘tests’ for age appropriateness will only chill speech and restrict access to literature for students across South Carolina,” the letter said.

“Bills like this allow the government to determine what can and can’t be read — not parents, not educators, not librarians, not the students who need these stories. We authors want to do everything we can to support the freedom to read, and the power that reading has to give context in an overwhelming world,” said David Levithan, bestselling author and one of the leaders of Authors Against Book Bans.

Similar language in Iowa resulted in mass book bans affecting classics, books used in advanced placement courses, and contemporary young adult novels.

The regulations’ explicit prohibition on “sexual conduct” is vague and broad, meaning books with sexual references are likely to be banned without considerations of context, purpose, or educational value. Experts on sexual violence have repeatedly reported that learning about the signs of abuse and what consent means helps young people to speak up in harmful situations, reach out for help, or recognize abuse they have experienced.

Since 2021, more than 100 books have been banned in South Carolina schools; the authors and organizations fear the new regulations will increase that number.

Across the country, book banning has spread at an alarming rate, ignited by local activists and parents. PEN America documented more than 10,000 bans between 2021 and 2023— an assault on the freedom to read, the lifeblood of democracy.

-30-

‘Darkening of the Light,’ by Robert Hays

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn books, writing2 Comments

Disclaimer: I am a colleague of Robert Hays at Florida’s Thomas-Jacob Publishing.

Darkening of the Light was published on June 4 by Robert Hays, Prof. Emeritus (journalism) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and the author of  Blood on the Roses, A Shallow River of Mercy, and other fiction and nonfiction titles.

From the Publisher

“Although he misses Melinda, the girl he left behind, after his time as a homeless orphan on the streets of Paducah, Jeter thinks being a groom in the White House stables, and life in general in the nation’s capital is all he’ll ever want. His friend and mentor, Shakespeare-quoting Union Army Captain Joseph Emerson, is an advisor to President Lincoln. With the President just re-elected and the war with the Confederacy won, they all see bright days ahead.

Hays

“But an assassin’s bullet brings their world crashing down, and Jeter and the Captain see their own grief reflected in the mourning of millions of citizens as the captain commands an Honor Guard on the funeral train that bears Lincoln’s remains on the long cross-country trip home to Illinois.

“As Jeter explores the cities where the train stops en route, he adds his own real-life stories and comes to appreciate the cultural mix that makes America one great nation.”

—Malcolm

‘Edge of Edisto’ by C. Hope Clark

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn books

I’ve enjoyed the books in the “Edisto Island Series,” set in South Carolina, by the prolific C. Hope Clark, who also writes the compelling “Carolina Slade Mystery Series,” and the “Craven County Mysteries.” Edge of Edisto is book eleven in this police procedural/mystery series released by Bell Bridge Books on May 17th.

From the Publisher

“A missing woman.
An unidentified body.
Summer is just getting started…

Police Chief Callie Jean Morgan’s hope for a day of nothing but traffic tickets is shattered when one of five women who regularly vacation together on Edisto Island is reported missing. Hours later, a body washes up on the sand—but not the body of the missing young lady.

Unable to identify the dead woman, leaving her with a possible murder on her hands, Callie worries the clock might be ticking down to yet another tragedy. She has no choice but to dig into the secrets of the women’s group, who now seem unconcerned about their missing member. Tracking down information on the ladies is like chasing air. Even the older residents of Edisto are unwilling to talk about the well-established, yet evasive group known as “The Summer Ladies.”

Edisto is heating up, and so is Callie Jean Morgan.”

About the Author

“C. HOPE CLARK has a fascination with the mystery genre and is author of the Carolina Slade Mystery Series, and the Craven County Mysteries as well as the Edisto Island Mysteries, all set in her home state of South Carolina. In her previous federal life, she performed administrative investigations and married the agent she met on a bribery investigation. She enjoys nothing more than editing her books on the back porch with him, overlooking the lake, with bourbon in hand. She can be found either on the banks of Lake Murray or Edisto Beach with one or two dachshunds in her lap. Hope is also editor of the award-winning FundsforWriters.”

—Malcolm

‘A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake’ by Campbell and Robinson

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn books, writing

When the comic, mythic, and dream-like epic Finnegans Wake was released in 1939 after a 17-year effort by James Joyce, most readers–including top reviewers–dismissed it as gibberish.  Four years later, Joseph Campbell (The Hero With a Thousand Faces) and Henry Morton Robinson (The Cardinal)  explained Joyce’s novel so well that for years A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake was the only book that covered the entire novel rather than simply annotating “difficult” references in its text.

The Joseph Campbell Foundation (JCF), which maintains all of Campbell’s published and unpublished materials, has kept a skeleton key in print with a new introduction. I appreciate the work of JCF and while its website has evolved over the years, I enjoy spending time there where Campbell’s mythic look at the world is kept alive along with books like A Skeleton Key that are still viable long after their publication.

James Joyce is my favorite author and Finnegan’s Wake is my favorite novel, in part for its humor and scope and in part because it’s a vital component of linked novels that constituted his life’s work. Suffice it to say, the work of Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) and Henry Robinson (September 7, 1898 – January 13, 1961) made my frequent journeys through the Wake much more easier. Like carrying a strong flashlight in a dark cave.

Edmund Wilson of “The New Yorker” said, “Campbell and Robinson deserve a citation from the Republic of Letters for having succeeded in bringing out their Skeleton Key at this time….The chance to be among the first to explore the wonders of Finnegans Wake is one of the few great intellectual and aesthetic treats that these last bad years have yielded.”

Max Lerner of “The New York Times” said, “Joyce has found in Mr. Campbell and Mr. Robinson the ideal readers who approach his book with piety, passion, and intelligence, and who have devoted several years to fashioning the key that will open its treasures.”

From the Publisher

“Countless would-be readers of Finnegans Wake — James Joyce’s 1939 masterwork, on which he labored for a third of his life — have given up after a few pages and dismissed the book as a perverse triumph of the unintelligible. In 1944, a young professor of mythology and literature named Joseph Campbell, working with novelist and poet Henry Morton Robinson, wrote the first guide to understanding the fascinating world of Finnegans Wake. Page by page, chapter by chapter, A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake outlines the basic action of Joyce’s book, simplifies and clarifies the complex web of images and allusions, and provides an understandable, continuous narrative from which the reader can venture out on his or her own. This edition includes a foreword and updates by Joyce scholar Dr. Edmund L. Epstein that add the context of sixty subsequent years of scholarship.”

From the Book

“Running riddle and fluid answer, Finnegans Wake is a mighty allegory of the fall and resurrection of mankind. It is a strange book, a compound of fable, symphony, and nightmare–a monstrous enigma beckoning imperiously from the shadowy pits of sleep. “

As they say, it’s a monomyth, not just about residents of Dublin “but the dreamlike saga of a guilt-stained, evolving humanity.”

The festivities begin when laborer Tim Finnegan gets drunk, falls off a ladder, and dies, but then comes to back to life during his wake when whisky gets splashed on him. This sets the tone for the novel with its cycles of death and rebirth.

—Malcolm

‘Your Face in the Fire’ by Naomi Ruth Lowinsky

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn books, writing

I’m pleased to see the release of Lowinsky’s sixth poetry collection on June 1. A Jungian analyst, Lowinsky creates poetry I greatly appreciate, including Adagio and Lamentation in 2010 from Fisher King Press.

From the Publisher

“Naomi Ruth Lowinsky’s soul was shaped by deep impressions made on her by India, where she lived for two years in the 1960s. It was there the Goddess claimed her. It was there that myths began singing to her. It was there her soul remembered other lives. It was there her stars insisted she learn to tend her fire. And the fire spoke: I am the heat of your passion. It is I who will show you your way.”

Blurb

“Naomi Ruth Lowinsky’s book of poetry: Your Face in the Fire, speaks with an impassioned voice which opens us up to that vast space which we find in Jung’s Red Book. It is a vibrant standpoint from which she encounters the mysteries of the psyche. Through her poetic imagination, we get to participate in her vision-making process. Nourished by her dreams that invite us to imagine with her as she expresses a lifetime of creating, engaging, reflecting, and reworking while showing us how her process is not only transformational for her but for anyone who opens up to the reality of their experiences of psyche’s being. The archetypal dimension shines through this book.” – Sam Kimbles

—Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of magical realism short stories and novels.

The bumpy ride of ‘The Blue Bicycle’ by Régine Deforges

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn books

Somehow, my wife got a copy of The Blue Bicycle in the mid-1980s, possibly from one of several people with whom she traded books, and it didn’t take long for her to discover that the book was similar to Gone With the Wind. Too similar, we thought.

The author was sued for plagiarism by American Trust Company Bank who represented the rights to the Margaret Mitchell novel. Deforges, a popular French author, lost the case and was ordered to pay $330,000 in damages. The book was a bestseller in France.

However, according to the New York Times, Deforges was cleared on appeal in 1990. The French “appeals court agreed that Miss Deforges’s book began with a character similar to Miss Mitchell’s Scarlett O’Hara. But it said the two novels then followed different paths.”

Deforges died in 2014. The book is still available on Amazon.

From the Publisher

“‘The little savage from Montillac’ is what her suave lover Francois calls Lea, the passionate heroine of this frankly lush, romantic novel of France during the war years 1939-1942. Daughter of a rich wine grower in Bordeaux, Lea sees her adored childhood sweetheart, Laurent, married to his cousin, namby-pamby Camille. Lea has lovers but never stops carrying the torch for Laurent, while tending pregnant Camille during Laurent’s service at the front, holding down the family estate of Montillac, where Germans are billeted, and cycling through occupied checkpoints with messages for the Resistance. Deforges, a bestselling writer in France, gives us moving scenes of civilian panic and carnage and glimpses of Paris high life enjoyed by collaborators and black-marketeers. Radio broadcasts by the still unknown de Gaulle, and defeatist Petainhead of the Vichy puppet regimefire French patriotism and keep the underground going. Plenty of entertainment here, and echoes of Gone with the Wind, though it’s hard to tell what lusty Lea sees in Laurent.”

I taught college-level communications law. By no means an expert, I do not agree with the appeals court’s decision because I think the material Deforges copied went beyond the scope of fair use.

–Malcolm