Michael Lee

Fiction

A haunting vision of the Vietnam War

Review by Michael Lee

First-time author Karl Marlantes tackles some tough subjects—racism among the troops, for one—in his Vietnam novel, Matterhorn.What makes this novel so irresistible is Marlantes’ skill at peeling away the many layers of truth in combat.

Matterhorn is one of those countless hills in Vietnam that makes young men’s lives so cheap. In this case, it’s the Marines of Bravo Company and the hardened NVA (North Vietnamese Army) soldiers. The story revolves around a young Marine lieutenant, Waino Mellas, who must quickly learn the difference between officer candidate school and the reality of life in the bush. Lt. Mellas tries to straddle the line between being “one of the guys” and a platoon commander. This division between the troops and a low-ranking officer like Mellas (who is only a few years older than his men) can become too vague if he is overly friendly. In combat, that can be disastrous.

The delicate balance between life and death resonates throughout Matterhorn, as it does in real combat. What is so fresh and fascinating about this novel is Marlantes’ depiction of the specific activities and conflicting motivations that take place in a war zone. For instance, many of the officers (including Lt. Mellas) want recognition by those in command above them. And how, aside from concrete evidence of a clear victory, is this accomplished? With inflated enemy kill counts, something that was commonplace in the Vietnam War. Marlantes also shows the nature of life in the bush for these grunts, the long hours spent contemplating the imminent sudden bursts of horror and loss.

One can only hope that the size of this amazing novel (nearly 600 pages) doesn’t intimidate potential readers, because it is one of those rare books that will never leave their minds. Great novels are underscored by human drama, and Marlantes’ depiction of men under stress—no matter what race or background—is searing and complex. Matterhorn will not only take its place on the top shelf of war fiction, it’s going to knock a few books off. It’s that good.

Michael Lee was a Marine, wounded during the 77-day siege of Khe Sanh.

First-time author Karl Marlantes tackles some tough subjects—racism among the troops, for one—in his Vietnam novel, Matterhorn.What makes this novel so irresistible is Marlantes’ skill at peeling away the many layers of truth in combat. Matterhorn is one of those countless hills in Vietnam that makes young men’s lives so cheap. In this case, it’s […]
Fiction

Searching for a lost brother

Review by Michael Lee

At its core, Walking to Gatlinburg is a story about 17-year-old Morgan Kinneson, who leaves his home in Vermont in 1864, a sad and terrible time in America, and heads south to find his missing brother, Pilgrim. In the hands of Howard Frank Mosher, a somewhat formulaic plot becomes something original and unconventional.

Over the course of his journey, young Morgan meets, fights and loves a cast of characters—including a woman who lives in a tree and an elephant named Caliph—that in lesser hands could be perceived as over the top. But Mosher has an uncanny ability to render both character and setting highly believable. His eye for detail, especially in describing the Great Smoky Mountains, is reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy’s rendering of the greater Southwest, and his dialects sound spot-on to this reviewer’s ear.

There is also a mystical quality to Morgan’s odyssey, seen in the constant depictions of runes that act as both guide and symbol throughout the novel. Very early on in the story, a dangerous group of killers are on Morgan’s trail for befriending a black man named Jesse, who helped slaves run away to Canada. Morgan knows in his heart that his brother is still alive, somewhere in the South; but in his quest to find Pilgrim, he must now also defend himself against these deadly men, who pop up at the most inconvenient times.

What is so satisfying about Walking to Gatlinburg is that it can be read on so many levels. It is a wonderful adventure story, full of intrigue and plot twists, and it is the story of a young man coming of age, through many trials and travails. And finally, it is a story of love—not only the brotherly love Morgan has for Pilgrim, but the love he develops for his country and its people, in all their variations.

Mosher is a rare storyteller, able to both instruct and entertain, and he brings all his talents to this unforgettable and unique novel.

Michael Lee is a member of the National Book Critics Circle.

At its core, Walking to Gatlinburg is a story about 17-year-old Morgan Kinneson, who leaves his home in Vermont in 1864, a sad and terrible time in America, and heads south to find his missing brother, Pilgrim. In the hands of Howard Frank Mosher, a somewhat formulaic plot becomes something original and unconventional. Over the […]
NonfictionEssays

Insights from a gifted writer

Review by Michael Lee

A good essay collection reveals something new about its subjects, while a great collection also reveals something about its author. Zadie Smith’s excellent Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays falls into the latter category. In a collection divided into four sections—Reading, Being, Seeing and Feeling—Smith brings deep knowledge and stunning wit to these nomadic pieces and in the process, brings the curtain up on herself.

A question running throughout the book is how someone, at age 34, gets to be so smart about so much. Smith writes a wonderful homage to Katharine Hepburn and in doing so, imparts an appreciation of the past two generations of filmmaking that film critics will envy. In the section on “Being,” she begins with a version of a lecture she gave to students of Columbia University’s Writing Program. It should be required reading for all writers, students or otherwise. Her approach to, and understanding of, the written word begins to explain how she burst onto the literary scene in 2000 with the novel White Teeth. And her essays on her personal life, especially the tender handling of her father’s memory in “Smith Family Christmas,” “Accidental Hero” and “Dead Man Laughing,” are glimpses into her own complex family, displaying unflinching insight without sacrificing a loving appreciation.

Smith also displays a keen mind for literary analysis in her final essay, “Brief Interviews with Hideous Men: The Difficult Gifts of David Foster Wallace.” Here she bravely disseminates Wallace’s work, not in simplistic terms, but in language that renders the demanding author’s body of work in manageable bites.

With Changing My Mind, Smith has given the art of the essay its most entertaining and educational revival in years. It’s the kind of collection a reader will keep within reach for a long while, simply based on Smith’s virtuosic performance.

Michael Lee is a member of the National Book Critics Circle.

A good essay collection reveals something new about its subjects, while a great collection also reveals something about its author. Zadie Smith’s excellent Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays falls into the latter category. In a collection divided into four sections—Reading, Being, Seeing and Feeling—Smith brings deep knowledge and stunning wit to these nomadic pieces and […]
Mystery & SuspenseThriller

A Most Wanted Man

Review by Michael Lee

The nightmare and shame of humanity is that there is always a war going on somewhere on the planet. And yet, for writers such as John le Carré, this sad fact is great fodder for stories. Where there is conflict, there are spies, and le Carré—a former secret agent himself—is a writer in complete command of the spy genre. In the aftermath of 9/11, his spies have made a seamless transition into the modern world. They are just as devious, just as two-faced and, thanks to their creator, just as riveting a collection of characters as he brought us when writing about the Cold War and MI6 operative George Smiley.

A Most Wanted Man opens with a slender young man in a dark coat named Issa (a Persian name for Jesus) following a Turkish mother and son on a dark street at night in Hamburg, Germany. The young man is a devout Muslim and asks for shelter in their home. This sets off a chain of events that involves an unlikely trio of central characters—Issa, whose real background is that of a Russian aristocrat; Annabel Richter, a young idealistic lawyer who acts as Issa’s attorney; and Tommy Brue, a retiring wealthy British banker. Issa has been smuggled into Hamburg to retrieve a huge sum of money held for years by Tommy Brue’s bank. But Issa wants nothing to do with what he considers a tainted fortune, given that it originated with his father, Col. Karpov of the Red Army.

Where le Carré excels, perhaps better than anyone, is in the gray areas of plot and characterization. This is a complex and multi-layered work with a roll call of memorable characters that still manages to distill the theme into Western thought versus Islamist philosophy.

At 77 years of age, le Carré (né David Cornwell) shows no signs of slowing down. You’re never in for a breezy read with him, but as in the works of most master craftsman, the demands put upon the reader are small compared to the intense and lasting rewards.

Michael Lee is a member of the National Book Critics Circle.

This complex and multi-layered work features a roll call of memorable characters and a dynamic setting.
Mystery & SuspenseMystery

Living in the shadows

Review by Michael Lee

If there are any lingering doubts that Alan Furst is our premiere writer of historical spy fiction, his 10th novel, The Spies of Warsaw, will put them to rest. No one sets the tone of the dangerous shadows and the consequences of misjudgment quite like Furst – and he also keeps the reader guessing about who is trustworthy and who isn't, which makes for a highly entertaining read.

The novel opens in the fall of 1937, when the assembly of the next great war machine from Germany is resonating throughout Europe. There can be no doubt that war is coming. Enter our hero, a military attache from the French embassy, Col. Jean-Francois Mercier, suave and dapper, a decorated hero of World War I with the requisite amount of courage and testosterone.

As if an imminent war weren't enough to keep Mercier busy, he is in love with a Parisian woman of Polish heritage, Anna, who is a lawyer for the League of Nations. Matters get sticky when one of his lower-level spies becomes convinced the Gestapo is on to him. This is when Furst really kicks his novel into gear, casting suspicion on every character Mercier has to deal with. He spares us no mischievous nuance in the persona of people such as the Russian defectors Viktor and Malka Rozen, Dr. Lapp, a senior German officer in Warsaw, or the vicious Maj. August Voss of SS counterintelligence.

If peril cast an aroma, its miasma would hover over each page of The Spies of Warsaw. Furst is a master at setting, and his depiction of Warsaw and the surrounding Polish countryside is rife with the grim spectacle of a nation teetering on war. Perhaps this is why the few moments that Col. Mercier can manage with his lover, Anna, seem both so tender and erotically charged. You may never take a train ride again without wondering who the mysterious character is in the seat next to you.

 

Michael Lee is a member of the National Book Critics Circle.

If there are any lingering doubts that Alan Furst is our premiere writer of historical spy fiction, his 10th novel, The Spies of Warsaw, will put them to rest. No one sets the tone of the dangerous shadows and the consequences of misjudgment quite like Furst – and he also keeps the reader guessing about […]
Fiction

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Review by Michael Lee

Life is not easy for Oscar Wao. He's a grossly overweight nerd with a sci-fi writing jones and the social skills of a three-toed sloth. If that's not enough of a burden for a young man with testosterone coursing through his system, Oscar also has the regrettable habit of falling headlong in love with a litany of women. Sometimes all it takes is a brief encounter on a bus and Oscar's heart runs aflutter.

We know Oscar is doomed from the book's title, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, but what the reader might not be prepared for is the whopping scope of Junot Diaz's highly entertaining first novel. Oscar is the launching pad for a rollicking family saga that examines a myriad of places and issues, among them life in the Dominican Republic, New Jersey, Rutgers University, immigration, poverty, politics, a family curse and, yes, the curious layers of unrequited love.

Relegated to secondary status through generations of sexism, the real heroes of this novel are the women. D’az intricately traces the tumult in the lives of Oscar's sister Lola and their dazzling mother Belicia. As we become familiar with their history, Oscar returns to the Dominican Republic, where he finds the love of his brief life, the prostitute living across the street. Somehow this talented author makes it all plausible.

Upon the release of his short-story collection, Drown, in 1996, Diaz's distinctive voice, which interspersed Spanish with American street lingo, made him a new literary star. His first novel, arriving a decade later, proves well worth waiting for. The real entertainment is the marvel of Diaz's voice, which is hip, high-energy, multilingual and often hysterically funny. Diaz turns in a bravura performance that will win him new fans and thrill those of us who celebrated his story collection. Now we can only hope it won't be another 10 years before his next book.

Michael Lee is the author of the essay collection In an Elevator with Brigitte Bardot.

 

Life is not easy for Oscar Wao. He's a grossly overweight nerd with a sci-fi writing jones and the social skills of a three-toed sloth. If that's not enough of a burden for a young man with testosterone coursing through his system, Oscar also has the regrettable habit of falling headlong in love with a […]

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