The Invisible Mentor

Booked on Tuesdays: Stepping into the Great Unknown – Mini Reviews of Voices by Arnaldur Indriðason, Faithful Place by Tana French and The Impossible Dead by Ian Rankin

December 6th, 2011 |

We like things that are familiar. If things are too different they make us uncomfortable. I remember close to two decades ago, a friend introduced me to a senior citizen at her church. The older woman looked at me and said, “That’s an odd name [Avil]”. I remember thinking my name is not odd, it’s just different. It’s not a Canadian name.

I have mentioned previously that I am reading the classics and also the books on Gene Waddell’s list, “Using Rare Books to Inspire Learning.” But sometimes I need a break from those books and want something a little different on the menu. Knowing that I love mysteries, thrillers and drama, a friend loaned me five books, three of which I have already read. It’s interesting because I would never have bought any of those books.

I realized something about myself as I was reading the books, even though I have varied the kinds of books that I have been reading, like introducing science fantasy and fiction and other genres, the authors are all from the Western World, and primarily from North America and the United Kingdom. And the books from the UK that I have been reading are the classics, not contemporary books. Without consciously knowing it, I have been staying within my comfort zone. I have been stuck in a rut.

What about you? Do you stay within your comfort zone or do you venture into the great unknown?

The three books out of the five that I read are Voices by Arnaldur Indriðason, Faithful Place by Tana French and The Impossible Dead by Ian Rankin. Arnaldur Indriðason is an Icelandic writer, so at first I had a hard time getting to know the characters because their names were so different from what I was accustomed to. And on top of that, because their alphabet is different from English, sometimes I do not know how to pronounce some of the names.

In Faithful Place, Tana French had the characters speaking an Irish dialect, though in English, it was very different from what I am accustomed to and it actually drove me nuts to hear a characters say “yous”. I have read a few of Ian Rankin’s books from the Inspector Rebus series, but haven’t read any of his books recently. The Impossible Dead started really slowly, and I remember thinking, “get on with it.”

But you know something? all three books were very good books. I have become too comfortable, and have to relearn what it’s like to step into the great unknown. That’s how we become creative. Because something is different doesn’t mean that it’s not good.

All three books are detective stories and are very well written. In a previous post, I mentioned that we can use detective stories to help us become better problem solvers. Of the three books, Name Your Link
is the best at teaching problem solving skills, and I liked it the best. Many of the characters were very flawed which reminds you of life, we are not perfect, and all we can do is to do our best. In the story, the doorman of a hotel is found dead in a compromising position. The odd thing is that he has been living in the hotel in a small room in the basement for close to three decades. He also did odd jobs to pay for his keep. Another strange thing is that, even though he had been with the hotel for such a long time, the other employees claim they didn’t know him that well. As the detectives investigate they discover that the doorman was a child “celebrity” singer who is no estranged from his family. So the question is why? It’s really lovely how the plot unfolds and we get clues and try to solve the crime before the detectives do, but will we provide the right solution? Will we choose the correct killer based on what we read?

As an active reader, Faithful Place impacted me the most deeply, but in a negative way. The story made me very anxious because of the plot. One of the central characters killed his brother’s girlfriend when he discovered that they were going to run away. This character had to grow up too quickly because he had to protect his younger siblings from the father’s abuse and he took the brunt of it. He wanted his freedom, and all he could see was his younger brother’s girlfriend standing in the way. He kills her and hides her body, which is not found until 25 years later. Despite that, he doesn’t get his freedom because his brother had left anyway. And 25 years later he kills again to protect his secret, but this time he kills his youngest brother. That for me was very difficult because it was calculated.

I’m ambivalent about The Impossible Dead, and the jury is still out whether or not I actually liked it, even if I concede that it’s well written. The big issue could be that I didn’t like any of the central characters. I couldn’t warm up to any of them. In the story, officers from the Complaint department (Internal Affairs) are investigating some crooked police officers. However, they are having a hard time gathering evidence. As they slowly gather evidence, they are led in another direction and end up solving a much older crime. I think the main issue for me is that when I read a novel, I’m reading mostly for entertainment so I like it when there is a lot of action and the story moves quickly.

If you are like me, and you are stuck in a rut with your reading, give Voices by Arnaldur Indriðason, Faithful Place by Tana French and The Impossible Dead by Ian Rankin a try. I have discovered that even though I may not like a book, I can still recommend it with a clear conscience because some of the times the reason I do not enjoy it has nothing to do with how well the book is written.

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