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Book Review: The Crate: A Story of War, A Murder, And Justice by Deborah Vadas Levison

The Crate: A Story Of War, A Murder, And Justice by Deborah Vadas Levison

Wild Blue Press, 2018

ISBN-13:978-1947290693

Available:  Paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook, audio CD

 

Two survivors of the Holocaust. A vicious murder.  A family navigating the ordeals depicted with brutal detail, and yet, with heart.

There are true crime stories and then there are books that delve so much deeper that they embed themselves under the skin and burrow into the psyche. The Crate is the latter: there are terrors between the covers.

Levison may be new to the writing world, but she has been at it for years as a journalist, which shows in prose that’s cut clean and yet conversational in tone.

The story concerns events in her own life. Her parents, Holocaust survivors who have built up successful, happy lives, purchased a house on a lake in Canada; a beautiful, serene getaway from the craziness of the big city. Debbie and her brother enjoy their years at the house, despite anti-semitic acts by their schoolmates. Once grown, the siblings bring their own children, allowing them to enjoy their escape without suffering the pain former generations have endured.

Their idyll doesn’t last. One day Debbie receives a call from her brother, who tells her that a body has been found underneath the house, hidden in a wooden crate. Immediately, their sanctuary is shattered. Police and media descend on the lake town and family, thrusting everything and everyone into chaos, and suspicion.

What ensues tests the resolve and mettle of the Vadas clan, as the investigation whirls and dives deep into the lives of those close to them. Levison transports the reader back to Nazi-era Hungary, where her parents relive the darkest parts of their lives. In doing so, she fortifies their characters and gives heft to a true crime story that could have been another run-of-the-mill documentary. The emotions Levison brings to the table scaffold the stories, both past and present, ratcheting the fear up to new levels, in both timelines, as the family struggles to cope with the new reality the crate has thrust upon them.

The payoff here isn’t who killed the victim and left the crate– it’s the entire package, constructed slowly but with precision that will leave most readers changed. Highly recommended for readers of true crime and Holocaust-related stories.

 

Reviewed by David Simms

 

Posted on August 23, 2018 by , Reply

Book Review: In Search of Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein by Fiona Sampson

In Search of Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein by Fiona Sampson

Pegasus Books, 2018

ISBN-13: 978-1681777528

Available: Hardcover, used paperback, Kindle edition,

 

We know Mary Shelley as the daughter of revolutionary writers Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, and muse and wife to the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, who as a teenage girl who wrote Frankenstein, but beyond the anecdote of the challenge to write a ghost story issued one night at the Villa Diodati. But we don’t really KNOW her, beyond the facts of her life.  Somehow, her own life and thoughts have been passed over in favor of her companions, and we have been mostly left with the myth of Frankenstein’s creation, and the many permutations of her novel that have capitalized on it.

In this biography, Fiona Sampson aims to capture the “real” Mary, through her letters, journals, and publications, those of her friends, family, and colleagues, and recreating the context of the time she lived in and how that affected her, from the reading she chose, to the effects of changing climate and the development of electricity.  During the short time she was with Shelley, Mary was pregnant five times. Three of her children died at a young age, and she miscarried a fourth. During the same time period, her half-sister Fanny and Percy’s legitimate wife Harriet both committed suicide.  Intense and intellectual to begin with, Mary dealt with difficult emotions like grief and guilt as well as physical problems while still taking responsibility for the mercurial Shelley’s welfare, and completing and publishing a book. These are the facts of Mary’s life with Shelley, but Mary’s life did not end when Shelley’s did– and throughout her life, she was a survivor. Sampson has taken an unusual and effective approach to her subject, taking a “close-up” of who Mary Shelley was and how she became that person, a young woman who, surrounded by great men, “forced open the space for herself in which to write” and because of that, was later able to establish a literary life of her own.

While not a complete look at the Shelleys and their friends and family, the zoom-in focus on Mary Shelley makes this a worthwhile, and fascinating read. Recommended for adult library collections

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

 

Posted on August 22, 2018 by , Reply

Book Review: Where Nightmares Come From: The Art of Storytelling in the Horror Genre (Dream Weaver #1) edited by Joe Mynhardt and Eugene Johnson

Where Nightmares Come From: The Art of Storytelling in the Horror Genre (Dream Weaver #1) edited by Joe Mynhardt and Eugene Johnson

Crystal Lake Publishing. 2017

ISBN-13: 978-1640074682

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

 

With a few exceptions, books on writing usually bring on the snoozes, but Where Nightmares Come From is constructed in a manner that sidesteps the pitfalls of a typical writing book. It delivers both to amateur writers and seasoned authors, as well as giving readers an insight into how their favorite books came to be.

Twenty-eight chapters lurk between the covers, each by a different author (or several). Even if the reader doesn’t connect with one article or interview, there’s plenty more to capture his or her interest. The price of the book is covered in the first chapter, by Joe R. Lansdale, who talks about how the storyteller rules the roost, not the story. The conversational tone in which he spills his secrets brings to mind sitting across a table in a honky tonk, tossing back a few, and discussing the weather or sports, instead of the keys to a masterful story. “The Process of a Tale” is pure gold by Ramsey Campbell, a guru of the short story. Instead of telling how to write something in the abstract form, he shows the reader by taking them on a ride through drafts of an actual published story, dissecting each passage before improving it, piece by piece, tinkering with the language and design. It’s doubtful a struggling writer will close the book without feeling a kinship with the king of British horror. Charlaine Harris, author of the Southern Vampire Mysteries and Midnight, Texas takes readers on her own journey of storytelling, and how she concocts her novels. Like Lansdale, Harris knows how to explain her magic in a way that simply makes sense. Stephen King and Richard Chizmar share their experience collaborating on their recent bestselling book Gwendy’s Button Box. Elizabeth Massie, Ray Garton, and John Connolly also make great contributions, along with a slew of lesser-known authors readers should be aware of.  While I’ve mentioned just a few chapters in detail, every single entry has something crucial to offer the writer (or reader). This is a tool writers will be using for years. Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Dave Simms
Posted on May 21, 2018 by , Reply
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