Marcus Sedgwick – Saint Death

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Book Review, Children's Book Review, Marcus Sedgwick, Mexico, Saint Death

A fence, A wall. A border: who are the bad hombres, in the end?

I must confess I would never normally be drawn to a book with this sort of cover – it suggests some book focused towards those enamoured of zombie/werewolf/vampires and the like, but perhaps with a notched up degree of violence, and possibly of appeal to young boys with a yen for shoot-em-up video games.

Nothing like the prejudice of ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ going on here, eh?

Well, this is certainly geared to YA readers, though they might find that the violence and darkness in the pages is a kind of sweetener to encourage facing still darker matters. This book carries weightier themes, is bang-on-topical, and mixes myth, responsibility, gang warfare and class consciousness extremely powerfully. Not to mention friendship, free-will versus destiny, chance and choice..

It was the author that drew me, despite the lurid cover. This is, after all, Marcus Sedgwick, a wonderful author, writing challenging, thoughtful books for a younger audience – and also the odd foray into adult fiction

Saint Death is set on the Mexican side of the border with the US. It’s theme is the exploitation of the poor by capitalism, and how that goes hand in glove with gangland control and exploitation, drug running, violence and prostitution. It is strong meat for an adult reader, never mind a teen

Arturo is probably in his late teens. His mother is dead, his alcoholic, violent father gone from his life. He lives in the shantytown neighbourhood of Anapra, in the city of Juarez, Chihuahua, close to the Rio Grande. He gets by through occasional casual employment in an auto-shop, and steers clear of the gangs. He had a dear, childhood friend, Faustino, an immigrant from an even poorer place. Faustino had not kept so clear of trouble – extreme poverty means even the most righteous might find they surrender to powerful, vicious people, for the chance to put food on a plate. Faustino is now in danger and comes to his childhood friend for salvation

Interspersed within this violent tale is a dark, older religion, a Death-cult figure, Santisima Muerte, ever present, who must be placated, prayed to, sought for protection against her own visitation. There are also reflections, riffs, poems, where Sedgwick, sometimes using the words of others, comments on the wider political, ethical issues. Reminding the reader that though this might be a story, it is, or something similar is, a reality happening daily

This book is about other stories that occur
over there, across the river

The comfortable way to deal with these
stories is to say they are about them.

The way to understand these stories is to say
they are about us”

Charles Bowden

There are aspects of it which don’t quite work for me – the Spanish punctuation, and the interjection of frequent snatches of Spanish dialogue. Okay, it gives ‘flavour’ but it seemed a little tricksy. I could imagine the slang would be something which might appeal though, to its target audience

And I do think Sedgwick is extremely skillful at writing something which has page-turning action which might appeal to younger readers, whilst what he is writing is very far from escapism; rather, an invitation to look at how an unfair world works, and then castigates those who it has forced into suffering

We handed the right to kill to that thing we call civilisation. Civilisation does our killing for us, and we can wash our hands of it. This is the management of death. But the blood will not wash off

I received this from Amazon Vine UK

Saint Death Amazon UK
Saint Death Amazon USA

This book won’t be published in the States till April 25th

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Marcus Sedgwick – Mister Memory

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Book Review, Crime Fiction, Fin-de-Siècle, Marcus Sedgwick, Mister Memory, Paris

“Memory…given to us in order that we may learn, understand and build upon our previous achievements”

I first came to Marcus Sedgwick from a chance find of one of his children’s books, Blood Red, Snow White, in a charity shop. Sedgwick is a magnificent writer, mainly for the YA market, managing a deft balance between page-turning plot, fascinating, complex character, crafted writing, and balancing sometimes complex themes. Blood Red Snow White was typical Sedgewick, based on the real-life story of children’s writer Arthur Ransome, taking in fairy-story and its tropes, and, where Ransome crossed world events, the Russian Revolution, a love story, and espionage.

A couple of years ago, he wrote his first book for adults, the absorbing A Love Like Blood, a very different take on the over-crowded, often drearily repetitive vampire-lit market. Which I normally avoid like the plague, except when a proven, rather lit-ficcy writer strays into the territory. So I was eager to jump at the chance of Mister Memory.

Set in post-Commune Paris, at the tail end of the nineteenth century, this is – with many, many genuinely shocking, genuinely apposite twists, several things : a tale of corruption and sexual scandal in high places; a police procedural, not to mention police cover up; a political thriller; a murder mystery; an exploration of theories of ‘mind medicine’ at the time, and a unpicking of memory itself, its mysterious workings, and philosophical reflections about it.

That’s one of the ways in which powerful men become powerful; they do despicable things, and if they get away with it, then stories are rewritten, facts are ignored. History, as we know, is written by the victor

The story, recounted through 3 viewpoints, is this: ‘Mister Memory’ himself, Marcel Després, a man who can forget nothing he reads or experiences, Inspector Petit, a man with tragedy in his past, and Doctor Morel, elderly ‘Alienist’ at the Salpêtrière hospital for those seen as mentally impaired. The third person narrator/author guides us overall.

 Jean-Martin Charcot demonstrating hysteria in a patient at the Salpetriere. Lithograph after P.A.A. Brouillet, 1887. Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Commons, Wiki

Marcel, returning early from his ‘Mister Memory’ cabaret act, finds his flirtatious, sexy cabaret dancer wife in flagrante delicto with one of her many admirers. In jealous rage, he shoots her dead, an immediately gives himself up to the police. Petit, investigating the crime is astonished to discover that, far from going through normal channels of police procedure, trial and sentence, Marcel has instead immediately been whisked away to the Salpêtrière. Motivated by a personal desire to see proper justice done, as he perceives it – the death penalty, or at least transportation to the ‘dry guillotine’ (Devil’s Island) Petit begins an off-the-cuff investigation. Initially he thinks he is carrying out normal procedures, but is inexplicably and heavily warned off the case. Meanwhile, Doctor Morel, a rather dry, unempathic clinician, is fascinated by the opportunities Marcel presents, in terms of scientific understanding of the mind and its processes.

Devil’s Island, made infamous by the true Dreyfus Affair, and even more so by the largely fictional book, Papillon, adapted into a film with Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman

I found this a generally very absorbing, and at times, genuinely jaw-dropping in shock and surprise, read (for the right reasons)

I have some reservations, mainly because I felt that Sedgwick, in this one, offered fewer over-arching reflections for me to think about. Though there were a few of these, he generally sews more of them seamlessly into his books.

This was also a little over-long, even at only 326 pages. There were times when the various investigations and unravellings – Petit’s, Dr Morel’s, and Marcus’-through-Dr Morel, lumbered a little. But there were always those jaw-drop moments to absolutely gather and drive renewed forward momentum in my reading.

Not to mention some passages, in the light of present political happenings, which made me wince and wryly shiver:

Do you know what memory is for?……… Most people, if you ask them, will tell you that memory is about the past – it is, after all about remembering things that have happened. But that is not what memory is for. The ability to recall past events is a mere by-product of what memory does for us. It was given to us….in order that we might be able to negotiate the future……That is what memory is about: the future, not the past. The future.

I finished my reading of this on the Hundred Year Anniversary of the battle of the Somme. In sombre mood

I received this as a review copy from Amazon Vine UK. It will be published in the UK on hard and digital on July 14th, but sadly it looks as if Statesiders will only have access to this on the Kindle on that date – hard publication is showing as 2017.

Mister Memory Amazon UK
Mister Memory Amazon USA

Marcus Sedgwick – The Foreshadowing

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Book Review, First World War, Marcus Sedgwick, The Foreshadowing, Young Adult Fiction

Beautiful weaving of myth and history

Marcus Sedgwick is a wonderful and layered writer, mainly for children and young adults, though he recently wrote a book very much for adults, with an interesting, unformulaic take on the vampire archetype, nothing at all like the rash of same old same old clonal dreary teeth and jugular inevitability A Love Like Blood

Much of Sedgwick’s writing inhabits a territory which is a kind of marriage between historical event, transposed into fiction, and the connection to myth and fairy tale. He opens out the enduring nature of archetype.

This story of the First World War, and the journey of a young woman who becomes a VAD, and then goes to the front to search for her brother, is a remarkably clear handling of political viewpoints as they changed throughout the war; most particularly the split between a ‘patriotic’ population at home, who thought the war a good thing, and how the reality of the carnage affected the soldiers. Sedgwick beautifully gets under the skin of his intelligent and likeable central character, and the beginning of change for a generation of young women who were beginning to see their lives might be more than marriage and motherhood.

         Flicr, Commons, What’s That Picture – WW1 Hospital Ward Postcard

Sedgwick gives his account extra depth and resonance through linking the protagonist with Cassandra – hence the title of the book, as Cassandra possessed the ability to perceive tragic events, but her vision was a curse to her, as no-one believed her, and she was spurned and outcast for her abilities. Sasha, Sedgwick’s central character, also has these ‘gifts’ and like Cassandra, they are visions of a time of war and conflict. The connection reminds us of how deeply wars are ingrained in our psyche.

Sedgwick ostensibly is writing for ‘young adults’; his writing is deep and true enough to satisfy old adults as well. He reminds me so much of Alan Garner, another writer as mythic and satisfying for not yet adults and adults who have not forgotten their connection to childhood – whatever their age!

This particular book of Sedgwick’s was written some years ago – it’s not a ‘cash-in’ on the 100 year since the start of the First War, but I remembered reading this book some 6 years ago, and the 100 year since…reminded me to go back to it

The Foreshadowing Amazon UK
The Foreshadowing Amazon USA

Marcus Sedgwick – A Love Like Blood It’s publication day!

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A Love Like Blood, Book Review, Marcus Sedgwick, Publication Day!

It’s release day for Marcus Sedgwick’s first novel for adults. It’s about vampirism, but bears no relationship to any of the same old same old vampy mould factory production line of vamps! Here is my original review, after receiving it as an ARC from Amazon Vine UK

A Love Like Blood Amazon UK
A Love Like Blood Amazon USA

Marcus Sedgwick – A Love Like Blood

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A Love Like Blood, Book Review, Marcus Sedgwick, Psychological Thriller, Vampires

Grown-Up Vampire

The excellent YA author Marcus Sedgwick, whose novels often take old myths and legends, and examine them in a more contemporary setting, with modern sensibilities, has taken the same approach in this, his first adult novel. Which is about vampires.

Sort of.

I must admit the vampire/werewolf/zombie fashion is one I more or less avoid, so overworked and overpopulated does the genre appear to be, and a novel about people, with no need for acquaintance with stakes, silver bullets and the like, is my preference.

However, this is a novel by Sedgwick, so I expected a more interesting variant on the well-worn theme.

And so it proved.

Do not expect the supernatural. Although there may be a couple more coincidental meetings than one might hope for, in order to create story, feet are firmly on the ground, bats no-where in evidence, and the un-dead never a consideration.

However, what we do have (not a spoiler as it is the publicity for the book) is a young doctor, Charles Jackson, a member of the Royal Army Medical Corps, in Paris during the dying days of the second world war,  seeing the shocking, brief, sight of a man apparently drinking the blood of a woman he appears to be murdering, or have murdered.

This horrific sight possibly changes the course of  Jackson’s life, and stunts it, on many levels, as his panicked reaction haunts him, about the choice and choices he made as a result. Possibly changes, because as the book unfurls Jackson learns things about his own nature which are uncomfortable and horrifying.

He embarks on a twenty-five year journey to come to terms with what he saw, and to find the man.

This is a gripping page-turner, which, being Sedgwick, goes deeply into the mythology of why we have an obsession with the genre anyway, and what it is that speaks so powerfully, alluringly and fascinatingly about the connections between sex, death and life-giving blood.

Jackson becomes a doctor who specialises in haematology. A close friend has specialised in working with the psychologically damaged. So…..rather than the Hammer-Horror vampire, there is psychopathology to repel and attract Jackson. There is also quite a lot of academic exploration into myths around blood – including the powerful rituals of Christianity – another of Jackson’s academic friends is involved in that more mythological field, and in literary and artistic interests in the subject matters

Joos van Ghent, 1474: The Institution of The Eucharist

I particularly like the fact there is little obsessive gory detail in these sometimes blood-splattered pages. Sedgwick is a fine enough writer to trust the reader’s imagination – he gives us some gore but let’s OUR imaginations paint the picture as red as we like or don’t like!

Charles Jackson is an ordinary, likeable enough man, and, perhaps, had he not seen what he saw, would have had an ordinary, likeable enough life. But………was he tainted and spoiled, or was the spoil within him? This is in the end a journey of more than one kind of obsession, and more than one kind of desire. There are lots of oppositional pulls within this story, including that satisfying one of just-who-is-hunting-whom. Not to mention why, no, REALLY why?

And the book kept me awake – it wasn’t that I was afraid to turn out the light, it was that I couldn’t bear to turn it off, before reading just one more chapter.

I had a slight disappointment, with the very final page, and might have preferred a slightly different ending, removing a couple of penultimate lines. A red pen moment itched!!

A terrific take on this genre, saying new things

If you liked ‘The Historian’ – you should like this. If you sort-of liked ‘The Historian’ but thought it was way too long, you really should like this (310 pages) Sedgwick manages a good balance between page turning plot and theoretical and academic investigations.

I received this as an ARC from the Amazon Vine Programme. It will hit the widely available shelves and ereaders on March 27th

A Love Like Blood Amazon UK
A Love Like Blood Amazon UK

Marcus Sedgwick – Blood Red, Snow White

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Arthur Ransome, Blood Red Snow White, Book Review, Marcus Sedgwick, Russian Revolution, Young Adult Fiction

Spare clean language, beautiful layered tale

This is a beautifully written novel, combining various motifs – myth and fairy story, the search for true love, the Russian Revolution, the childrens’ writer Arthur Ransome (Swallows and Amazons) and espionage.

As each and every one of these motifs are appealing or fascinating to me, I didn’t see how this book could fail me. And it didn’t!

The story of how the children’s writer Arthur Ransome had a life as a spy, initially going to Russia to research folk-lore and fairy, and becoming a sympathiser of the Bolshevik cause was something I had no idea about – Sedgwick’s marriage of subject matter is pretty perfect!

The book is marketed at I guess an early teens reader with an interest in a few of the above motifs, But his writing is too good to let his teen audience have him all to themselves; like Ransome himself, and more modern ‘childrens’ writers’ like Alan Garner, Philip Pullman etc there’s great pleasure for us ‘well grown up readers too’.

In fact I sometimes prefer really good ‘childrens’ writers’ – some ‘good’ adult writers can be too self-consciously turning a fine phrase, or trying to impress their peers; intelligent writing for children is often without artificial ‘cleverness’

Blood Red, Snow White Amazon UK
Bloood Red, Snow White Amazon USA