Like a lot of folks in the ten days since the election, I’ve perhaps been slow to process the news. This has impacted my reading. Whereas I’m usually a speed reader, I have found myself often putting off my reading to do some mindless activities. Dealing with reality can be tough, the uncertainty of what comes after the next two months are over is difficult to grapple with.
Inadvertently, the three books I’ve read from immediately before the election into the ten days since have really spoke to me about the moment. The first one unintentionally, the next two with deep intention. I didn’t mean to read them in this order but I’m glad I did. They’re helping me both understand and meet the moment. All are good in their own ways…
Spook Street****
The least contemporary of what I’ve read, Spook Street is still about the dangerous power of buried secrets, especially in a family of spies. Drawing heavily from River’s background with his grandfather, Herron spins a tale that is his most personal and probably the best of the series at this point. In sanding down plot points for smaller characters, he tells a story that is focused and painful, especially when considering how these buried secrets of masculine dominance and imperialism impact the world writ large for worse. I didn’t expect it to be as poignant as it was and I’m so grateful I was in the midst of reading it and had the patience and focus to finish it before and after the aftermath of the Election.
Guide Me Home*****
Attica Locke’s excellent Darren Mathews series has always existed with Trump looming in the background and it comes full circle in the final of this powerful trilogy. Darren has never been the world’s most likable guy but he has to get his stuff together in order to do a knight errant side quest for the sake of a missing Black girl. Locke is so good at drawing out the racism inherent in both Texas and America while not letting the story stray into didacticism. Through Darren’s frustration, you get the sense of the challenges of being Black in the Trump era. Plus, as a reader, I’ve always loved a good municipal corruption tale and so does Locke. She really brings that here and it hit my absolute sweet spot. The conclusion in some ways is perfect for the moment we are about to live in, though I won’t say how. One of the best things I’ve read this year in any genre.
The Order***
It’s clear that by ditching the Gabriel Allon series over ten years ago only to come back to it now, I’ve missed out on Daniel Silva’s passionate crusade against the rise of hard-right fascism not just in the States but abroad. It was the overarching theme of The Cellist and it’s the same here in this Da Vinci Code knockoff tale that’s a lot more fun and competently written than anything Dan Brown ever penned. The story is best when setting its stage and getting into the history of Christian antisemitism and how the Bible impacted this. It loses it at resolutions because then it just becomes a boring action-western. Also, I wish it was as easy to bring down global fascism as these books make it seem. But it’s still a fun, engaging read with a series I’m slowly returning to.
