EMPRESS - Book review

Prolific author Graham Masterton’s historical saga Empress was published in 1988. 

Beginning in the early 1890s, the book concerns the life and loves of Lucy Darling, a Texan girl who dreams of riches and castles. She helps her father Jack in the town’s general store, with few prospects of escaping this humdrum existence. Her childhood friend Jamie Cullen harbours unrequited love for her. ‘Handsome and gentle, but strong, too; and unselfish. She was conscious that she might not love him forever: that if he didn’t agree to stay with her now, she might not give him a second chance. Life was too exciting for second chances’ (p107). [She would rue that thought about second chances some years later...]

Her Uncle Casper, a spendthrift adventurer, visits the store, though he is not particularly welcome by her father. Yet Casper brings exotic stories about his failed business ventures that intrigue Lucy. Yet, before long she comes to hate Casper. ‘Hatred can cool; envy can be assuaged; but guilt never forgets, and guilt never forgives, and guilt eats the spirit like fire consumes flesh’ (p111). This is a striking allusion to the fate of Casper, which is a traumatic tragedy. The result is that Lucy finds herself inheriting undreamed-of wealth, which enables her to escape with her father to elite drawing-rooms of New York, where she soon becomes a success, despite her strange Texan manner of speaking. Though not everyone was enamoured of her: ‘Mrs Harris at the back of the crowd with a face like a prairie cyclone’ (p137) Indeed, Mrs Harris, being outshone by Lucy, didn’t take kindly to the teenager: ‘... and glared at Lucy with an expression that could have crushed glass’ (p142).

And into the mix arrives British MP Henry Carson who is swept off his feet by the impetuous Lucy. ‘Henry was so direct about his interest in her, and she had never come across such candour before, especially when it came to courting. Bob Wonderly had at least tried to offer her a pound of liver, by way of foreplay’ (p157). Henry was an inveterate traveller, and in his spare time wrote, though his book royalties were not much more than £34 the previous year – join the club, Henry, though that sum in the 1890s is a lot more in today’s money... Henry harbours a secret which he is reluctant to divulge; and she soon learned that ‘his greed for public duty was beyond her understanding’ (p409).

Masterton has created an engaging, wilful, selfish and strong character in Lucy.

There are humorous and sad moments, and three notable quite graphic sexual encounters: ‘He must have the highest collar I ever clapped eyes on’ (p128) ‘Life became one glittering carousel of shining carriages and chandeliers, and men whose collars were so high they had to stare at the ceiling all evening’ (p178).

There is plenty of conflict between the main characters and certain subsidiary people. There are some twists in the tale, and a surprise or two at the end. A satisfying read.

I read this book while undergoing chemotherapy and was amused to read about a journey that Lucy took along the Saline Rive (p343) when I was actually being infused with saline solution!

Editorial comments:

I don’t know whose decision it was to begin the book with a short sequence showing Lucy in India and then skipping to her younger days in Texas (possibly an editor?). But that short sequence ruins much of the subsequent anguish she suffers prior to finally getting to India; in effect it is a spoiler. Roughly the last 200 pages (of 648) are set in India – which is described with colour, feeling and loving detail.

‘... thought to herself...’ (p145) – This is used more than once and is tautological – ‘thought’ would do. You can’t think to anyone else, after all.

The above reference to high collars is repeated – amusing the first time, granted.

Dead Burying the Dead Under a Quaking Aspen - book review

 

Screenwriting guides advocate “leave plenty of white space on the page”; effectively, “less is more”; or “give the reader/viewer space to visualize”. David Cranmer accomplishes that with this slim yet thoughtful and often poignant book of 29 poems. Indeed, his words “create fuel for the soul” – “The Need”. Herein you will find a “carefully crafted house of words” – “Daughter”.

The range of subject matter is considerable. From Haiti to Texas; from New York to the intergalactic void of space.

“The Inconsiderate” puts you into a grim gory scene laid out by the dreaded Tonton Macoute, for example.

Cranmer has the neat knack of sometimes deliberately forcing a space – a pause – in a line, mainly to make it more telling. Of course poetry is best appreciated when read – the listener gets the cadences, soaks up the emotion through the tone.

“reaching out to take my hand

asking to be   familiar again.” – “Cri de Coeur

Many of the poems feature death in all its guises. He quotes Martin Amis pointing out that “poetry alone… can face death on anything like equal terms.”

As Cranmer says in “Blue”:

“capturing the poetry of a slow death.”

There’s the unresolved murder of Hugh Chaffin, a man who loved gardening and was bound, gagged and bludgeoned to death; there’s the internationally abhorred murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, journalist and a resident of Virginia.

So, yes, there’s anger here, too.

And there’s the poignant “On the Border” where the narrator is visiting his Mom in a hospice and is reminiscing about those times when they’d watched westerns on TV together. “Except in these rooms, Alzheimer’s is the ruthless gunslinger.” He swats a mosquito and feels like a “much-needed paladin” – a fine reference to Have Gun Will Travel.

Perhaps pride of place must go to “Under the Quaking Aspen” where a few moments spent with his daughter Ava prove almost ineffably tender. His wife Denise is not forgotten: for their daughter is “cut from a priceless diamond”.

A fine production that will bear re-reading.

The vigilante through history – a brief view

Sudden Vengeance is about a vigilante – male or female, you'll learn which eventually – who metes out some kind of justice against the guilty when it is widely perceived that the law has ‘gone soft’ on criminals.

Released on good behaviour today -

Sudden Vengeance from Crooked Cat Publishing!

The following is extracted from a lengthy and interesting article about vigilantes through history. It can be found here

Briefly, vigilantism has often been espoused by folkloric heroes and legendary outlaws (e.g., Robin Hood being the most obvious example). Vigilantism in literature, folklore and legend is connected to the fundamental issues of dissatisfied morality, injustice, the perceived failures of authority and the ethical adequacy of legitimate governance.

Not all vigilantism is aimed at the bad guys, though. It’s all in the perceptions of the aggrieved, and that of course is the danger.  And there are documented instances where mistaken identity has meant the death of innocents. Here are some examples, the good and the bad, perhaps, from Wikipedia:

In 1858 San Luis Obispo vigilantes ended the murderous reign of the bandit gang of Pío Linares on El Camino Real between San Luis and Santa Barbara.

In October 1862 in northern Texas, several Unionist sympathizers were arrested and taken to Gainesville, Texas for trial on charges of treason and insurrection. Seven were tried and hanged, and 14 were hanged without trial. A few weeks later, Unionist sympathizers were hanged without trial across northern Texas. Known as "The Great Hanging at Gainesville", it may have been the deadliest act of vigilante violence in U.S. history.

The Great Hanging at Gainesville - Wikipedia commons

In 1865, the Ku Klux Klan was formed in Pulaski, Tennessee by a group of six Confederate War veterans. The KKK or "Klan" sought to use extralegal force to resist Reconstruction in the post-Civil War South of the United States. The KKK became a leading agent of racist violence in the US.

In the early 20th century, the White Finns founded the Protection Corps as a paramilitary vigilante organisation in Finland. It formed the nucleus of the White Army in the Finnish Civil War (January-May, 1918).

In the 1920s, the Big Sword Society of China protected life and property in a state of anarchy.

The Guardian Angels organization was founded February 13, 1979 in New York City by Curtis Sliwa and has chapters in 15 countries and 144 cities around the world.

Recognized since the 1980s, Sombra Negra or "Black Shadow" of El Salvador is a group of mostly retired police officers and military personnel whose sole duty is to cleanse the country of "impure" social elements by killing criminals and gang members. Along with several other organizations, Sombra Negra are a remnant of the death squads from the civil war of the 1970s and 1980s.

 
In Hampshire, England (where Sudden Vengeance is set!), during 2006, a vigilante slashed the tyres of more than twenty cars, leaving a note made from cut-out newsprint stating "Warning: you have been seen while using your mobile phone". Driving whilst using a mobile is a criminal offence in the UK, since individuals using their mobiles while driving have caused death and serious injury, but critics feel the law is little observed or enforced.
 
On April 15, 2011 a group of women in Cherán armed with rocks and fireworks attacked a bus carrying illegal loggers armed with machine guns in Michoacán associated with the Mexican drug cartel La Familia Michoacana. They assumed control over the town, expelled the police force and blocked roads leading to oak timber on a nearby mountain. Vigilante activity has spread to the nearby community of Opopeo. The government of Mexico has recognized Cherán as a self-governing indigenous community, but criminals continue to murder residents in the forest.

There are many more examples.

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