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Editor’s Note: Maine Bound is a column featuring new books that are either by Maine authors set in the Pine Tree State or have other local ties.
THE PIRATE ROUND, by James L. Nelson, William Morrow, New York, 2002, 366 pages, $24.95.
In the early 1700s, calling themselves the Red Sea Rovers, American seafarers began preying on treasure ships, laden with gold, silver, gems, pearls, ivory, spices and silk. The gilded, high-sterned vessels belonged to the Great Mogul, the ruler of India, who exacted vast payments from the people of the lands under his rule.
To intercept the Moorish treasure ships, the privateers sailed “The Pirate Round,” a sea route to the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. The Roundsmen returned rich men, some having made a life’s fortune in one voyage.
James L. Nelson, a Harpswell resident who has served as a seaman, rigger, boatswain and officer on various sailing ships, has written a lively, suspenseful novel about a Virginia tobacco farmer who resorts to pirating to save his plantation from ruin. “The Pirate Round” is the third in Nelson’s “Brethren of the Coast” series. The first and second books were “The Guardship” and “The Blackbirder.”
Fans of the late historical novelist Patrick O’Brian and his Aubrey-Maturin series will enjoy “The Pirate Round.” O’Brian called Nelson “a master of his period and the English language.”
Set in 1706-1707, “The Pirate Round” follows Thomas Marlowe, who had forsworn piracy to become a gentleman plantsman in Williamsburg, Va., but sets sail again in his privateer the Elizabeth Galley to ship his own tobacco to market in England. On the London docks, Marlowe encounters an old enemy from his pirating days and is forced to beat a quick exit.
Marlowe, his wife, Elizabeth, and crew strike out for Madagascar and a high seas adventure that will have readers gripping the gunwales until the end. – Letitia Baldwin
Chilly thriller
COLD HEART, by Chandler McGrew, Bantam Books, New York, 2002, 304 pages, paperback, $5.99.
Bethel native Chandler McGrew chose wisely when selecting the setting for his first novel. He even does an admirable job of invoking the isolation and erratic climate inherent in the backcountry of his former home state, Alaska.
If only he’d developed most of the characters in this psychological thriller as well.
At the center of “Cold Heart” is Micky Ascherfeld – a traumatized former Houston police officer who is still haunted by the violent murder of her parents and who leaves her career after her partner and lover gets shot on the job. She follows her therapist north to Alaska to escape from her past.
Readers get introduced to the likable residents of McRay, struggling to make a living in harsh territory. Then the obvious psycho killer (the mirror sunglasses and the pistol strapped to his hip give him away) in their midst commences to picking them off, one by one.
So the novel comes down to the question of whether Micky can overcome the ghosts of her past to keep herself and the other survivors alive against this one-man arsenal.
“Cold Heart” remains violent and predictable almost all the way through. McGrew comes up with a twist ending, but it doesn’t ring particularly true. By that point, many readers will have already been left out in the cold. – Dale McGarrigle
Bright light
THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL IS AN ONCOMING TRAIN: AND 947 OTHER PITHY PROUNCEMENTS ON LIFE FROM THE CYNICAL SIDE OF THE TRACKS, by Stephen Wicks, Andrews McMeel Publishing, Kansas City, Miss., 2001, 246 pages, $10.95.
Sometimes, in the grimmest of circumstances, humor can do much to lighten the load. A little levity can provide some relief from grappling with cancer, mourning someone’s death or dealing with another life crisis.
University of Maine English professor Stephen Wicks offers such a comic infusion in “The Light at the Tunnel is an oncoming Train.” This wry, entertaining book contains nearly 1,000 quotes from world-class cynics such as Dorothy Parker and Fran Lebowitz on topics ranging from love to politics.
Wicks edited “The Great Divide: The Best Quips and Quotations on Men, Women and the Battle of the Sexes.” He is the author of “Warriors and Wildmen: Men, Masculinity, and Gender.”
“Life deals all of us a bad hand now and then, and the human race never fails to remind us of its shortcomings,” Wicks writes in the introduction to “The Light at the Tunnel.” “If life is a disease, as many cynics have proposed, then the quotations collected in this volume offer plenty of evidence that laughter is the best medicine.”
Dorothy Parker, a satirical poet and short-story writer who reviewed theater and books for the New Yorker from 1927 to 1933, seems to be one of Wicks’ favorite cynics. He recalls Parker’s last years of life, when she had become increasingly addicted to alcohol. Hospitalized, Parker informed her doctor that she would need to leave every hour or so for a drink. The doctor warned Parker that she would be dead in a month if she didn’t stop drinking. Parker replied, sighing, “promises, promises.”
“The Light at the Tunnel” is divided into 11 chapters centered around themes such as “To Be Or Not To Be: Life and Death, Birth and Immortality” and “Cupid’s Arrow: Men and Women, Love and Marriage, Romance and Sex.”
On life, Ogden Nash is quoted as saying “Life is not having been told that the man has just waxed the floor.”
Lily Tomlin: “We are all in this alone.”
Groucho Marx: “The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.”
On men and women, Matt Groening says “Women love cats. Men say they love cats, but when women aren’t looking, men kick cats.”
George Burns: “I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury.”
Steve Martin: “I believe that sex is one of the most beautiful, natural, wholesome things that money can buy.”
I found Wicks’ funny little book a welcome respite and wouldn’t hesitate to tuck it in the suitcase of a friend bound for an extended hospital stay or coping with another of life’s harsh blows. – Letitia Baldwin
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