‘Prince of Beverly Hills’ fast-paced, full of suspense

Editor’s Note: Maine Bound is a column featuring new books written by authors set in the Pine Tree State or with other local ties.

THE PRINCE OF BEVERLY HILLS, by Stuart Woods, G.P. Putnam, New York, 2004, 315 pages, hardcover, $25.95.

The prolific suspense author, a Mount Desert Island summer resident, returns with a bit of a departure.

Set in 1930s Hollywood, “The Prince of Beverly Hills” is Rick Barron, who, when the novel opens, has just been busted back down to patrolman. After he rescues an up-and-coming leading man from a sticky legal situation, Rick soon finds himself tabbed as security chief for Centurion Pictures, one of the hottest studios in town.

In the fast-paced novel set in Tinseltown’s golden age, Rick protects the studio’s interests, tangles with local mobsters, dates starlets, rises up the studio’s food chain and even gets involved in the war effort. Woods does a masterful job of mixing historical figures in with his own colorful characters and creating a satisfying whole.

Woods has made his mark with novels featuring recurring protagonists lawyer Stone Barrington, police chief Holly Barker and politician Will Lee. He has also written a number of stand-alone books. Since “The Prince of Beverly Hills” covers only a few years in Rick Barron’s life, it seems a shame to use such a well-developed character only once. Maybe Woods will bring back the two-fisted studio executive in the future.

Dale McGarrigle can be reached at 990-8028 and dmcgarrigle@bangordailynews.net.

PIERCED BY THE SEASONS: LIVING A LIFE ON THE COAST OF MAINE: POEMS AND HAIKU, by Elizabeth W. Garber; The Illuminated Sea Press, Belfast, Maine, 2004; 80 pages, paperback, $16.

College students, when asked to explain what they believe to be the main use of poetry in a culture, in recent years have taken to giving one of two replies: Almost invariably they explain either that poetry is a means of exposing social injustice, or that it’s an outlet for emotions.

The poems in Elizabeth Garber’s new book, “Pierced by the Seasons,” mirror the latter notion, thank goodness. Effusive observations on the pleasures and pains of life mob the book, and many readers will see their own reflections at many points, much to their delight no doubt. There are love poems and depictions of shimmering seas and quaint Maine winter scenes.

Among the most memorable expressions of emotion are poems addressed to the author’s children. Many mothers will recognize the sentiments of “In the Changing Rooms,” which reflects happily and wistfully on an afternoon spent trying on clothes with a daughter. Others may even confuse themselves with the speaker of “I Gave You Stories and Gardens,” a reminiscence of a mom on her grown-up son’s childhood.

These poems’ main strength is that they actually express feelings, instead of petrifying them in the postmodern manner with a pretense of detached objectivity. The sentiments here are real enough and, as we say, “accessible,” which is a code word meaning “easy to understand.” Many readers will respond favorably to this.

At the same time, the effusiveness pours from very loose language. Most of the poems are made of long, wandering, undisciplined lines whose shapes shift unpredictably. The sharpest poems are the tersest ones (though not the intersprinkled “haikus,” which are mostly a masquerade of some kind). “The Gift,” which concerns a dream about diving, is sharply enough stated that some echo of Adrienne Rich by way of Rod McKuen may be discernible.

Still, none of this matters at all if the purpose of poetry is simply to let out emotions. These poems definitely discharge feelings recognizable in verse back to the 19th century romantics, just updated in 21st century imagery and form. There is, however, more to poetry than expressing ourselves, which is what we do in youth, and it involves creation, which is what we do in maturity.

Elizabeth Garber is an acupuncturist who lives in Belfast. Her previous books include “Grabbing Down Deep into the Wailing Room and Re-Emerging Through the Fire” and “Finding the Beloved.”

Dana Wilde can be reached at dana.wilde@umit.maine.edu.

CHANGING MAINE: 1960-2010, edited by Richard Barringer, Tilbury House Publishers, Gardiner, Maine; 2004, 468 pages, $20.

Richard Barringer has spent several decades carefully assessing where Maine has been and where it’s heading in important public policy areas. This book, which belongs in every Maine reference collection, seems to me to be his most ambitious and interesting work to date.

Barringer, a research professor at the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine, assembled 23 policy gurus – the kind of people reporters call up before writing complicated trend stories – to look at Maine’s economic viability, community vitality and ecological integrity since 1960.

The result is a mosaic of incisive essays, usually beginning with some startling facts and figures about the way things were four decades ago and ending, often frustratingly, against the brick-wall dilemmas our politicians have been trying to cope with for years. Maine has changed dramatically since 1960. One might want to call it progress, but many of these changes have simply caused new problems.

For example, Peter Mills, R-Cornville, explains how the tax system that has evolved from enormous new sources of revenue on sales and personal incomes, along with federal largesse, created a brave new world of state services within a system so unstable that it threatens to crumble every time there is an economic downturn. In the meantime, Mainers show less and less inclination to pay higher taxes to maintain or increase these services.

Kenneth Palmer, a professor of political science at the University of Maine, traces the conflict between citizen participation and the rise of professionalization in state government that led to term limits, a development that is getting more and more bad reviews. Now, with calls for greater regionalization that will supposedly save tax money, the clash has refocused on local government. Will Mainers give up local control – their multitude of town, county and school district boundaries – to save a few bucks?

Cheryl Harrington, an energy consultant and a former member of the Maine Public Utilities Commission, traces the evolution of energy sources and the chaotic efforts to create an energy policy. If you remember the Northeast power blackout of 1965, OPEC, the battles over such mega-projects as the Dickey-Lincoln dam project and the Machiasport oil refinery, and other energy donnybrooks, Harrington will explain for you how they all fit in with the larger energy pressure cooker we face today, including the current debate on liquefied natural gas. She explains how, while demanding more and more power, we have failed to deal with reality, just like the rest of the country. Someday we will pay the price.

As a former reporter and editorial writer at the Bangor Daily News, I interviewed more than half the writers in this excellent, if sometimes dry, book. I’m looking forward to reading more of the essays by people such as Deirdre Mageean (demographics), Evan Richert (sprawl), Lloyd Irland (forests), James Wilson (fisheries), David Silvernail (education) and others to bring myself up to date.

Wayne E. Reilly can be reached at wreilly@bangordailynews.net.