Renaldo by James McCreath

I came across a galley of this book recently, first published in 2006. The summary said it was about the 1978 FIFA World Cup held in Argentina during the time of rule by a military junta, widespread domestic terrorism, and further class distinction. Based on it subject matter (the World Cup that Argentina won over the Netherlands) and that the main character, Renaldo, was an unknown who came out of nowhere to be their new star, I figured this was a young adult book along the line of sports journalist Mike Lupicia’s long series of titles for young readers. So I thought, why not. 

What I got was “Roots - Argentina style.” 

(I’m no Alex Hailey so I’m not going to go into excessive detail on this family’s life or the dozens and dozens and dozens of characters with speaking parts.)

In the late 1800’s, teenage Lonfranco de Seta was put on a ship by his Itallian parents to pave the way for the family to follow. He finds construction work, learns the bosses are sick schmucks, organizes a bit of a revolt, is put in charge to settle the workers down, and turns out to be one shrewd manager. Rises in stature in both business and influence, eventually being well placed within Argentine politics. His second wife is British and becomes as wise in business as her husband. By the time the book ends, the de Seta family was one of Argentina’s wealthiest.

Their son, becomes a physician of note in Buenos Aires, marries a local society woman and they have 2 sons. Lonfranco (Lonnie) is bit and a successful lover. His mother wants him to become a lawyer, but he gets swayed by a college tutor to join a revolutionary movement. The other son, Renaldo, is destined (in his mom’s eyes) to follow the dad into medicine. Dad loves his soccer and in 1966 follows the Argentina National Team to England for the World Cup. After a particular ugly match, passions take over outside the park and Dr. de Seta is struck and killed by a truck. Renaldo was about 9 at the time, Lonnie about 12. 

Both boys sailed through their private school. Lonnie chased the ladies and Renaldo chased a ball. He was good enough to be the youngest player on the Argentina’s U21 National Team, a team largely ignored by the public. 

Renaldo and his coach took the train to watch their home team in a cup match out in the pampas (boondocks). After the match, local hooligans chased down the visiting fans. Renaldo and his coach weave through some alleys to get to the waiting train. In doing so, Renaldo pulls this middle age fat (obese) fan out of harms way. 

Astor Armondo Luis Gordero, aka ‘Gordo’ is a man of some means. Lawyer, entertainment agent, and most importantly, a ‘facilitator’ who can get things done; a guy who tiptoes the line that defines legitimacy. Renaldo’s selfless act means Gordo is at this disposal.That’s not Renaldo’s style, but Gordo insists on a meeting with he and his coach. Gordon learns that Renaldo is quite the player (and his movie idol looks and Greek statue proportioned body surely help), that his coach is a former professional GK, and Gordo has pull within the Argentine Football Federation. He is also the agent for the leading pop singer of the time, Symca. 

You know how this will go. Gordo gets Renaldo a tryout, he makes the team, has issues with the establish pros and being the unknown is treated with little respect. His coach is hired to be the the national team GK coach, Renaldo meets lovely Symca, establishes himself as a legitimate player and stars for Argentina’s winning team. Pretty predictable.

For all the focus on Renaldo (and his family history), the real player here is Gordo. It’s hard to tell about Gordo’s true intentions as at times he seems the ultimate political patriot for the national team and Argentina. Other times he seems to be taking advantage of a twist of fate to become Renaldo’s manager and reap the rewards when Renaldo signs a fat contract. He also is trying to finagle his way to become the financial advisor to Renaldo’s mother and grandmother getting control of one of the biggest private fortunes in Argentina. McCreath doesn’t tell the outcome of Gordo’s dealings, which to me can only mean there will be a followup book that continues the de Seta’s story. 

What ever the outcome, I won’t be reading it, and here are two reasons why. First, reading this in a Kindle, one doesn’t get a real feel for its volume aside from that little % read symbol. I’d read a ton and still wasn’t 20% into the book so I looked it up to see if I could find the page count - around 600 pages. It was just sooooooo long. I didn’t see the need to make this an ‘epic’ story of Argentina’s political and sporting history. But still I finished it. 

We all know that a blog is an opinion so here’s reason #2: this appears to be McCreath’s first novel and to me, it appears to be just that. A first novel. What that means is that I thought the writing style lack a certain maturity. It’s published by BookSurge Publishing, which is an imprint of Amazon, which is code for self published. I seriously doubt that a mainstream publishing editor would think the following were suggestive of an experienced author. Appeared to me to be more like someone ‘trying’ to be creative:

(Renaldo receives a letter from Symca) “He held the letter to his chest and imagined her cheering as he scored the winning goal. That would be heaven on earth.”

(as it becomes apparent that Argentina will beat the Netherlands in the final) “Orange anguish escalated as the sands of time slid through the hourglass.”

(after Renaldo and Symca celebrate the win) “He was saddened that he would never again taste the fruits of her bounty.”

(Permission to pull your finger from down your throat granted.)

Stuff like that permeated the book. And I was starting to wonder if the author was expecting to be paid in proportion to the use of the exclamation point. 

And yet, I still struggled on. Why? Because the descriptions of the Renaldo’s training, his teammates, and each match were the highlights of the book (Hey, I am first and foremost, a soccer guy). Not that the historical stories weren’t interesting. That aspect of the story just didn’t need to take up maybe 60% or more of the book. A lot of online reviews gave this 5 stars, but if we here at MRB used a star system, I’d probably give it a begrudging 3 stars. Good view of the soccer, maybe too much depth into Argentina’s social/political history, all wrapped up in an overly flowery box by a novice trying to tie an epic bow.

ECD

Returning to Earth

Warning – this book is way out of our usual genre. Returning to Earth was recommended by a friend, so I spent a day with it. Jim Harrison is a prolific author, but he’s never been reviewed in this blog. This 2007 novel is about Donald, a 45-yo man of Chippewa-Finnish descent, who is dying of ALS. The story takes place in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Donald and his family are grieving for this loss and trying to put the matter in perspective. This work is done with taste and humanity. Donald’s wife, Cynthia, who takes down Donald’s dictation of his multigenerational history before it can be lost forever, says to her progressively more disabled husband, “Whoever we are isn’t for certain.”  The author had David, the brother-in-law of Donald say on a return trip from the deep woods, “I reminded myself that my persistent life question, ‘How do we live with what we know?’ didn’t cover everything and that I might humorously add, ‘How do we live with what we don’t know?’” If you’ve not already thought enough about life and death, or you feel the need to revisit the topic, this book will provide you with a vehicle for lots of contemplation.

Rhythm of the August Rain

This is my first book by Gillian Royes, although she has written five other novels. This is the fourth in a series about Shadrack Myers, a local Jamaican bartender and charismatic personality who serves as Largo Bay’s private investigator. While this is a murder mystery, it is mostly a story about relationships. Shad’s boss, Eric has a problem. 13 years earlier, he had been involved with Shannon who despite Eric’s stated wish never to have children, got pregnant and decided to have the baby. She promptly left Jamaica to return to Michigan where she worked as a photographer and writer. Eric faithfully sent money for this child, Eve, even though he had only seen her twice. As her 13^th birthday approached, she had never visited Jamaica. Both parents seemed resentful of one another and neither was willing to work towards some better understanding of their situation. Meanwhile, Eric started a new relationship with Simone who after spending a year in Jamaica, had returned to her life in Atlanta while maintaining contact with Eric. In this book, Shannon and Simone were set on a collision course.

Shannon, who was traveling the world for her photojournalist assignments, was sent to Jamaica on a two-fold assignment. Her editor wanted her to research and write about the Rastafarians, but she also wanted her to solve a 35-year-old murder that had taken place there. The death of Katlyn Carrington and the disappearance of her body somehow also involved the Rastafarians. Meanwhile, Eve had turned into a resentful and troubled teenager who did not want to accompany her mother to Jamaica. She complained that her father had never shown any real interest in her and she did not look forward to the chance to get to know him. Of course, Eric’s life was anything but simple and Simone was expected to arrive for a visit while Shannon was still working on her assignment. Meanwhile, Shad’s woman, Beth, who had born him children, was demanding that they finally marry. Shad got wrapped up in the hunt for the Katlyn, which of course impacted the wedding plans, which he hated anyhow.

I though the best part of the book was the information about the secretive Rastafarians, their beliefs, their language, and their society – about which I knew next to nothing. The author wrote a great deal of dialogue in the patois of Jamaica, especially that which is peculiar to the Rastafarians. I thought the murder investigation took a long time to develop, but Royes did a good job tying up all the loose ends by the end of the novel. The book is still in pre-publication, and it should be available from Atria Books by 7/28/15.

The Stranger by Harlan Coben

The Stranger is Harlan Coben’s latest stand-alone mystery, thriller.  Adam and Corinne Price are a reasonably happy couple in small town Cedarfield, New Jersey.  Adam is a property rights lawyer and Corinne is a school teacher and ‘soccer mom’.  Their two sons are avid lacrosse players who both play on travel teams.  One day while at a lacrosse club organizational meeting, a stranger approaches Adam and tells him his wife has been lying to him.  This sets off a chain of events that change the Price family forever.

The stranger tells Adam that Corinne had not had a miscarriage two years earlier as he thought but that she had faked a pregnancy.  The stranger directs Adam to a website offering fake pregnancy paraphernalia for sale.  Adam checks their credit card receipts and finds that Corinne had indeed purchased sonograms, fake pregnancy tests, and a baby bump, all as novelty items.  When Adam confronts Corinne with his suspicions, she says she needs time to explain and disappears leaving only a text saying she will return in a few days.

Adam takes Corinne at her word and tells their sons that Mom is away on a retreat.  But their oldest son, Thomas tracks her cell phone and finds out it was last pinged in Pittsburg.  Adam knew of no reason for Corinne to visit Pittsburg.  Then the local police chief and officers of the boys’ lacrosse team pay Adam a visit looking for Corinne.  They suspect her of embezzling money from the team’s coffers in her role as treasurer.

Meanwhile, without Adam’s knowledge, the stranger strikes again… this time in Cleveland.  He tells a wealthy suburban housewife that her daughter currently attending NYU is involved in an escort service.  The woman is murdered in her home the following day after speaking with her daughter.  The stranger continues his spree of outing secrets of loved ones but sometimes he blackmails the secret holder instead… no apparent pattern.

Adam grows impatient awaiting Corinne’s return and starts to investigate.  He’s reluctant to go to the police because he fears he would become the prime suspect.  With the help of a former client adept in cyber sleuthing, the stranger and several co-conspirators are identified.  Adam then connects the stranger and his posse to the dead woman in Cleveland.  But it makes no sense… why kill the affected party after the sensitive information is revealed?  Could Corinne be dead too?  Is his life in jeopardy as well?  Is his wife involved with something much more notorious and complex than a fake pregnancy?

In The Stranger, Coben does a great job of slowing revealing the story and thus stimulating your imagination and building suspense.  But for me as in most Harlan Coben novels, he brushes up against the plausibility line a little too closely.  His characters don’t quite react the way you’d expect or wish they had.  It’s like he throws in one too many twists.  The ending lacks closure and leaves you somewhat disappointed.  It seems this has become Coben’s trademark… keep them guessing, never conclude as expected.  But then, that’s what bestselling authors do.   

Cold Fire by Dustin Stevens

Jeremiah “Hawk” Tate runs a tour guide service into Yellowstone. Been doing it for a number of years. Started as part of his recovery from an unspeakable act against his family while he worked a particularly nasty branch of the DEA.  

It’s the end of the season, but a woman, with a bit of an Eastern European accent, wants Hawk to take her into the interior to look for her brother who has yet to do his weekly check-in. Against his better judgement (and influenced by a very fat fee) Hawk takes her to a remote campsite. Upon seeing the lost brother, the girl pulls a hand gun, kills the camper and turns the gun on Hawk. The shots are blocked by the buckling system of his pack, but still knock him into the neighboring lake. 

Hawk calls on former skills to avoid showing his face until the shooter starts back out of the wilderness. On his way out, he comes across her body, partially devoured by the permanent residents. 

The dead camper reminds Hawk of an old case so he calls out to his former boss now polishing a chair in a DC office. Both head to San Diego’s DEA office only to find out that a Mexican cartel has been taken over by some Russians who are setting up a distribution network for the newest designer street drug call Krokidil.

To keep this vicious new drug from breaking ground in the US, Hawk will need to cut off supply at the source, meaning Russia, and that means some redemption and revenge for his murdered and tortured family.

Interesting that I have two consecutive books that involve a high octane chase. While not as roughshod as Blown, it still hustles right along at maybe 80mph, still pretty good. One of my favorite tidbits of this book is that Hawk’s former boss uses movie quotes from the old western Jeremiah Johnson (my all time favorite western movie), in deference to his first name. And they pop up at some of the oddest place. 

After enacting some revenge, Hawk is asked, “were it worth the trouble, pilgrim?” He replied appropriately, "Ah? What trouble?"

East Coach Don

Blown by Chuck Barrett

Imagine you are on your Harley Fat Boy headed across Arkansas for El Paso to see if an old flame still carries a torch for him. Imagine you are and ex-Delta who now works for one of those alphabet soup agencies devoted to national security. And imagine your job is wet work for that agency. 

Hunger gets the better of you and you pull into this out of the way joint for some pub grub. Mostly local color. A young fit guy is putting up with this old guy running his mouth about what’s wrong with any and everything. Three grease balls sit at the counter dressed more for Jersey, not for southern heat and humidity. Gregg Kaplan’s radar signals an alert. The sudden turn of the guys at the counter and the resulting exchange of gunfire with the outnumbered young guy pushes Gregg’s ‘help’ button. A quick disarm, a shot or two, and some quick action by the young guy puts the three sleaze balls on the floor with the old guy scrambling for the door. 

The young guy is a US Marshall who is delivering someone to Witness Security (not witness protection - no such service we are told). He’s be mortally wounded in the shootout. As Gregg tries to stem the blood loss, they both find that Delta is a common bond. The dying Marshall pleads on thei

r Delta brotherhood for Gregg to deliver the guy to WitSec, to which Gregg agrees.

Gregg takes off after the witness beginning repeated chases and escapes from the mob, the Marshall’s service, the FBI, and local police. Across Arkansas, Tennessee, eventually ending up in Northern Virginia. At each close encounter, Gregg learns more about this witness and just what put him in line for WitSec. 

One suggestion before starting this book. Find someplace quiet where you won’t be disturbed. Barrett starts the book off with a band and manages to set up blast after blast after blast and Kaplan becomes more suspect of the witness and the possibility of insider info within the Marshall’s service or the FBI.  Author of the best selling Jake Pendleton series, one of which (Breach of Power) has been reviewed here. This one is far better. A 90+ mph mystery. Hope you don’t get carsick easily.

East Coast Don

Gathering Prey by John Sandford

Gathering Prey is John Sandford’s twenty fifth novel featuring Lucas Davenport, the handsome well-dressed investigator for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension with a spectacular case solved rate and a history of pissing off his superiors. In this latest book all of Lucas’ deep seated misgivings with the agency seem to fester as he quarrels with his boss over case assignments and side steps bureaucracy to join the multi-state manhunt for his latest prey, a murderous traveler calling himself Pilate.

While in college at Stamford, Lucas’ adopted daughter, Letty befriends Henry and Skye, a young man and woman who call themselves travelers.  Free in spirit, they travel around the country with a larger group in broken down old cars, panhandling for food and peddling dope for gas money. Now home in Minneapolis for the summer, Letty gets a distress call from Skye.  She is in Sturgis, North Dakota at the annual motorcycle rally and is terrified.  Henry has disappeared and Skye thinks the traveler’s leader, Pilate has murdered him.  Letty advises Skye to board a bus for Minneapolis and gets Lucas involved.  He contacts the Sturgis authorities and learns that Henry has indeed been murdered and through additional networking discovers this Pilate is wanted in connection with a similar murder in L.A. 

Skye thinks the travelers are headed to a Juggalo gathering (a festival for fans of the Insane Clown Posse) in Wisconsin so she hitches a ride to the event and Letty follows. Before Lucas can arrive to save the day, Pilate manages to kidnap Skye, beat up Letty, and kill another victim.  Pilate orders his troop to scatter and rendezvous in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan at another Juggalo gathering the following week.
  

Lucas is out of his jurisdiction and his boss tells him to back off. But Lucas is personally invested now.  Through cell phone use monitoring, he anticipates where the travelers are headed.  He arrives at the isolated town near Sault Ste. Marie in time to organize the local law enforcement.  He finds a competent sheriff but with mostly volunteer deputies. Can they outwit and overpower the elusive and now desperate Pilate before he kills again?  Even if Lucas is successful, what will be the consequences of his insubordination when he returns to Minneapolis?

Gathering Prey is classic Lucas Davenport.  He can play by the rules until they get in the way of protecting his family or getting his man... then they just don’t matter.  But how much longer can Lucas survive in a bureaucracy when he has this attitude?  We see a transition taking form in Gathering Prey.  Lucas is evolving.  He’s getting too old to chase down criminals… the part of the job he loves… and has nearly had his fill of the politics and the paperwork. So what’s next for this maverick?  I can hardly wait to see. 

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

Eric Larson has done it again, this time with Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania. This is a nonfiction work in which he has carefully documented lots of information about all of the main players in the story of the sinking of this British vessel in May 1915, with many Americans on board, which was a crucial event in America’s entry into World War I in April 1917. The Lusitania was a magnificent ship which had already completed 201 crossings of the Atlantic before it was sunk. Larson also captured the details of the geopolitical era that helped explain why this was such an important event.

The career of Captain William Turner was well documented, both before and after the sinking of the Lusitania, but it was not the last vessel that sunk under Turner during the war. The Captain of the submarine that fired the one torpedo that sunk the Lusitania was Kptlt. Walther Schwieger, and his career was also thoroughly detailed, before and after this event. He was a hero in Germany for this action, was put in charge of an even bigger submarine, and continued to sink ships until he was chased into a mine field where everyone aboard his ship was killed. Churchill played an important role throughout the book since he was First Lord of the Admiralty during WWI, and for reasons that were never explained, he tried to blame this disaster on Turner, who successfully was found to have been competent by the Admiralty’s investigation. Woodrow Wilson also played an important role in the story as he worked to keep America out of the war. During this same time, as he mourned the passing of his first wife, Wilson began dating Edith Galt who turned down his first proposal of marriage until she relented to Wilson’s persistence.

Larson captured the action of the day-to-day movements of the Lusitania and U-20 until they met just off the coast of Ireland. It was fateful – so many things could have kept this encounter from happening. Interestingly, the day before the Lusitania sailed from New York, The Germany Embassy published a warning in the New York Times that all ships that entered the war zone around England, including passenger vessels were at risk. But, no one believed the Germans would actually do it, and they thought the Lusitania would easily outrun any attempt by a U-boat to sink it. Did Churchill purposely leave the Lusitania unprotected because he was so eager for America to officially enter the war?

I’ve always found the pre-WWI and WWI period of history to be fascinating, so I’m glad I read this one. At times, the book was a bit tedious, especially with regard to information about the passengers, but this is a definitive work about the Lusitania, and it’s a must read for any fan of the era.

The Wright Brothers by David McCullough

The Wright Brothers by David McCullough is a delightful story of two self-educated, industrious brothers from Dayton Ohio who at the turn of the twentieth century changed life as we know it by inventing, building, and flying the first airplane.  McCullough is fastidious about publishing only the facts which primarily are based on hand written correspondence by Wilbur and Orville Wright to and from their father, their sister, each other and numerous parties they found interested in their quest… this was the age of avid letter writing.

Wilbur and Orville Wright grew up in Dayton, Ohio in a modest six room house with no indoor plumbing or electricity.  Their father was a bishop in the Church of the United Brethren and traveled widely on church business.  The bishop’s only splurge in life was his vast book collection which he strongly encouraged his five children to read.  His collection was diverse for its time and included many classics as well as history, travel, birds, and encyclopedias.  Wilbur and Orville read everything.

Upon graduation from high school, the boys briefly dabbled in the printing and publishing business before opening a bicycle shop near their home in 1893.  Cycling was popular at the time and the boys designed some new models (both wheels the same size), constructed them in their shop and soon were selling about 150 bikes each year.  But the notion of flight intrigued them. They learned much by reading about the German glider enthusiast, Otto Lilienthal who studied birds for clues on how to fly.  Wilbur wrote to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. and requested all that was published about flying machines.  After intense study the boys concluded that controlling the equilibrium of lift, yaw, pitch and roll were essential to safe flying.  

So in 1899 they constructed their first glider to learn first-hand how to put into practice what they had learned in books.  But they needed a better setting to conduct their experiments… someplace isolated with steady winds and sand to soften the landing.  After extensive research, they concluded the outer banks of North Carolina best fit their needs.  So in August of 1900, the brothers built a full sized glider with an eighteen foot wing span and packed and shipped it to the then nearly uninhabited Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.  They built a small workshop where they also lived and from there conducted numerous flights with their glider.  They returned to Dayton in October to tend to their bicycle business and to prepare for subsequent fall visits to Kitty Hawk.  

By the end of 1902 after three trips to the Outer Banks, they felt they had developed the knowledge and flying skill to add a motor to their glider.  After a search for the proper small engine to power their flyer, the boys asked Charlie Taylor, their only employee at the bicycle shop to build an engine.  That fall they made a fourth journey to Kitty Hawk to assemble yet another new and improved flyer complete with the engine.  This machine like all the others was solely financed by the Wrights from proceeds of their bicycle business.  On December 17, 1903 Orville won the toss for piloting the flyer and made the first manned flight of 120 feet in twelve seconds.  Wilbur and Orville took turns and made three more flights that day, the longest being 852 feet in 59 seconds.  Only five people, all local residents witnessed history in the making that day.

So did the newspapers explode with the news and crowds of people turn out to congratulate the Wright Brothers?  No.  Most were skeptical and simply didn’t believe flight was possible.  Even the U.S. government did not seem interested since the war department had spent thousands of dollars in public money to develop flight only to fail.  So after a couple years of demonstrations at Huffman Prairie, an open meadow near Dayton, the Wrights took their invention to France.  A group of French investors were willing to pay $200,000 for one of the Wright Brother’s flyers if some performance criteria could be met and some pilots trained.  Wilbur set off for France where he was met with open arms.  He found a setting near Lemans, built a flyer and held several demonstration flights.  Crowds turned out to watch including kings and military generals from all over Europe.  Much to Wilbur’s dismay, he became a celebrity and all the news media wanted to interview him and write about him.

 

Meanwhile, back in the states, the U.S. government finally offered the Wrights a similar deal as France.  Orville set off to Washington, D.C. and established an air field at Fort Myer just west of Arlington National Cemetery.  Orville flew his flyer numerous times setting many aviation records with crowds of government officials and the general public in attendance.  Orville proved once and for all the Wright Brother’s flyer was the real deal.  It was here during one of his demonstrations that Orville’s plane crashed with a passenger on board who was killed in the accident.  Orville survived but suffered a broken leg and several broken ribs.  His sister Katherine devoted herself to his recovery which took more than a year.  In the meantime, Wilbur took the lead in forming an aviation company and spent precious time defending their patents.  Now everyone wanted credit for what they had accomplished.  Amazingly, the Wrights were not changed by their success and celebrity.  They remained the same mild mannered, hard-working, humble gentlemen they had always been.

I love this story as it resonates with me on so many levels.  I grew up in Ohio about sixty miles from Dayton and the culture of the time is so similar to that of my own ancestors, right down to the work ethic.  The Wright home from 7 Hawthorn Street in Dayton is now on display to the public in Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan.  It is like so many other houses from that area in that time, humble and unremarkable.  While I was growing up, so much of what the Wright Brothers inspired was taken for granted.  The Dayton ‘Flyers’ basketball team, Wright-Patterson Air Force base, and Wright State University are all examples of the Wright Brother’s legacy.  Yet they were inspiring… proof the American dream was possible.  Success was not achieved by who you knew or inherited from your family but by hard-work, self-confidence, and unyielding resolve.  When another Ohio native, Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon in 1969, he carried with him a swatch of muslin from the wing of the Wright’s 1903 flyer, a tribute to what the Wright Brothers had begun only seven decades earlier.