Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 6, 2006, Winnipeg, Manitoba Editor Morley Walker / 697-7307 b8 email Winnipeg free press sunday August 6, 2006 books warning this novel May affect your in whodunit who cares someone gag the narrator the secret desires of a soccer mom by Robyn Harding Ballantine books 285 pages $30 reviewed by Wendy Burke s sometimes Chick lit is like gum. It freshens things up and leaves a Good taste in your Mouth. Other times it makes you want to Chew it up and spit it out. Guess which one this is. The secret desires of a soccer mom by Vancouver based Robyn Harding is set among a group of Sun driving sub Urban stay at Home moms. One of them Karen confesses to the narrator Paige that she is having an affair with the muscular male Model from her life drawing class. By Day he is a barista. And he a spa Anish Paige says. Of Yummy before Long Karen turns up dead. Face Down in the garage with a Nasty whack to the head. Is it an Accident or a murder is the murderer her husband her Lover a wandering nut Job everyone is willing to go along with the incredibly unlikely Accident scenario except our intrepid narrator. She proceeds to investigate. Much embarrassment follows. The Only real mystery in this whodunit homicide novel is this Why in hell does to somebody please murder that witling of a narrator this Ninny of a woman and the other stay at Home moms who populate the imaginary suburb of Aberdeen mists read like they were cribbed from a to series. A desperately bad to series in Case you missed the connection. Spending 285 pages with these card Board dolls is enough to drive a real stay at Home mom to the liquor Cabinet Long before the accepted 4 . Start time. The painfully awkward moments in this Harding a second novel rival even the most cringe inducing episodes of tvs frasier. You know the ones ? the episodes where at two and a half minutes in the audience can see that frasier is going to humiliate himself so completely that it is impossible to watch any further. Imagine that scenario chapter after chapter. Or picture this scenario its a horror movie. The bosom Blond is about to walk into the garage where the Creepy whacked out psycho murderer is wait ing with a pair of gardening shears and the audience is screaming in their Heads Don to go in there because they know the bosom Blond is going to come to a Sloppy end. In soccer mom the Reader is scream ing at the narrators every move Don to follow through on your stupid inane adolescent plan because you re going to humiliate yourself in a stupid inane adolescent Way yet again this would be the time to Point out that Harding a previous novel was entitled the journal of mortifying moments. Readers we have a theme its not enough that Paige refers repeatedly to her 38-year-old Post baby breasts As popped is there a shortage and consequent rationing of metaphors that the literary world should know about her self deprecation is just Plain unfunny. Note for instruction on How to write self deprecation for laughs please see any episode of the Mary Tyler Moore show that features the character Rhoda Morgenstern. Paige is the kind of woman who writes out self improvement lists that include such things As re sexual zing her relationship with her husband. She is so addle rated that when she decides to Google some research into her Young sons proclivity for potty Mouth she types in compulsive butt Hole touching in Young boys and is shocked to have her screen fill up with porn. Car ugh make it a double please. To top it off in spite of her glaringly obvious Lack of self esteem men who Are not her husband Are inexplicably attracted to her and her popped apparently a Good healthy sense of self is no longer a prerequisite for attracting the opposite sex. Pass on this one. You la never get the time Back. Wendy Burke is a Winnipeg freelance writer and stay at Home mom. She does not drive an Sun. Author looks at human Cost of americas War on terror the one percent doctrine deep inside americas Pursuit of its enemies since 9/11 by Ron Suskind Simon & schuster 384 pages $37 reviewed by Rebecca Walberg just As his fathers presidency will always be linked in popular memory to the Gulf War George w. Bush will be known As the president who started americas War on it is Only now almost five years after 9-11, that the response to this unprecedented attack can be viewed with something approaching Hindsight. Ron Suskind the american author of the bestselling and highly critical study of Bush a Cabinet the Price of loyalty now turns his attention to the individuals managing and carrying out americas fight against islamic terror. The spectacular failures and successes of the War on terror Are known to All who read the news. For each of these events though there Are 100 things Hap pening under the surface known Only to Anonymous agents and a handful of Man agers and bureaucrats on the other Side of the world. It is their world that Suskind Hopes to portray. The stories and experiences told by these men and women Are the heart of the Book. Their accounts paint a vivid and disturbing picture of committed men and women who Are forced to make snap judgments in an atmosphere of unbelievable pressure and stress. The title of the Book comes from a briefing very shortly after 9-11, at which . Secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld Laid out his vision of How the threat of weapons of mass destruction in enemy hands ought to be assessed. The threat such a weapon would pose ? and the absence of deterrent that placed some restraints upon the cold War ? mean that an intelligence failure on such a matter could result in the total destruction of a City. With stakes so High therefore rums Feld established this Rule if there were a one per cent Chance that an enemy Agency might acquire a nuclear weapon for example official policy must assume paperbacks that it is a certainty that they will do so and respond accordingly. The Clear presentation of this doctrine makes comprehensible much current american foreign policy. The proportionality of the response May be questioned but the decision to take immediate action against even a one per cent possibility of a catastrophic terrorist attack seems in Light of the character of the enemy prudent. The threshold for decisive action has perhaps never been so Low but the Price of failure equally has never been so High. The greatest strength of the Book is in the compassionate sometimes intimate approach to the revelations of the foot soldiers of the War. It is Only right for proponents and critics of the War on terror alike to be reminded of the human Cost of their decisions not Only in terms of innocent bystanders who Are killed but also with respect to americans serving their coun try at great personal risk. While the identities of the contributors to Suskind a Book Are kept hidden and identifying details carefully have some reliable Garden shears nearby expunged the voices of these men and women come through nonetheless. And Suskind draws attention to unlikely allies in the War on terror the Mem Bers of Al Aida and similar groups who at tremendous personal risk assist the . In penetrating their closed societies. This focus on personalities is also a weakness in different aspects of Suskind a work. He places much emphasis on the perception of Bush by . Vice president Dick Cheney and former Cia director George Tenet among oth ers As his fathers son and flirts with the cliche analysis of Bush enacting foreign policy to avenge his fathers besmirched reputation. Serious analysts of Bush and his policy whether supporters or critics have Long ago left behind this sort of psycho logical assessment in favour of the Ever growing body of information about the actions and statements of the major players spurning third hand accounts of Bush family relationships. Rebecca Walberg is a writer at Winnipeg a Frontier Centre for Public policy. The ruins by Scott Smith Knopf 336 pages $33 reviewed by Patrick Beach the foliage is Hun Gry and it has a Han Kering for tourist. Any discussion of Scott Smiths Long awaited second novel has to give away that much. The Guy auspiciously debuted in 1993 with a simple plan a tale of a Money grubbing knot of folks scratching each others eyes out Over $4 million found in a downed plane. It was deservedly a bestseller and got turned into an excellent movie by a pre spider Man Sam Raimi. But where a simple plan was about Man made evil and greed ? essentially a retelling of the treasure of the Sierra Madre and Many other tales ? the malevolent Force looming in the ruins is a Hun Gry sentient acid spewing Vine. The vines victims Are a Small group of Young tourists in Cancun on a Long Holiday. They re slipping into a Sun and tequila fuelled torpor one of them a German named Mathias has had a spat with his brother Hen Rich who has departed to Hook up with a girl at an alleged abandoned mine and current archaeological dig near a mayan Village. After Henrichs been gone for a while his friends set out to retrieve him ? a Little Day trip a bus ride an adventure then Back to the hotel in time for dinner. Now you might think being stalked by a flesh eating Plant is suitable punishment for anybody who vacations in Cancun a place about As authentically mexican As Taco Cabana. But Smith has really unpleasant plans for these knuckleheads who Veall marched straight from Central casting. Once our sunburned tourists Are trapped with the malevolent Vine ? the mayan villagers try to keep them out then wont let them leave ? they re left to fend for themselves rationing a meagre Day trip Supply of snacks water and it being Holiday and All tequila wondering when or if the cavalry will ride to their Rescue. No there a not much new in this collision of Little mayan Village of horrors and the thing but Smith is very Good ? All two times he a done it ? at this kind of storytelling. Archetypal or Low concept you make the Call. It does to matter. This is looking to be the guilty pleasure read for the summer of ought six. For a Reader to get a thrill out of such a Book several things need to take place a certain velocity is required there has to be enough Gore that the Reader is compelled to Wear goggles and the characters have to be different enough that they re distinguishable from one another and we care about them at least a Little. Only when these criteria Are met ? and Smith meets All three ? can we relax and enjoy the ride experienc ing that uncharitable Lizard brain tickle of thinking i a sure glad i a not the dude who a flaying himself because a Plant is eating him from the or As Smith puts it blood was seeping and dripping and running in thin strings off him pooling in the hollows around his Clavicle Welling upward from his deeper in addition to the flaying one unlucky contestant gets shall we say a rather novel Severance package. After a while the mystery in to what a knocking off the tourists but in what order they la be whacked and How the greek the capable one the slutty water thief no not her she a bad so she needs to live for a while. Another mystery is what the Vine is so angry about. Salad bars is the ruins As Good As a simple plan almost but not quite because planes full of millions of dollars could crash but plants Don to eat people not even in Mexico. But resistance is futile. Read it on the Beach. Put the dust jacket from Michael pollans the omnivores dilemma natural history of four meals around it if you re self conscious. Pretend to underline a passage about the Virtues of grass fed beef As the Vine sups on yet another victim. Patrick Beach writes for the Austin american statesman. ? Cox newspapers everything rides on opening weekend for new movie by David Pitt As you re probably aware the pirates of the Caribbean film sequel set new Box office records on its opening weekend. Its big news and not just on the entertainment pages. How did the amount of Money a movie makes get to be so All fired important anyway for the answer to this and Many other burning questions Check out open wide How Hollywood Box office became a National obsession Miramar books 438 pages $19by . Entertainment writ ers Dade Hayes and Jonathan Bing. The authors track three big movies from Conception through to opening Day we see How the movies Are marketed merchandised hyped sold positioned and unleashed upon the world. In a relatively Bleak comment on the state of movie making the authors make it Clear that More than Ever before movies Are considered to be transient products. Gone Are the Hollywood Days when movies were gently released and then Hung around for several weeks or months. Now a movie is made and marketed to make As much Money As pos sible on its first three Days its All about opening weekend. A fascinating Book. In american novelist Mark Nykanen a search Angel hyperion 360 pages $10a woman who reunites adopted children with their birth parents is shocked to learn that someone is murdering her clients. But its How Suzanne Trayle learns this that really throws her for a Loop the psychopath who Calls himself the searcher contacts her and tells her All about it. The searcher also tells Suzanne that if she tries to Stop him he will kill her son who she has to seen since she put him up for adoption. Can she find out who the killer is and Why he a fixated on her before he kills again although its not quite As Good As the Bone Parade and hush Nykanen a two previous thrillers it packs a Wallop. Suzanne Trayle in to the Only one who a in jeopardy. So is Alice Glendenning a recent widow whose children Are kid napped and held for a Ransom that is exactly the same amount As her late husbands life insurance and which the insurance company is in no big hurry to pay out. Alice in jeopardy pocket 372 pages $11one of american novelist de Mcbain a last books is ? no Surprise Here ? a sharply written tightly plotted mystery. Its written in the present tense something a Little different for Mcbain but it gives the Story an immediacy a what a going to happen next Quality that makes you unable to Stop Reading. If you think lord Vishnu a love handles Simon & schuster 294 pages $19 is an offbeat title you should read the Book. Will Clarke an american has put together a Story about love espionage government bureaucracy Eastern philosophy and Disneyland. Us and a few other things too but they re Best left unrevealed Here. The Story Well if you must. Travis Anderson is psychic perhaps. He a being audited by the irs and he a broke. So when a government Agency offers to make his financial troubles go away in return for a few simple extra sensory favours he jumps at the Chance. The Story is Only half the fun Here. The other half is the nimble witty sarcastic and just Plain weird storytelling style Clarke has adopted. Halifax freelancer David Pitts column appears the first sunday of every month ;