Daily Archives: October 19, 2012

scenes from the 17th

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October 17th, our third anniversary. Saw this at Powerbooks (Greenbelt branch). My book at a window display! And displayed along with horror books. This made me happy.

While waiting for Looper (which you should watch) to start, I saw this cell phone-encrusted robot by Nokia on display.

Robot looks so sad. I’ll sit beside you, robot.

Looper is set in the year 2044. In 2074, time travel has been invented but is outlawed, which pushes its use into the black market and the hands of organized crime. The mob uses time travel to send back anyone they want killed to 2044, and in 2044, in a field in Kansas, a Looper named Joe waits with a blunderbuss, and shoots anyone who is sent back from the future. In this way, no body appears in 2074 that can be connected to the mob, and Joe kills someone who, in effect, does not exist, and gets a good sum for it. But what happens when the mob wants to end your contract, and sends back your own future self? Will Joe be able to pull the trigger?

Don’t read any of the reviews. The fun of the film lies in discovering the secrets along with the characters.

We ended the night with wine. Cheers.

I have two stories that will be appearing in two fine publications:

  • My story “Maybe Another Song at Dusk” will appear in the Literary Section of Monday’s issue of Philippines Graphic. Grab a copy!
  • My story “A Fire That Cannot Be Touched” will be appearing in the 8th volume of the Philippine Speculative Fiction series! This will be edited by Dean Francis Alfar and Nikki Alfar, and will be available via Flipside Publishing in 2013.

broken harbour

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Broken Harbour (Dublin Murder Squad, #4)Broken Harbour by Tana French

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Broken Harbour, #4 Dublin Murder Squad: The story is told by Michael “Scorcher” Kennedy, whom we first met in Faithful Place as Frank Mackey’s asshole of a colleague. The beauty of the first person POV is transformation of judgment: now that Scorcher is your eyes and ears, he is no longer “just” an asshole. He is a living, breathing man shaped by a past, and you begin to understand him.

He and his rookie partner, Richie Curran, receive a case about an entire family living in Brianstown (formerly Broken Harbour) assaulted in their own home. The father and the two little children are dead; the mother is in critical condition. At first they look at the father, Pat. “You would be amazed at how seldom murder has to break into people’s lives,” Kennedy says. “Ninety nine times out of a hundred, it gets there because they open the door and invite it in.” But of course, nothing is ever that simple.

I would have given Broken Harbour 5 out of 5 stars if not for two things: one, the lyricism of the narration, at times, is at odds with the narrator. In In the Woods, The Likeness, and Faithful Place, Tana French has shown skill in shifting voices. She has been so spot-on that she fades into the background, and her character takes center stage. In Faithful Place, for example, I truly believed I am listening to Frank Mackey and not to a woman named Tana French. In Broken Harbour, there are times when I hear Tana French instead of Scorcher Kennedy.

Two, Richie Curran. Richie, Richie, Richie. Richie, a man in his 20s, belonging to a generation obsessed with social networking, who does not understand that people lie about their life online in order to feel better. So let’s say he’s not interested in social networking. (He may have mentioned this in the novel.) Let’s say he only goes online to check his mail. I mean, he doesn’t even know what a “troll” is (though Scorcher knows). But he’s a detective, a cop – how can he not understand that people lie to other people all the time, everywhere, not just online, to feel better about themselves? It’s not a hard thing to understand, Richie!

But despite these frustrations, I couldn’t stop reading. It’s a page-turner with sharp dialogues and smart twists and turns. Tana French once again explores the same themes of Faithful Place – childhood heartaches, nostalgia, the unique insanity and instabilities of a family, the impossibility of completely escaping a broken place – and she does it well. Once again.

I’m still a fan, and I am already waiting for her next book.

View all my reviews