The Ruins
By Scott Smith
Knopf
“This place no good,” the Mexican taxi driver says to the six young tourists as he drops them at a jungle trailhead. “No good you go this place.” And yet they don’t listen. A German, a Greek and four Americans just out of college are vacationing in Cancun when they decide to follow a hand-drawn map into the jungle in search of an archaeological dig. Instead, they find a hill covered with red flowers and a village full of Mayans with bows and arrows. Sounds dicey, but this is a horror novel, and the twist that turns an innocent day-trip into an extended nightmare is not the Mayans (although they are part of the problem) but a far more surreal and insidious villain. We won’t spoil your fun by telling you what it is, but we will say that it’s so strange that it often becomes laughable, which is good because you’ll want something to take the edge off the dreadful surprises these kids endure. The book is a bit long, but only because Smith juxtaposes, very effectively, the horror of the advancing threat and horrors the traumatized tourists visit upon each other and upon themselves. It’s a good summer read.
The Messenger
By Daniel Silva
Putnam
Silva’s ninth novel begins with a bomb and missile attack on a papal audience in St. Peter’s Square, which leaves more than 700 dead and the Basilica in flames. The US government secretly asks Israeli intelligence experts, including Silva’s hero, Gabriel Allon, to find and kill the terrorist behind it. Allon’s plan: Using a lost painting by Vincent van Gogh as bait (it’s a great subplot), he’ll plant a spy in the entourage of the terrorist’s patron, a Saudi billionaire, and wait for the target to show himself. This setup is bold and provocative as Silva’s smart but world-weary characters discuss the politics of violence and Saudi Arabia’s ties to global terrorism and to the US. The second half of the book seems rushed, and isn’t so easy to swallow. The spy (a beautiful art curator with no experience in espionage) is trained too easily, the terrorist appears too quickly and surveillance by Allon’s agents is so sloppy that the bad guys know what they’re doing almost as soon as we do.
Cross Country
By Robert Sullivan
Bloomsbury
Having lived in Pennsylvania for many years, we know, and indeed have set foot in, the town of Bellefonte, not Bellafonte or Bellafante, as Sullivan alternately calls it here. We’d hold this little glitch against him if it weren’t for the fact that we’ve taken a few road trips ourselves, and know how loopy he must have been when he crossed the town line. He had driven Interstate 80 across Pennsylvania, and before that on the Ohio turnpike, and before that on other highways over several days all the way from Oregon, with his wife beside him clutching a TripTik, his kids sagging in the back seat and his so-tired-of-driving heart full of gratitude just because they were all still alive. This is the book to read if you’re mourning the road trip you can’t afford this summer. Sullivan (“Rats”) is funny and congenial, and he writes his travelogue in short sections that make your snack breaks and pit stops easy to plan. A veteran of many cross-country road trips (with varying combinations of children and possessions in tow), he’s a great guide to the scenery outside the car and the melodrama within. Enjoy.
A Sudden Country
By Karen Fisher
Random House
New in paperback is Fisher’s stirring novel about a family’s journey on the Oregon Trail in 1847. Lucy and Israel Mitchell set out from Iowa with five children, two wagons and a marriage that is civil but without passion or accord: Lucy does not want to go west, but Israel insists on it. They join with other families and take on guides, one of whom is James MacLaren, a former fur trader whose Indian wife abandoned him just before his children died of smallpox. The love affair that ensues between Lucy and the sorrowful MacLaren is unlikely and overwrought, but Fisher’s novel is sensuous in so many other, better ways as it follows the wagons through a wild and beautiful country that is destined to change forever. This novel was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and won several other honors. Critics loved it. One called it “an instant classic,” another said it was “a grand, mesmerizing novel,” and others compared it to Charles Frazier’s bestselling novel Cold Mountain. New & Notable said the book was “history brought to life.”
Last week, Viola Zhou published a marvelous deep dive into the culture clash between Taiwanese boss mentality and American labor practices at the Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) plant in Arizona in Rest of World. “The American engineers complained of rigid, counterproductive hierarchies at the company,” while the Taiwanese said American workers aren’t dedicated. The article is a delight, but what it is depicting is the clash between a work culture that offers employee autonomy and at least nods at work-life balance, and one that runs on hierarchical discipline enforced by chickenshit. And it runs on chickenshit because chickenshit is a cultural
By far the most jarring of the new appointments for the incoming administration is that of Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) to head the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF). That is a huge demotion for one of the most powerful figures in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Tseng has one of the most impressive resumes in the party. He was very active during the Wild Lily Movement and his generation is now the one taking power. He has served in many of the requisite government, party and elected positions to build out a solid political profile. Elected as mayor of Taoyuan as part of the
Moritz Mieg, 22, lay face down in the rubble, the ground shaking violently beneath him. Boulders crashed down around him, some stones hitting his back. “I just hoped that it would be one big hit and over, because I did not want to be hit nearly to death and then have to slowly die,” the student from Germany tells Taipei Times. MORNING WALK Early on April 3, Mieg set out on a scenic hike through Taroko Gorge in Hualien County (花蓮). It was a fine day for it. Little did he know that the complex intersection of tectonic plates Taiwan sits
When picturing Tainan, what typically comes to mind is charming alleyways, Japanese architecture and world-class cuisine. But look beyond the fray, through stained glass windows and sliding bookcases, and there exists a thriving speakeasy subculture, where innovative mixologists ply their trade, serving exquisite concoctions and unique flavor profiles to rival any city in Taiwan. Speakeasies hail from the prohibition era of 1920s America. When alcohol was outlawed, people took their business to hidden establishments; requiring patrons to use hushed tones — speak easy — to conceal their illegal activities. Nowadays legal, speakeasy bars are simply hidden bars, often found behind bookcases