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Nonfiction To learn, go teach THE MOUNTAINS IN ART HISTORY Edited by Peter Mark, Peter Helman, and Penny Snyder 132 pp. Wesleyan University Press Reviewed by Sue Ellis This group of essays takes a scholarly look at why we find mountains inspirational. We like to contemplate them, hike their trails, crest their summits and ski down their slopes. We feel God’s presence in a towering peak or a breathtaking drop in elevation. Some 18 th century writers/philosophers felt that the word, “sublime” seemed the perfect adjective to describe so majestic a vision. Little wonder then, that artists are drawn to capture them on canvas or through other artistic mediums. Each essay, by Wesleyan University students, contains one student’s unique perspective on a period in time or a particular artist chosen for his/her contribution to mountain art. The diversity of the essays is wide-ranging. In “Arnold Fanck and German Bergfilm,” by Jackson Sabes, we learn of Dr. Arnold Frank (1889-1974), a German film...

Fiction Death of the Butt God THE CHÂTEAU By Paul Goldberg 384 pp. Picador Reviewed by Lynne M. Hinkey, author of Marina Melee The Château is a humorous, often tragic, look at what it means to be an American, an immigrant, and an outsider in the land of opportunity. According to the back cover, The Château, is the story of down-and-out former-science reporter, William M. Katzenelenbogen. Newly fired from his job at the Washington Post , he finds new purpose investigating the seamy death of his college roommate, the famous plastic surgeon known as “The Butt God of Miami Beach.” While his investigation runs softly through the background, that storyline turns out to be a relatively minor subplot, as do the shenanigans of the board of directors at his father’s south Florida condo. Both of these play more of a supporting role giving context to the real stories of father-son relationships and the great political divide in America today. Goldberg gives us a mix of eccentric characters, like...

Fiction A manuscript to kill for HOLMES ENTANGLED By Gordon McAlpine 215 pp. Seventh Street Books Reviewed by Eric Petersen Gordon McAlpine, the master of avant garde mystery metafiction, is back with a new novel. His previous novels, Woman With a Blue Pencil and Hammett Unwritten , are also reviewed on this site. Holmes Entangled opens in Buenos Aires, circa 1943. After completing his shift, Jorge Luis Borges, assistant librarian at the Miguel Cane Municipal Library, quickly makes his way to the office of a private detective. In his encounter with the detective, Borges (who somehow knows the exact amount of money in the gumshoe’s wallet) claims that someone is stalking him – an assassin intent on killing him. Why? Because Borges is in possession of a rare manuscript that someone would kill for. The manuscript, called Uncertainty – a True Account , was written by Sherlock Holmes – the real Sherlock Holmes – in the late 1920s. It’s a memoir of the then 73-year-old Holmes’s strangest ...

Nonfiction Not Constantinople ISTANBUL: A Tale of Three Cities By Bettany Hughes 800 pp. Da Capo Reviewed by: David E. Hoekenga, M. D. Riding across modern Istanbul’s crowded streets in a bus, I was struck by the drifts of purple hyacinths in the medians, tall pink tulips and yellow daffodils along the curbs. “Where did these colorful bulb flowers originate?” Our guide asked in flawless English. “Holland” or the “Netherlands,” several guests piped up brightly. “No,” Ruslan answered with pride after a pause. “They all came from the mountains of Turkey.” As we drove around the modern city of Istanbul, we saw part of the three cities—Byzantium, Constantinople (you know the song as well as I do-it’s Istanbul not Constantinople), and of course Istanbul—from the Hagia Sophia to the Blue Mosque to the Topkapi Palace to the Ortakoy Mosque. You travel by motor to understand the layout of much of this town of sixteen million people along the Bosporus, a narrow north south channel of water connec...