Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 4, 1993 TAG: 9307040264
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: 5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
By Madison Smartt Bell. Harcourt, Brace & Co. $23.95
The title of this book refers to an apocryphal statement attributed to a prisoner just before his execution in the electric chair. When asked if he had any last words, the man was supposed to have said "Save me, Joe Louis," invoking an almost supernatural faith in the ability of the then heavyweight champion to overcome adversity.
In a style reminiscent of Elmore Leonard, Madison Smartt Bell crafts a trio of unlikable petty criminals who band together to try to make a living using small quantities of armed robbery, automatic teller fraud and extortion. Life appears to moving along as smooth as can be expected when one of the trio starts on a slow, downward spiral of increasing violence. As robberies and life become more violent, the three men begin to argue among themselves. Eventually a bloody confrontation leaves a single survivor. Comparisons to Elmore Leonard refer to the well defined characters and the seedy ambience of the novel. As for plot, well, to quote a phrase, "Help me, Joe Louis." - LARRY SHIELD
Child of Silence.
By Abigail Padgett. The Mysterious Press. $17.95.
I opened this debut novel figuring it would be at best a no-review, and at worst so crassly exploitative that it should be excoriated.
That's because the cover jacket described the book as "the first to feature an investigator struggling with manic depression." Moreover, the case assigned to investigator Bo Bradley is that of a young boy who, discovered in an abandoned mountain shack, is deaf.
But I figured wrong. "Child of Silence" is a taut, suspenseful mystery that treats both Bradley's manic-depressive disorder and the child's deafness sensitively, sensibly and, so far as this reader could tell, realistically.
Set against a Tony Hillerman-like backdrop of desert scenery and native-American culture, author Abigail Padgett makes neither too little nor too much of Bradley's mental illness. It is not a mere inconvenience, like being left-handed or color blind, that's easily sidestepped and forgotten. Still, Bradley is not utterly without resources in the struggle to cope with it.
Padgett clearly distinguishes between disease and evil. The villain of the piece isn't manic depression; rather, it is greed and lust for power - old-fashioned sin, in other words, not to be confused with illness.
In "Child of Sickness," that sin at times comes forth so grossly as to stop just short of caricature. But it also is presented in forms _ bureaucratic numbness, for example - more mundane, and hence more familiar and believable. Padgett has been a court investigator in San Diego and now works as an advocate for the mentally ill. Judging from her memorable first effort, she now may br embarking on a long career as a mystery novelist.
- GEOFF SEAMANS
Restoration.
By George F. Will. The Free Press. $19.95.
It isn't every day that the unyielding, unwavering dean of American conservative political commentary changes his mind. George F. Will, once the one-man band marching in the face of those singing the praises of legislative term limits, has done an about-face and is now in perfect harmony with those wanting to see politicians only so long.
There was a time, says Will in "Restoration," when a public servant would bounce among local, state and federal offices, demonstrating no difference in his commitment to the seats. That time was the 19th century. But today, deliberative democracy, at whatever level, takes a back seat to its holders' careers - and there may be but one way to save it. Will supports wholeheartedly the concept of term limits by recounting the way the public service once was and the way politics now is. Where in the first century of congress (1789-1889) there was no time where there were more than 18 sitting representatives with more than 12 years of consecutive service, there have been as many as 198 at a single time with such a record in the second century. Today, they come and they stay.
That which is most illustrative of today's careerists' determination to stay put, Will suggests, is the gerrymandering of congressional districts after the 1990 census. He offers in black and white several district maps so illogically muddled that Rorscharch's inkblot tests are crystal clear and perfectly sensible in comparison. Congressional districts are now redrawn not for the sole purpose of ensuring the optimal benefits of proportional representation, but to increase an incumbent's chances for re-election, or to produce some other particularly desired electoral result.
"Restoration" is not just a book about the present state of American politics, though the results of numerous recent referenda on term limits overwhelmingly support both Will's assessment of the public mood and the concept he is arguing. It is also an academic look at a political past distinguished in Founding Father philosophy as well as a rhetorical examination of America's commitment to a government of integrity. In short, "Restoration" is Will's well-founded, well- reasoned plea for congresses present and future to begin acting like those of old, where public service was the aim of deliberative democracy, and politics was simply something to be endured.
\ Larry Shield trains dogs and horses in Franklin County.\ Geoff Seamans writes editorials for this newspaper.\ Preston Bryant is an aide to Del. Vance Wilkins, R-Amherst.
by CNB