Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 12, 1995 TAG: 9503110028
SECTION: BOOK PAGE: F-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
By William Trevor. Viking. $21.95.
``Felicia's Journey'' is being billed as a psychological thriller by the Book of the Month Club, but mystery buffs will find it a tedious trip. A psychological study it is, true, but the thrill is lost in repetition and static action. On page 120, ``People are definitely noticing now.'' By page 121, ``People are noticing now all right.'' And so it goes. (Or doesn't.)
William Tervor grew up in Ireland and lives in England. His writing has been well received on both sides of the Atlantic. He is adept at developing scene, character and dialogue. Both his novels and his short stories have earned well-deserved acclaim. Perhaps ``Felicia's Journey'' simply is a novel that should have been a long short story.
Felicia is a common Irish girl, pregnant, who leaves her hardscrabble home in Ireland to find her lover in Birmingham, England. She knows his name but has no address. As she looks for the lawnmower parts factory where he claimed he worked, she encounters an overweight, unattractive catering manager, Mr. Hilditch, who gives her faulty directions and then begins to stalk her.
Felicia is gullible to the extent of being obtuse, and Hilditch is wheedling and creepy. The most vital character is the Jamaican evangelist, Miss Calligary, whose presence is colorful and whose persistence is unflagging. As the two main characters descend their paths to death and dereliction, the book rises into a greater dimension. Unfortunately, it is too little, too late. Felicia's journey into homelessness is intriguing in concept, but the switchbacks and the unnecessary miles over the same trail make the trek a trudge.
- MARY ANN JOHNSON
Heavy Weather.
By Bruce Sterling. Bantam. $21.95.
Forty years in the future, North America is ravaged by ``heavy weather,'' storms more frequent and violent than anything we have now. The Storm Troupe chases the storms, seeking both thrills and scientific data. The information they gather predicts a tornado, the F-6, larger and more powerful than anything before, and potentially self-sustaining.
Otherwise, this is the story of Alex, who is dying of an unknown genetic disease. He is brought to the Storm Troupe by his sister, who desperately hopes he will not ``mess things up,'' since Alex is a failure in everyone's eyes including his own. While the others eagerly await the F-6, Alex comes to terms with dying; then, surviving the F-6, he returns home to have a doctor cheerfully announce that there is a cure for him after all.
The novel reads well generally but has some major flaws. Sterling demonstrates a distressing tendency to pontificate at inappropriate times. At one point, he has characters literally stand up one after the other and speculate about when humanity lost control of its destiny.
The worst flaw, though, is the climax: the entire book is wired with anticipation of the F-6. The F-6 finally breaks, then stops after smashing into Oklahoma City. Sterling does not explain why it stops, and the characters don't know why, but this is acceptable. What is unacceptable is that Sterling does not describe it. Instead, 50 pages from the end, a minor character suddenly says, ``Hey, I'm a villain,'' spends 20 pages explaining why he is a villain, and then is killed. By the time this is over, so is the tornado.
- WENDY MORRIS
The Book of Man.
By Walter Bodmer and Robin McKie. Scribner. $25.
With the abundance of coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial, the letters DNA are becoming as pervasive as the letters COKE (liquid or powder). Co-written by an a geneticist and a science writer, this book investigates the Human Genome Project. Known and The Book of Man (hence the book's title), the project's goal is to discover and map the more than 100,000 different genes present in the DNA of man. Using this map, scientists hope to be able to predict characteristics and disease present in the genetic material passed on to all people by their parents. Along with the discussion of which gene does what to whom, the project also raises ethical issues of who, when, and what should be told when genetic defects are found.
The authors begin with a historical overview of genetics and DNA investigation from Mendel to Watson to Crick to Franklin. They describe in simple terms the complex chemistry of DNA replication and show how errors in replication lead to problems from manic depression to dwarfism. The authors use the term ``DNA illiterate'' to describe the lack of public understanding of this new science. This book solves the self-created problem, but I'm not sure the problem really needs a solution.
- LARRY SHIELD
Mary Ann Johnson teaches at Roanoke College.
Wendy Morris lives in Blacksburg and works in Roanoke.
Larry Shield trains dogs and horses in Franklin County.
by CNB