SUSPICION NATION-Atty Lisa Bloom Explores the Injustices for Trayvon Martin

It's 2 years since the outrageous verdict permitting the murderer of Trayvon Martin to walk free.  Ms. Bloom, author & legal analyst for major news networks presents cogent arguments of why the prosecutors failed to convince a jury to convict Zimmerman.  Furthermore, Ms. Bloom does not shy away from the racial biases permeating our nation that faill to protect, promote or provide justice for Americans of color.  Sadly, Martin's killing is not an isolated incident.  On the contrary, there has been a massive increase in "justifiable homicides" where black victims have been shot by whites.  Bloom's examination of the fact's in this case not put forth to the jury are shocking.  "In a series of missteps, this very winnable case was lost."  It is evident in Bloom's book how justice was not served. The senseless death of Trayvon and unseemly failure in our justice system cries out for changes & redemption.  SUSPICION NATION addresses the travesty of why these catastrophies continue to occur.  "To prevent future tragedies, we need a new, unflinching look at the uncomfortable issue of race, staring down the buried biases of a nation that so often determine whom we deem suspicious and why."  Bloom's brave & intelligent look at systemic failings in our country heralds reforms abolishing racism & violence and upholds the value of human life.

The Life of an Unknown Man, An Unforgettable Russian Novel by A. Makine

The French (Russian b. 1957) author, Andrei Makine is the recipient of the Nat'l Bk. Critics Award & winner of the top French literary award for his novel, "My Russian Summer."  "Life of an Unknown Man" is a hauntingly inventive novel.  He captures man's immense capacity for cruelty and the indomitable human spirit.  "Life of ..." is the tale of 2 Russian men whose lives overlap.  The younger, but still elderly Shutov, becomes the bearer of the extraordinary life of Volsky:  survivor of the horrors of WWII and the gulags under Stalin's regime.   Shutov is a Russian writer of diminishing acclaim living in Paris with a much younger woman.  When Shutov's lover leaves him he returns to St. Petersberg hoping to recapture his youth & rekindle a former love.  Shutov discovers you can never go home - nothing remains the same.  At the extravagant residence of his past love, Shutov is enlisted to watch over the invalid, Volsky, presumed both deaf & mute.  Volsky will be reassigned living accommodations in the morning; his situation was a temporary solution.  Volsky is neither mute or deaf as Shutov soon discovers.  Volsky regales Shutov with his incredible story of survival during the siege of Leningrad and Stalin's dictorial reign; persecuting the Russian people & purging its history.  Makine's writing is eloquent, lyrical & memorable.  It is a testament to art's ability to sustain humanity & history. "The peace experienced from saving these fragments of truth from oblivion."  Volsky taught disabled orphans "how to exist in the world manufactured by the petty cruelty of men. "  One of Volsky's blind pupils said "when he sang about the sky he could see the clusters of stars, he understood how they might look."  Makine's novel is illuminating & life affirming, "To be on time when every second counts."

THE LOWLANDS by Jhumpa Lahiri

Pulitizer Prize winning author, Lahiri's latest novel, THE LOWLANDS, begins in India with 2 inseparable but very different brothers whose lives diverge yet remain entwined.  Born in Calcutta, Subash & Udayan come of age during the 1960's, a time when the Naxalite movement sprung up as an idealistic rebellion to alleviate poverty & the prevailing class structure.   Little is learned about the Naxalites & their movement to which Udayan aligns.  Udayan is killed by state police for his activities leaving behind his pregnant bride, Guari.  Meanwhile, Subash had moved to the U.S. to pursue his education.  He returns home to mourn his brother's death.  Dismayed by the oppressive life Guari will have under his parent's roof, he proposes marriage to Guari.  Subash intends to provide a home for his brother's child and an escape for Guari.  Guari consents to this arrangement & moves to America to  raise the child with Subash as the father.  The Lowlands refers to the muddy flat terrain that surround Subash's family in India.  In the States, Subash & Gauri make their home in R.I. near the ocean.  Gauri remains untethered to both her native homeland and her new family, chosing to abandon both.  Subash dutifully goes back to visit his parents & care for their daughter.  The novel is turgid and the plot  sluggish.  For such an accomplished writer, Lahiri's THE LOWLANDS offers little in terms of India's culture; never elevating above a maudlin family drama.  LOWLANDs remains stuck in mud.

Donna Tartt's novel The GOLDFINCH; unique in the annals of art & literature

Nietzsche is quoted in Tartt's coming of age/pseudo philosophical novel: "We have art in order not to die from the truth."   The novel begins with a bang, literally.  Theo Decker & his beloved mother happen to be inside the MET at the moment it gets blown-up.  An unsettling premise for New Yorkers and art lovers alike.  Theo's mother had never seen a great painting until she moved to NYC.  She had  told Theo that great art is "pure bliss, perfect heaven."  She is killed with dozens of others while Theo manages to survive.  Before making his escape from the carnage Theo steals Fabritius masterpiece, The Goldfinch (1654) which also miraculously survived.   Alone & grieving for his mother Theo is seeking  any port in a storm.  He is banded about without affection between the wealthy home of a classmate and his father who had abandoned him.  His destructive father claims Theo purely for his own selfish gains.  As Theo discovers, "none of us ever find enough kindness in the world."  Theo's intervening years between the loss of his mother where "grief pounded over me in waves that left me gasping," into becoming a young man, mark an incredible & unpredictable journey.  The only constancy in his life is the stolen work of the yellow finch chained to his perch.  It becomes Theo's talisman; "an invisible bedrock of rightness that reassured me."  The painting had the capacity to make Theo feel "less mortal, less ordinary.  It was sustenance and sun."  I strongly recommend Tartt's latest novel after more than a decade as both a beguiling voyage of self-awareness and for the preponderance of art being vital for the soul.  Theo's response to Nietzsche's truth is "there's no truth beyond illusion."  I agree, "anything we manage to save from history is a miracle."  The masterpiece, The Goldfinch by Fabritius and the novel by Tartt are both preternatural works.