The Golden Compass. Philip Pullman.

The Golden Compass.
Philip Pullman.
Del Rey: 1997.

A celebrated book and rightly so.  The writing is simple enough for young adults yet good enough for adults, the plot is relatively coherent and complex, the characters are excellent, and the setting is superb without the author having to write long, encyclopedic paragraphs about his alternate universe.

The first part of a trilogy, this is the coming of age story of an orphan girl being raised by University dons.  Mysterious things are afoot, including an assassination attempt on her uncle, and strange scientific discoveries are at hand, and so off she goes with some gypsies to the North Pole.  The plot & setting mirror some of the boy adventure novels of "the good old days."  Very good book, appropriate for anyone old enough to read it, and a good one to find in hardcover.

The only drawback is that I have never found the plot device of a prophecy to be very fulfilling, if you'll forgive the pun.  It's more hokey than coincidence, unless done in a new & interesting way, which this novel does not.

The Marriage of Mr. Mississippi. Friedrich Durrenmatt.

The Marriage of Mr. Mississippi.
Friedrich Durrenmatt.
Grove Press: 1964.

Durrenmatt, a playwright by profession, wrote one of my favorite books: Traps.  Mr. Mississippi, a play, is more his standard work.  One funny thing about plays is that characters often spout off didactic monologues--this is allowed in a dramatic situation, but not in the (usually) more realistic prose work.  This play is full of mini-monologues as instructive & thought-provoking for the audience as they are revelatory of the characters' inner beings.

The play centers around the theme of justice--who decides what is just? a mass or a man, and in what situations?  Dare we follow a dream of ideal justice or settle for practical justice? Are there any truly just men?  In the midst is a love quadrangle between a married couple (who have killer their former spouses and have married each other for penance), a political aspirant, and a failed professional--and the lady, of course.  Very good.

The Nun and the Bandit. E.L. Grant Watson.

The Nun & the Bandit.
E.L. Grant Watson.
Albatross: 1935

Another good book from Grant Watson. This one revolves around the changing relationship between a desparate man and the nun he accidentally kidnaps (she was with the girl he intended to kidnap.) The nun, Lucy, is of course beautiful, but it is not love which drives Michael; rather a combination of animal lust and revenge--revenge against God for the rotten hand he has been dealt.

Michael's tale is one of an everlasting search for meaning and escape. Lucy's tale is again a search for meaning (as, I suppose, it is for us all) and a complex one of acceptance and forgiveness. For she allows Michael to take her (in exchange for sparing the child) and she stays with him--not quite willingly, but at least passively, obediently, and even companionably.

The setting is the Australian outback, and Grant Watson once again evokes the horror close beneath it and the feeling of insignificance one feels amongst it.