A Trick of the Light

A Trick of the Light, the midpoint in Louis Pennys creation of the person, Armand Gamache. You might say he is a fictional character, not a person. Ours is a free country, if you stay shut of the political correctness police, that is, and you can say what you want. For me, Monsieur Gamache may have been a character, but he has become a person. Some of him, I do not want to be, but some of that some, I, with high probability, am. Other parts of him I also am, and am happy to be so. Still other parts I would like to be. Some of that latter, despite my aspirations, will never come to pass.

I confess to you my brothers and sisters, I read the first Gamache book, Still Life, at the recommendation of Number Three kid. Half way through the second chapter, I quit. The characters and settings seemed to come too fast and the pace was too slow. I couldnt grab hold of the characters and settings and I wanted to say, Make something happen already. I remembered a literature course I had where the prof told us that we had to work a bit, sometimes, to unearth literary gems. I went back to Still Life and made it to chapter three before quitting a second time. Number Three has always been an avid reader and has recommended great books for me to read. I had never been disappointed with her recommendations before, so I picked up Still Life again. And plowed on beyond chapter 3. Behold, literary gem stones. And ore carts full of gem stones in subsequent installments of the Gamache series.

I confess, further, that in one book, a later one, I got to page 400, and was still waiting for the Ah Ha, here it is. Id begun to wonder if Ms. Penny had squeezed all the juice out of Armand that he had to give, when, Lo, my reading eyes discovered what theyd been (patiently) waiting for.

So, Ms. Penny, I give you seventy stars for the fourteen Gamache books on the street. Please tell me that your fingers werent crossed behind your back when you promised to publish Kingdom of the Blind next month. And I sincerely hope, for my sake and yours, your pants didnt catch fire when you made the promise.

Till November then.

This was a great story. Clara finally has her big, important art show and it is a smashing success, a fact which pleases some people, and makes a few others very angry. One of the angry ones murders a mysterious stranger in Clara’s garden at the fte given for her in Three Pines.

However, that was not the real mystery in this book for me. The ACTUAL mystery centers around Clara’s most celebrated portrait, which is one of the bitter old poet Ruth Zardo, wearing a blue shawl around her shoulders.

To my jaw dropping horror, what the most insightful see is that Clara has just used Ruth Zardo as an artist’s model; the REAL subject of the portrait is of the Blessed Virgin Mary, except Penny describes the Holy Mother as full of rage, bitter, forgotten, and angry that she’s been left behind to brood on her life of loneliness as the word of her holy son moves through the known world.

What? WHAT? If Louise Penny had done the LEAST bit of research into the life of Mary, she would have never committed such an ignorant error in this book, or incidentally, the several other novels in which this silly portrait is mentioned.

What We Know About Mary:
1. She was likely the primary source of St. Luke’s Gospel story of Jesus’s birth and the Holy Family’s escape into Egypt after Herod’s edict that all little boys between certain ages be put to death, as Herod himself wanted to be the only Jewish king.
2. Upon the death and resurrection of Jesus, she went to live with John the Beloved, Jesus’s youngest disciple in Jerusalem.
3. At the Diaspora, when the Roman armies sacked Rome, John took Mary and fled to Ephesus, which is in modern-day Turkey. Archaeologists have excavated a small stone house with several interesting and convincing clues that Mary lived there.
4. Mary is thought to have died at about age 62. She has no gravesite because her body was assumed into heaven in the same manner that the Old Testament man, Enoch, was taken.
5. Mary was not forgotten in the least – she has been remembered and revered for 2,000 years. This rigamarole about how “angry” and “bitter” and “full of rage” she was are just products of Penny’s overactive and uninformed anti Catholic imagination.

I don’t think I’ve ever read another author who was so earnest and up front about her anti-Catholic bigotry. My mother and one of my daughters are both avid mystery readers, but I’d never recommend these books to either them (my mother is almost 80 and would probably have a heart attack) and I’ll certainly never recommend them to my book group. Four of us in that group of eight are Catholics, and one is so doggedly faithful, she’d probably set this book on fire. And I wouldn’t stop her.

This is a brilliant novel. I tried not to read it in one go. Louise Penny has a gift for portraying characters who seem alive and vulnerable. Her Inspector Gamache novels show us how in a world that can be harsh and full of human frailties, problems can be solved, as can crimes, with intelligence, diligence, kindness, and strong tactical planning. Inspector Gamache is a man I would love to meet. His family, friends, and colleagues support him to do extraordinary things and to solve some dreadful crimes.
If you have not read these books before, put this in your wish list and begin at the beginning. with Still Life.

Of all the books in the series this has been my least favourite – I still enjoyed it just not so much as the others. The reason being that so much of the storyline revolves around the art world which personally I found a bit boring not being an arty person! That said intertwined with this thread was a thought provoking insight into the world of alcoholism and the the workings of AA.

I do feel a little bad not giving this book a more glowing review having read the author’s words in her acknowledgements at the end as it is clear that it is a very personal book.

I would still recommend this book especially if you have read any of the others in the series as it continues the ongoing storylines from previous books and it is a good read – as ever.

Once again Louise Penny has written a fantastic book; Inspector Gamashe and the team are called back to Three Pines once more, this time to solve the strange murder of a young woman found dead in the garden of Clara and Peter Morrow. It is after Clara’s solo show of her paintings in Montreal and she has asked many friends, family and emminent critics and art dealers back to Thrre Pines for a BBQ celebration. The deceased is or was an old friend which brings back some not very welcome memories for Clara or indeed for many of the gathered guests. Running alongside is the ongoing worry for Gamashe of the effect the factory raid is still having on some of his team, Beauvouir particularly and with such a public murder of this young woman, it seems that someone at the party had cause to rid themselves of her before she did them some damage. Lots of suspects, many clues and again, beautiful prose from this author. This is truely a wonderful series and I am so glad I came across it when I did. The trouble is it could almost spoil me for other books, almost, not quite!

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