Death of a Salesman – Arthur Miller

Willy Loman is a travelling salesman and a father. At 63 his best days on the road are behind him, in fact he’s now paid on commission only. Times are getting tough and the pressure is showing.

As a father he’s both proud of his two boys, Biff and Happy, and disappointed. Though good looking and well liked their lack of achievement frustrates Willy. His biggest issue is with 34 year-old Biff who was a golden boy at college but since flunking entry to university hasn’t held down a job.

With Biff back in New York for a visit, it is an opportunity for Willy to have another go at getting him on track. Despite all the evidence to the contrary he still thinks his son has what it takes. His frustration is exacerbated by his own decline and a niggling regret at missing an opportunity as a young man to follow his older brother Ben into the jungle where there were diamonds to be found.

For Biff it is another chance to convince his father that business is not for him; all he wants is to work outdoors on the land or with livestock. But Willy won’t listen and can’t understand; he thinks Biff fails just to spite him.

The arguments rage and flashbacks gradually reveal a possible root cause of the fractured father-son relationship, full of contradictory feelings of admiration and contempt, love and hatred, loyalty and guilt, none of which they can openly express. Biff can run away from it all again but where can Willy go? What more can he do to give his son a start?

Reading a play (rather than seeing it performed) can be problematic – but not here. The cast is small and the dialogue realistic; stage directions are informative and set the mood as well as the scene; and the shifts in time are both well signed and seamless.

I have seen the play a couple of times, but not since the 80’s, and following this read through I look forward to seeing it again soon.

Caves of Steel – Isaac Asimov

The caves of steel are the enclosed mega-cities of Earth a millennia or so in the future, where men and women live heavily communal lives with the limited space and food supplies rationed out.

In contrast, just outside New York city limits, is the spaciously laid out Spacetown, a closely guarded transit port for inter-planetary travel and trade with the outer worlds – planets colonised centuries ago, now independent of and slightly contemptuous of Earth. The Spacers are disease-free, technologically advanced, and enjoy a lifestyle that most Earthmen resent.

Another bone of contention between Earth and the Spacers is the use of robots. The sparsely populated outer worlds rely on them for labour and even more advanced operations; on Earth their increasing use is putting people out of work - and out of work means losing status and associated lifestyle privileges such as a wash basin in the apartment and a seat on the expressway.

So when New York police detective Elijah Baley is teamed up with Spacer R Daneel Olivar to investigate a murder in Spacetown, it is a bit of a challenge; because R stands for Robot, and is the only obvious giveaway in his humanoid appearance and behaviour.

The investigation proceeds haphazardly, hampered by political and social barriers. The scientific advances in evidence are interesting but it is the social developments and the unchanging human condition that forms the mainstay of the book. Solving the crime soon becomes part of the bigger issue of fixing Earth – Spacer relations and seeing a way forward for the teeming masses of the home planet.

Asimov writes a good book, deftly combining plot, dialogue, and context. When I first read this aged sixteen it was the futuristic setting that fascinated; now some 45 years later the sociological aspects hold as much interest. And while the whodunit element is secondary it does work at that level too.

Persepolis – Marjane Satrapi

This graphic (in the literal, illustrated sense) book relates the experiences of the author as she grew up from a ten year old girl to a young woman of twenty-four in Iran during the troubled years from 1980 to 1994. This edition combines Persepolis – The Story of a Childhood’ and ‘Persepolis 2 – The Story of a Return’.

The only child of middle class liberal parents, Marjane is first affected by the Islamic revolution through the gradual imposition of religious dogma at her previously secular French-run school – gender segregation, cultural indoctrination, and the compulsory wearing of the dreaded veil. Inconvenient as these changes might be to her she soon learns of the more serious effects on her country as friends and relatives who oppose the regime disappear or suffer arrest, interrogation and beatings.

To escape the poisonous, stifling and eventually war-hit environment (and to continue an unfettered education) she is packed off to Vienna, where the opportunities of Western liberalism are almost too much for an unsupported young girl to deal with. The freedoms are all very well, but with no family to anchor her, they are also dangerous. In the end she feels the need to return home.

Back in Tehran the repression continues, but as a resourceful young woman she and her friends find ways and means to subvert the regime and achieve small victories over the Guardians of the Revolution, but not without peril.

Seeing the momentous events from a child’s and then a young woman’s perspective, using stark black and white drawings to support the simple but surgical comments, is very effective. The politics and history provide the context but it is the development of Satrapi as an individual that drives the story. She is candid about her mistakes and while critical of the regime she remains patriotic to her country.

I expected an easy read (this being my first ‘graphic novel’) but found instead a thought-provoking and compelling book with wise words and evocative images.

Widow’s Walk – Robert B Parker

The book is one of Parker’s “Spenser” novels (the first I’ve read) featuring the Boston-based (Boston Mass. not Boston Lincs.) private investigator.

Here he is called in by attractive defence attorney Rita Fiore, and after some flirting (she is available and interested, he is appreciative but otherwise committed) the case is set out. The client is Mary Smith, who is accused of murdering her husband, found shot dead in his room while only the two of them were in the house. The now rich widow seems to be the archetypical dumb blonde – or is she cleverly playing dumb – unable to explain what happened or the whereabouts of the missing gun.

Spenser sets out to crack this variation on the ‘locked room’ puzzle and soon unearths enough murky secrets and dodgy dealing to implicate a rage of ill-wishers, if only he could place them in the room. As he digs up the dirt, people get hurt, some killed, leading to a tense denouement and a clever reveal.

Parker’s style is bright and snappy, dialogue driven and narrated throughout by the wise-cracking Spenser, straight from the Sam Spade / Philip Marlowe tradition. He networks effectively with the cops and the lawyers but takes no crap from anyone else; for back-up he has the mononymous Hawk – big, black and, when necessary, brutal. With these ingredients the story unfolds at pace, but not unrelentingly as time out is occasionally taken for some homely and reflective moments with sassy girlfriend Susan and aging pooch Pearl.

The complexities of the case and the multiple characters are handled without muddle, the twists and turns are plausible, and the outcome is satisfying enough to put Spenser firmly on my ‘good cop’ list.