This is a new addition to my shelf. I've read it once before, and on this second read I realized it was one I would want to read again and that I would want to read it again whenever I wanted (meaning I don't want to wait till its available at the library) so I bought it. On one level it is a supernatural type thriller. The story is good, and I enjoy his characters. On another level, it is an exploration of ideas outside the realm of Western thought and belief, a look at race and privilege, parenthood and love. Gruber is, I'm convinced, a lapsed Catholic - they have a certain tone and attitude, I've discovered. I'm not much into the idea of saints - I've never needed someone to talk to God for me. But I like the Santeria perspective (as presented in the book so recognize that it may not be completely accurate, although he is very convincing...that can be dangerous) where "saints" are spirits of physical forces, of states of being (the sea, motherhood) and they participate in the human realm through humans, not as humans. They are magical, but by Gruber's description, a very real magic. Not smoke and mirrors, but energy and power that exists and that we (Westerners) don't readily acknowledge. 1/30/2012This has become required reading for winter. For all sorts of reasons - beyond that the sun is up less - winter tends to be darker, and this book seems to both plunge into darkness and erupt into light at the same time. It confirms my faith that there are an infinite number of paths to God.For this reading, I think, it was the nature of love. How do we know we love someone? Why do we, for that matter? I love this description: "You know what real love is, Detective? It's not what you think. It's not loving the virtues of the beloved. Anyone can love you for your virtues, that's no trick. I mean, that's what virtues are - loveable qualities. It's the unlovely stuff that makes love. We all have a nasty little wounded place in us, and if you can get someone to find that and love it, then you really have something."2/13/2013February is the crossroads of my year, and this is a story of crossroads. This year it was the idea of memory, betrayal and forgiveness. When Jane remembers her husband she still thinks of the way they were at the beginning, but how much of that was real? Are those happy memories false because of everything she knows? And if she was wrong about those happy times, what else is she wrong about? "What above all blasts your confidence, makes you weak and small, poisons the past, erases the memory of joy, cripples even the possibilities of joy to come? The betrayal of the deepest heart, that's what. No one can do you like you do yourself." You have to forgive to keep from crippling joy in your life.I also liked: "It's frightening to be in the hands of the santos, isn't it? We love to think we are in control. But we do it because we know they love us and they know we love them...they are of God in the end, a path to God." Forgiving is a lot of letting go of control. Far easier and possibly more comfortable to punish ourselves for loving and being hurt in the past. 2/2014I don't think I've outgrown the need for this book, but it was not nearly as therapeutic as past readings. The story is still fantastic, but my reaction was more 'hmmm'. Recently, I read the Hornby column (Ten Years in the Tub) where he comments that one is rarely the same reader twice. There are books I loved so much on the first read that I am afraid to read them again, aware that its possible they will fail me - or rather, that I've changed and they will be the same. Perhaps that is the case here. Certainly, the book does not change over time. And February wasn't so dark this year - just cold.
Jednom u nekom potpuno drugačijem svijetu Jane Doe bila je doktorica antropoloških znanosti, priznata ekspertica za pitanja šamanizma i domorodačke afričke magije, nasljednica bogate loze Doeovih, ljubavnica legendarnog francuskog antropologa Marcela Vierchona, supruga zapanjujuće talentiranog crnog spisatelja DeWitta Moora. Jednom, dakle, imala je sve.Danas Jane živi u iznajmljenom sobičku pod lažnim imenom, prerušena u neuglednu arhivisticu medicinskih kartona u Miamiju. Svim silama trudi se biti što manje zamjetljiva. Jane Doe iz prošlosti više ne postoji. Ako je sve izvela savršeno, svi vjeruju da je poginula u ekspoziji očeve jahte. A ako je negdje pogriješila? Onda bi ritualna ubojstva mladih trudnica koja potresaju Miami mogla biti znak da joj je njezin suprug na tragu. Mladi detektiv Jimmy LaPaz dobit će nezahvalan zadatak da hitno razješi slučaj...Samo što u ovom slučaju ništa, baš ništa, nije onako kao što se čini na prvi pogled.Michael Gruber, inače doktor oceanologije, proveo je veći dio života pišući govore za washingtonske političare, a kad se odlučio napisati svoj prvjenac odmah je pogodio "u sridu". Za roman "Obratnica noći" dobio je nagradu "Hammett" međunarodnog udruženja pisaca krimića."Obratnica noći" kao nekom voodoo magijom opčinjuje čitatelja čineći granicu između zbilje i nadnaravnog na trenutke mutnijom, a onda opet sasvim objašnjivom i znanstveno razumljivom. Naglašeno snažni elementi Gruberova zapleta savršeno se uklapaju poput dijelova Janeina Mausera. Svaki detalj u knjizi ima svoju svrhu, svaka zagonetka svoje rješenje. Gruberova erudicija u antropološkim pitanjima daje kredibilitet izmaštanim dijelovima, a filmična brzina radnje ovdje je samo dodatni kompliment izuzetno inteligentom trileru koji ne bježi ni od kompleksnih moralnih dilema, ni rasnog pitanja u multietničkom Miamiju.U prijevodu Martine Aničić i s ilustracijom Igora Kordeja, "Obratnica noći" Michaela Grubera biti će sigurno roman koji će vam se urezati u sjećanje koliko god knjiga godišnje pročitali, stoga ne treba čuditi činjenica da mu je suđena ekranizacija.Prema mom mišljenju Obranica noći je jedan vrlo složen roman, nešto što nisam do sad čitala. To je krimić s elementima magije. Radnja je vrlo dobro složena, iako spora, spominje se puno običaja iz Afrike pa se vidi da je Michael Gruber to vrlo dobro istražio. No spominje se previše tih običaja što čini knjigu prilično dugom, a ja sam više marila za radnju i likove.Također je stil pisanja vrlo čudan. S Janeine perspektive piše u prvom licu i u sadašnjem vremenu. S Pazove perspektive piše u trećem licu i u prošlom vremenu. S Janeine perspektive gledamo više njeno psihološko stanje, a s Pazove više okoliš.Također zamjeram što Janeini ulomci iz dnevnika uzimaju previše prostora, znam da su važni, ali ih je previše, a neki su čak i nepotrebni.Likovi koji su me dojmili su bili Paz, Witt, Luz i Janein brat. Jane mi je bila previše puna sebe, a nikako nisam voljela njenu sestru i majku.
Do You like book Tropic Of Night (2004)?
I just don't get this book. According to the blurbs on the back cover this is the best thing since sliced bread. Second coming of Hemingway or Melville. I don't know. It's his first book, I believe, so I'll cut him some slack and not give it one star. Husband and wife go to Africa and study socery, witchcraft, black magic, whatever. Then he practices his stuff on pregnant women, murdering them, in Florida. Story goes back and forth in time, to and from Africa, with a ton of mumbo-jumbo terms thrown in. Story wasn't even close to being scary. Story ended abruptly (but thank God finally.) Had an unsatisfying culmination of the murderer and the cops, etc. The main cop, Paz, (who is in the follow up books) just wasn't at all likeable. I'm giving it two stars, but hell if I know why, other than this was his first book. Reading this was like taking a foreign language class. A dead foreign language. Wish I hadn't already bought the next book in the series before I read this one. Sigh. Hell, I'm going to change it back to one star.
—Mike
Gruber is amazing at being able to set a scene and draw the reader into it. As with his later book, The Book of Air and Shadows, he has several pots boiling on the stove at once, yet one does not get the feeling that he is writing formulaic "pot-boilers." What is real and what is illusion? These are questions Gruber visits over and over, and just when one thinks one has a handle on things, he can pull the rug from beneath one's feet. Stephen King may be the Maestro of "Creep Fiction," but I think Gruber is a more skilled writer.*****************************************************Brrrr! What a skilfull writer Gruber is, being able to build the suspense up and then sustain it. It is so easy to become caught up in the text that one can forget to try to "stand outside" and appreciate the research that obviously went into it (some, even blatantly "false" and obviously tongue in cheek, like "the number of pregnant women in Miami.) This book has a magnificent internal structure, layered, dove-tailing one after another, while all the while, giving hints from the past that make one's skin crawl as they become realized in the future.I stand by what I said, that Gruber is a more skilled writer than Stephen King.To whom would I recommend this? Hard to say. The person would have to have a love of the Gothic, the grotesque, and the Grand Guignol. Is that you?
—DROPPING OUT
Michael Gruber is one of my favorite authors, and it's because of he stuff he does in books like this. It's a Miami-set murder mystery and cop procedural in which an ancient African strain of black magic is the weapon of choice. But here's the thing: Gruber makes it believable. This isn't a crime dressed up with voodoo trappings or one of those increasingly popular supernatural fantasy stories, like the "Twilight" series, that asks adults to adopt the mindset of a middle schooler. Gruber makes the reader think about how nature and science and religion and belief all intertwine. He gradually subverts educated fans' sense of reason. Before I knew it, I found myself actually believing that this kind of magic was almost possible. As usual, Gruber's characters are original and intriguing. My favorites included a Bible-quoting evangelical detective and a wealthy anthropologist/sorceress/conflicted murderer's wife who fakes her own death, kills an abusive mother to help her child and has a life-or-death showdown with the most powerful, evil entity on the planet. Good stuff
—Frederic Pierce
