Patrick O'Brian, The Fortune of War ** 1/2

The first truly weak entry in the Aubrey/Maturin series finds our two heroes sailing on other people's ships as spectators to real-life sea battles from the War of 1812. Between voyages we get unconvincing and uninspiring espionage in Boston. O'Brien's unique writing style is intact, and many of the usual elements are there, but the lack of agency from Jack Aubrey leaves the book feeling tired. Disappointing.

P.S. The War of 1812 ended up as a leitmotif of my reading this year, its bicentennial. I started with War and Peace in January, read Pierre Berton's history of the Canadian border war, and now The Fortune of War.

Benjamin Hale, The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore ***

This ambitious novel is narrated by the world's first chimpanzee to develop the power of speech. Bruno doesn't just learn to speak, he develops a Nabokovian love for metaphor and colorful language. He narrates his life story with the verve of a raconteur.

My reference to Nabokov is not incidental. The early chapters of the book show the clear influence of Lolita: An eloquent murderer telling his story from prison; illicit sexual attraction; justifications of brutish behavior; a love of wordplay. Bruno also introduces many interesting thoughts about the role of language in human consciousness and how our experience of the world would be different without it.

The tone of the story shifts several times over the course of the long novel. Later sections are more straightforwardly comic, less Nabokov than John Kennedy O'Toole or Alexander Theroux.

Despite being littered with stray insights and clever turns of phrase, The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore fell short of being the "brilliant, unruly brute of a book" promised to me by the cover. Too often I found myself tripping over an inability to suspend my disbelief. Bruno's narration is chock-full of literary and cultural references, right next to passages where he describes everyday activities that he doesn't comprehend, like riding in an elevator. Like, say, Forrest Gump where Forrest's apparent level of intelligence changes to fit the situation, Bruno's cultural sophistication is unbelievable and widely variable. 

Alistair Maclean, Ice Station Zebra *** 1/2

I went through an Alistair Maclean phase in high school, or possibly junior high school, and I remember Ice Station Zebra being my favorite. So I picked up a copy to read again to see whether it holds up after all these years. And it mostly does.

It shares a lot of the vices of popular action fiction: two-dimensional characters who are always the best in the world, embarrassing "clever" dialogue between them, and an Agatha Christie-style climax with the detective explaining the solution in the drawing room (in this case, the wardroom of a nuclear submarine). However, the action itself really engaged me, especially in the first half of the book.

The story involves a nuclear submarine traveling under the polar ice pack, trying to locate and rescue the meteorological research station Drift Ice Station Zebra. The logistics of the submarine, the navigational challenges, and the polar environment interested me enough that I forgave the expository dialogue. The tension felt well earned. The second half of the book, after they (spoiler alert!) locate the ice station, is still well executed but becomes more like a typical murder mystery. I enjoyed this section the most when it shifted its attention away from the mystery and back to a complication on the submarine.

Carol Birch, Jamrach's Menagerie ***

A Booker Prize finalist apparently, but to me Jamrach's Menagerie was a workman-like nineteenth-century adventure story. Well-written, entertaining enough, but nothing too original. The early part of the book, before our narrator hero Jaffy Brown heads to sea, felt like a static painting of colorful life on the London docks. The most compelling part of the story was the capture and transport of the Komodo dragon -- the dragon himself was the best character. 

Tristan Gooley, The Natural Navigator ** 1/2

I am very interested in the subject of The Natural Navigator. which is how to find your way using clues from the world around you. I even appreciate that Gooley promotes natural navigation as a way of looking at the world and enriching our experience rather than as a mere collection of survival tips. Nonetheless, I was disappointed with the book.

The main problem is with the level of detail. Too many of the sections essentially say, "With practice, you can train yourself to see which way the prevailing wind blows the sand, just like the Taureg do." Gooley tosses in an interesting technique every once in a while, but most of the text describes general principles that, frankly, I'm already familiar with.

I found the book to be more of an advertisement for a seminar than a standalone reference.

Alice LaPlante, Turn of Mind *** 1/2

A murder mystery in which the narrator and prime suspect is a woman suffering from dementia. She is a former orthopedic surgeon; the victim was her best friend and was found with her fingers surgically removed. Did you kill her friend? If so, why? And will she remember?

Frankly, the mystery is a gimmick. I didn't really care about it. The strength of the book is the voice of the narrator. She comes through as a fascinating character, and LaPlante is able to capture a convincing descent into dementia -- until the last few pages, when she has to wrap up the mystery with the typical exposition.

Pierre Berton, War of 1812 **** 1/2

"Being a compendium of the bestselling The Invasion of Canada and Flames Across the Border," this book describes the War of 1812 from a Canadian point of view. (Pierre Berton is a popular Canadian author and historian.) We invaded Canada, don't you know?

Berton is an excellent storyteller who can interleave the big-picture strategy with vivid narrative detail. He uses only primary sources in his quest to "tell not only what happened but also what it was like;... to picture the war from the viewpoints of private soldiers and civilians as well as from those of generals and politicians."   The book includes plenty of excellent maps too. The battles start to seem repetitive in the later stages of the war, as the combatants took and retook the same ground. As Berton says, "In all this [fighting at Fort Erie] there is a weary sense of deja vu."

The fact that I knew next to nothing about the war helped maintain the suspense about the outcome of battles. The occasional reference to the war Britain was fighting in Europe at the time reminded me that the action here was happening at the same time as the action in War and Peace; and one of the incidents sparking the war happened on a ship (Leopard) formerly commanded by the fictional Jack Aubrey. These cross-references were fun to notice.

Entertaining and informative. A perfect choice from browsing in Toronto bookstores.