Adam Ross, Mr. Peanut ****

The cover of Mr. Peanut and the reviews chosen for excerpting promise meta-fictional hijinks and post-modern twists and turns. The book certainly has those, but the strongest sections are the more traditional narrative ones. The main theme is the difficulties of marriage: how spouses are often at a loss to understand what the other spouse needs, and how it's impossible to understand the dynamics of a relationship from the outside. The main plot is a detective story about whether David Pepin murdered his wife Alice (by means of her peanut allergy), and several characters fluctuate between wanting to resolve their marital difficulties through murder or through reconciliation.

The modern trappings of Mr. Peanut are not as compelling as they could be, but the book has more human feeling than such fictional exercises usually do. I look forward to checking out Adam Ross' next book.

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.