Last Kid Books, April 2019

This is a collection of essays. That, alone, makes this book unique among the books that I have reviewed. It is also written by a guy I know very well – a good friend who goes way back – he was my best friend in high school.

So this will be my first book review that might actually be read by the author.  Oh, the pressure!

I guess I can eliminate the suspense for him – and you – by saying right up front that I liked the book very much. I will go into some of the reasons why, but the big one is this: it made me laugh.  Not just chuckle laughs but LOLs. Some of these essays are just hilarious.  But others are thought-provoking, insightful or sad.  They are all different.  The book is like Forrest’s box of chocolates; you just never know what you are going to get.

Some of this variety is geographical.  The author, who, as you will discover by reading the book (some of which is autobiographical), had humble beginnings but has lived in Paris, Japan, Brooklyn, Boston, California and Wisconsin.  He has also visited Las Vegas many times and, because his wife is an expert on cutting-edge electronics, he knows quite a bit about electronic gizmos, too.  Essays from each place are included.

Some of the variety is temporal.  The essays were penned between 1994 and 2016.  Some of the essays delve into the topics of the time.  The Iraq War, the financial meltdown, the death of Annette Funicello.  But some of the essays are timeless.  His grandfather’s hands, Paris in the early morning, linden tree helicopters, Yankee fandom.

Because I know him and shared part of his past, the autobiographical essays are particularly meaningful to me.  Growing up in Tomah, Saturday matinees, high school friends, his less-than-heroic father.  Poignant, even if you don’t know the places or the people.

David Benjamin is a wordsmith which in my view ranks a bit higher than “author.”  He knows the English language intimately (and shows off his knowledge in one of his essay rants).  He has a huge vocabulary and if you want to understand every word you had better have a dictionary handy.  Looking up all the unfamiliar words could be tedious, but it will be rewarding.

Some of the essays are whimsical and I think I like these best.  Several essays feature his outrageous “idea man,” Wilhelm Bienfang, a guy who would make Jonathan Swift proud. One essay is a satirical piece about a cell phone app that serves as spermicide – it emits a high-pitched sperm-killing squeal when it hears the words “Oh God! Oh God!”  The next essay delves into just how many people took that essay seriously and tried to buy the app. Hilarious.

Because they are essays they are short – about 1,000 words each.  I like that, too.  If you don’t like a particular essay, just turn the page.  I turned them all and felt a bit sad when I turned the last one.

9 out of 10.

Copyright 2011 by James Patterson, Grand Central Publishing

I NEVER read books of the famous-author-and-some-nobody variety because you know damn well that the book was written by the nobody and the famous author is just getting paid to put his name on the book.  So I don’t know how this one slipped into my “to be read” pile.

But since it was there I decided to read it anyway.  I still have the same opinion of books of this type and I will continue to avoid them in the future, but I have to admit that I enjoyed this one.  It isn’t an American literary classic, but it is well written with interesting characters.  And the chapters are very short – an average of just over three pages – which I really like.  The edition I had also had very large print which meant I could read it without reading glasses.  I liked that, too.

The protagonist is Michael Bennett, a NYPD detective who lands the unenviable task of catching a serial killer who is mimicking or paying tribute to some of the most notorious serial killers in New York City’s long illustrious history of murder.  He has to try to catch the culprit while on vacation on Long Island with his 10 adopted children and their young siren of a nanny.

He succeeds, of course, but it is due more to the killer finding him than him finding the killer.

The style of the book was intriguing.  About two-thirds of the book is first person, from the eyes of Michael Bennett.  The other third is third-person, giving us insight into the life and evil intent of the killer.  There is a little misdirection in this that I won’t divulge as it would spoil the fun,  but as a literary device it works pretty well.

I enjoyed the book.  I won’t go out of my way looking for more by the Patterson/Ledwidge duo, but this was not a waste of time.

7 out of 10.