Category: FICTION

HUMAN TRUST

Susan Choi shows how trust and experience change human lives. She illustrates how power, desire, memory, and storytelling are engines of that change.


Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Trust Exercise (A Novel)

Author: Susan Choi

Narration by: Adina Verson, Jennifer Lim, Suehyla El-Attar

Susan Choi (American novelist, received the Nation Book Award for Fiction with “Trust Exercise”)

Susan Choi attended a High School of Performing Arts in Texas. “Trust Exercise” is a reminder of life as a teenager in America. There are a number of High Schools of Performing Arts in America. Having personally visited Las Vegas’s High School, Choi’s story reminds one of the remarkable students who choose to supplement their education in a performing art’s school.

Choi’s story shows the hyper emotional character of teenage life. Placing her characters in a Performing Arts’ high school makes her story somewhat more plausible but teenage sex in a school hallway when classes are in session seems more imagination than reality. On the other hand, it reminds one of fantasies that run rampant in one’s teenage years.

The importance of teachers in the world.

Getting past Choi’s sensationalism, there is an underlying truth in her story. Teachers in our high school years can have a great impact on who we become as adults. Choi creates a charismatic teacher who conducts a theatre class for high school students. His influence demonstrates how power shapes teenager’s lives in both good and bad ways. The memories of childhood are shown to be unreliable, but their impact on a mature adult’s life is immutable whether their memory is accurate or not.

Growing to adulthood.

From high school and other life experiences a teenager grows to adulthood, in part, through exercises in trust. Often children consciously or unconsciously note power imbalances between themselves and others. One thinks they are not as smart, sexually attractive, or capable as someone else. Choi shows human nature grows based on relationship trust even though trust is ambiguous. Trust begins between parents and children, grows between friends, our teachers, lovers, book readers and listeners. Choi’s point is that adults become who they are through trust relationships.

Versions of who we are.

Choi creates versions of people to show how they process trust with others. Choi’s main characters are Sarah, David, Karen, and Mr. Kingsley. Sarah is a secret keeper who is highly vulnerable to what others think of her. David is closed into himself and looks to others for what life can offer him. Karen is a steady observer who becomes confrontational in accordance with her perception of other’s beliefs or criticisms. Mr. Kingsley is a manipulative and, at times, coercive teacher. He challenges his students to expose their emotions to strengthen their character but creates dependence on himself more than themselves.

There is a sense of being back in high school in Choi’s novel.

High School Year Book Albany Union High School, Albany, Or. 1965.

Choi’s novel shows people, even in a high school for the performing arts rarely achieve fame. Presuming Choi is telling a story of people she knew in high school, none appear to become famous. Neither Sarah, Karen, David, nor Mr. Kingsley seem to achieve much public recognition. Karen becomes a therapist. David seems to have exceptional talent, charisma, and potential in high school but becomes another faceless American worker. Interestingly, the most successful character is Sarah who becomes a published novelist. Choi infers the scale of her success is ambiguous at best, but she does have a career that seems more successful than many who are classmates. (Good for Sarah or is her name Susan?) “Trust Exercise” reminds reader/listeners of their high school years and makes one wonder what happened to their classmates.

Choi shows how trust and experience change human lives. She illustrates how power, desire, memory, and storytelling are engines of that change. Teenagers trust too easily, some adults exploit trust, and some story tellers manipulate the truth. One can only learn from life and experience what we should or should not trust.

AMERICAN IDENTITY

One can appreciate Vuong’s picture of two immigrant Americans lives but his story is too maudlin for this listener.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Emperor of Gladness 

Author: Ocean Vuong

Narration by: James Aaron Oh

Vương Quốc Vinh (Author, poet, professor at NYU and the University of Massachusetts, born and raised in rural Vietnam who is now an American citizen.)

“The Emperor of Gladness” is like “Alice in Wonderland”. The author’s story draws one down into a rabbit hole of personal experience and imagination. It tells what life is like for people who become lost to themselves because of advanced age or youthful experiment with drugs and addiction. It begins with a young addict who is teetering on suicide and is rescued by an old woman nearing senile dementia. It is largely the backstory of two immigrants and their lives in America.

American immigrants.

The old woman is from Lithuania. The young boy is a Vietnam immigrant brought to the United States by his family near the end of America’s misbegotten war. Both live in poverty in America. Their stories tell how they survive the grief and trauma of their lives. The elderly woman has lost her husband, lives alone, and had a social services person visit her for a time but is never replaced. Some of the trauma that occurs in the boys and aged mother of a daughter is brought on by themselves, particularly with the young boy. For the elderly woman, it seems brought on by living in poverty in a country that has great wealth but is unable to offer adequate care for the elderly poor.

Story of Stalin’s occupation of Lithuania.

One who has traveled to Lithuania has some understanding of the tragedy of Stalin’s dictatorial control and displacement of the Lithuanian people. That is partly what draws one to stay in the story. However, it is not enough to maintain this listener’s interest in the story. The young boy is raised in poverty and succumbs to addiction which is hard for some to understand because they have not fallen into that addictive trap. The author does a fine job of showing how these two characters meet each other and become a family that cares for each other. The growing dementia of the old woman is managed by the young boy in a way that is endearing and insightful for those who do not have the patience to deal with infirmity and elderly dementia.

There are lessons about being poor in America in Vuong’s story.

Vuong notes immigrants who have reached a certain age in their native countries are faced with learning a new language and culture when they arrive in a foreign country. All human beings gain understanding from the experience of living, but post-infancy immigrants are faced with translating language and experience understood in their home countries that are different in American culture. That by itself is a struggle.

Immigrants often grow up in silence because they are unsure of unaccustomed experiences that native-born children take for granted. Translation seems a matter of survival for an immigrant whereas a native feels experience is just part of living life that one runs from or towards.

The details of being a poor immigrant in America seem the same as a natives’ views of life but Vuong explains why they are not. To those who have been born and raised in a white privileged but economically challenged society, discrimination associated with being an immigrant minority or drug user is too unrelatable. The underlying message by the author is that in the age of “Make America Great Again”, being an immigrant makes one feel even more of an outsider.

GUILT

In the end of “The Life We Bury”, the mystery of a murderer is solved. However, the real reveal of the story is how every human being is guilty of self-absorption.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

THE LIFE WE BURY (A Novel)

Author: Allen Eskens

Narration by: Zach Villa

Allen Eskens (Author, former defense attorney who lives in Minnesota.)

Reading/listening to a book is motivated by one’s ignorance, public popularity, author reputation, or subject of interest. “The Life We Bury” is similar to an earlier murder mystery by Allen Eskens. “The Life We Bury” deals with a crime but has no famous historical allusions like the mystery in “The Quiet Librarian”. However, it does have a similar theme. “The Life We Bury” is about injustice and a human desire to right what is wrong. As a popular author and an attorney by profession, both novels show Eskens intimate knowledge of the legal system and its faults.

The characters of life.

The main characters of “The Life We Bury” are Joe Talbert, a 21-year-old college student working his way through college, Carl Iverson, a Vietnam War Veteran convicted of raping and murdering a young girl, and Lila Nash, a next-door neighbor to the college student. Hardship of life is illustrated by Joe who lives 2 hours away from a younger autistic brother that lives with their mother. She is an alcoholic. Their mother’s addiction makes care of the younger brother perilous. The mother’s alcoholism and her social life often leave the autistic boy at home to fend for himself. Joe deals with his mother’s neglect as well as he can with a job as a bouncer and college student who lives two hours away from the family home.

Assisted living facility.

An assignment from college for Joe is to interview a senior citizen who is living in an assisted living facility. Joe visits a retirement community near his apartment and asks the manager if he could interview one of their elderly occupants for his college assignment. They agree and Joe meets a terminally ill resident who is staying at the care facility from a prison which could not care for “end of life” needs of an imprisoned inmate who is convicted of rape and murder of a teenage girl.

Autism.

Lila, Joe’s next-door neighbor, becomes aware of Joe’s younger brother’s autism and is drawn into their awkward lives. She goes to the same college and by happenstance has some knowledge of the American justice system which leads her to help Joe with his interview and writing assignment. With her knowledge of the justice system, Joe is able to get the police file of the convicted rapist/murderer. The file is damning but a friend of the convicted and terminally ill patient tells Joe that his interview subject would not and could not have murdered the young girl.

Influence of others on our lives.

“The Life We Bury” is a person we know from our past that we no longer know but who have had a profound influence on our lives. “The Life We Bury” are people we know but often never reconnect with for either thanks or explanation of their effect on our lives. Eskens creates a story that on the one hand reveals how ignorant we are of other people’s lives and on the other how little we realize the impact others have had on our lives.

We all have some kind of guilt.

Carl Iverson is not guilty of killing and raping a young girl for which he is convicted and imprisoned. The search for the real killer is what moves Esken’s story along, but its theme is about guilt, and our ignorance about others and ourselves. Human beings live in their own worlds and often are unable to see others with the same clarity we think we see in ourselves. Eskens shows we neither understand ourselves, the people we think we know, or what impact they have on our lives.

In the end of “The Life We Bury”, the mystery of a murderer is solved. However, the real reveal of the story is how every human being is guilty of self-absorption. The race is on to arrest and convict the guilty rapist and murderer before the death of Carl Iverson. The last chapters of Eskens’ book are a nicely written denouement of his interesting story.

BOYS TO MEN

The most judgmental part of Szalay’s story is that a boy raised in wealth can be spoiled by drug addiction while a poor “go along to get along” boy may end up just as dissolute from sexual addiction.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

FLESH (A Novel)

Author: David Szalay

Narration by: Daniel Weyman

David Szalay (Canadian Author, winner of the Booker Prize in 2025 for “Flesh”.)

Every child is raised in different circumstances. The variables are legion ranging from genetics to economic environment to parenting and the experiences of life. David Szalay tells of a young boy growing to manhood. Every male will have some experience that relates to his primary character’s life. That explains the popularity and literary acclaim that “Flesh” achieves.

Szalay captures different pathways for “every boy’s” journey through the physical and mental anxieties of life.

The specific circumstances of the life for boys (and undoubtedly girls) show how complicated growth to adulthood can become. The father of one boy is a very wealthy businessman who has married a woman many years younger than him. They have a son named Thomas who has been raised in wealth and privilege. The second boy is, István, a poor Hungarian who lives a “go along to get along” life. This poor Hungarian grows to be a handsome man who is attractive to women because of his life experience and attitude about life and relationships.

Effects of inherited wealth.

István and a wealthy husband meet as a result of an attack by street thugs who beat the wealthy husband and nearly kill him. István happens to be passing by when the thugs are scared away by his sudden appearance. István calls 911 or its equivalent to get an ambulance. The wealthy husband is taken to a hospital and is grateful to István which he feels has saved his life. He offers István a job in his security firm as a protector of wealthy clients. István shows himself to be a very competent bodyguard. The wealthy husband decides to have him become his personal family guard and driver.

The wealthy husband’s much younger wife falls in love with the bodyguard and they become lovers.

The wealthy husband dies, and István marries the wife of her former wealthy husband. The son of the wealthy husband is destined for college when István marries the deceased husband’s wife. This college bound son will inherit all of the family wealth when he reaches the age of 25 based on a Trust that allows his mother and her new husband to use the Trust to make investments for the future until the son reaches 25. István becomes a land investor and developer with the wealth of the trust.

Human differences.

The table is set for comparison of two sons who are different with one raised in great wealth and another in the lower middleclass. A crisis occurs when an 80-million-dollar investment by István is needed from the trust that requires disclosure to the son who is to inherit the trust. This son raises enough public objection to the investment that it is not made, and the investment deal falls apart. To this reviewer, the dynamics of the genetic influence of two boys from different economic classes is the most insightful value of the novel.

The influence of genetics, wealth, and poverty.

One can judge from the life of István what influence genetics, wealth, and poverty may have had on the life of a boy growing to become a man. The author seems to have an opinion about boys raised by a family of wealth versus those raised by a family with a “go along to get along” belief in life. At the books end, one wonders if being born in wealth is as likely to make an adult male better or worse. István seems sympathetically written into life by the author. He is true to his character throughout the story, but his sexual life is a mess. Though he appears to be a resourceful, hardworking, and decent human being, he is led through life by his libido.

The most judgmental part of Szalay’s story is that a boy raised in wealth can be spoiled by drug addiction while a poor “go along to get along” boy may end up just as dissolute from sexual addiction.

INFIDELITY

“The Silent Patient” deserves its popularity. The ending is a surprise and offers a credible picture of how extreme human behavior comes from both nature and nurture.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

THE SILENT PATIENT 

Author: Alex Michaelides

Narration by: Jack Hawkins & 1 more

Alex Michaelides (Author, British-Cypriot writer, won the Goodreads Choice Award for “The Silent Patient”, studied psychotherapy, and worked at a mental health clinic.)

Michaelides wrote a clever mystery about a 33-year-old wife named Alicia Berenson who is accused, convicted, and committed to an asylum for shooting her husband in the face with his own rifle. Alicia becomes “The Silent Patient”. She is arrested by the police with blood on her clothes in a non-speaking catatonic state. A psychotherapist, Theo Faber, is hired by the asylum and becomes interested in Alicia’s silence. On the one hand, it reminds him of his troubled childhood and a reaction to his wife’s infidelity in his own life. On the other, there is an undisclosed reason for his interest in Berenson’s silence and her judicial’ commitment to an asylum. “The Silent Patient” implies infidelity is in the nature of all human beings but that it can lead to violence and, in extraordinary circumstances, murder.

Michaelides infers infidelity is an inherent quality of all human beings.

Maybe infidelity is because of human nature’s intent to preserve itself but the consequences of, when experienced personally, can lead to mayhem. The primary characters of “The Silent Patient” are Alicia Berenson, a 33-year-old painter accused of murdering her husband–Theo Faber, a psychotherapist who tells the story of Alicia’s life–and Alicia’s husband who appears to love his wife but chooses to have a passionate extramarital affair. In the course of Theo’s story, he writes about infidelity of his own wife and his response to her betrayal.

Who shot Alicia’s husband?

The principle mysteries are revealed at the end of Michaelides’ book. Who murdered Alicia’s husband and how infidelity affects humanity are primary subjects of “The Silent Patient”. The cleverness of the story is in its twists and turns and the truth it reveals about human nature. We grow up to be adults from parents who create us while instilling all the contradictions of life that no child, who becomes an adult, escapes. Every human being and all societies are flawed. Societies and individuals pass on both the good and bad qualities of life to their children.

Coming to grips with infidelity is different for every child grown to adulthood.

A younger person who falls in love with another sometimes searches for someone to live with through the experiences of their future lives. Those who choose to be together bring their own life experiences to the relationship that may or may not be the same. It seems those life experiences that are similar are likely to preserve a relationship while those that are different cause conflicts. Michaelides shows how those conflicts, as well as the nature of human beings, can lead to destructive human behavior.

“The Silent Patient” deserves its popularity. The ending is a surprise and offers a credible picture of how extreme human behavior comes from both nature and nurture.

SOCIETY

The broad theme of Flournoy’s story implies being an identifiable minority means navigating social discrimination, gender difference, and physical violence in America.

Books of Interest
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THE WILDERNESS (A Novel)

Author: Angela Flournoy

Narration by: Angela Flournoy & 2 more

Angela Flournoy (Author, American writer won the First Novelist Award for “The Turner House” in 2015 and was shortlisted for the National Book Award for fiction.)

As a white person, “The Wilderness” offers a glimpse of what it is like to be a Black American woman in the prime of her life in today’s America. Flournoy creates a story of five adult Black women in their twenties in the years from 2000 though 2022. She reflects on their irreverent and tumultuous lives that show how friendships grow and fall apart between young Black Americans who are underestimated and face societal inequality. The friendships of these five women are a kind of bulwark against the experience of living in America as a racial minority.

American life.

Everyone faces challenges living in America, but friendship seems less important to white Americans because they are a majority of the population with assumed privilege that depends less on friendship than on economic opportunity. White American economic opportunity is taken for granted. A white listener/reader’s interest may make Flournoy’s story less interesting because it is singularly based on a minority. One might make the mistake of returning Flournoy’s story, rather than sticking with it, because it is different from its reader/listener’s life. Flournoy offers a view of life seen through the eyes of a person who lives as a minority in a white majority.

Friendship of women.

Desiree’s, Danielle’s, Monique’s, Nakia’s, and January’s stories are of 5 twenty something, well educated, Black American women and their lives through 20 years of friendship. Their friendship is a bulwark against the harshness of American life. Friendship is characterized as it is, i.e. not as smooth and unchanging but on again, off again, and renewable based on common experiences of being Black in America. Flournoy shows how these five friends balance their ambitions and relationships in a society that often gets in the way of their drive for economic success and/or happiness. When faced with discrimination, their friendships becomes an island of consolation. This island is not necessarily peaceful because of their different lives and personal circumstances, but it is a refuge from American discrimination.

Added to American police discrimination toward minorities is gender violence which is a problem for both white and Black American women.

Violence is endemic in America, but racism and inequality underlie greater vulnerability for Black Americans. Too many assumptions are made by police who racially profile Black Americans without justification. That profiling leads to unjustified police brutality based on the color of one’s skin. Sexual relationships may seem “ok” to an outside observer, but Flournoy shows it sometimes hides the reality of physical or psychological abuse between mated partners. January’s story is an example of coercion, instability, and harm that can occur in an intimate relationship.

The depth and horror of discrimination in American history.

The broad theme of Flournoy’s story implies being an identifiable minority means navigating social discrimination, gender difference, and physical violence in America. Flournoy’s opinion is that friendship is the bulwark upon which Black women protect themselves. The reality of Flournoy’s story is that social discrimination, gender difference, and violence exist in every country of the world. The way people deal with discrimination, gender difference, and violence ranges from adaptation, reluctant acceptance, or revolt. Her point is important, but her story is too long.

A.I. TOMOROW

A.I.s’ contribution to society is similar to the history of nuclear power, it will be constructively or destructively used by human beings. On balance, “Burn-In” concludes A.I. will mirror societies values. As has been noted in earlier book reviews, A.I. is a tool, not a controller of humanity.

Books of Interest
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BURN-IN (A Novel of the Real Robotic Revolution)

Author: P. W. Singer, August Cole

Narration by: Mia Barron

Peter Warren Singer (on the left) is an American political scientist who is described by the WSJ as “the premier futurist in the national security environment”. August Cole is a co-author who is also a futurist and regular speaker before US and allied government audiences.

As an interested person in Artificial Intelligence, I started, stopped, and started again to listen to “Burn-In”.

The subject of the book is about human adaptation to robotics and A.I. It shows how humans, institutions, and societies may be able to better serve society on the one hand and destroy it on the other. Some chapters were discouraging and boring to this listener because of tedious explanations of robot use in the future. The initial test is in the FBI, an interesting choice in view of the FBI’s history which has been rightfully criticized but also acclaimed by American society.

Starting, stopping, and restarting is a result of the author’s unnecessary diversion to a virtual reality game being played by inconsequential characters.

In an early chapter several gamers are engaged in VR that distracts listeners from the theme of the book. It is an unnecessary distraction from the subject of Artificial Intelligence. Later chapters suffer the same defect. However, there are some surprising revelations about A.I.’s future.

The danger in societies future remains in the power of knowledge. The authors note the truth is that A.I.’s lack of knowledge is what has really become power. Presumably, that means technology needs to be controlled by algorithms created by humans that limit knowledge of A.I.’ systems that may harm society.

“Burn-In” is meant to reveal how human-machine integration challenges human society, both ethically and pragmatically.

That integration has massive implications for military, industrial, economic, and societal roles of human beings. The principles of human work, social relations, capitalist/socialist economies and their governance are changed by the advance of machine learning based on Artificial Intelligence. Machine learning may cross thresholds between safety and freedom to become systems of control with potential for human societies destruction. At one extreme is China’s surveillance state; on the other is western societies belief in relative privacy.

Robot evolution.

Questions of accountability become blurred when self-learning machines gain understanding beyond human capabilities. Do humans choose to trust their instincts or a machines’ more comprehensive understanding of facts? Who adapts to whom in the age of Artificial Intelligence? These are the questions raised by the authors’ story.

F.B.I. Fallibility

The main character of Singer’s and Cole’s story is Lara Keegan, a female FBI agent. She is a seasoned investigator with an assigned “state of the art” police robot. The relationship between human beings and A.I. robots is explored. What trust can a human have of a robotic partner? What control is exercised by a human partner of an A.I.’ robot? What autonomy does the robot have that is assigned to a human partner? Human and robot partnership in policing society are explored in “Burn-In”. The judgement of the author’s story is nuanced.

In “Burn-In” a flood threatens Washington D.C., the city in which Keegan and the robot work.

The Robot’s aid to Keegan saves the life of a woman threatened by the flood as water fills an underground subway. Keegan hears the woman calling for help and asks the robot to rescue the frightened woman. The robot submerges itself in the subway’ flood waters, saves the woman and returns to receive direction from Keegan to begin building a barrier to protect other citizens near the capitol. The Robot moves heavy sacks filled with sand and dirt, with surrounding citizens help in loading more sacks. The robot tirelessly builds the barrier with strength and efficiency that could not have been accomplished by the people alone. The obvious point being the cooperation of robot and human benefits society.

The other side of that positive assessment is that a robot cannot be held responsible for work that may inadvertently harm humans.

Whatever human is assigned an A.I robot loses their privacy because of robot’ programing that knows the controller’s background, analyzes his/her behavior, and understands its assigned controller from that behavior and background knowledge. Once an assignment is made, the robot is directed by a human that may or may not perfectly respond in the best interest of society. Action is exclusively directed by the robot’s human companion. A robot is unlikely to have intuition, empathy, or moral judgement in carrying out the direction of its assigned human partner. There is also the economic effect of lost human employment as a result of automation and the creation of robot’ partners and laborers.

Nuclear annihilation.

A.I.s’ contribution to society is similar to the history of nuclear power, it will be constructively or destructively used by human beings. On balance, “Burn-In” concludes A.I. will mirror societies values. As has been noted in earlier book reviews, A.I. is a tool, not a controller of humanity.

SHERLOCK HOLMES REDUX

“The Secret of Secrets” is an entertaining adventure that makes one wish they had the genius of its main character, Robert Langdon.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Secret of Secrets 

Author: Dan Brown

Narration by: Paul Michael

Dan Brown (Author, famous American writer of thrillers who wrote “The Da Vinci Code” and “Angels and Demons” among others.)

Dan Brown’s fictional Robert Langdon is made famous by Tom Hanks in the “Da Vinci Code” and “Angels & Demons” movies. The author’s “…Secret of Secrets” will add to Brown’s fame. Brown is a polished writer who has created another imaginative story that blends myth with belief that is as entertaining as Sir Arthur Conan Doyles’ adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Like Sherlock Holmes, Robert Langdon is a polymath who has knowledge of science and life that beggars one’s imagination.

To remind listeners of Brown’s earlier works, his hero is Robert Langdon, a Harvard professor of religious iconology and symbology. Langdon’s extraordinary ability is like Sherlock Holmes’ in that he can integrate knowledge with abstruse details of Brown’s created characters and circumstances. Langdon is a friend of Katherine Solomon, a scientist who has written a book that allegedly explains how human consciousness exists after physical death. Solomon argues consciousness is a fundamental force in the universe that challenges belief in materialism and religious doctrine. Consciousness beyond death challenges belief in ethics, free will, and the fundamental nature of reality. Consciences of every deceased person lives in a cosmic space containing the many minds of all humans that have died. There is no God. This cosmic consciousness influences the direction of all human life by being accessible to living human beings.

What is consciousness?

If Solomon’s idea gained purchase in society, Brown’s story infers it would challenge the foundations of society. It would challenge religious beliefs and create political and social instability. The idea of consciousness as an eternal force of nature is viewed as a threat to the ways of the world. An organization run by an obscure and secretive group led by Everett Finch views Solomon’s thesis as a threat to society and the world in which his power and influence would be diminished. The book Solomon has written is to be erased from the world of knowledge. Finch’s plan is for Ms. Solomon to be murdered, and her research and book destroyed.

Like AI, the ramifications of consciousness beyond death would be revolutionary.

The setting of the story is in Prague, Czechoslovakia because of its reputation as a mystical area of the world with its history, and ancient architecture. Ms Solomon is there to participate in a lecture in Prague, a beautiful city that is associated with mythical beliefs like the Jewish belief in Golems that were originally identified as protectors and then evolved into murderers without conscience or purpose.

Brigita Gessner is a neuroscientist in Prague who is experimenting with the principle of consciousness as the underlying biological theory of eternal consciousness that is similar to Solomon’s belief. Gessner is being targeted for elimination by a Golem as an agent manipulated by Finch’s organization.

Golems were once identified as protectors that became murderers who lost their way without understanding their original purpose.

“The Secret of Secrets” is an entertaining adventure that makes one wish they had the genius of its main character, Robert Langdon.

CHILD ABUSE

The complexity of Freida McFadden’s character relationships diminishes its appeal, but the point of the story is that child abuse takes many forms which often repeat themselves in future generations.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

THE INTRUDER 

Author: Freida McFadden

Narration by: Joe Hempel, Patricia Santomasso, Tina Wolstencroft

Freida McFadden (Author, practicing physician, specializing in brain injury.)

Freida McFadden’s book is a mess. The story is burdened by too many relationship complications. On the other hand, it reveals the hardship children face when raised by parents who lose control of their minds. The base story is about a 12- or 13-year-old girl named Ella. She is being raised by her mother who is a hoarder struggling to cope with life. As a single mother with a young girl, her hoarding complicates her daughter’s life. The house in which they live is a pigsty because of the hoarding. The odor of spoiled fruits and food permeates the clothing that Ella wears to school. Her mother often locks her daughter in a closet when she leaves the house. The closet is dark, cramped, and smelly from the mother’s hoarding mania. She punishes her child with the lit end of a cigarette when her daughter complains about anything.

Child abuse statistics.

Ella dreams of escaping to a better life while coping with school and hiding the trauma she endures with her mother’s mental instability. Ella fantasizes the idea of finding her father who she does not know. She makes friends with a young boy of her age who has anger issues because his father drinks too much and is abusive toward his son and wife. As Ella and the boy become closer, a serious assault incident at school results in the boy being permanently expelled. Ella has lost the support of her best friend and is faced with the instability of her mother’s behavior. Ella wishes for a better life and searches for evidence of her father as a way of escaping and improving her life. That search appears to be a dead end.

Ella’s mother hooks up with a man who becomes a boyfriend with a violent temper.

A fight between the two leads to Ella’s mother being stabbed. Blood from her wounds splatters her daughter from head to foot. Ella sets the house on fire and runs to the woods near her neighborhood where she cowers in a shed. The shed is next to a house rented by a teacher who has been fired by the school that had hired her. There is a storm brewing as Ella cowers in the shed next to the former teacher’s house. The former teacher named Casey, sees a light in the shed and cautiously approaches it to find Ella, a bloody mess lying on the shed floor. Ella is the intruder of McFadden’s story.

The value of this story lies in the reality of children being raised in families that abuse their children through neglect, psychological, or physical abuse.

McFadden’s story is of a neglectful and deranged mother who is incapable of caring for herself, let alone a child. Every child that survives their childhood is impacted by parents whether sane or mentally unbalanced. Most children are raised by single or married parents. Others are taken away by State sponsored childcare facilities or escape abusive parents to live on the street.

How a child responds to their parents or the way they deal with life is like the predictive quality of quantum physics.

How a child responds to how they are raised is unpredictable. That is the substantive meaning of “The Intruder”, a story that keeps one in suspense but does not appear likely to end well. It is a story that many children live in America and presumably in other countries of the world. The complexity of McFadden’s character relationships diminishes its appeal, but the point of the story is that child abuse takes many forms which often repeat themselves in future generations.

LIFE’S JOURNEY

The ending of Emily Henry’s story is a surprise to most who are absorbed and entertained by her tale. Life is complicated because it is filled with luck, achievement, purpose, and loss whether one is rich or poor.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Great Big Beautiful Life

Author: Emily Henry

Narrated By: Julia Whelan

Emily Henry (Author, American writer of NYT’s bestselling romance novels.)

Emily Henry is an entertaining writer who seems to live her own “Great Big Beautiful Life”. Her book is about writers like herself being interviewed by a wealthy American who is searching for a biographer to memorialize an extraordinarily famous family’s life. Henry’s twist is that she has competition with a fellow writer who is a more experienced and successful writer.

The two writers in Henry’s story are in the prime of their lives.

One has been married before, and the other appears to have been intimately acquainted with another writer. Neither potential biographer knows they are being interviewed for the same job. The surprise is that their famous subject hires both writers to compete for the job with a presumption that one will be chosen. The story is partly to tell of a famous and extraordinarily rich families’ complicated lives. “Great Big Beautiful Life” is an imaginative story about family relationship, love, and life’s complexity.

The cleverness of Henry’s story is that one becomes interested in the person being biographed while being drawn into what becomes an intimate relationship of the writers.

Listener/readers become interested in both story lines. The incredibly rich heiress’s family history is a contrast to the middleclass lives of the writers. What Henry shows in “Great Big Beautiful Life” is every human being, whether rich or middleclass face the joys and tragedies of life. The author is not addressing poverty or the poor, but one presumes the difference is qualitative because love, loss, and sorrow is part of every human life.

The passion of the two authors is artfully expressed and reminds one of every human’s experience of love and loss.

Joy and tragedy play a part in every sentient human being’s life. Familial, emotional, social, and ethical relationships are vivified in Henry’s story. Alice is the main character who is the woman writer telling her story of the competition and relationship between her and Hayden in seeking the right to tell the story of Margaret Grace’s “Tabloid Princess” life. Margaret sets the table for the story with a competition for the right to tell her family’s life story. Alice and Hayden begin as competitors, evolve into lovers. and become intertwined with Margaret’s storied life.

Alice and Hayden are ambitious professionals, but both have emotional vulnerabilities that are intensified by the competition for Margaret’s biography. Scandal, family secrets and how they are dealt with in Margaret’s life are part of the story. Alice’s insecurity contrasts with Hayden’s Pulitzer Prize-winning reputation as a biographer.

The approaches of the two hopeful writers of Margaret’s biography are contrasted by the author.

Alice has a human-centered approach to the biography whereas Haden drives for detached objectivity. Alice is concerned with Margaret’s exposure while Hayden seems more driven by belief in accuracy, structure, and verifiability.

The ending of Emily Henry’s story is a surprise to most who are absorbed and entertained by her tale. Life is complicated because it is filled with luck, achievement, purpose, and loss whether one is rich or poor. “Great Big Beautiful Life” is entertainment at its best.