I’M READING AS FAST AS I CAN (JUNE 2020 EDITION)

Mostly topical!

The Plague by Albert Camus

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Like a lot of Americans (I presume), I first read Camus in college because The Stranger (a.k.a. The Outsider) was on a reading list. And while I liked it – and I can tell you it was the book that was my gateway drug to French/European Lit – strangely I never did get around to reading any of his other books. I hadn't actually realized this until I went looking for this one. And while yes, I decided to read it because of COVID-19, actually it was because lots of other people were doing the same thing and commenting on the Twitters about how much The Plague mirrored the outbreak of COVID-19 in the US, the UK and much of Europe.

That might be overselling it a little. The plague (in this case, actual bubonic plague) is limited to the French Algerian town of Oran, which is sealed off following an outbreak. On the other hand, Oran serves as a kind of microcosm that could be said to represent the modern world at large, from the initial denials by govt officials that the outbreak exists and failure to take adequate precautions to the psychological effect on the townspeople who are in lockdown – not in their homes, but in Oran itself.

Perhaps typically of Camus, the wider scope is narrated as detached observation with little drama, while the handful of main characters – Dr Rieux, Rambert the stranded journalist bent on escape, Tarrou the amiable mystery man, Grand the clerk with literary aspirations, Cottard the opportunist criminal, and Father Paneloux the Jesuit priest – serve to explore various aspects of humanity and how they hold up in a situation like a deadly pandemic from an absurdist point of view. Ironically, I didn’t get much out of it as an unintentional foreshadowing of COVID-19 – people say that about lots of good pandemic novels, and anyway, the COVID-19 saga is more absurd than anything Camus could have thought up. But on its own merits, I liked this well enough – it may be undramatic, but it’s surprisingly moving at times.


Defender of the Innocent: The Casebook of Martin Ehrengraf by Lawrence Block

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As far as I know, Martin Ehrengraf is one of the few recurring Lawrence Block characters to appear only in short-story form – probably because the concept behind the series doesn’t really lend itself to a long format. Ehrengraf is a criminal lawyer who only represents the innocent (no matter how red-handed they were caught or how willing they are to admit to Ehrengraf that they did it) and only collects his ridiculously high fee if they’re exonerated. And they always are. It’s hard not to say much more without giving the game away, but suffice to say that while it may appear even to the clients that Ehrengraf did little to nothing to get them off, appearances can be deceiving. Put another way, they don’t call him a criminal lawyer for nothing.

In 1994 the eight existing Ehrengraf tales were compiled in one volume. Four more were written since then, and this book includes the complete set, with all except the final story having been published elsewhere. I remember reading a few of these in other Block anthologies, and enjoyed them. And because of this, I can see that the one problem with an Ehrengraf anthology is repetition. Which is not to say that Block rehashes the same details over and over again – he’s always been a genius at coming up with enough variations on a given theme to make it interesting. But there’s a definite template to these stories that Block sticks to, from set-up to conclusion – and it’s glaringly obvious when you binge-read them rather than when they’re published individually a year or more apart.

That only really matters in the sense that the reason the first Ehrengraf story you read (whichever one it is, but perhaps especially the first one, “The Ehrengraf Defense”) makes such an impact is that you don’t see the twist coming. Once you’ve established the MO, the twist doesn’t have the same shock value, especially when you read them all at once. That said, most of these stories are quite good on their own merits. Still, I was sort of hoping that the final story would open with Ehrengraf being the one charged with heinous crimes and in need of a lawyer as good as he is. Now that would be a plot twist. I hope Mr Block writes that one someday.


AFTERSHOCK: Essays from Hong Kong by Holmes Chan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a slim but powerful collection of short essays written by 11 young Hong Kong-based journalists who covered last year’s anti-ELAB protests from the front lines. The essays are not recaps of the protests but personal reflections from each writer on how the protests have impacted both their personal and professional lives, and Hong Kong society in general.

Naturally, each essay covers different ground, but two common themes are the divisions that have deepened in Hong Kong during the protests – between political parties, friends and family members, journalists and editors, and even the haves and have-nots – and the trauma of witnessing and experiencing state violence up close. Like the protesters themselves, most of the writers here are young people who found themselves stunned by the level of disproportionate violence the police were willing to dish out, and while it didn’t prevent them from doing their jobs, that resilience came at a personal cost.

To be clear, no one here is portraying themselves or the protesters as valiant heroes. What they offer is nuance and introspection that cuts through the political stereotypes and reveals the human side of the protests. There’s no political analysis, big answers or takeaways – there are other books just now coming out that cover that ground. As editor Holmes Chan writes in his intro, the goal was to give his fellow journalists a chance to express how they really feel about their experience on the front lines.

I devoured it, and recommend it to everyone, with the caveat that all of these essays presume that the reader is reasonably well-versed on the HK protests and the specific events referred to here. And since it’s a small local publication, here’s where those of you outside of HK can buy a copy if you’re so inclined.

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No so quiet on the eastern front,

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