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Murder Plots, Black Panther Betrayal, Kidnapping and Rock n' Roll
WHEN FLOWER POWER TURNS TO FIRE POWER
IN "CITY OF REDEMPTION"
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What is the book about? See review below from online book club site.
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31 Oct 2015
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "City of Redemption" by June Ahern.]
4 out of 4 stars
Review by H0LD0Nthere
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It’s every mother’s worst nightmare. Liz’s beautiful
eight-year-old son is dead … and it’s her fault for delaying the
investigation when he first went missing. The tragedy will destroy her
already fragile marriage. She will be ostracized by her friends,
pilloried in the newspapers, and rejected by her own mother.
Eventually, she will leave her hometown of Glasgow, Scotland, and seek a
new life in San Francisco, California. She will arrive during the
Summer of Love.
Welcome to the opening chapters of
City of Redemption.
If you are a parent, I dare you to read without crying the chapter in
which Patrick goes missing. Parent or not, come along for the ride if
you want a story of grief, intrigue and friendship surrounded by sex,
drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll.
City of Redemption
is primarily about Liz settling in to San Francisco, the new friends
she finds, and how she ends up helping the Black Panthers with some of
their more clandestine activities. But the tragedy with her son is
never far from her mind. Liz’s grief is a presence with her throughout
the novel. It makes her reserved with the people in her San Francisco
commune, but this reserve also protects her in some ways from the more
dangerous aspects of the scene.
Liz, by the way, is a
relatable character. The author shows us her faults as a young mom …
she is young, selfish, and a bit irresponsible, but also dedicated to
her son and certainly not a monster. Later, we see her broken, then
matured by the tragedy.
Her grief is handled realistically. It
comes up at natural moments, such as during conversations, drug trips,
and other moments of vulnerability. Liz is sometimes seen having a
private cry, even as she remains a strong character, functional though
fragile. Masterfully, the author does not reveal all at once the whole
story about what actually happened to Liz’s son Patrick. The reader
will have to wait until nearly the end of the story to find out all the
details, filled in progressively through flashbacks, memories, and
conversations with Liz’s friends. As in an Alfred Hitchcock movie, the
worst of the horror always happens “off screen” – that is, shown
indirectly by being related by a third person or being revealed after it
is already over. This extremely raw subject of a kidnapped child is
very tastefully handled.
Like the tragedy with Patrick, the
events in San Francisco are tastefully handled. Violence usually (not
always) takes place off-screen, and is described matter-of-factly, not
luridly. There are several very sexy scenes, but with one exception,
nothing graphic. The characters’ dangerous lifestyle choices are not
glamorized. Period details are spot-on, from the clothes to the cars to
the music.
Music plays a major role in
City of Redemption.
We hear it on the radio, in the car, and live at concerts. Anyone who
loves the music of the 50s and 60s will enjoy this aspect of it. Often
a line or two is printed in italics, so that readers can hear the song
in their heads. Fittingly, the songs often strike Liz as speaking
directly to her situation at that moment. At the end of the book is a
list of all the songs used, with the group who recorded them and the
year they came out. Among others, there are “Stand By Me,” “Paint It
Black,” “Don’t You Want Somebody To Love?,” “Love Me Do,” “Soul Man,”
“Eve of Destruction.”
I do have a few, very minor quibbles with
the book. First of all, the style is rather spare for the genre of
book. Even drug trips are described in a very matter-of-fact way. This
is good in some ways … the reader never gets confused, even when Liz
is. The plain style moves the action forward quickly, making the book a
page-turner. However, in scenes where not a lot of action is
happening, and in descriptions of Liz’s thoughts, the plain style can
get a little monotonous. I felt that a richer style of writing could
have brought out more the latent tense or poignant emotions in the book.
Nor does the style do justice to the beauty of San Francisco.
There are a few scenes that take place on the beach, and often we see
the characters traveling through the picturesque, high hills of San
Francisco, but mostly we have to imagine this stuff, because it is not
evocatively described for us. The focus is always on the action and the
dialogue, somewhat to the detriment of the scene.
This very
plain style of writing extends to the transitions into flashbacks.
Usually it is pretty clear when a flashback is happening, but in one
critical scene near the end, the transitions were inadequate and I, at
least, was confused for a few minutes until I realized the narrative was
giving a glimpse of the day before.
Despite these minor flaws, the book is poignant, tense, well-researched and well-plotted. I give
City of Redemption four out of four stars.
Videos Walk with a Medium Part One http://youtu.be/TU4BvpvX5AQ
