Rating: 
Summary: Sara Cops Out!
Review: When you think of Sara Paretsky, you can't help but think of V.I. Warshawski in the very same thought. Most people who picked up this book probably assumed it was a new adventure for V.I.; after all, that's what Sara Paretsky writes. Well, I'm sure Sara Paretsky is a multi-dimensional person herself, and as such is allowed to write what she likes - if we're disappointed that V.I. is not a character in this book, that's our problem, not hers. There really was no room for V.I. in this story, anyway. But that didn't stop me having a problem.Still set in Chicago, Paretsky weaves an urban fable around the most unlikely heroines; the homeless, "mad" and dispossessed. We all know about homeless people, but do we have any idea how they get that way? How can an unquenchable craving for alcohol bring a world famous operatic diva onto the streets with her hardly noticing? It seems incredible to me, but I have never experienced that thirst. Why do the withheld histories of her mother and grandmother cause a young woman to construct alternative lives for them and go looking for them? I don't know - I'm sure we don't have such secrets in my family. How can someone see rusty water leaking from a crack in a wall, and see the blood of the Virgin Mary? I don't know - I don't have that sort of faith. Then there are those who help. What is help? Is the shelter provided by Hagar House really help, with all the miles of strings attached in the name of some sort of self-serving Christianity. Does the hospital really provide help, with the dispensation of drugs and 15 minute psychiatric sessions? The supposedly normal people are also a mass of confliction. The golden girl, freezing her emotions down deep while striving relentlessly for the approval of a domineering grandfather. The domineering grandfather, treated as a god by the hospital and by a manipulative housekeeper. The idealistic, young psychiatrist, still naïve enough to put concern for patients ahead of concern for the hospital. The hellfire and brimstone preaching lay brother, with his abused, repressed and cowered daughter, and bully of a son. The large hotel, owners of the wall worshipped by the homeless women and the lengths they are prepared to go to get rid of them. But then the story takes a fantasy turn, and unfortunately gets lost. A mysteriously erotic, unintelligible woman named Starr enters, and manages to heal everyone's afflictions and punish the manipulators. With her Medusa-like hairstyle, is she a reincarnated Sumarian goddess, or a female Christ? Well, what she is, is a cop-out. I was appalled to find this story that had provoked my thoughts and held me spell-bound for many pages, suddenly turned into a silly little fantasy. The introduction of this character was completely unnecessary - a writer of Paretsky's proven skill resorting to such artifice to resolve a skilfully constructed set-up is extremely disappointing. Still, I found quite a bit of food for thought in this book. How precariously many of us totter on the precipice, how tiny the nudge to send us spinning out of control. What then?
Rating: 
Summary: An enjoyable departure from V.I.
Review: While I thoroughly enjoy V.I. Warshawski mysteries, Ghost Country was an excellent read. The characters were well developed, and so intense that I could not put the book down. Starr was a very "earthy" woman, and I wasn't drawn to her because of her sexual habits. Had she been less "sinful", her life would have been an interesting study of a returning New Testament figure. She appeared suddenly; she had followers; miracles were attributed to her; people who looked at her saw themselves as they really were; she died at the hands of zealous religious leaders; her followers didn't feel loss after her death-she was still with them. Sound familiar? The New Testament figure came to the down-trodden in society. If He returned today, I've always heard it would probably be to the homeless. I think Ms. Paretsky has given us reason to ponder our own reactions and sometimes pious attitudes towards those we consider different.
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