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Summary: Living with Nightmares and Villains
Review: Caution: This book deals with some pretty ugly subjects including spousal and child abuse, and contains much coarse and foul language. The crimes are pretty graphically described, which may also make this book a little too gritty for sensitive readers. As a movie, this material would definitely earn the book an R rating. The Face on the Wall is the most subtle and rewarding Homer and Mary Kelly story in many years. I particularly liked the build up of suspense and tension as one calamity after another befalls children's book illustrator, Annie Swann, who is the Kelly's niece (on Mary's side of the family). Usually, the sense of drama in Ms. Langton's work is not nearly so palpable. The plot is much more complicated than usual, and intelligently involves a large number of interesting characters. As a result, the action moves along faster and in more interesting ways than we have come to expect from Ms. Langton's fiction. The book's major theme is about the vulnerabilities of innocence and goodness to those who are determined to do whatever it takes to succeed. In fact, the whole story can be read almost as though it is a morality play from the Middle Ages. As you may know, Ms. Langton likes to let her readers in on who the murderer is early on. So the mystery is often mostly of how the mystery will be solved or the misdirection overcome. In this book, there are many more mysteries that do not necessarily match up with murder. The book builds upon an opening in which Annie Swann is at the acme of her life. She has fame, fortune, talent, and rewarding work. Like many artists, she has conceived of a great masterpiece, a mural on the interior wall of a new wing she has built on her house. Obsessed with her creation, she finds herself pulled away from her goal by mysterious occurrences involving Eddy Gast, an 8 year-old boy with fine artistic talent who was born with Down's syndrome, and the unexplained appearances of menacing faces in her mural. Like an unstable scaffolding, the pieces of this self-perceived perfection suddenly begin to disintegrate around her. After finishing this book, think about those you know who are most popular. Why do you think they are popular? Do they ever misuse this popularity? Have you ever misused your popularity? How can we help those who are popular to play a more positive role? Seek first to do the right thing!
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Summary: My first Jane Langton book & I really liked it!
Review: It is very interesting to note that our fairy tale stories & rhymes run parallel with our real lives. The innocent victims & the evil villains do exist...& the perennial saying "good wins over evil" applies & comes true --- though they may take some time. I specifically liked the tale of the fisherman & his wife being compared with our villains. Greed! Greed & selfishness destroys our being & brings our downfall. Fred Small & the Gast family deserve what they got. The story may sound so hideous to some, but it is reality. People kill for money. Husbands kill their wives like Fred Small. & parents can kill their unfortunate children like Eddy, in exchange for some convenience & take advantage of innocent victims like Annie.
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Summary: Always Enjoyable
Review: What an amazing author Jane Langton is. One of the blurbs on my edition of this book states, "Today's best American mystery writer." I usually take such things as hyperbole but in this case, the reviewer may be right as I would certainly place Ms. Langton in the top three along with Elizabeth George and Elizabeth Peters. In this entry, Homer and Mary are helping with two mysteries, one involving an old student of Mary's and the other involving Mary's niece Anna who has just built a new house. Of course, the two different mysteries become one eventually. As always, the antics of Homer are fun to read and how Mary puts up with him, I will never figure out. I have read all but one of the Homer & Mary mysteries and am trying to find a copy of the one I have not read. I would recommend starting with this series from as close to the beginning as you can as the progression of the relationship between the two main characters is important.
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