Bleak town - among the best of contemporary literature

books:


	• The Keepers of Truth: A Novel Michael Collins Phoenix House, 2001 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 42 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

A book that hit home

I got this book from my wife who said she wanted to broaden my horizons. Our styles differ greatly. I read mostly hardboiled murder mysteries for the sheer entertainment value. When I want to learn something, I read non-fiction. I have a problem with preachy books.
But I have to say despite my reservations, this book blew me away. It was like the best blend of both non-fiction and fiction I've ever read. I lived through the late seventies in the midwest, and my father lost his job due to the economic downturn. I like to put that period of my family life out of my mind, but this book brought that time and feeling back to me. Maybe it was personal impact that made this book have its effect on me, but I found myself re-reading parts of it to my wife. I even called my father just to talk, just to ask him about what he felt back then. I didn't tell him why I was calling, though I've sent him the book.
I know this isn't probably a review, but it's what I felt, it's how this book affected me.

for more information click here

Undeniable Talent

"The Keepers of Truth" begins and ends with utterly fantastic descriptions of the human condition in the finest detail. You come to know and understand and even commiserate with the characters, from Bill, the under-achieving narrator, to Ronny, the doomed murder suspect, as if they were your life long companions. Michael Collins dominates his language as the cruel husband dominates his submissive wife; the written word can only succumb to this immense talent, it is helpless against the brilliance that is Michael Collins.

With Collins' eloquent, excruciating detail, the reader can picture every minute detail of every person, place, object and emotion in each immaculately described scene in this downwardly spiralling mid-western town. The immense talent of Michael Collins only comes along once in a century.

for more information click here

for more information click here

Profound Truths A BookClub Must Read

I read this book in a reading group last week, and we ended up discussing the Irishness of the author and his depiction of America, especially in light of the recent heartbreak we have all experienced. His probing insights into our country was unnerving, brilliant, and gave us pause to think, to try and define ourselves again.
Collins gave us a view into how we are viewed from the outside though his main character, a reporter, who it seems might be a thin veil for the author himself. There is something quintessential American about this book, but also something conceived of by a foreigner. The almost atomistic detail allows us to see again our society and structure.
I know it's not always correct to project author into a reading of a book, but the discussion questions at the back of the book invite the question of authorial overtones, so again, given we are now trying to redefine our relationship to the world, this book provided a real talking point.
Plotwise, the book looks centers on a dismemberment murder that parallels the shift in economic structures, the collapse of whole industries, and the displacement and violent that often rears up in such situations. The book begs the reader to look at the issue of economic upheaval. We are left to ask, how can we, in this ever maddening pace of the modern world, help those left behind, or those whose jobs and therefore lives become obsolescent? I think this is a very real question, because at some time, we will all be victims of progress, so how do we as a society prepare and cope with these economic shifts? On a larger scale, how do other countries, not equiped like our own nation cope? Again, given recent events, the political issue of instability permeates this book. It's a book that goes to the heart of modern society.
To the actual events in the book, Collins' treatment of the Rust Belt and Reagonomics is done with such great pathos that it ranks among some of the best social realism I've ever read, a balance of poetry at time, scathing critque at other times, but mostly, it's the humanity that runs through the book, the characters themselves which give this book it's dignity and force. The balance between the political and the human story is handled so deftly, that one is tempted to speak of this novel in the same way people talk of The Grapes of Wrath. To potential reading groups, I say, "You cannot go wrong with this book." Love it or hate it, it's a book that will spawn conversation to last well beyond one evening

for more information click here

Bleak town - among the best of contemporary literature

Michael Collins' Booker prize nominee, "The Keepers of Truth", (KOT) is an amazing literary achievement and easily one of the best reads this year. The opening chapter describing an industrial town in an advanced stage of disintegration and the destruction wreaked upon the lives of its inhabitants must be the most desolate scene ever to have been conjured and committed to print in a long time. What an intro. The protagonist Bill's ice trade family background is also a masterstroke of irony and genius on the part of Collins considering that he's writing about a dust filled parched out landscape full of weary people with sweat stains in the armpits of their shirts, sour bile in their mouths, and swigging mugs of ice cold beer all day to overcome the oppressive heat. The eventual capitulation of the editorial team of the town daily, "The Truth", which leads to its demise, nails with deadly accuracy the spirit of the times, of the losing battle waged by traditional print media against the immediacy of television. The elevation of Ronnie, the murder suspect, by the town's youth to media hero status, is as ridiculous as it is unnerving. What chance does the Sam, Ed and Bill team have against the glamourous Linda Carter, who's always first on the scene with the latest and the hottest ? It seems like nobody living in the community is spared the overwhelming sense of displacement following the end to an old way of life. Bill, scarred from the memory of the suicide of his father, is arguably as strung out as his newspaper colleagues, Sam and Ed, or even the diabolical Ronnie, whose torment is so palpable and real I couldn't help but shed a tear for him. He goes out metaphorically on an unutterable cry of despair. There are no winners in this tale. Only losers. Though dubbed a murder mystery, the most frightening moments weren't about the sliced finger or rotting head of the decapitated victim, but the revelation of the unshakeable solidarity and determination among the town's womenfolk led by Darlene to protect the devastating secret of Ronnie's estranged. More irony ? The men's morale collapse but the women remain steadfast to the very end. KOT is an accomplished and astounding piece of work, certainly among the best that contemporary literature has to offer and Collins is such a major writing talent I can't wait to read what he has next in store for us. Yes, KOT deserves nothing less than a five star rating. Don't miss it !

for more information click here

The Best Book Out There!!!

This is simply the best book I've read in years! They should offer a money back guarantee. I've read The Corrections, and this book, with seemingly no hype, blows The Corrections away. At the local store where I bought the book, the seller casually mentioned he'd read the book, and recommended it. He had just one copy at the store.
It amazes me Collins is not famous. This book is a landmark in analyzing the American psyche, in helping both us, as Americans, and the rest of the world, understand our social and political dynamics. The true genius of the book, is how Collins does all this while packing one hell of a murder mystery into the book. It's as though there are really two agendas here, but they are drawn together with such power that the book works on all the levels it wants.
The Rocky metaphors and the theory of manifest destiny ascribed to a white murderer is one of those virtuso pieces of writing that sets this book apart from anything I've read in years. It reminds me of the feeling I had when reading DeLillo's White Noise
All I think I need to say is BUY THIS BOOK. Be one of the first to say you have read this book.

for more information click here

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, page 8, 9

hot

not?

What's your opinion?

Write a review and share your thoughts!

search for books
keepers of truth, keepers, novel, truth

Impressum / about us