ARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30, 2021 NEWS/FEATURES 13

People & Places

Books

Debut story collection ‘A Distant Grave’ is a complex, lyrical tale

By Bruce DeSilva Distant Grave,’ by Sarah Stewart Taylor ‘A (Minotaur) Homicide detective Maggie D’arcy has been hop- ing to heat up a cross-Atlantic romance with her sweetheart, Conor Kearney, but after a body turns up on Long Island beach, her trip to Ireland appears to be off. When the murder victim turns out to be Gabriel Treacy, a Dublin resident who had just arrived in America, however, she fl ies to the Emerald Isle to combine business with pleasure. As the investigation heats up, she fi nds scant time for the latter. The indomitable D’arcy, introduced by author Sa- rah Stewart Taylor last year in the critically acclaimed “Mountains Wild,” soon fi nds herself entangled in a case with threads that stretch from Long Island and Ireland to It- aly and war-torn Afghanistan. Treacy, it turns out, was an aid worker who once had been kidnapped, and subsequently rescued, in Afghanistan. And recently, he had been looking Taylor for a long-lost brother who had been torn from his family dur- ing Ireland’s stolen babies scandal. Could either, or perhaps both, explain why he had come to America? Could either involve motives for his murder? Meanwhile, powerful Suffolk County DA John J. Cooney, insistent that the murder was just a gang- related robbery gone bad, pressures D’arcy to return A Saudi man looks at an artwork by Korean artist Do Ho Suh at King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture, also known as Ithra, in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, June 27. to Long Island. The center was built by Saudi Aramco and inaugurated by King Salman in 2016. (AP) As she persists in following her lines of investiga- tion, however, several others involved in either the stolen babies scandal or the kidnapping die from a mysterious killer’s bullets. Eventually, she realizes her own life is in danger. Music The result is a fast-paced, tension-fi lled yarn fi lled with twists the reader is unlikely to see coming. Tay- lor tells the story in a lyrical prose style that is a joy to read. She excels in vividly portraying both the rural Singer offers series of anecdotes in ‘Stories to Tell’ Ireland and Long Island settings and in developing memorable characters including D’arcy’s partner, Dave Milich, and her troubled daughter, Lilly. The only off note is occasional references to events in “The Mountain Wild” that are diffi cult for readers Marx waiting for respect he’s due to fathom unless they have read the fi rst book in the series. By Mark Kennedy tual songwriter who rode the wave of cal ability to attract and befriend super- ❑ ❑ ❑ MTV fame for a decade or so and then, stars, something that fi rst happened at ichard Marx likes to gently mess when the heat dissipated, reinvented age 5 when he met Davy Jones of The “Objects of Desire,” by Clare Sestanovich (Al- Rwith the minds of whoever comes himself as a producer and songwriter Monkees. As he writes: “I’ve always fred A. Knopf) to see his solo concerts. for others. had the ability to will people into my The characters in Clare Sestanovich’s debut He’ll start playing a Keith Urban or “It was just about 10 years straight path.” story collection, “Objects of Desire,” are middle- a Lionel Ritchie song and look out to where everything I put out had suc- Readers get lots of stories about to upper-middle-class, well-educated and tightly see the reaction. “If it’s a couple, I’ll cess. And then I put out a record that I Marx’s collaborators and how he wrapped. They’re baby boomers or their 20-some- see one of them look at the other with joked went double plywood instead of comes up with songs from a man who thing kids who haven’t quite grown up. While those this face like, ‘You’re kidding me. He double platinum,” he says. “It just was has steered clear of embarrassing, self- with jobs in marketing or tech can afford to live in wrote that?’” like a signal that everything had shift- destructive scandal. glass high-rises, the aspiring artists and writers ei- Then hits from his career will ed from me in my career. I remember “He hasn’t lived a life that is de- This cover image released by Simon tumble out: “Right Here Waiting,” ther have lots of roommates or temporarily move & Schuster shows ‘Stories to Tell,’ a thinking, ‘What did I do wrong?’” serving of VH1 ‘Behind the Music.’ back home. memoir by Richard Marx. (AP) “Should Have Known Better,” “Don’t He says it took a year for him to It’s been pretty even-keeled,” said In the fi rst story, “Annunciation,” Iris, a college stu- Mean Nothing,” “Hold On to the grasp the change. “I started to think, Sean Manning, his editor at Simon dent, is fl ying home for the holidays, seated between a Nights,” “Take This Heart,” “Hazard” ‘Well, you know what? I had a really & Schuster. “But I think that he is a married couple. The woman, after returning from the and “Angelia.” great turn for about 10 years. And it’s master craftsman. That’s what I was bathroom, reaches across Iris’s lap and waves a posi- “And they’ll go, ‘Oh, my God. He not my turn now. It’s somebody else’s really intrigued by - how he does what tive pregnancy stick in front of her husband. They’re did that, too? Like, really? Serious- turn.’” he does.” elated. Iris doesn’t recoil or say “Ewwww!” Instead, ly?’” says Marx. “On my part, there’s a He was still in his 30s and “had a ton Marx in recent years has become a she politely congratulates them, then goes back to subtle attempt to connect all the dots.” of music left” in him. “I’ll make it with social media phenomenon, enchanting cutting her green beans with a plastic knife. If you’ve not yet seen Marx in con- other people,” he concluded. That shift fans by wittily snapping back at trolls It’s a hilarious scene, a modern take on the Chris- cert, he’s offering a written version also freed him up to be a very present and intolerance. In June, when a guy tian theme of annunciation, told in Sestanovich’s with his new memoir “Stories to Tell,” father to his three sons. got on Twitter to tell Marx that his characteristic deadpan voice. Back at college, Iris will a series of anecdotes from a singer- pronouns should be “has/been,” Marx date a boy, graduate, fi nd out she’s pregnant, have an songwriter who has rubbed shoulders Versatile actually agreed: “I started writing hit abortion. Different characters — her mother, her best with - and supplied songs to - music Marx over his career has had 14 No. songs at age nineteen and the money friend, the aunt of the former boyfriend — will ex- Mitchum Noll royalty. 1 songs as a writer — one in each of ‘has been’ rolling in ever since.” press their views on sex and procreation while Iris Kenny Rogers, Whitney Houston, four different decades. He and Van- It was his humor, fearlessness, au- just struggles to keep it together. Madonna, Barbra Streisand, Burt dross’ “Dance With My Father” won thenticity and self-awareness that led Sestanovich, an editor at The New Yorker, is an Bacharach, NSYNC, Julio Iglesias, the 2004 Grammy for Song of the Manning to reach out to Marx just as elegant writer whose stories deftly capture the foods, Variety Josh Groban, Hugh Jackman, Kenny Year. He’s written or performed hits the pandemic was gripping the nation. clothes and customs of contemporary life. Parents Loggins, Luther Vandross, Paul Anka, on Billboard’s country, adult contem- Luckily, Marx had already written grapple with their daughter’s anorexia. A couple SHeDAISY, Philip Bailey and James porary, mainstream rock, holiday and some pages, based on the anecdotes he wonders if it is ethical to keep a cat in a small apart- ATHENS, Greece: Greek police say Ingram - all make cameo appearances pop charts. offers on stage. ment. A woman is hired as a night nanny for a little they have recovered two paintings by in Marx’s life and career. Starting out as a versatile background “He’s the fi rst one that will make girl who has three day nannies. 20th century masters Pablo Picasso and He reveals beefs with Brad Paisley, singer, he got his big break when Lionel fun of himself,” said Manning. “He Piet Mondrian, nearly a decade after Clive Davis and Night Ranger and Richie heard a tape of his songs and in- doesn’t wait for anyone to do that. Over the 11 stories, told in a variety of different their theft from the country’s biggest voices, we meet a large, angsty, mostly privileged a crush on Olivia Newton-John. He vited Marx to help him with his solo al- And I think that’s where you do re- state art gallery in Athens. made a Vixen song sound better with bums. You can hear a teenage Marx on late to him. He doesn’t take himself cast of characters who nonetheless seem to refl ect A statement late Monday said the two a society that’s been knocked back on its heels. For a little sonic trickery - adding someone such hits as “All Night Long” and “Run- so seriously, which I found incredibly works were in the hands of the police, else’s guitar solo - and watched in hor- ning with the Night.” refreshing.” the most part, the themes are domestic, not political but provided no detail on their condition — polyamory, infi delity, abandonment, isolation — ror as his band was held at gunpoint in That led to him writing songs with Readers of “Stories to Tell” will and on whether any arrests had been Taipei. though one story features an up-and-coming politi- made. Rogers and then writing or singing fi nd a more gentle style than his sharp- cian. The paintings were stripped from their “I have got so many - somewhere be- for a slew of stars before the release elbowed Twitter tone. He says he’s a If the younger people in these stories had been frames during a well-organized, over- tween interesting and hilarious - things of Marx’s own 1987 self-titled debut private person and was never going to alive in the 1920s or ’30s, they might have trudged night heist at the National Art Gallery on that have happened in the background album, which would go double plati- write a tell-all book with incendiary of my career,” he says by phone from off to war. In the ’50s, hit the road. In the ’60s or Jan 9, 2012. The burglars had also taken num. details. a pen and ink drawing of a religious the Los Angeles home he shares with The book’s publication is timed to “On Twitter, if I’m dealing with an ’70s, turned on and dropped out. These characters, by his wife, Daisy Fuentes. contrast, seem hemmed in, uptight, ambivalent about scene by Italian 16th century painter the release of a two-disc companion issue that’s racist or bigoted, there’s Guglielmo Caccia. They had initially “At the end of the day, I want people album with remastered versions of his no holding back. I’m going to blast having children, uncertain about the path forward, to feel the same things I want them to biggest hits plus demos, live tracks and it. And if someone’s coming after me, doomed to live up to their parents’ or their own high grabbed a fourth work, also by Mon- drian, but abandoned it as they fl ed. feel about my show - that you feel like fresh interpretations of songs he has I’m going to respond as you can see,” expectations, and struggling to do the right thing and Police said at the time that the heist you get to know me a little bit.” written for other artists. he says. But a book is another matter: not succumb to despair. was completed in about seven minutes. “Stories to Tell” is ultimately the Running through the book is Marx’s “They’re just two completely different ❑ ❑ ❑ The stolen Picasso was a cubist female tale of a supremely talented, instinc- conviction that he has an almost mysti- animals.” (AP) “Filthy Animals,” by Brandon Taylor (River- bust which the Spanish painter had do- nated to Greece in 1949 with a dedication head) “in homage to the Greek people” for their Brandon Taylor’s “Filthy Animals,” a book of He also appeared in numerous surfi ng 2010, he and his son Jed launched a surf From the early 1950s through the resistance to Nazi German occupying documentaries, worked as a photogra- apparel line. 1960s, he traveled from Southern interconnected short stories, is a chronicle of pain, forces during World War II. identity, recovery and the desperation we all feel for pher on the 1967 fi lm “Surfari” and was It was the towering waves he caught, California to Mexico, Australia and the The thieves also took a 1905 repre- the stunt double for James Mitchum in coupled with a blunt but friendly manner, North Shore of Hawaii’s island of Oahu human connection. sentational oil painting of a riverside the 1964 fi lm “Ride the Wild Surf.” In that made Noll’s reputation. A depressed and lonely man recovering from a in search of the biggest waves. windmill by Mondrian, the Dutch painter It was in October 1957, at Waimea suicide attempt fi nds himself caught in a love triangle who became famous for his later, abstract Bay on Oahu’s North Shore, where he with two dancers in an open relationship; a group of linear works. (AP) led a handful of surfers to a place where teenagers unable to control their emotions resort to ❑ ❑ ❑ the waves can reach three stories high brutal violence against one another; a young woman in the winter. The bay was said to be battles a terrifying illness; a babysitter recovering LOS ANGELES: Greg “Da Bull” Noll, who became a surfi ng legend by combin- impossible to surf, and residents claimed from a recent breakup fi nds herself stuck caring for a ing a gregarious, outsized personality nobody had tried since a young Califor- headstrong and wild little girl. with the courage and skill to ride bigger, nia surfer, Dickie Cross, had been killed The stories are wrought with emotion and com- more powerful waves than anyone had there in 1943. plexity, yet at the same time, Taylor’s writing is soft, ever attempted, has died. He was 84. Grainy footage shows Noll catching quiet, gentle. The stories feel almost like slices of life, Noll, who had lived in the picturesque, a wave perhaps as high as 30 feet (9 but the every day is heightened by the intensity of the seaside town of Crescent City, Cali- meters), then somehow managing to stay characters’ longing, desire, anger and, above all else, fornia, died Monday of natural causes, standing as it pitches him some 10 feet passion. To be human each day, the stories seem to according to an Instagram post from his (3 meters) or more straight down its face. say, is to feel deeply and urgently. son’s company, Noll Surfboards. Re- From there, he moves outside and rides it Taylor’s characters are beautiful messes, with their quests for comment from the Noll family nearly to the shore. fl aws, uncertainty, and mistakes making them all the were not immediately returned, and it Years later, Noll would let out a cackle more intriguing and real. With some recurring in dif- was not clear where he died. and an expletive as he recalled his fi rst ferent stories, the reader is able to understand certain One of the fi rst and arguably one of thought after fi nishing that ride: “I’m still relationships from different perspectives and feel the greatest big-wave riders, Noll was alive!” even more deeply the characters’ desperate attempts much more than a surfer. He was also From then on, there was no stopping the surfer who was instantly recogniz- to connect to one another. an entrepreneur who helped transform the sport with his Greg Noll surfboards, able in his distinctive black-and-white The book is also wonderfully queer and presents which were among the fi rst to be built “jailhouse” shorts. He started wearing queer love and identities with all the intricacy and from balsa wood, a substance that made them, he once said, so people would uniqueness they deserve. (AP) them more maneuverable and light Marc Jacobs fall/winter 2021 fashion show projected on the exterior of Bergdorf know it was him on a wave and get out enough for most people to use. Goodman department store on June 28, in New York. (AP) of his way. (AP)