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.